Casino software is the most important element of online casinos

One of the most important elements of any online casino is the casino software chosen to manage the site and provide the casino games. The success of any internet trading site is clearly dependent on the quality of the product on offer, but as we have all found to our frustration if the site is difficult to navigate or lacks proper payment structures it becomes a hassle and we go elsewhere. When it comes to online casinos the importance of the casino software is even more significant because the casino software is not only responsible for the management of the site it is also the source of almost all the casino games offered by the site. In the initial stages of the introduction of online casinos they were all operated by the big bookmakers, usually as part of their online sports gambling site. Clearly none of these online casino operators had any specialised knowledge of computer software and most of them therefore chose to employ one of the specialist casino software suppliers which had grown up on the back of the expansion of the online casino sector. We now have a situation where there are just a small number of casino software suppliers who generally dominate the market. Until recently each online casino operator tended to use just one of these casino software companies to manage their site and design and supply all the casino games on the site. Over the last couple of years however we have seen the introduction of a number of smaller specialist online casinos such as CasinoCasino and CasinoLand which offer casino games from a number of different casino software suppliers on their site. There has always been a potential problem from the dominance of a few casino software companies in terms of the variety of casino games available across different sites, so the appearance of new specialist online casinos breaking the trend is to be welcomed.

If we now look at the main casino software suppliers one at a time, it would be difficult not to start with the biggest and best known, Playtech. Playtech has been in the forefront of many of the developments we have seen in the online casino sector since their first online casino contract in 2001. They are credited with being the first to offer a Live casino option with real dealers and a real roulette wheel, and for introducing casino software which enabled users to play casino games on their mobile phone. The variety of casino slots games which Playtech can offer their online casino operators has also been significantly boosted by their decision to sign copyright agreements with two of the major world renowned media companies, Paramount Digital Entertainment and Marvel Entertainment, which enables them to use characters from Paramount movies and Marvel comics in their slots games. Of the online casinos featured on our recommended list William Hill, BetFred and Bet365 all use Playtech casino software, recently joined by Ladbokes.

Next up we have NetEnt, a Swedish company which was founded as long ago as 1996 and now specialising in providing online casino software which includes an excellent range of slots and video slots. In fact there are many observers who would argue that the graphics associated with the casino games supplied by NetEnt are the best available in the market. The first of our recommended online casinos to use the NetEnt casino software is the All Irish casino, and the response from Irish casino games players has been very positive indeed. As we pointed out earlier in this article there are now several smaller online casinos who are using more than one casino software supplier, and one of these, namely CasinoLand also uses NetEnt software as well as software supplied by other companies.

Another of the big casino software companies to supply software to online casinos all over the world is Chaartwell Technology. Chartwell is a Canadian company but has offices in London and Malta and specialises in supplying games and gaming systems to the online gambling industry. At the moment the only online casino on our recommended list using Chartwell casino software is Bwin, so that’s where to go if you want to see what they offer.

One of the oldest and possibly most influential online casino software supplier is of course Microgaming, and it is almost certain that Microgaming now have the widest range of casino games of any of the casino software companies. Based close to home in the Isle of Man Microgaming remains a privately owned company and is credited with being the first to offer roulette, blackjack and craps in the download format. Their progressive jackpot slots games were the first create a dollar millionaire through playing online casino slots, and they now have over 400 slots games available in download format plus 200 flash games. Their first poker software was introduced in 2003 and is now used by as many as forty online poker forums. As far as Irish casino games players are concerned access to Microgaming’s vast array of casino games used to be Ladbrokes, but Ladbrokes signed a deal with Playtech last year so we will have to wait and see. Meanwhile CasinoLand, one of our newest online casinos does offer some of the best Microgaming slots alongside those of other less well known casino software suppliers such as NFX, Play n Go and Thunderstick.

So far we have not mentioned our biggest online casino operator Paddy Power. The Paddy Power online casino uses casino software supplied by Wagerworks, originally part of Silicon Gaming a manufacturer of slot machines. Wagerworks is now solely focused on supplying casino software, but was responsible for the first slot machines to ever offer jackpots in excess of a million dollars. 888 casino and Bet365 casino both also offer slots games supplied by Wagerworks.

Last but certainly not least is the newest casino software company to have their casino games available online. The new CasinoCasino site now offers casino games from Amatic Industries. Amatic have been supplying casino software to land based casinos for many years, but we can now access these exciting games at CasinoCasino for the first time online.