Welcome to our guide to Playtech Casino software. Online casino software, in this case, covers a very wide base, taking in games, but also technical software for which our readers are not the main customers.
Playtech are one of the biggest online casino companies in the world, and in this guide, we’ll tell you about the company, about their products, and what to expect from these giants next.
We’ll start off with the information you’re probably here to read:
Yes, you can trust Playtech casino software,
Playtech online casino software is licensed in the UK and safe to use.
And now we’ll get started on our Playtech Casino Guide.
What is Playtech?
Playtech is, in their own words:
“Playtech is the world’s largest online gaming software supplier traded on the London Stock Exchange Main Market, offering cutting-edge, value-added solutions to the industry’s leading operators. Since Playtech’s inception in 1999, its approach has been centred on the continual development of best-of-breed gaming products and content, and its success built upon strong partnerships with our licensees.”
What does that mean for you?
It depends on who you are.
There are two groups of consumers for Playtech products, and this causes a bit of a dichotomy that will show up in how we review Playtech.
Here they are:
The first group of consumers – we always put you guys first – is you! You’re an online video slots player or casino user. You play Playtech games, and use the systems they design to navigate around casino sites.
The second group of consumers is the owners of casino sites. They buy the games in, hosting them and offering to them to you. They may also use Playtech’s systems to run their sites.
There is a slight conflict between these two user groups.
Group 1, which is you, wants to win loads of money from these games.
Group 2, which isn’t you, wants to get as much money from Group 1 as possible.
That’s not as simple as never allowing Group 1 to win, of course. No-one would ever play a game twice if they never paid out.
However, Group 2 does want Group 1 to spend as much time at their site and as much time on their games as possible because that is how they get their money.
This is a useful thing to keep in mind whatever you’re doing in the online gambling world – although you will probably enjoy your online casino experience, you are to some extent in conflict with the site owners.
Playtech Casino List – Best Playtech Online Casinos
Playtech Slots – Best Playtech Casino Slots
The History of Playtech
Playtech was founded in 1999. Their casino software is used all over the gambling internet. It is one of the few gambling companies (though the number is growing) that is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The company was founded in Estonia in 1999 by an Israeli gentleman called Teddy Sagi.
By 2001 the company was producing casino products and started to license them to the big names of the gambling world. The company was first floated in 2006.
The company’s corporate history is interesting if you’re interested in corporate history. It’s not untypical for a gambling company and includes many numbers in the hundreds of millions and a fair few acquisitions.
Of those that stand out are Aristocrat Lotteries and YoYo Games.
Quickspin is a Playtech company.
Playtech has been a partner of Marvel Comics and is now a partner of Warner Bros movies’ DC Comics properties.
The company has also done some serious work on a safer play, by buying BetBuddy, a responsible gaming company that uses player behaviour and data to spot players who may get into trouble.
What Playtech is now
Playtech is massive.
The company uses a number of brand names. Among them is Virtue Fusion, a bingo platform, that is massively used in that industry – also an important outlet for slot games.
The company also has a poker platform, iPoker,
Playtech BGT Sports is a subsidiary of the company that makes bookmaking software. The company now supplies self-service betting terminals to the UK betting shop industry.
The numbers are massive. The company employs 5,000 people in 17 countries. Its 140 licences allow it to operate in 20 regulated jurisdictions.
Playtech products
We are going to skip over some products here that are not relevant to our audience of online video slots and casino game fans.
We’d also like you to remember our opening: Playtech produces products that are used both by you, the end-user, and the casino sites at which you play games. The sales prospect to each group is not always the same.
Playtech Casino Software
This means “games” to you. Mostly slot games. To casinos, it’s a “complete Omni-channel offering” of “top-performing content”.
The more than 700 titles available in the Playtech catalogue is the biggest in the slots industry. It is massive and takes in a number of sub-brands and partners.
Big Playtech Slots Titles
Playtech Origins is Playtech itself but given a rebrand as “Origin” to account for all the new partners the company has. This is the company that has had all those big tie-ins, with the likes of Batman, Superman, and major hit titles like White King and Buffalo Blitz and the multigenerational sequel monster, Age of the Gods.
Ash Gaming was founded in 2002 and snapped up by Playtech in 2011. It’s produced a load of a tie in titles, as well as classics like Leprechaun’s Luck.
Playtech Vikings is a development studio within the company, which we’re going to assume is based in Sweden. It’s made a lot of great titles for Playtech, including some of the Age of the Gods series, Ice Cave, and Legacy of the Wild.
Psiclone Games are British and were bought by Playtech in 2014, seven years after their foundation. Fairground Fortunes is probably the most famous of their titles.
Quickspin taken by Playtech
Quickspin are massive in their own right. They were taken into Playtech in 2016, and it’s a big studio, with a team of 60 making their games.
Sunfox Games are Austrian and make casino games. They make Legend of the Jaguar, Call of the Valkyries, The Glass Slipper and many more, with a particular focus on innovation.
Eyecon are Australian, and – with a foundation date in 1997 – very old in gaming terms. Their game, the incredibly simple Fluffy Favourites is one the biggest ever slot games in bingo chat rooms.
GECO Gaming are also Australian and have made My Fair Pearl, Turn it On and Glory and Britannia. The company also makes scratch-card games.
Playtech has been shopping in Australia a lot lately, and Rarestone Gaming is the latest company in their bag. It is the home of Fire Blaze games and bases its innovation on mathematics and gameplay.
We can’t list all of Playtech’s titles here. We can tell you that you’ve seen a load of them and almost certainly played them if you play any online slots.
Playtech Poker
The original online gaming craze is poker.
Poker in online casino terms comes in two forms.
Poker rooms are arenas in which players can play against other players, with the website providing the venue and, to an extent, running games played for money or points.
Then there are video poker games. These are a variant of (and precursor in some senses) of slot machines.
Playtech make the iPoker platform that you’ll see – perhaps without your knowledge – at a load of online poker rooms.
Playtech Live Dealer
Live dealer games are the cutting edge of the online casino industry.
From the player’s point of view, the experience is somewhat nostalgic, offering as it does the chance to experience what it is like to play in a real casino – but courtesy of the very latest in streaming technology.
Games are played in studios, with which players interact through the online casino site. Real people (who, we always make sure to remind our readers, should always be treated with the utmost respect, run the games with the help of software systems.
Playtech Roulette, Playtech Blackjack, Playtech Bingo, and more
All of the classic casino games are available, with Playtech roulette and Playtech blackjack far and away most popular, alongside a load of branded and specialist games.
Playtech run their studio in Riga, Latvia, with a massive studio that is the biggest in the world. We mentioned those thousands of employees in Latvia, and this what most of them are doing.
Playtech’s casinos currently offer blackjack, roulette, baccarat, poker, hi-lo, and sic bo. Then there are a load of variations, both to offer a different experience (more cameras, higher speed, more “premium”). There are also a load of game variants within each game style.
The company’s other products are:
- Virtual sports betting;
- Sports betting;
- Bingo;
- Lottery;
- Retail (the services sold to bricks-and-mortar businesses like betting shops or casinos);
- Mexos (an eMarking solution);
- Financial products;
- And cross-product suites.
Playtech Services
It is with services that Playtech turns its software into a complete casino experience.
Those cross-product suites at the bottom of the product list might be sold to a casino owner and allow them to run a site.
Then, backup services are offered.
These are:
- Hosting,
- Payment advisory,
- Network management,
- Marketing services,
- Customer Support,
- Financial services, and
- Fraud Prevention.
This is where things rather conflict for our two groups of consumers.
Of course, in order to keep players coming back, casino sites must offer a good service with good games. But, they do want you to keep coming back because the likelihood in the long run (in fact, it’s baked into the game algorithms) is that you’ll lose money and provide a profit.
To run through this list briefly:
Hosting is an obvious specialist service for the gambling industry.
Payment services manage taking cash off players, and Playtech has built a system that offers 50 payment methods, including cards, e-wallets, money acquirers, EFTs (Electronic Funds Transfer), and more conventional offline banking services.
Network management takes in managing a complete site, including dealing with jackpot claims. Interestingly, Playtech says, “our customers are guaranteed profitability from day one”.
Marketing services help sell sites to players. Affiliate marketing, which we know a little bit about, is the top line of this service, with Playtech claiming more than 50,000 affiliates – sites that plug a product.
Customer support is what you think it is, but for the Playtech products rather than for the end-user.
Financial Services help companies make more money.
Playtech Games
The meat of Playtech’s offering for most players, which is our readers, are the games.
So let’s have a look at some of the biggest Playtech games titles. We use a UK market auditing site to rate these, and these are the titles doing best at the moment.
Playtech Slots
- Age of the Gods is rated as number 16 in the UK. It’s a classic now, and has spawned a huge number of sequels and even themed live games.
- Buffalo Blitz is rated as number 24 in the UK. This western and wildlife themed game is a classic with big bonuses and big prizes.
- Lotus Heart is an East Asian themed game with a lush, purple colour scape.
- Epic Ape is something of a classic, themed around African wildlife.
- Gladiator JP is a Roman-themed game.
- Jackpot Giant is a great big classic slot with huge jackpot potential.
- Oceanus Rising is an underwater-themed game based around the lost civilisation of Atlantis.
- Shields of Rome is an Ancient Rome themed game.
- Frankie Dettori: Sporting Legends is one of a series of horse-racing games.
- AP McCoy: Sporting Legend is another one. Both of these games are based around legendary British jockeys.
Playtech Latest Game
Playtech has a regular supply of new games coming onto the market.
The most recent Playtech games titles from the company’s nine studios are:
- Nu Shu Shen Me, a Chinese-themed game, classic slot probably released to coincide with the Lunar New Year.
- Lotus Heart is also new and doing well on a similar vein.
- Oceanus Rising has a top prize of 25,000 coins on a classic five by three video. It is based on Ancient maritime civilisations.
- New Year Bonanza was released at the start of 2020, with a very atypical game layout, delivering 50 pay lines.
- Quiz Natalizio is another recent title, based on Latin American quiz games.
- Kingdoms Rise is a real dealer blackjack game with unlimited seating.
Where next for Playtech Software?
The next games from Playtech are slated to be, Wild West Wilds; Age of Gods Epic Tory, and Fluffy Favourites bingo.
And corporate news keeps coming out too.
Playtech is now in a deeper partnership with Endemol Shine Gaming, the company which produces some of the most popular quiz show formats in the world, so expect more Deal or No Deal games.
Playtech has also launched a new series of live games, with a Spanish launch for Quantum Roulette.
And, Playtech is now moving into live slots.
Live slots is an interesting concept, and it’s early yet to see if it will really take off.
These Playtech games, and one of them is Buffalo Blitz, makes playing slots a shared experience. A host is filmed as they operate a game according to the instructions of a set of players linked online. Just like the live casino games, and Playtech’s own market-leading multiplayer casino games.
Playtech, a true giant of the online casino world
This Playtech online casino guide should not be considered a comprehensive guide to everything about Playtech. This company is a true giant and a veteran one at that. Without Playtech, it’s hard to imagine the online casino world as it is today.
The company uses at least nine design studios to deliver nearly 700 games. And the releases come thick and fast – almost one a day on a recent run – covering every possible base. Classic Playtech slots, history themes, different layouts, three reels, five reels, whatever you want, you’ll find it at Playtech.
Plus, you’ll be using their software if you’re at all invested in the online gaming world. If you’re a business operator yourself then there are sites that cater to you. From our readers point of view, the important thing is that games from Playtech are very good quality and highly trusted. And you can trust Playtech casino sites – like 888 Casino, who just signed up with Playtech.
Playtech UK Casino License
And to save the best to last we have details that every UK player needs to see: Playtech’s UK licence, which is number 38516, granted to Playtech PLC in the Isle of Man. Playtech is licensed to provide Gambling software and gaming machine technical software to “non-remote” gambling providers. And it is licensed to supply remote casino services, remote gambling software, technical software, to supply betting on real events and to run betting on virtual events.
The licence is clean, with no sanctions at all against the company. Playtech uses just two brand names: Playtech, and iPoker.
So Playtech is a giant you may not have seen, but it’s one you would certainly miss if it weren’t there. Check out our reviews of Playtech slots games elsewhere on the site and keep an eye out for Playtech’s newest innovations in live gaming.