Slot developing companies: from the first slots to 3D online video machines

Gambling at the dawn of civilization

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Historians claim that the first gambling games appeared around 3500 BC, but there are indications that over 40 000 BC humanity enjoyed gambling.

In 1626, gambling had the first legalized house located in Venice. But casino in its modern form emerged a little bit later – in 1765 in Paris.

The first gambling center in Europe originated in 1860 in the Kingdom of Monaco. Three years later the first entertainment center, known as the “Monte Carlo”, appeared. Gambling houses started appearing in France, Austria, England and many other European cities.

In the US, the casino appeared only in the 19th century, but received a very rapid development. The main centers of gambling were New Orleans, then Chicago, San Francisco and St. Louis. Poker and blackjack appeared there. 20th century was marked by the severe restrictions of the casinos in the US. Legally, it was possible to open a casino in Cuba, Las Vegas and Reno. Gradually, the first largest and most important casinos appeared in Las Vegas, and the second – Atlantic City.

Origin of slot machines

Slot machines have become one of the significant part of any casino since times immemorial. Although they are considered one of the signs of our time, in fact, they appeared quite a long time ago. In 1891, in New York, Sittman and Pitt invented a slot machine, which in the future has been recognized as the predecessor of the contemporary slots.

In 1895, a German immigrant Charles August Fey, created the world’s first slot machine, which secured the name of an entire generation of these machines “one-armed bandit”.

The next step in the history of slot machines was the introduction of “Fruit Machines”, which was the result of cooperation with the Bell-Fruit Gum Company in 1912.

1919 – 1930 in the history of slot machines is known as “The Golden Age of slots” during which slot machines were widely used across the United States.

The first machine was launched by the company Jennings in 1930, and with it the era of slot machines started, which have already paid winnings in cash, rather than sweets.

Only in 1963, one of the leading companies in the US gambling industry Bally’s released a great-grandfather of the modern video slots.

New players began to appear in the industry, trying to win the market share. So in 1981 a new company International Game Technology (IGT), which has introduced a series of video slots Fortune 1, and very quickly built a franchise system for their products, appeared. The Company has entered into the history releasing the first semiconductor roulette machine with a rotating drum M Slot in 1983. 1996 brought the creation of the first video slot with a bonus game on the changing images, a bonus called “Reel’Em B” from the famous American company of electronic games and entertainment WMS Industries, Inc.

The emergence of online casinos

But 1994 has become the crucial for the gambling industry as a small island nation of Antigua and Barbuda gave permission to run online casino industry, issuing the law on the legalization of online gambling. Prior to that, the best software for online casino games for money were the products of the company Microgaming, which was based on the Isle of Man. Therefore, they did not waste time, together with the company CryptoLogic they immediately joined online casino system and in the same year founded their projects. Microgaming was the first company that was in the beginning of the development of software for online casinos. The first online casino club was launched in 1995, the next opened in 1996.

One of the pioneers of the Internet industry became the company with a funny name “888”. Starting their own work in 1997, the online casino 888.com earned a total of several thousand dollars per day. As the time passed, new and new companies entered the market of online gambling. Now the number of slot developers around the world includes more than 60 names. Among them:

1943 – 1968: WMS Gaming, Aristocrat, Bally Technologies

1980 – 1990: IGT, Novomatic, Incredible technologies

1991 – 2000: Microgaming, Igrosoft, Playtech, Play’n’Go, Belatra, OpenBet, Tain, MegaJack, Mazooma, Real Time Gaming, Net Entertainment, BetSoft Gaming, Ainsworth Game Technology, Ash Gaming, Konami, Nextgen Gaming

2001 – 2005: Amaya, Blueprint Gaming, SGS Universal, Unicum Gaming, Gamesys N.V., World Match, NeoGames, Ensis Technologies, Wazdan, Probability, GloboTech, 1X2 Gaming, Evoplay, GamesOS, GloboTech

2006 – 2010: Relax Gaming, Endemol, GameScale, Merkur, Push Gaming, Viaden Media, Genesis Gaming, CGTV Games, Evolution Gaming, Cayetano gaming, Leander Games. Rival Gaming

2011 – 2016: Omi Gaming, NuWorks Gaming, Big Time Gaming, Barcrest, Elk Studios, Odobo, Cryptologic, Quickspin

Popular slot developers

Among the most popular manufacturers of online software are:

• Novomatic. Its history dates back to 1980. It was founded by the Austrian Johann Graf. The slot machines of this manufacturer, as a rule, are virtual machines with five reels and nine lines, which always have some bonuses and premiums. The most popular slots: Pharaon’s Gold 2, Crazy Fruits, The Money Game, Queen Of Hearts, Beetlemania. Novomatic operates over 215,000 gaming machines in more than 1,400 casinos, among them such online and land based casinos as Mybet, Genting, Grosvenor, BetVictor, OVO, Star Games.
• Microgaming. This niche leader was founded in South Africa, currently, the office is located on the island of Man. The company was created in 1994. Today it produces modern slots with many features and a high-quality design, but the gambling clubs still preserve their old “bandits” with minimal features as well. The most popular slots are Big Kahuna, Tomb Raider, Hellboy, Avalon Lord of the rings, Thunderstruck 2 and Hitman. Over 120 casinos cooperate with the company, among them Casino X, Crystal Casino, Max Casino, Ice Casino.
• Igrosoft is a Moscow company that appeared in the mid-90th. The main feature is the development of gaming machines based on the Russian traditions. The most popular slots are Crazy Monkey, Rock Climber, Island 2, Fruit Coctail, Garage. It cooperates with numerous Russian-speaking online casinos.
• BetSoft, a company from Cyprus, offers a small assortment of slot machines, but each video slot works perfectly and provides a wide range of possibilities. Popular slots are Arrival, Gold Diggers, Monkey Money, 2 Million BC. Can play these slots in Atlantic Casino, Euromoon Casino, Party Casino, Casino Luck, etc.
• Playtech is a company from Holland. Its products are bright, dynamic, diverse, and most importantly – generous on cash payments. PlayTech entered the world of gambling relatively recently – since 1999. In addition to the standard slots, it has a number of unusual machines, created by the Marvel license. Today it is considered the best software manufacturer in the world. It produces not only video slots, but software for bingo, poker rooms and other. You can play its slots in 21Nova Casino, Casino.com, EuroGrand Casino. William Hill Casino, Winner Casino and many other.
• And and of course NetEnt, a Swedish company appeared in 1996. It is one of the world’s largest slot developers nowadays. Its slots always have a large number of pay lines, and visual design is always on top. The best slots are Tales Of Krakow, Diamond Dogs, Blood Suckers, Gonzo’s Quest, Ghost Pirates. About 100 casinos cooperate with this manufacturer among them Mr Green, Thrills, LeoVegas, Casumo, Royal Panda, Betsafe, Unibet, 888 Casino and other.

Themes of the Slot Machines

As the task of every manufacturer is to attract more players, they create slots machines that are dedicated to a variety of topics. We can identify several varieties of machines that form each group of fans. The earliest machines were the ones similar to the old “one-armed bandits” for those who still remember them, as well as for those who want to feel the “taste of history.”

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The second type is more traditional, which represents a variety of slots once correlated with computer games or widespread images, e.g. Resident or Queen of Hearts.

The last, and the most popular variety represents slots on the topic of video games, computer games, movies or books. Especially popular today are slots with the plots Hulk, X-men, Iron man, «Lost», «Ghost busters», etc. The range of slots continues to be regularly updated with new gaming slots and other original ideas. The use of 3D technology and other systems can achieve excellent quality and turn the game at the slot machine in a fascinating process.

Themed slots are divided usually on progressive slot machines, which award cumulative jackpots and multi-line slots.

Cumulative jackpot

However, video slots and all their variants are extremely popular with the public not only because of their plots, but thanks to jackpots, which fall out quite regularly and allow to improve your financial position. And the slots with progressive jackpots are among the favourite one. It was introduced in 1986, when the company Microgaming presented a completely new Megabucks slot, which used the union of all machines of this model from various casinos to a single system of progressive winnings for the first time, and it allowed to offer a lot more wins than the ones that each machine could offer individually. The size of the jackpot increases with the number of games played. The first major casino to use this new system was Cash Splash.

Microgaming’s progressive jackpot is one of the oldest in the market. The first big win was issued already in 1998. Since then, the jackpot is increasing. And today it has an unimaginable dimension. In general, the company has already paid more than 1 billion euros as a jackpot.

The largest wins in the world

From time to time, someone cracks the jackpot and becomes a lucky winner of a life changing amount of money.

For the first time the world’s largest Progressive Jackpot was registered in 2009 by Microgaming. € 6.37 million in the slot Mega Moolah.

More recently, a player has won 7.3 million at the Harrah’s Casino in Atlantic City.

In October, 2015 Jon Heywood won €17,879,645 ($20,062,600) playing Microgaming’s Mega Moolah on at Betway’s casino website.

Most of the players, who have become the owners of the jackpot, are lucky only once, but the player named Elmen Sherwin has managed to achieve the impossible by winning a huge jackpot twice in the same game! For the first time, in the Vegas Casino Mirage – 4,6 million dollars at Megubucks and in Casino Cannery – $ 21 million!

But the biggest Jackpot ever won on slot machine is still the one, won on March 21, 2003 by a 25-year-old on a on a Megabucks machine at Excalibur casino. He won $39,713,982.25.

Tendencies of development of the gaming industry

Thanks to such generous wins that slots offer their players, they expand the army of their fans with every passing year. It was noticed that the older generation of players joined them. But what else should we expect in this industry?

At the end of 2015 specific trends of the virtual gaming market were identified. They will help to understand exactly where online industry is moving to.

Income, derived by slot developers, is currently more than twice higher than the revenue from the box office. For example, today, Novomatic employs more than 17,000 professionals, and the annual Group turnover is close to three billion euros. The company NetEnt has two head offices, which are developing marketing programs and new products – in Stockholm and Malta’s largest affiliates are located in Canada. General office staff of employees exceeds 500 people. Microgaming employs 160 people – qualified professionals: programmers, designers, artists, writers, and other great people. Playtech has approximately 2,000 skilled employees all over the world in its staff, which is very convenient, as users can seek support almost anywhere in the world.

Mobile gambling is growing inexorably and at a very serious pace. Tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices are used for the more active games.

World leader in the industry of slot machines became Austrian company Novomatic. Its best games the company brought together in a series of online gaming machines Gaminators. It has funny adventures and fairy-tale characters, and classic “fruit” theme, and even historical subjects – the adventures of famous travelers, treasure hunters.

The leader of the Russian gaming market is considered to be the company Igrosoft. Bulgarians are also in the international community of building quality slots. Under the brand Mega Jack they offer online slots with a large number of lines, a variety of bonus games, a wide range of bets and excellent graphics.

Net Entertainment’s slots cannot be mixed with any other. They have not only an original story, but the gameplay is very different from the works of all the competitors. The presence of “wild” symbol, scatter and free spins attract the players.

It is worth mentioning such manufacturers as Microgaming and BELATRA. These companies do not tend to flood the market with their slots, but they create quality slots, which is fun to play and you can win a lot.

Currently, gambling is not a gimmick. Thus, 86% of the players at least once in life put real money in the casino. At the same time they selected the following games more often:

• In the first place are slots: 90% of the players prefer them;
• Card games are on the second place;
• Least popular are roulette and craps.

As you can see, most players choose slot machines, avoiding table games. However, 60% of the players believe that the best slots are small but with frequent payouts. And 33% of the players prefer slot machines with progressive jackpots.

Note that for several years the most popular slot is Wheel of Fortune, featuring a simple and thrilling story. Although Books and Strawberries the players love not less. But the complex machines, with colorful and incredible stories, are not particularly popular.