IGT Casinos

Over the years, IGT (International Game Technology) has quickly become one of the most recognised casino software providers in the industry. The company actually date back to the 1950’s, but, as they state on their website, it was until 1981 until they really started getting to grips with the interactive gaming sector as we know it today.

IGT originally started as a land based casino developer and they used to provide products fro some of the biggest casinos in the world including MGM and The Venetian. However, like a lot of software developers, they soon found that the money was to be made in the online industry and that is where we will be concentrating for the majority of this review.

Innovation is something that is thrown about quite liberally in the software development industry, but if there was ever a company that thrived for this type of progression, it’s probably IGT.

Over the years they’ve managed to secure some of the biggest brands going, which include the likes of Star Trek, Monopoly, Cluedo and Ghost Busters, to name but a few. We will discuss who are included in a little more depth throughout the next section of the review. What really caught our eye was just how many game variants the company have started to incorporate into their portfolio. You can find Premium Mega Jackpots, Core Video Reel, Central System Games (bingo, etc.), Multi-player and other gaming such as online and mobile.

IGT Casino Games

‘The proof is in the pudding’ is a common term used when reviewing any product, and IGT have managed to cook up quite a storm (no pun intended) when it comes to games that they have on offer. First off, their software can be used by companies on both a download and flash basis if they wish. However, we are finding that a lot of casinos are starting to move away from download altogether and just offer up a purely flash based service. In the long run, it’s a lot easier for a punter to simply play through their browser and it also means that it can be accessed a lot simpler, especially if you are using shared computers.

What you’ll find from a lot of online casinos is that they will often incorporate the IGT software in with other software providers. So, you’ll see the likes of Betfred, Betfair and Sky Vegas all offering IGT games, but alongside those from other software providers. For those of you that don’t know, then this is actually very common practice and you’ll find that over 90% of online casinos actually use this method to bring a wider range of games to their punters, and also to safeguard them should a software provider pull the pull for whatever reason.

Graphically, the games are of a pretty good standard across the board. We will say that they have some that are drastically better than others, especially in the slots section. What they do well is making sure that you are immersed in the game with a series of bonus and feature sections. For us, something like this will beat graphics every day of the week, but that doesn’t mean to say that we think companies such as IGT should be compromising too much. Across the board, we would probably argue that they are ‘fine’, without ever being ‘amazing’.

IGT will provide a portfolio that is in it’s hundreds in terms of numbers of games. It’s tough to put an exact number on just how many they include as they will add and remove titles each month. Removing titles is actually something that very few software developers actually do. They often leave them in regardless, if only to make their portfolio number that little bit higher. IGT on the other hand definitely shoot for the quality over quantity route, which is a positive in our eyes.

SLOTS

Like the majority of software providers, IGT have developed an extensive slots section, and it’s here as to where their main strengths lie. You’ve got around about 50 or so titles to play with, which isn’t a huge number of games by any means. Compare it with the likes of Microgaming who have over 700 titles, and you’ll see the gulf in depth between the two companies.

The games that they do have are all pretty solid and as we mentioned earlier in the review, their biggest sellers are that of Monopoly, Ghost Buster, Star Trek, Cluedo and Battleships. They don’t have the brands that some of their competitors have, but we think that the these games will compare to most in the industry, pretty comfortably.

The lack of brands means that IGT are free to design their own in-house titles with the likes of Wild Wolf, Lil Lady, Crown Egypt and 1000 Pandas, being a fairly random, yet thoroughly entertaining bunch.

BLACKJACK

You’ve only got one game of blackjack to choose from on the IGT software, but it does pretty much everything that you will need from it. It’s the classic blackjack game and the graphics are reasonable without ever having that ‘wow’ factor.

ROULETTE

Roulette will definitely give you a fair bit more options than blackjack and here you will find yourself being able to choose from classic roulette, 3 wheel roulette, double bonus spin roulette and triple bonus spin roulette. Each game comes with it’s own little twist on the game, but each are pretty similar in principal and in design.

VIDEO POKER

Video poker has the most in-depth portfolio of the table games and IGT have included no less than 11 different variants. These include Triple play draw, 5 play draw, 10 play draw, jacks or better, bonus poker and double bonus poker, to name a but a few. Again, graphically they aren’t anything tow rite home about, but they do the job for the most part.

MOBILE CASINO GAMES

It’s pretty clear that the future of the online casino industry lies within the realms of mobile casino. IGT have been one of a number of software providers to really push this feature and whilst they don’t currently have the largest back-catalogue of mobile games to choose from, they are continuing to improve in this section.

In terms of games you will be looking at around two-dozen slots, blackjack, roulette and around a handful of video poker games as well. What they are starting to do is bring all of their new releases, especially slots, to mobile and online, meaning that this number, and the quality, should continue to increase. Titles such as Battleships, Cleopatra, Crown of Egypt and Wild Wolf are probably the standout names in the mobile sector.

One of the companies biggest assets for mobile casino is the inclusion of cross-platform gaming. As the games have been designed using HTML 5 it means that they are available on pretty much all platforms including iOS, Android, Windows and Nokia, to name but a few.

About

The company have been working on producing some of the most innovative casino games and titles since the early 1950’s. But, as stated at the start of this review, it wasn’t until 1981 when the company first went public. It was the now humble video poker that really kicked things off for IGT and in 1984 they were the first, and at the time only, company that were making these types of machines.

Over the next couple of years, IGT continued to thrive and after their innovation in making the video poker machine, in 1986 they came out with one of the biggest innovations in the modern day casino; the progressive jackpot. The company have been the reason behind billions of dollars being paid out in progressive wins from a number of casinos and made those 7-figure jackpot pay outs possible to the everyday, Average Joe.

The company have come a long way since those early roots and they now ply their time making multi-billion dollar deals with some of the biggest names in the gambling and entertaining industry. From seemingly humble beginnings, you could argue that IGT have been one of the most influential software developers the gambling industry has ever seen!