Playtech Online Casinos
Welcome to the wide, wonderful world of Playtech online casinos. And we mean wide: Playtech are massive movers and shakers in the online gaming world, and they’re now not just one brand, but three, with Playtech Origins and Playtech Vikings joining the family – or splitting off from the mothership.
Playtech has hundreds of games on the market: over 500 in a history that stretches back over 20 years into the 20th century.
Big doesn’t always mean best though, and Playtech need to keep up the quality if they’re going to keep fans. They seem to be doing well, though, and are consistently rated as among the top companies in the jurisdictions they operate in – and there are a lot of those.
We’ll take you on a tour of the Playtech universe now, taking in their slot hits, including massive series like the Age of the Gods set of games, and newer forays into the live casino market, with the likes of Quantum Roulette and live versions of their slot hits. This growing area of the market is becoming ever more important, and Playtech are now big players, with nearly 60 live games on the market by the end of October 2020, with more on the way.
Let’s get into the world of Playtech!
Who Are Playtech?
Playtech was founded in 1999. The company claims to be the world’s largest online gaming supplier. Their shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange. The company has nearly 6,000 employees. Their HQ is in Estonia – which is important to their current operations – and they have offices in 19 countries and supply games and software for 20 licensed territories. The company says that they have 140 licensees using their products.
Quite a lot of what Playtech does is not aimed at the end-users of casino sites. As software suppliers, Playtech doesn’t supply games to players. That’s the job of the casino sites who are, in fact, the main customer of Playtech.
It’s useful to remember this as you assess casino games because when you visit a supplier’s website you’ll see that you (the end-user) are considered part of the product in this transaction. The game developer promises to supply games and (as in Playtech’s case) other software products and tools that will deliver your eyeballs, time, and money to casino sites.
We’re going to concentrate on Playtech’s games here, but this is a good reminder to enjoy these games in a way that is healthy, safe, and sustainable for you – don’t be a product!
The jurisdictions in which Playtech has licences include the UK and the Malta Gaming Authority.
Playtech Games: the Portfolio
It’s hard to verify Playtech’s rather nebulous claim to be the biggest online gaming supplier, but we don’t doubt it. There aren’t many developers who produce more than 500 titles.
That means we can only give you a broad overview of the company, and focus in on a few titles to go into in more detail.
This will include many of the company’s most popular games, and we’ll have a look at what releases they have coming up.
Playtech games and software come in a large variety.
They are:
Casino games
This is how Playtech classifies its massive portfolio of slots and simulated table games – more than 600 of them according to the company.
Playtech Live casino games
Live casino is the fastest-growing part of the online casino industry, and every good site needs to offer its players the chance to play live casino games. Playtech’s offering is growing and is already one of the most popular portfolios in a market that is dominated by a couple of big players and affected by high barriers to entry that we’ll talk about a little more later.
Sports
Playfair helps sports betting sites to deliver their services.
Virtual sports
Virtual sports is another relatively new area of the online gambling market. Players bet on computer simulations of their favourite sports rather than the real thing. These games are becoming more and more sophisticated, and Playtech has a big collection.
Poker
The origin of slot machines, and the first big online gambling success story, poker is played in poker rooms away from casino sites. The iPoker network from Playtech is one of the biggest in the world. In fact, Playtech say it is the biggest.
Playtech Bingo
Bingo has a massive following in the UK and the US in particular but is a simple, easy-to-play gambling game that has traditionally had a stronger female following than many gambling games. Playtech supply games and other services to the world’s largest network of bingo sites.
The rest of Playtech’s products fall outside the gaming markets we’re interested in, they include financial trading platforms, services for real-world gambling operators, and the marketing and other functions that come with their games.
Playtech Games: Kingdom’s Rise
Within Playtech’s slot games is a stand-alone series with a unique set of attributes. The games are called Kingdom’s Rise, and they are a linked series of fantasy-themed games. In these games, there is a self-contained loyalty programme, with a features shop. Players are rewarded with tokens when they play the game, and can then buy features with their balance.
Playtech Origins
Playtech is no longer just Playtech. The Playtech Origins branch is a developer founded in 2008 and based in the UK. They have produced around 30 slot games, including the Kingdoms Rise series, and handle a lot of Playtech’s big titles.
Playtech Vikings
This part of the Playtech empire was founded in 2010 and also has a small portfolio of games, including some Age of the Gods titles.
Playtech Casino Games
Playtech lists its casino games in a single category, that includes slot games as well as what most players consider table games or traditional casino games.
We’ll have a look at some of their top titles now.
Best Playtech Slots
Buffalo Blitz
This massive hit game was released in 2016. It has an RTP of 95.96% so is very competitive and a ways-to-win engine that gives more than 4,000 potential winning combinations. The top prize is 1,500-times stake, with betting going as high as 80 coins (check the details on the machine you’re using). The features are pretty standard, with free spins, stacking symbols, and wilds. It’s nicely themed – around western US wildlife, a theme that has inspired a slew of copycats – with good graphics and sound, and deservedly popular in our view.
Halloween Fortune
We know that this game is high in the charts at the moment because we’re coming up to the season of ghosts and ghouls again. It’s not just that though because amid all the new releases for Halloween this game has been coming back around since 2012! No doubt the attractive, cartoon sexy witches help, but a 97%+ RTP is another big bonus. A standard slot with 20 Betways, a 10,000-times stake top prize, and plenty of bonus action options, this magic-themed title is much loved.
Age of Gods
Not many games can be described as phenomena, but the Age of Gods slot probably can. It has produced a huge family of sequels and spin-offs, and is justifiably an empire in the gaming world in its own right – including a load of themed live and casino games. This original version is still on the charts despite being released as long ago as July 2016. It’s got a 95.02% rtp, with medium variance. The big top prizes – 1 million coins in this case – are the big news and why this has developed into a big progressive series too.
Epic Ape
More monkey business in another wildlife-themed slot from Playtech that has had a long life in the charts. With the ways-to-win engine producing more than 4,000 ways to win, there’s something a-typical about this game from the off. Nice graphics frame a pretty standard set of bonus rounds – free spins, multipliers, scatters, wilds – that can deliver a big prize of 75,000 coins. It looks lovely, and in these days when we’re supposed to be more ecologically aware, it’s a nice theme. The RTP, just shy of 96% was right on target when this game was released in 2017.
Better Wilds
This is a relatively new release from Playtech, coming out in June 2020. It’s very classic though, like a lot of modern games as designers work out that smaller screens mean big symbols and retro design is practical and very cool again – an 80s revival across the world doesn’t hurt either. A five by four reel set gives us 25 pay lines in an easy-playing retro classic.
Best Playtech Live Casino Games
Live casino games are completely revolutionising the online casino market. Slots and other simulator games have your years moved towards virtual reality, but live games have brought the whole sector back down to earth.
The games are generally casino classics. They’re played live in remote locations, with players making decisions over the internet and watching as they play out on live video screens.
You should be able to play live games as safely as any other licensed casino game, but we do warn our players to bear in mind a couple of changes:
These games cost money to run and they are often more expensive to play. It’s also virtually impossible to play these games for free, so be aware of that and make sure you know the rules before you start staking.
The market also relies heavily on sexualised marketing and presentation. That’s fine. However, if you’re gambling you should always make sure that the safety of you and your money is the main reason why you make decisions – not any perceived possibility of a relationship with an online casino staff member (who you should always treat with the utmost respect).
1 – Quantum Roulette
Quantum Roulette is a branded roulette variant that jazzes up the casino classic with multipliers on prizes and the Quantum Boost that gives even bigger prizes. Multipliers start from 50-times and go up to 500-times prize. Extrapolated from European roulette (the better value version of the classic game), the game is presented in a party atmosphere with bright lighting and a really up vibe.
2 – Age of Gods Bonus Roulette
The Age of Gods slot family has become so big and powerful that it now extends not just into branded casino games, but live play-along slots too. This is not that, but a branded version of roulette styled around the ancient civilisations game.
3 – Quantum Blackjack Live
Playtech’s branded Quantum series, of course, includes blackjack, the world’s most popular casino card game. Although this is a one-on-one game rather than the party atmosphere of the roulette version, it takes the neon futurism of the series to the card table.
4 – Age of Gods God of Storms Live
This really is a new innovation. There’s no reason why you can’t play slots as a multi-player game – anyone who’s played the games in real life will know that groups gather around machines to shout on their mates – but the internet has actually made it a possibility for thousands of players to join together on a single game. Age of Gods offers players a big progressive prize and joins a family of “community live” slots from Playtech that are more like gamers Twitch streams than traditional live casino games.
5 – Spin a Win Live
Our top-five finishes with another genre of live game that completes the set: live casino games, live slots, and live TV game show games! This game was released in February 2018 and has an RTP of over 97%. It’s a wheel-of-fortune style game that allows players to make roulette-like bets (evens, odd, single number picks) on a giant, colourful wheel. The gameplay is easy, and the game show atmosphere delivers on a fun communal experience.
Playtech have new titles coming out all the time. In 2020 they let us have a new Deal or No Deal live game, and a Dragon Tiger table (based on baccarat). Slots keep pouring out too, with Tigers Pride and River Empress delivering on East Asian culture’s popularity with slots players in 2020.
Enjoy, and enjoy safely!