Pragmatic Play ranks among the fastest growing providers of online casino games, thanks to its continued focus on content diversity, mobile play, and regulated markets.
Founded in 2015, like many of its industry peers, it started off as a slots developer and supplier. The company gradually began crafting other types of content, including table games, scratchcards, and video poker. In 2019, it ventured into the live casino and bingo sectors in a bid to further broaden its content and grow its sales, client base, and presence.
The supplier has picked up quite a few industry accolades over the years and its products have been licensed by regulators overseeing some of the largest regulated iGaming markets. However, according to many reputable industry review sites, the games maker’s beginnings can be traced way before 2015 and to an online gambling company with shabby reputation and questionable business practices.
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The TopGame Link
In a detailed exposé, Casino Listings suggests that in 2015 when Pragmatic Play came into being as a content maker, it was not a new company but the rebranded TopGame, an online gaming technology provider and operator of several casino brands with a history of controversy and player-unfriendly behavior.
TopGame released its first games in 2008. That company was formed around the time US lawmakers passed and enforced the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which basically outlawed online gambling in the country on a federal level.
And while most of the leading providers at the time were quick to rush out of the US market in a bid to avoid legal trouble, TopGame was among the companies that stayed and filled the void left by its departing counterparts.
By 2011, it had developed and was operating a number of gambling sites, and was crafting games and proprietary technology to power its Internet casinos. However, it quickly became clear that its rapid growth was fueled by decisions and practices that were quite controversial to say the least.
Multiple players reported incidents with “buggy” slots developed by the company that did not feature wild symbols on the first and/or fifth reels. That practically made it impossible to win the top jackpot in these games as it required five wild symbols to land on a payline.
Players also lodged multiple complaints against the gambling software firm relating to slow pay or no pay at all, vague terms and conditions making withdrawals a nightmare, very low monthly payment limits, and more.
In 2015, Pragmatic Play suddenly hopped on the iGaming scene, but its emergence quickly attracted never-ending rounds of rumors about the its origins and possible links to TopGame. Those rumors stemmed from the fact that the provider’s original games portfolio included a set of titles previously offered by the disgraced technology supplier and operator.
The then newly launched supplier said that it had acquired the games and related software from their former owner. Its explanation made a lot of industry people scratch their heads in wonder whether it was actually the rebranded TopGame that was managed by the same people who simply wanted to steer away from the company’s track record of unfair practices in pursuit of regulated expansion.
Whatever the truth might be, Pragmatic Play has gone a long way since it emerged nearly six years ago. The company has built a sizable portfolio of gaming titles of all sorts and its content is available in all major regulated territories. And here is a bit more about what it actually offers and where its slots and other games can be played.
Games Range
The software maker’s library comprises more than 200 HTML5 games, including slots, table games, scratchcards as well as live casino and bingo titles. It says that it currently delivers up to five new slots every month but plans to boost production.
Its products are all made in-house and while its earlier ones weren’t of the greatest quality and didn’t seem to be capable of earning the provider a slot among the best in the industry, its later titles with their diverse themes, visuals, and features make it come off as a developer of high quality content.
Slots
Online slots make the bulk of Pragmatic Play’s suite. They come in various themes and different volatility to satisfy players of all experience levels and different spending habits. All games are equipped with additional symbols that trigger special features looking to instantly hook up both novice players and slots aficionados.
Here are several of the firm’s most popular slots titles:
Wolf Gold
Wolf Gold is one of the supplier’s several jackpot games, and many would say it is its most popular slot. It nabbed the Best Slot Game of 2018 award at that year’s Malta Gaming Awards. Wolf Gold is a medium volatility slot with RTP at 96.01%.
The game comes with a 5×3 layout and 25 paylines. It invites players to join a pack of wolves into the wilderness and try to scoop one of three jackpots. These can be won in the Money Respins feature, which is triggered when six moon symbols appear on the reels. During Money Respins, players need to hit at least one Mini or Major jackpot symbol to win that respective jackpot or fill all 15 empty positions with moon symbols to win the Mega jackpot.
Buffalo King
Buffalo King is another player favorite. This high volatility, wilderness-themed slot comes with six reels, four rows, and 4,096 winways. The Buffalo is the most exciting symbol that a player can encounter on the reels. It is a stacked symbol appearing on all reels and is also the best paying symbol on the paytable.
Three or more bonus symbols unlock the Free Spins bonus game. During Free Spins, all Wild symbols hit the reels with a random multiplier of 2x, 3x, or 5x. All winning combinations are multiplied by the sum of all Wild multipliers on the reels within a spin.
The Catfather
At 98.1%, The Catfather is the supplier’s highest RTP slot. It features five reels, three rows, and nine lines. A gang of mischievous cats and their Catfather (a fluffy cat version of Don Corleone) appear as symbols on the grid to accompany players throughout the game.
During the slot’s Wild Night Random Stacked Wild Feature, Wild symbols land on reels 1, 2, and 3 fully expanded horizontally for multiple winning combinations. In Free Spins mode, players’ wins are multiplied by 4x.
Honorary Mentions and Video Poker Offering
Other popular slots that have been crafted by the provider’s skilled teams include the John Hunter series, Gold Train, The Dog House, and Wild Wild Riches. In 2020, the games maker unveiled its first branded slot – Peaky Blinders.
Its slots suite also includes a growing number of Megaways games. It was in 2020 again when the company released its first Megaways title – Great Rhino Megaways – a sequel to its highly popular Great Rhino slot. The provider’s range has since seen the addition of the likes of The Dog House Megaways and most recently Christmas Carol Megaways.
Here’s what else can be found in the company’s suite:
• Voodoo Magic
• Spartan King
• Book of Kingdoms
• Dragon Tiger
• Emerald King
• Wild Walker
• Great Rhino Deluxe
• Fruit Party
• Ultra Burn
• Bronco Spirit
The developer offers only one video poker title, Jacks or Better. This titles can be played both on desktop and mobile, but its somewhat mediocre graphics and gameplay don’t make it superior to Jacks or Better titles produced by other iGaming software companies. A good thing about this video poker title is that its default RTP stands at 97.63%.
Live Casino and Bingo
As mentioned above, the company expanded its offering in 2019 with the introduction of its live casino and bingo products. Its live casino range recreates the experience offered at land-based casinos through realistic atmosphere while also delivering all the advantages of online and mobile play, including quick and easy placement of bets, comprehensive game stats, complete betting history, and more.
The supplier’s live casino suite currently counts about a dozen of titles, including gaming floor classics such as Roulette, Blackjack, and Baccarat as well as the game show-style title Mega Wheel.
The games maker has expanded its suite with the addition of Speed Baccarat and Speed Roulette variants as well as of three language-dedicated Roulette tables, an Auto-Roulette title, and its own rendition of Mega Sic Bo.
Live casino games are streamed from the firm’s Live Studio in Bucharest, Romania via 4K camera technology. The facility has more than 40 tables with planned future expansion projects.
The company’s bingo offering has, too, continued to expand since first introduced in 2019. Its range currently includes the likes of Bingo Blast, Sweet Bonanza, and Lightning 90, with more products in the pipeline.
Promo Tools and Features
Pragmatic Play’s games also come with a slew of promotional offerings combined under the Enhance tool. These are all designed to boost player experience, add value to the developer’s games, and create additional excitement.
Key features include a freshly upgraded Tournament option with real-time leaderboards and rewards. It offers nine different winning criteria and can be combined with Prize Drops. As for the latter, these provide players with the chance to win random prizes across all games crafted by the provider.
Free round bonuses and countdown free round bonuses give players a certain number of free spins or an unlimited number of free spins for a limited time. There are also Free Card bonuses for those who opt for any of supplier’s seven scratchcard games.
An Abundance of Currencies, Languages, and Licenses
The games creator’s content is available in more than 80 countries around the globe and in all major regulated markets. Unlike its rumored predecessor that was offering its products in the US, it is yet to venture into that market.
However, as more and more states have been embracing regulated online casino-style gaming, multiple European providers have applied for licenses in these and have went live with locally licensed operators, and it won’t be a surprise if the company itself soon unveils US expansion plans.
The provider’s games are available in 31 languages, including Thai, simplified and traditional Chinese, Hungarian, and Turkish, among others, and can be played in an even bigger number of currencies.
It is headquartered in Malta, but also has offices in Gibraltar and the Isle of Man. Its development and operational teams occupy office hubs in Serbia, Romania, India, Ukraine, and the UK.
The company’s content is certified in all major jurisdictions and licensed by regulators in some of the largest regulated markets. It obtained in the summer of 2016 a license from the Malta Gaming Authority that enabled it to provide its products in all key markets where an MGA license is accepted.
Later in 2016, the casino games maker was granted a Class II gaming license by the Romanian National Gambling Office (ONJN). The country’s iGaming space had just been reorganized at that point and had been opened for international companies interested to offer their services to Romanian players.
In 2019, the software maker was given the green light by the Romanian regulator to launch and run its Live Casino studio in the country’s capital, Bucharest.
The supplier also holds a license from the UK Gambling Commission which it obtained in the spring of 2017 and which paved the way for its expansion into Europe’s largest regulated iGaming market.
All of its releases are Random Number Generator-tested and certified by Gaming Laboratories International (GLI), Quinel and Gaming Associates. And as part of its license conditions, the developer’s products are integrated with player protection software and are periodically subjected to internal testing for quality assurance. The games’ player protection capabilities are then verified by independent third parties.
Conclusion
Despite its possibly questionable origins, it should be noted that Pragmatic Play has clearly put a lot of effort into building a portfolio of games that offers a range of themes, features, and tools, is mobile-focused, and is certified and licensed in all major jurisdictions.
The quality of its games has improved significantly since its earliest releases and the recent multiple industry awards the supplier has scooped are a good testament to that, while it has also entered multiple verticals to now offer a rich and truly sizable multi-product library.
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