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Nolimit City Acquired by Evolution Gaming

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One of the most recognisable and wealthy providers of casino games, Evolution Gaming, just acquired another gaming software provider – Nolimit City – for the staggering amount of $340 million.

We will tell you more about each company and about the deal itself, so you get a perspective on why it’s significant for the online gambling industry.

Nolimit City

Nolimit City is a company providing gaming software to online casinos. Nolimit City was founded by Jonas Tegman in Stockholm, Sweden on 1 January, 2014, but its staff has been working in the online gambling industry for a while, so they had the necessary experience and expertise to create an innovative and profitable company.

Nolimit City specialises in the creation of online slot machines, having never made another type of casino game (e.g., table games or live games). However, rather than pump new titles every year, the company chooses quality over quantity to deliver games with creative mechanics that are fun to play.

Nolimit City’s slot games instantly caught the attention of online casinos and players alike, with the company gradually expanding over the years. Nolimit City quickly mesmerised the European market and received licenses in its native Sweden, as well as in Malta, the United Kingdom, Italy, Lithuania, Denmark, Portugal, and Romania.

Not only that, but the company also received a warm welcome in the Asian gambling market. Now, it even has an office in Gurugram, India, bringing up the number of active offices to three (including offices in Sweden and Malta).

Nolimit City has two regulators, the Malta Gaming Authority and the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, which ensure the safety and legitimacy of the slots.

Evolution Gaming

Evolution Gaming Limited, or Evolution for short, was founded by Jens von Bahr (who remains the CEO of the company) in Riga, Latvia in 2006. Despite being founded in Riga, Evolution had a mostly Swedish staff, starting with its founder von Bahr. Evolution’s history is nothing short of a fantastic story of success.

Since its very inception, Evolution has strived to revolutionise online gambling by not only providing top-notch casino software, but by disrupting the status quo to give their customers the best and most immersive online gambling experience.

Undoubtedly, the biggest achievement of the company, and the reason for its following success, was the introduction of live dealer games. It’s important to note that Evolution didn’t invent the concept; various operators have tried to create such games in the past, but they simply lacked the necessary technology.

Evolution, on the other hand, offered reliable and safe software that could support live dealer games. The company continued to expand their live game titles, having released Live Blackjack, Live Baccarat, and various poker games in the span of 10 years.

In the following years since the introduction of live dealer games, Evolution has opened offices and studios in Sweden, Romania, Estonia, the Netherlands, Malta, Georgia, Belarus, Lithuania and counting. The game giant also expanded to North America (the US and Canada). Between 2013 and 2017, Evolution opened a new studio every year!

Evolution now serves over 500 online casinos and it continues to add new titles to its already long list of available games. The company’s net worth is $20.24 billion (as of June 2022), raking over $1 billion in profit every year.

Nolimit City – Evolution Deal

Nolimit City was formally acquired by Evolution Gaming on 22 June, 2022 for the sum of $340 million in cash, with $200 million being paid upfront. The deal was, paradoxically, both expected and not.

Nolimit City was profitable on its own, but it’s hard to say no to such a high amount. At the same time, Evolution have been buying successful software companies for some time; Evolution acquired the slot-giant NetEnt for $2.1 billion in 2020, followed by Big Time Gaming for €220 million in 2021.

Thus, it didn’t exactly come as surprise when Evolution shared its plans to buy Nolimit city. Evolution stays true to its promise of becoming the biggest provider of casino software in the world and the fastest way to achieve that goal is by acquiring other software providers with impressive resumes.

Jens von Bahr (Evolution’s founder and CEO) and Jonas Tegman (founder of Nolimit City) stated that the acquisition would positively impact both companies. The two founders spoke of the shared goal of innovation and reliability, which drives their companies forward.

Von Bahr was impressed with Nolimit City’s slot mechanics, while Tegman noted that Evolution was the perfect match for his company and that together they could reach new milestones in the online slot industry. For now, Nolimit City is expected to keep its staff and offices, because Evolution truly respects the company’s work ethic and genius.

The acquisition is finalised on paper, but it’s pending regulatory reviews.

Pros and Cons of Playing High Roller Blackjack

Pros and ConsThis may surprise you, but I actually do read the messages you guys send me by clicking that pink “Contact” button at the top of the page! It’s true! Of course, this isn’t exactly hard to do considering the fact that I don’t exactly get a billion messages per day, but it always warms my heart to log into WordPress and spot the tiny messages icon bleeping in the corner, so… I guess what I’m trying to say is keep those messages coming, you guys! They really help me figure out what works and what doesn’t for the blog! But anyway, I digress. The reason why I’m even bringing this up in the first place is because a lot of you have messaged me asking about high rolling, and high rolling blackjack in particular. So let’s do it! Let’s talk about high rolling!

Now, what is high rolling, exactly? According to the official Merriam-Webster dictionary, a high roller is “a person who gambles large amounts of money”, and honestly, that about sums it up! While most people like to bet £5-10 at a time, high rollers often bet 10 or even 100 times that amount, ever time! The big question is, of course, “Why would they do something like that? Wouldn’t their fun last a lot longer if they saved up their money and played it small?” And generally yes, it would, but high rollers don’t play the way we tend to play. Most of us like to play for fun and not for profit. If we deposit £20 into an online casino, play for an hour or two every day, and a month later all of that money is just completely gone with nothing left, most of us don’t say “Oh, shoot, guess I wasted my money”, we just go “Well, that was fun! Let’s do it again sometime!” A lot of us tend to view online casino as entertainment rather than a business.

That’s not at all true for high rollers, though. They see this as an investment. When they bet £200 on blackjack, they intend to make their money back. It’s easy to imagine high rollers as spoiled rich brats that just waste their fortunes on mindless games, but that perception couldn’t be further from the truth. Like I said, high rolling is a business and there’s plenty of venues online that aim to support that business, many of which with limits sometimes higher than in Las Vegas specifically to accommodate high rollers. That’s by far the biggest pro of high rolling – just like any business, if you’ve got a large initial investment and know how to use it, you can actually increase it by high rolling. The biggest con is that, as you may have figured out, it’s very much a “high risk high reward” kind of system. If you bet £500 on your next blackjack hand, you might end up leaving with £1000 just a few seconds later… Or you could end up with nothing. It’s easy to swallow a £2-3 loss – hell, that’s how much a visit to Starbucks costs! It’s much more difficult to deal with the loss of what the average Brit pays for rent.

If you’re wondering whether or not you’re a high roller, chances are you’re not one. High rolling is a very, very exclusive club, and with good reason – only the 1% of the 1% can indulge in it. I mean, really, ask yourself this question – if right now you lost £1000, just like that, boom, they’re gone, how would that affect you? Would it create any significant problems at all? Would it hurt your savings? Would it make it difficult to pay rent and bills? Would it create trouble with your family? If so, don’t do it. But if you genuinely can’t think of any consequences to losing a sum like that… Well, then maybe you should give high rolling a shot after all?

Attention: Mega Moolah is Looking for the Next Millionaire!

Microgaming’s legendary slot machine Mega Moolah celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. One of the most recognisable slots ever instantly brings to mind images of millions of pounds won with a single spin and lucky people whose lives have been changed forever.

Mega Moolah's JackpotsAnd that’s no coincidence. In the ten years of its existence, the slot has managed to turn more people into millionaires than any other. Remember the soldier from Cheshire who hit £13,2 million with a 25p bet last October? Now it’s your turn as you could be the next one to win big and that can happen right now.

Mega Moolah is thrilling to play any day because of its African Safari theme, its vivid colours, and cool graphics and the progressive jackpot that grows every second, every time someone plays the slot. It is a game of hope, so to say. With so many people aiming their positive thoughts and investing their coins in the game, hitting the jackpot is more than getting rich. It’s like living the dream of millions. It’s a responsibility and a blessing and, I’m sure, the Mega Moolah millionaires feel like they’ve been kissed by Lady Luck.

Slots are a popular choice for people who want to win a life-changing amount of cash (and who doesn’t?) because they’re easy to play and you can test your luck at them by wagering a practically symbolic amount of money. It is true that no other game could reward you with so much by asking you to participate with so little.

But why Mega Moolah? Because this 25-payline, 5×3 reel slot is a progressive slot and it’s extremely popular. The fact that it’s popular means that millions of people play it all the time and that means that the progressive jackpots is constantly growing. Also, despite the fact that you can wager as little as 0.01p, since the chances of triggering the bonus jackpot increase when you wager more, many people bet max (that’s around £6.25 per spin) and thus the jackpot grows even faster.

But let’s have a look at that mysterious jackpot we’ve been talking about. Actually, it’s not a jackpot – there are four of them. There are the Mini, Minor, Major and Mega Jackpots. You get to play for one of them when the wheel of fortune is triggered. The best of all is that it’s triggered randomly. That means you could trigger it on your very first spin!

Also, hitting the mega jackpot guarantees you at least a million. And in many people’s cases it means hitting over £10 million. That exclusive opportunity has recently arisen because over the weekend the jackpot once again passed the £10m mark.

So, if you’ve been wanting to check out the Mega Moolah progressive slot, now is the perfect time for it. With a jackpot that tempting and so many people playing the slot, the Mega Jackpot could be hit any minute now. And the next Mega Moolah millionaire could be you, dear reader!

The Best Blackjack Variations to Try

When it comes to playing online, blackjack is my favourite game and I am sure that there are millions of players that feel the same way. Why? For so many reasons, starting from the bonuses that you get to play with and all the way to the extravagant variations that casino sites feature. I also love the fact that I can play on my iPhone with the help of the casino apps that I can download straight from the official store. Many people used to question the safety factor when playing online, but those days are long behind us, since all casino operators undergo rigorous testing and licensing processes, which ensure the safety of your personal and banking data.

Blackjack Games and VariationsThat being said, let’s look at the best blackjack games to play for real money and why they are recommended. First and foremost, you should always choose a game with a high RTP, because this is what will affect your bankroll in the long run. You can find the individual RTPs of the game sin the help section and the overall RTP of all blackjack games at a certain site is regularly checked by international agencies such as eCogra. That being said, the game with the highest RTP of all is the classic version of Single Deck Blackjack – 99.91%. One of the things you should consider is that the more decks the game is played with, the higher the house edge. But there is an exception – Blackjack Switch, which is played with 6 decks, but has an excellent RTP – 99.87%. This is thanks to the possibility of switching the top 2 cards of your hands, turning potentially disastrous hands into potential winners. There are also some interesting sidebets that can bring you a nice extra win, about which you can read more on this page.

And if you are a fan of live dealer games, then you should definitely try one of the great titles featured at 888 Casino. Their live-dealer platform is powered by Evolution Gaming, which means that you can expect nothing but the best. They even feature a pretty fun table – Party Blackjack, where entertainment plays the main role and believe me when I say that the fun never stops on this table. The dealer and the host sing, dance and tell jokes and you are invited to do the same. You can find more information about the other live dealer games here. And if you want to play on the go, have no fear, because there are dedicated apps that include live blackjack games and you can play anytime, anywhere.

Gender Balance in the Gaming Industry

Well it comes pretty timely with the International Women’s day that has just passed that the chief development officer of NetEnt – Asa Bredin – have been rated by the renowned Swedish Financial magazine Veckans Affarer the 7th most powerful woman in the country’s digital space.

NetEnt’s Asa Bredin one of the most powerful women in Swedish tech industry.

Asa joined the company recently after being recruited from King. Ms. Bredin commented the event: “To achieve success within game development requires both creativity and a disciplined process. My role is to create conditions for our teams to succeed. I’m very proud and happy for the recognition!”

The CEO of the NetEnt, Per Eriksson, commented as well “It is good thing that strong and intelligent women are emphasized, as the need for more role models in the technology sector that can inspire other women is increasing. At NetEnt we’re confident that broadening the competence pool, at all levels, is the winning concept. We have set a goal to achieve a 50/50 gender balance by the year 2020. It is clear to us that gender balance and diversity delivers better results and increases innovation among employees.”

NetEnt are one of the few tech companies listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange that has already a 50/50 balanced management team. Recently (last week) they revealed that the company has been officially admitted to the WLA – World Lottery Association. The group of companies is committed to safe and responsible gaming.

The accomplishment of Asa Bredin as an event is extremely positive for women in the industry and companies such as NetEnt that act responsibly in order to establish and maintain gender equality in the gaming sector should not be left unnoticed. Only 22 per cent of people working in the industry are women, according to research published by the International Game Developers Association last year. At the same time the number of women playing games online is almost equal to men (data from the Entertainment Software Association stats). Girls as a rule a discouraged in pursuing careers in the tech sector. Sadly, stereotypes that engineering and math “are not for women” still live.

Elizabeth Sampat, a game designer at PopCap, one of the most successful game studios in the world, recently shared her struggles with an ethical dilemma. “I will no longer participate in encouraging young women and girls to become game industry professionals,” she wrote in a Facebook post that went viral “I will continue to fight tooth and nail for every woman who is currently here. But until the industry and gaming culture improves, it’s unethical.”

Elizabeth is by far not alone. Brianna Wu, who was at the center of the so called computer war on women – Gamergate summed it up nicely in a recent article published in The Guardian “ … we make games. They make internet comments. Who really has the power?”. And she’s right. So, let’s focus and get on with our lives fellow gamers and let the dogs bark.

Women in Gaming – Events 2016

Hello everyone and belated Happy New Year! Firstly, apologies for not being around for some time -m you know how it is with holidays – it does drag on for some time. Well now that life is going back to normal after the seasonal craze, let me bring you up to speed with some industry news and make sure you don’t miss one of the most important events for women in gaming online.
So, if you’re into online gaming and gambling in particular you’re sure holding your breath for the 2nd February when the ICE Totally Gaming will commence in London. A huge event covering just about everything in the gaming world with visitors from over 133 countries worldwide attending last year and even more expected this year. The Women in Gaming seminar in particular will give voice to some of the most successful and influential ladies in the industry to share their stories and advice.
“At Global Gaming Women, our stated purpose is to support the development and success of women in the international gaming industry through education, mentorship, and networking opportunities. We are thrilled to begin the year in such a powerful way with this panel discussion, and we invite the entire industry to join us for this important and educational event,” said Virginia McDowell, President and CEO, Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. and Global Gaming Women Board Chair and President.

women-in-gaming-ice-londonYou can meet the key members of GGW on the 3rd of February from 14:00-15:00 in room 22 South Gallery at the ExCeL Center. The event is free to attend for all registered ICE participants (men are welcome as well, chill).

Main points that will be covered:

  • Motivate their next career move
  • Gain insight into executive leadership
  • Understand the career stepping stones in gaming

Some of the key speakers:

  • Katie Lever, Global Gaming Women, Board Member
  • Connie Jones, AGEM, Director of Responsible Gaming
  • Valerie Spicer, Arizona Indian Gaming Association (AIGA), Executive Director
  • Maureen Sweeny, Aristocrat, Chief Commercial Officer

You can find more information on the GGW official site www.globalgamingwomen.org
That’s all for now, thanks for stopping by and stay tuned!

Christ Almighty, Biblio Babe discovered online Bingo!

bingo-7626683How do I put that..well..you know I introduced myself as more of a casino player? Thing is, recently I came to spend some time trying out some bingo sites and boy did I have fun! I have to confess to have been missing out all this time! So I thought it’s about time (and only fair) to introduce to you online bingo.

I was gonna go into history but let’s be honest, nobody is that interested (the ones amongst you who are have surely heard of wikipedia). So I am just gonna focus on what I found interesting and useful. For me personally, the big issue was the image I had about bingo, so see below what I found out looking at it a bit closer. I will quickly walk you through the most common misunderstandings about the game online and give you some advice on how to handle them.

You know that image of bingo being a game for old people? Apparently not online – about 30% of players now are under the age of 30. And if you still think you might sound lame if you share amongst friend you play bingo (me? I never thought that..it was a friend of mine..ahem), just to let you know Robbie Williams and Prince William are known to love the game so chill, you are going to look cool. Oh and if someone tells you it is mostly the unemployed that play bingo – couldn’t be wronger – according to statistics there is a peak in online games at lunch time and after work, so evidently bingo appears to be played by people who do work and likely as a way to relax and give themselves a break.

Another myth – often players do not trust the randomness of the numbers in online bingo. You know the guy (alright, the maths professor, Carl Leffler) who invented the unique 6000 combinations of numbers for the original bingo? He lost his mind to achieve this. Nowadays random number generators are used so we don’t have to lose any more scientists every time we want to play bingo. I am kidding. It guarantees you will not get cheated on – the numbers are as random as random can get.

I have heard people say that bingo sites are anti social. That also couldn’t be further from the truth since on all the sites I tried there were strong and friendly chat communities and very helpful staff (even too helpful for my personal liking). You will definitely make friends from all over the place, get a lot of advice or just kill off some time chatting whilst you’re waiting for your numbers to come out.

Now all that is said, it is not all that smooth – as you are well aware (if you are not – you should be), there are a lot of sharks in the gambling industry, so bingo is no exception. You should be careful as there are hundreds if not thousands of websites offering you the world. You should make sure the site you have chosen for some bingo fun is reputable – look out for some reviews and user opinions online, thanks to google that shouldn’t be too much of a hard task. Another thing you should be aware of is the bonuses and special offers you can get – you are the client, so make them work for it. You can kick-start the new year with some hot bingo bonus codes for 2016 I dug out for you. In any case – trust me, online bingo is fun and you should give it a go and if you come across any issues or questions, funny facts or simply win loads of money – do get in touch. I will be (more than) happy to hear from you, especially in the last case..remember I am your best friend, right?

3 Microgaming Online Casinos

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's front page

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's front page

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's front page

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.

Betfair and Paddy Power Merger to Conquer UK Betting Market

BettingBetfair announced on Wednesday that they laid the stepping stone for a merger with Irish rival Paddy Power. The merger is estimated at approximately 5 billion pounds and it is expected that the two companies would form the biggest online betting and gaming groups on the UK market. The new dual-brand combined entity is said to be the operators’ response to the high taxes and tight regulation that they have to comply with and that their combined forces would lower expenses and improve returns.

“We think this is a very attractive opportunity, the scale and capability is unsurpassed and would leave us in a much better place to compete in our current markets where competition is intense,” Cormac McCarthy, chief financial officer of Paddy Power told Reuters during a phone interview.
“We are enthused by this, we think it’s very attractive but at the moment it’s just a possibility and there’s a lot to be done in the coming weeks and months.”, he added.

Although further official announcements are expected in the following weeks, Peel Hunt analyst, Nick Bertram said: “This merger is about two of the gaming industry’s strongest players, with a familiar philosophy, getting together to create something of even greater scale and depth,” according to The Telegraph. “In terms of execution risk, this looks pretty small given Breon’s long and successful tenure at Paddy Power”, he continued.

“Hot on the heels of the Ladbrokes/Coral merger, we can exclusively reveal that we have merged with Betfair. Our new name is Betty Power” said a tweet on Paddy Power’s official Twitter page. Under the current agreed upon terms, Irish bookmaker Paddy Power’s shareholders would hold 52% of the group, with the rest going to Betfair Shareholders. The chairman of Paddy Power, Gary McGann will become chairman of the new founded company.

Wishing You A Warm Welcome

hyacinth-773384_1280Hello and welcome to what will be the greatest blog on all casino-related topics. You see, casino games have always fascinated me and there was a time when I couldn’t think of a better way of spending my free time than trying out the latest blackjack or roulette strategy that I had come across. Don’t get me wrong, not that I don’t feel the same now, but presently I have little to none free time and when I do play online, it’s for my next post or project.

You see, I am not exactly what you would call your regular punter, because I am not only interested in the gambling and winning part. I also like to keep up with the new software development in the business, the latest merger, the latest game releases and so on. Basically, all that has something to do with online casinos. I mean if you only knew how dynamic, vibrating and fascinating this industry is. My personal interests aside, this blog will bring you hot, sizzling news on the biggest names in the iGaming industry. Whether we are talking about operators, software providers, payment processing companies, all the juicy stuff on the newest games, acquisitions and so on, you name, I will post it right here.

Of course I am aware of the constant growth in the mobile gambling industry and the need for bigger, better, more smooth mobile apps, so I will be keeping an eye on this aspect as well. From my personal experience I have noticed that all big casino operators are making their mobile apps richer in terms of variety and number of games, as well as trying to make them compatible with all mobile devices, including Blackberry and Windows Phones – or should I say Microsoft Phones.

Anyway, I promise you it will not be boring and I will do my best to bring you the latest news in the industry and give you a few hints on how to be quids in at the end of the day. See you soon!