An Overview of Evolution Gaming Casinos
For players looking for most realistic experience possible when playing online, Evolution Gaming is certainly a name to look for. This company are one of the biggest and the best at providing an excellent and realistic live gaming experience for casino game players worldwide.
This is no easy task. Getting as many features as possible onto your screen in an attempt to replicate a real live casino atmosphere is quite a feat. This is especially challenging for small screens, but all the company’s games can now be experienced on any device you choose, from the most compact smartphone screen to the largest desktop monitor.
But everyone should by now be able to experience the company’s live casino atmosphere whenever they want and wherever they happen to be. This is because there is even a TV service up and running on cable and satellite networks, so you could even find yourself playing in front of your living room television.
Evolution Gaming provides this comprehensive service by focusing on every aspect of the player experience. This starts with the live dealers themselves. It requires very different skills to be able to perform the role of a croupier in a live casino when compared with completing the same tasks effectively in front of cameras for an online audience. So this company has its own academy equipped with complete Live Casino broadcast set-ups including game tables, cameras, lighting, microphones and playback monitors. This investment and attention to detail enables their live dealers to become comfortable with appearing on camera – and with the systems necessary to monitor players’ betting decisions and chat sessions – before they take control of a real live game.
And it’s not just the presenters themselves who undergo this training. Managers, chat moderators and customer support workers, even behind the scenes staff like security and fraud prevention personnel – all employees pass through the academy before they are let loose on serving and supporting real live players. This commitment to training is continuous: staff are regularly updated in the academy on new performance requirements and to learn about new games and features.
This commitment to continual professional development can be seen on screen whenever you play at an Evolution Gaming table. And there are plenty of games to choose from. All the main table games are covered in several formats. Blackjack is available in several different formats with different playing speeds, bet levels and some superb side betting options. Plus the “Bet Behind” feature allows players to take part even if all seven places at a table are occupied. Online players can follow the action, study the form and spot a winning streak before deciding on which “hot” player to bet behind. And you still have the option to take a main seat at the table should one become available.
Baccarat is also supplied in five different formats and speeds with variable bet levels and lots of intriguing alternative side bets. Game variants include multiple cameras giving a choice of angles of view, alternative dealing techniques and even different shaped tables, so you can almost customise your experience to your exact requirements. Even James Bond himself would surely be impressed at the variety of options available for him to play his favourite game.
All the main alternative formats of Poker are also covered, so you are sure to find the game you want. These include, Three Card Poker, Caribbean Stud and various formats of Texas Hold ‘em.
But it is with the Roulette wheel that this company’s comprehensive service really comes into its own. There are close to a dozen different variants and formats available. The standard format is accompanied by European, French and American variants, plus a speed game and even a dual ball game enabling players to bet on two winning numbers from a single spin.
Being an international company, Evolution Gaming can provide their games in several languages, according to the casino operator’s target market. Many are already covered, and the company promises to source native speaking dealers and other staff for any language required.
But just how does the company provide such a comprehensive service, with worldwide coverage? To answer this, we need to look at the company’s own evolution.
The History of Evolution Gaming
The company was founded barely a decade ago, in 2006. And it didn’t have a head start with its location either. Despite achieving such rapid growth in the gaming industry, it isn’t based in one of the recognised international gaming centres, such as Las Vegas in the United States, or Malta or Gibraltar over this side of the pond. Neither is it based in a major city. Instead, it began, and continues to be headquartered in Riga, the capital city of the European Baltic State of Latvia.
From its seemingly humble beginnings, the company lived up to its name by rapidly evolving into the international player it is today. Its operations, satellite offices and studio locations spread like wildfire throughout the continent. So much so that today it has offices in half a dozen European countries, including neighbouring Estonia, Sweden, The Netherlands and the Mediterranean island of Malta. It also has an office in London in the United Kingdom.
2018 saw the company venture beyond its European homeland for the first time, as it opened a new office and studio in the state of British Columbia in Canada.
Its swift expansions and new operating markets required it to build and run further live studios, and these are also based throughout Europe (and now Canada too). Studios continue to be situated at home in Latvia, but are now supplemented by more than half a dozen others. These locations include Malta, Bucharest in Romania, Tbilisi in Georgia and in the small Belgian town of Spa, so it really does cover the entire continent.
In addition to its dedicated studios, it also broadcasts from real live casinos, to add further to its commitment to a truly authentic online experience. These locations include big name casinos in London like the Grosvenor’s Victoria Casino, The Ritz Club and the Hippodrome, plus Genting’s Resort World in Birmingham.
All this expensive infrastructure required considerable investment, and this was acquired from share investments derived from its public listings in Sweden. The company launched on a specialist stock exchange for technology companies, the Nasdaq First North Premier in Stockholm, early in 2015. It progressed to a full listing on the Nasdaq Stockholm stock exchange shortly afterwards, in 2017.
The consistent investment and territorial expansion has had a phenomenal effect on the company’s financial performance. It is now without doubt one of the biggest players in the online gaming industry. The latest figures available at the time of writing clearly demonstrate this progress. Financial results for the 2017 calendar year saw total revenues reach almost €180 million. This represented a truly remarkable 54% increase on the previous year’s performance, especially when you consider that 2016 also saw a 50% growth in revenue over the previous year.
At the time of writing, Evolution Gaming’s shares were trading at 577 Swedish krona (SEK), a massive improvement on the price a year previously of SEK 352.
Today, the company employs over 3,000 people spread throughout its international offices and studios. The majority of these are based either in the company’s home city of Riga or on the island of Malta. The parent company and financial management systems are based in Stockholm in Sweden, where Evolution Gaming’s shares continue to be traded.
In keeping with the company’s international markets, its gaming operations is licenced and regulated under several different legislative jurisdictions. At the time of writing, these numbered eight different national regulatory bodies. The regulators relevant to United Kingdom based players are based on the UK Channel Island of Alderney (Alderney Gambling Control Commission); Malta (Malta Gaming Authority) and the UK itself (UK Gambling Commission). These licences mean that the company’s games are fully regulated for the UK market and can be regarded as safe to play for UK based gamers.
The company holds additional licences issued by regulatory bodies in Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Romania and Spain.