Evolution Gaming Interview: Leading the Way in Live Casino Niche

Evolution Gaming is a company that’s been the absolute leader in the live casino niche for some time now. Covering a wide spectrum of games and constantly coming up with fresh and exciting ideas, they’ve been industry trendsetters. We’ve managed to get an exclusive interview with Evolution and take a sneak peek behind the scenes, talking about company’s beginnings, their core values, early challenges, and much more.

To kick things off, can you just tell us briefly about Evolution Gaming history? Who came up with the idea for the company and had the vision for the live casino sector becoming so big?

Evolution Gaming was founded in 2006 by Jens Von Bahr, Richard Hadida and Fredrick Osterberg. The vision for the company for them as it is now is simply to make operators successful and provide an excellent gaming experience for their end users. Fast forward to today, where Evolution is now a multi-award-winning world-leader in Live Casino, with over 700+ tables streaming 24/7 worldwide. Evolution’s customers include approximately 300 operators including the majority of tier 1s across Europe, the US and a number of land-based casinos globally. Over the past few years, Evolution has manifested its innovation capabilities by introducing new game categories such as Game Shows, its Lightning range of games and has expanded into creating an RNG offering with its First Person range.

What are some of the biggest challenges you have had to overcome in changing the perception of Live Casino?

Back in 2006 when Evolution was first founded, the accepted view was that live gaming over the internet, could not be offered at a sufficient service level to satisfy a European audience – Live Casino hadn’t really been seen before and at the time internet speeds and mobile gaming were nothing like they are today. We challenged the perception that online casinos could not be a live gaming experience and changed it. Since then investment in infrastructure, people, and innovation has enabled us to grow to become world-leaders in the industry.

Regulation and compliance are also big in terms of trust factors for Live Casino. We endeavour to be the most reliable and transparent Live Casino provider in the market and therefore, hold all the licenses and certifications that we consider to be necessary to maintain the highest international standards in terms of regulatory compliance and security.

Another challenge we faced was how to attract a wider audience of players, not just those who played Live Casino. In 2017, we first introduced something never before seen in Live Casino with the launch of Dream Catcher in 2017. Although players were familiar with the lucky wheel concept in casinos, this was not available online and we ran the risk of having no natural player base.  Our game show range aims to be simpler to play in a highly visual studio with a game host rather than a dealer.

Our concerns were proved to be unfounded and the game quickly grew a large player and fan base. The ambition for game shows is not only to create new experiences for returning casino players, but also to create games that attract completely new player types and that expand the live vertical in new segments.

Obviously, today you have an extensive portfolio of live games, but you probably have access to some information about which ones are the most popular. Are people still sticking to classics like roulette and blackjack or have there been some changes there?

Our most popular games are varied, it is a real mixture of traditional table games, such as traditional Roulette, Baccarat, Blackjack games, as well as new takes on casino classics, such as Lightning Roulette and then of course MONOPOLY Live.

Lightning Roulette offers a unique player experience – all the usual Roulette bets are here but there’s the addition of high-payout RNG Lucky Number wins and Lucky Payouts to every game round, as well as a visually stunning, black and gold Art Deco environment.  

Lightning Roulette was an instant player favourite from day 1 and still all this time on, it continues to be!

With the advanced technology, added bonus rounds and game-within-games, our range of game show games are proving to be increasingly popular with a high number of players. Games such as Crazy Time, Mega Ball, MONPOPOLY Live, Dream Catcher and Deal or No Deal.

So far we have launched 9 out of our 12 new games for 2020, these games feature innovations in both the classic table games category, the expansion of our line of First Person RNG games, as well as new titles in the game show category.

Titles like Dream Catcher and then games like Deal or no Deal Live and MONOPOLY Live have been quite popular with the players. Where did the inspiration for these games come from?

The inspiration originally derives from US-based TV game shows, born out of the idea to begin creating more interactive games for the next generation of online players, who either don’t play Live Casino, don’t find traditional table games interesting enough or they are looking for an alternative to slots. By replicating elements from these shows, we wanted to create games that are highly visual, easy to watch and encourage player participation.

Additionally, instead of having dealers, game show hosts play a critical role in giving the game a flavour that is totally different from any sort of traditional gambling game. They are given a lot of freedom and encouragement to engage with the players. It is almost something of a community that has formed around different hosts who show charisma and confidence whilst each bring their own style to the game. Dream Catcher was also our first game to break the mould and the focus was on providing an all-round immersive entertainment experience, with state-of-the-art studios, music and sound effects and the all-important multipliers –  a trend that has continued into all our game shows.

Let’s talk briefly about your latest release, Crazy Time. Would it be fair to say it represents a merger of several products into one, with some extras on top? There is definitely a lot going on all the time and it seems like a lot of fun. Do players and operators agree? 

What was the response you’ve gotten so far?

Crazy Time is our latest game show, and it is loaded with exciting bonus games. It really is the boldest, most expensive, and most fun game ever created. We’re super excited that it’s now live everywhere! It is the third edition of our money wheel games and follows on from Dream Catcher and MONOPOLY Live.

With Crazy Time it is all about hitting the bonus games on the big wheel — Cash Hunt, Coin Flip, Pachinko and the Crazy Time are the bonuses and there are also four other bets you can make 1, 2, 5, and 10, which all pay simple odds. Also, each spin players have a chance for their bet spot to be multiplied up to 50x with a sort of mini-slot that chooses a lucky bet spot. It is really easy to play as you just bet on where you think the wheel will land and hopefully that is a bonus game with a multiplier.

The intention with Crazy Time was to make the most fun casino game ever made, hence why we created such a multi-layered, bonus- and multiplier-packed game. We wanted to keep players entertained with a crazily varied mix of action, entertainment, betting opportunities and a succession of potential multiplier wins. The goal was to make a game that is so entertaining that people would enjoy just watching it as they would a game show on television.

Since launch the reception for Crazy Time has been astounding and we’ve been overwhelmed by the reception for the game both from players and operators. Players love the possibility for big multipliers and of course the bonus rounds!

Evolution Gaming isn’t just about products – it’s also about people. You employ a great number of dealers and croupiers and they’re doing a great job of not only handling the tables but also chatting players up and keeping things light and entertaining. For everyone out there maybe thinking about a new career, how do you find your dealers, and can you tell us a little bit about the training process?

That’s certainly true! Our game presenters and game show hosts do an amazing job as the face of all of our games. There are so many unique personalities and every day they keep thousands of players entertained, as well as making sure to deliver the highest quality game presentation possible. To help ensure that our game presenters and many other team members attain the highest standards we created the Evolution Academy. Our game presenters, shift managers and behind-the-scenes staff all undergo intensive training in all our core games and operations in the Evolution Academy at all of our studios. Those who work on the tables, in our Mission Control Room, in Game Integrity, Fraud, Security and Risk Management, as Chat Moderators and in Customer Service and Support, must all meet Academy standards before they can officially ‘go live’ in the roles serving and supporting real players. Performance continues to be monitored after ‘go live’ and staff regularly return to the Academy to focus on specific areas of performance and to learn about new games and enhancements.

We are always looking for dynamic, enthusiastic, confident individuals, no prior experience needed as long as they show a willingness to learn. For more information and for all the latest job vacancies please check out our Careers site https://www.evolutiongamingcareers.com/.

Can you share with us at least some of your future plans? The industry is obviously changing all the time and new technologies are opening up new possibilities. Are there some new interesting products or ideas in the pipeline that you can talk about?

Evolution is constantly looking to push the boundaries of innovation and will pay homage to the traditional Live Casino games, reinventing them with unique twists.

If we look at the next few months, another exciting upcoming game release is Instant Roulette, the world’s fastest Live Roulette! The game features 12 individual, synchronised Auto Roulette wheels spin sequentially, with the balls dropping one after the other in the different wheels. As a consequence, players can play at a pace to suit themselves, because the key difference in Instant Roulette—aside from the number of wheels in front of the player—is that the player has unlimited betting time before deciding to hit the ‘Play Now’ button. When the player does bet, however, they will get a near-instant result as the wheel closest to the next drop of the ball is automatically selected as the wheel on which that bet is placed. We are also launching Craps Live, the first live online version of the game, which we’re really excited about.

And then of course there are things we cannot yet talk about but are sure to delight, so be sure to keep an eye out for what’s ahead - you don’t want to miss it!

Thank you so much for taking time to do this interview. We’re sure many players out there are interested in what happens behind the scenes and your answers certainly shed some light on that topic. We’re also looking forward to seeing new releases, especially Live Craps as that’s one game that’s been missing and it’ll be fun to try and transfer that electrifying atmosphere into the virtual setting. Once again, thanks a lot for your time and hope to talk soon again!

Evolution Gaming Group AB (publ) (”Evolution”) develops, produces, markets and licenses fully-integrated B2B Live Casino solutions to gaming operators. Since its inception in 2006, Evolution has developed into a leading B2B provider with 300+ operators among its customers. The group currently employs about 8,000 people in studios across Europe and in North America. The parent company is based in Sweden and listed on Nasdaq Stockholm with the ticker EVO. Visit www.evolutiongaming.com for more information.