At a time of increasing, but not always uniform regulation and ever more competition, it’s easy to see how margins in the iGaming industry are being squeezed. Yet that’s doing nothing to slow down growth, with one major player returning consistently impressive figures.

Evolution Gaming,  one of the most trusted providers of ‘live casino’ gaming software in the world, recorded a 54% increase in operating revenues in the first quarter of 2019, compared to the same period last year, up to €79.3m from €51.6m and second quarter revenues of €85.7m (45% increase YOY). 

That’s an eye-opening figure proving the online gambling market is far from reaching its peak. Profits for Evolution were up, too, rising to €28.6m for the quarter (€16.5m).

Such a strong performance does not happen by accident. Evolution is reaping the rewards for investing in growth and innovation throughout 2018. 

And with the increasing appetite for ‘live dealer’ gaming showing no signs of slowing down, the outlook for 2020 and beyond looks exciting.

The optimism is entirely justified because there are several drivers behind the growth.

Growing interest in live dealer games

There was a time when online casino table games featured little more than animated graphics with a random number generator spitting out cards or selecting where the roulette wheel ball would fall. At first, customers enjoyed the novelty factor of gambling online.

But one thing these games lacked was apparent trust. If you can’t see a human dealer shuffling and using real cards, or spinning a roulette wheel in real time, then how can you be sure the game is fair? Of course, we’re not suggesting the old games were corrupt, but players love interacting with real, live dealers.

Live casino games, like the growing offering from Evolution, have become an immersive experience. You bet in real time, can chat to the dealer, and wait while new decks of cards are added to the shoe in blackjack – decks of cards that you watched being shuffled and cut by an assistant moments before. Now, there is no reason to blame the games for being rigged should you hit a losing streak; the games are 100% trustworthy and realistic.

Featuring real people, and therefore being easier to follow, live casino games are also attracting a new audience through platforms like YouTube and Twitch, where broadcasters are able to chronical their live dealer action in real time to huge audiences.

Some have been watched over 500,000 times. Many viewers may not have contemplated online gambling in its formative years, but the live dealer set-up creates a visually stimulating experience which is driving many more to sign up and give it a go.

The casino operators, of course, have seen this coming from a mile off. Once only a few dabbled in the live casino experience, preferring to stick to the tried-and-tested old-fashioned, animated format.

Now, any online casino worthy of playing at will have a full suite of live dealer games. Further, the casino bosses recognise what a rising star the format is, so they offer bespoke sign-up bonuses for their live dealer games.

The bigger operators, such as Kindred Group’s Unibet Casino, use the Evolution Gaming live dealer studios, but brand the tables in the Unibet logo and messaging. It’s a white label set-up that benefits Stars while further boosting revenues at Evolution.

Evolution offers more for existing customers

One of the major attractions of live dealer gaming is interacting with the actual dealer. While you may not wish to chat, you’ll certainly enjoy listening to their conversation. Some are real performers, adding to the whole user experience.

However, one obvious flaw is when the dealer does not speak your language. If he or she is English, and you are Italian, you’re not going to get the same enjoyment from your session at the tables.

Evolution recognises this is a key area for growth and is investing in new native speaking tables for its studios. While the big, licensed languages were catered for earlier, such as French and Spanish, more are being added all the time.

Recently, Portuguese tables appeared, opening up live roulette and blackjack to the wider market in Brazil. Finnish has been added to the same games by the Betsson Group Casinos. We’ve recently seen Arabic games, and live casino hold’em in Italian!

Clearly, as regulated markets continue to open up, there is potential for Evolution to grow further by expanding not just the languages it offers, but the games it runs in those languages.

Rumours are already circulating that Evolution Gaming are setting up a Hindi language live casino tables and a Japanese studio to offer games in those markets.

New games appealing to different audiences

The online gambling sector has always been innovative, driven by fast-evolving technologies and from having some of the best developers available. In terms of marketing, the sector recognised early on that one size does not fit all: while many players enjoy traditional games like roulette and blackjack, many others want something different.

It is diversifying that worked well for the online poker market. Think about the advent of speed poker, started by Full Tilt with its Rush ring games. Add the more recent “Spin and Go” multiplier format which began at Winamax. Evolution took this valuable lesson and applied it to the live dealer experience.

New games like Lightning Roulette are breaking the mould. In this version of the game, once the fast betting action is over, the dealer spins reels that add win multipliers to random numbers. If that number comes up, and you have bet on it, you might get up to 500 times your winnings. The action is fast and furious, just like the name Lightning suggests.

It’s a concept that attracts an entirely new audience, including those who usually prefer casino slot games, who enjoy the fast pace and prize multipliers on offer. And while casino operators benefit from extending the lifetime value of customers, Evolution will get more income.

More new formats and games are coming out of development all the time. There’s Dream Catcher, a new version of the traditional spin the wheel, and Lightning Dice, which takes something as simple as predicting the total sum from three dice and turns it into an exciting live casino game.

Like slots, licensing deals for big-name new games add further to Evolution’s potential. Recent additions to its live offering include Monopoly Live and Deal Or No Deal. Both offer exciting takes on the original, widening the reach of each client casino’s marketing efforts.

New integrations keep being signed

As has already been pointed out, all of the better operators now offer live casino games, and many of them are with Evolution. So is there really more growth potential? Or are we hitting the ceiling?

The truth is new partners are integrating the Evolution live dealer experience all the time. The company’s Q1 update mentioned several new partnerships, including with the fantasy sports operator Draft Kings in the USA, Loto-Québec in Canada and Svenska Spel in Sweden.

The Canadian and Swedish operators are run and owned by the national Governments, which adds further credibility to the Evolution brand.

The big USA question

The US online gambling market is huge. Unfortunately, it’s not open to all, and different games are only available in certain states. The online poker market took a huge hit when the game was banned under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006, and all related online gaming stopped. Only in recent years has it begun to open up as states began legalising it, such as in Nevada and New Jersey.

Opportunities for the online casino and gaming sector and the companies like Evolution that supply it are clear. Coherent Market Insights predicts the US online gambling market could be worth $123 billion by the year 2026. Drivers, it notes, are wider digitization and access to devices, plus increasing trust in online payment services.

The potential in the US is so great it adds rocket fuel to Evolution Gaming’s upward trajectory.

Sitting pretty despite the competitive landscape

As we’ve seen, Evolution has enjoyed meteoric success. There can’t be many businesses in the online gambling space that can boast year-on-year revenue increases of over 50%.

A potential threat to this growth is new competitors arriving and trying to take a piece of the action. However, such is Evolution’s dominance, experience and superior service levels; it’s hard to see any reason why operators would want to partner with anybody else.

Innovation is one way a competitor might try to get a foothold in the next five years, but unfortunately for anyone thinking of trying (and it would be an expensive route to market anyway), Evolution is already well down the road with the likes of Lightning Roulette or Monopoly Live.

With the outlined drivers to growth and the current buoyant market landscape, it’s hard to see a world anytime soon where Evolution Gaming is not continuing its tremendous growth, while maintaining its impressive record of snapping up industry awards for its games.