Going Live

As both an affiliate and keen player, I’ve watched the development of the live casino industry over the last three years with great interest.

In Asian markets, where players are typically more sceptical of the fairness of random number generator (RNG) games than the rest of the world, live games have been well supported for some time. It’s probably the success of these games in Asia that prompted the likes Playtech and Microgaming and specialist live games developer Evolution Gaming to see if they would be as popular with European players.

At the start of 2009, when Playtech launched its European dealer platform with games live streamed from a studio in Latvia, analysts were still questioning whether European players were ready to accept live dealer games. It was suggested that their relative slowness (live blackjack in particular) compared with the more generally accepted RNG games would make it harder for them to gain traction there.

Fast forward two-and-a-bit years and here are a few indicators as to how European players have embraced these games:

• Operators adding live dealer games to their product suite in the last two years include Paddy Power, Unibet, Blue Square, Party Casino, Betsson, Sky Betting and Gaming, Sportingbet and Betfair.
• Operators beefing up their live gaming offering by adding multiple live platforms include Ladbrokes, Victor Chandler and Bet365.Evolution has had to increase floor space at its Latvian live site by 400% to accommodate additional tables and dealers due to increased player demand.
• Dealer numbers at Evolution, Playtech and Visionary iGaming have grown exponentially to cope with player demand.

There’s probably an element of keeping up with the Joneses when it comes to the rapid adoption of this platform by all the big European brand operators. But it’s also clear that many more players are playing these games than was the case two years ago. Try to get a spare seat at a live blackjack table during peak times at any of the above casinos and you get a sense of how popular these games are now.

Here’s another telling indicator. The established Asian platforms that spurred the European experiment are now ‘westernizing’ their games so they can have more of a presence in Europe. EntwineTech (formerly Entertasia) and HoGaming have both made concerted efforts to get more involved in Europe having seen the growth in popularity there.

The marriage of real dealers and gaming equipment with online delivery is a compelling one when it’s done well. It’s done very well now and, as live streaming technology and net connection speeds improve, it will only get better and more popular.

David is also webmaster at livedealer.org