Microgaming are among some of the very best online casino games providers in the UK, having earned their rightful spot atop Mt. Olympus right alongside the likes of PlayTech and NetEnt. They supply a pretty good number of casinos with games such as Mega Moolah and Thunderstruck, alongside about 800 others. They were the provider behind the very first online casino in 1994 and set a record in 2009 for the biggest jackpot paid out by an online slot (at about £4.69m), though I believe that this record was broken in 2013. Suffice to say, they’ve left their mark on the industry and continue to be influential to this very day. As such, I have decided to celebrate Microgaming’s contributions to the iGaming industry in the only way I know how – with an article! I spent quite a lot of time wondering exactly what article to write. Top 10 Microgaming slots? Nah, that doesn’t seem quite right – everybody has done that, I won’t have too much to say, and I don’t really play slots all that much anymore. Top 5 Microgaming moments? That’s interesting, but you can read about most of those on their official website, so what’s the point of me repeating them? I mean, it’s not like I can provide my own unique opinion on them or anything like that. And then it hit me. Top 3 Microgaming Casinos!
It was the perfect topic – I’d be able to provide people with more information about casinos they may or may not have heard of, and I’d be able to examine them in my own way. After all, I know that there’s a lot of people who are thinking about switching casinos (maybe the payout isn’t that good, or the bonuses aren’t that enticing after the welcome one, etc), but don’t necessarily want to abandon their favourite games, so finding another casino that’s more suitable for them, but has the same (or at least most of the same) games as the previous one might be their best option. That’s what I’m here for – I’m going to run you through my 3 favourite Microgaming casinos, explaining what I like about them and what makes them unique. Obviously, I’m not going to be focusing on the games (because they tend to be very similar) – instead I’ll try to cover stuff like bonuses, interface, that sort of thing. Also keep in mind that I’m not a reviewer, and this list should not be considered a review, but rather, an opinion piece. If you’d like a more professional review of some of the sites I’ve mentioned, you should take a look at this page with Microgaming casinos reviewed by casinoroulette.co.uk. With that said, let’s dive right into it!
32 Red
32 Red is a very, very weird site. Right from its front page you’ll be greeted by a wise-looking old Chinese man who invites you to claim your winnings, showing you images of people in complete ecstasy over, supposedly, having won the big jackpot, or whatever. It’s very much unlike what you’d typically find in an online casino, most of which are very professional-looking and attempt to emulate the best high-rollers casinos of Las Vegas in their utter elegance and formality. 32 Red, on the other hand, doesn’t have the illusion of being such a stuck-up casino – instead, its creator has willingly embraced the eccentricity of the whole concept of an online casino and has chosen to run with it. I mean, when you think about it, a bunch of people sitting around in their homes and clicking buttons almost randomly in the hopes of winning money is kind of crazy, isn’t it? While the other casinos say “No”, 32 Red says “Yeah, but so what? It’s still awesome”, and that’s not exactly something I can’t disagree with.
The promotions and bonuses that the casino offers are also very weird and unusual – most casinos give you a 100% bonus on your first deposit, some going as far as to offer 200%. 32 Red, though, has decided to remain true to its name in spite of what common logic would imply by giving you £32 free for every £10 you deposit, which is roughly a 300% bonus – not a bad deal at all, if you’re willing to overlook how needlessly complicated its math is. The upper limit is £160, so you’re obviously not expected to be a high roller, which, once again, falls in with 32 Red’s philosophy that online casino should be fun and not something limited to only the elite and sophisticated in our society. As an added bonus to the bonus, you also get £10 for free when you sign on without even making a deposit. While all games have a demo feature (something I really adore), it’s always good to have a concrete amount of money to play around with while you’re testing the waters. There’s also a 150% welcome bonus for slots, but the one that I’m sure most of my readers are way more interested in is the 100% roulette bonus which can give you up to £250 for roulette. And you’re gonna want to use that bonus because, out of the 500+ games the casino offers, 9 are versions of roulette, which is more than what you’ll typically find in Microgaming (or anywhere, really). So if you’re up for some good old-fashioned fun, 32 Red is for you!
Spin Casino
Now, if you’re not really a fan of 32 Red’s eccentricity, then you’re probably a pretty boring person and I don’t think I like you. But seriously though, if you believe that online casino is serious business, then there’s plenty of Microgaming-powered casinos that will accommodate you. Take, for example, Spin Casino – a relatively unknown, yet still very reliable and interesting online casino (that, sadly, has nothing to do with the similarly titled Michael J. Fox series). Its layout is all about black and purple – you couldn’t get any more formal if you had Alan Rickman in a suit walking down the red carpet surrounded by the band from Reservoir Dogs while Morgan Freeman does the narration! The casino doesn’t just accommodate the VIP high-roller audience – it fully and completely embraces it. To quote directly from the site: “We roll out the red carpet for our VIP players. With access to the latest high-limit games, exclusive tournaments, personalised gifts and a VIP Host, there’s nothing like being a Spin Casino VIP”. That’s dedication, even if it’s somehow undercut by the fact that there’s no high-roller bonus. There is, however, a highly exclusive VIP club to which you can be invited (you can’t apply on your own), which provides a personalized VIP host who is there with the sole purpose of making you happy. Imagine having your own dealer in a casino who is getting paid to make sure your every whim is catered to. Definitely sounds like something a Forever Alone like me could use, if I wasn’t too poor to afford entry into the VIP club.
If you, too, are finding it a bit out of your pocket to bet thousands on online casino games, then don’t worry, you don’t need to. Spin Casino also has a pretty good loyalty program that’s segregated into six different tiers. The team take into account the frequency and size of your bets and decide when to offer you a promotion – the higher you climb the social ladder, and the better your rank is, the more bonuses you’re going to get. As you keep climbing up you’re going to get stuff like exclusive gifts, an exclusive VIP phone number (just in case your VIP host isn’t doing the trick anymore), faster withdrawals and customized bonus offers. Entry-level players also have several concrete bonuses to look forward to, such as three different deposit bonuses (100%, 25% and 50% match, respectively), which isn’t bad, but isn’t all that great either. The casino most certainly places a lot more emphasis on keeping existing customers happy rather than on attracting new ones, which is a stark departure from what you see in most online casinos. With that said, there’s one pretty major drawback, which is the lack of a browser version – if you want to play you need to download the client, which might be a deal breaker for some people who prefer the convenience of being able to play without dealing with potentially troublesome apps.
Betway
Betway is definitely one of the leading bookmakers, right alongside Paddy Power and Betfair (or I guess I should start calling them Betty Power, after their recent merger) – they are known for being a very reliable bookie with good offers, tons of marketing and generally a good business sense. So, with that said, how does their Casino branch hold up? Well… If I’m to be truly, completely, 100% honest with you, it doesn’t hold up as well as their main betting branch – it seems more like an afterthought, an addition to make a little bit more money with the Betway name. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, don’t get me wrong – it’s a perfectly adequate online casino that’s bound to satisfy your gambling needs, with PLENTY of games to choose from. While the number isn’t gigantic, they cover everything from the slot machines and roulette that every casino has to more obscure stuff such as scratch cards and keno. The right ingredients are there, but they never really mesh together all that well in order to create something unique. Overall, the entire Betway casino seems very by-the-book – these are the games that other people have, that’s the design others implement, those are the bonuses that others offer. The Betway casino never really strives to build its own identity, never shoots for the stars, so to speak. It doesn’t try to be eccentric or offer a fancy loyalty program – it’s just there because a lot of other betting sites have casinos.
But that shouldn’t really deter you from trying it out. After all, for some people casino is a business, not a game. They play online casinos to win rather than to have a fun time, and those people don’t need cute graphics – they need a good variety of games, a practical and intuitive UI and a decent RTP percentage – all of which are qualities that Betway possesses. At 97% return to player rate, Betway is actually among the best of the business in the UK. Similarly to Spin Casino, here you also have access to 3 subsequent deposit bonuses (once again for 100%, 25% and 50% match), which aren’t great, but they’re most certainly not bad either. So at the end of the day, while Betway is relatively unremarkable, I can’t honestly say that it’s a bad casino, as it’s actually a really good one. I’d definitely recommend it if you’re interested in Microgaming’s games, but 32Red and Spin Casino aren’t your cup of tea.