Playtech Slots

Playtech was founded back in 1999, and they originate from Tartu, in Estonia. The founders of the company already had a history with the casino industry, but some of them had backgrounds in the multimedia or software engineering spaces.

The products which are part of their portfolio give online casinos more than 600 titles, plus the option to also include modules for virtual sports, sports betting, poker, live dealer content and lottery. The land-based category isn’t neglected either, and they have a number of solutions for those clients as well.

History

As I mentioned previously, the story of Playtech began in 1999. It took them a couple of years to build up their content and to get the first casino licensees, but the first one came around in 2001. Fast forward a couple of years, to 2004, and that’s when Playtech created their first iPoker network, the largest one of its kind. On March 28^th, 2006, Playtech started being traded at the London Stock Exchange, in the AIM market. They expanded that same year, by acquiring a provider of poker software, called Tribeca Tables Europe, which used to work with partners like Paddy Power Poker or VCPoker.

Bingo Broadway was also released in 2006, after which they acquired Videobet, which gave them access to server and land based gaming terminals. Because they were growing rapidly, they created Playtech Academy in their home country, Estonia, plus they opened up a Bulgarian development centre.

With the start of 2007, the company got a new CEO, by the name of Mor Weizer. In the coming years, Playtech continued to expand and to sign new agreements, with land based or online operators. They created a landmark joint venture together with William Hill in 2008. Looking back at their history, it was one of continuous expansion, through agreements, acquisitions and new releases, which explains how they became one of the giants of the casino industry.

Playtech Casino Games

There are hundreds of slot machines that are offered by Playtech, but they have a number of casino titles as well. They offer live dealer games, they have bingo, lottery and table games, to name just a few major categories that they dabble in. I’d say that the slot machines are by far the best represented ones though.

The type of game that you will see at Playtech will be considered modern by most players, and not just because they usually have 5 reels. There are other aspects of the games that lead to this conclusion, and obviously the features would be among those making the slots interesting.

One of the recipes for success that Playtech has followed for most of its history is to have a lot of branded content, so that players can actually relate to the action that takes place inside their games. They have signed agreements with some of the biggest brands around, and so they created slot machines based on The Matrix, The Love Boat, The Mummy, The Flintstones, Daredevil, Captain America, Spiderman, The Dark Knight and dozens of other hugely popular TV series or movies.

Graphics

When you’re working with a large number of games, and you release new ones all the time, you’re bound to have some better than others. The older games in their portfolio don’t have the best graphics, but newer ones do look modern at least. The design quality was never a strong point for Playtech, not even for most of the branded slot machines, which required a bigger investment on their part. Luckily, they’re not ugly games, just more on the average side.

Features

The list of features is among my favorite things about the majority of the Playtech slot machines. These deliver free spins, bonus symbols, scatters wilds and others. You might get a simpler experience from a slot like What’s Cooking, or something very elaborate from The Three Musketeers (bonus games, four types of scatters, multiple smaller features, wilds and free spins).

Payouts

Just how happy you will be with the payouts offered by a slot will depend on a couple of things, such as the other features which can trigger inside. I’ve seen slots of theirs that can pay 10,000x the line bet, and I’ve also noticed others that only go up to 250x. The difference usually comes from the number of features offered, and one isn’t necessarily a better choice than the other based on the top prize alone.

The progressive jackpots are offered in more than a few games that they released over the years. Beach Life and many of the branded slot machines have such prizes to offer, and their value can be very high.