Tony Plaskow, Commercial Director at Black Cow Technology, says that it won’t be long before multiplayer iCasino games will become their own genre, a similar effect to the explosion of multiplayer video games like Fortnite and Call of Duty.  

If you look at the most popular mobile and video games, it’s massively multiplayer online titles such as League of Legends, Dota2 and Fortnite that dominate the charts. What makes these games so popular? The multiplayer, interactive gameplay they provide.

Take a side glance at the online gambling industry and, until now at least, there hasn’t been a truly multiplayer experience available to players. But basic multiplayer experiences are starting to appear in different forms in the iGaming space – recent news of FanDuel’s acquisition of Beyond Play being an example.

The iGaming industry has been a little slow when it comes to keeping pace with the mobile and video games industry, but this is because multiplayer online casino games present significant technical challenges that we have had to work hard to resolve.

At Black Cow we have spent almost four years – and a lot of money –building a powerful and flexible multiplayer technology suite that can be used by any operator or supplier to develop any type of multiplayer game. This has been done with regulatory and compliance requirements in mind, too.

It’s great to see different companies taking different approaches to multiplayer games, and I’ve been lucky to work with several to help in their efforts to overcome the challenges presented – I was a Founding Director and Advisor to BeyondPlay and have seen Black Cow’s innovative Multiplayer Remote Gaming Server develop.

Multiplayer presents a massive opportunity for developers and operators. Why? Because consumer preferences are changing and this type of content is exactly what they are looking to engage with.

Outside of iGaming, people are seeking entertainment experiences that are social and interactive. They want to play with their friends, in collaborative teams, to enhance their gaming experiences. Applied to gambling, this means they want to enjoy the way they play in real-world casinos:playing side by side on a blackjack table, sharing a roulette spin or craps roll, or hitting a slot spin next to others. Why shouldn’t people have this kind of experience when playing online?

Suppliers and operators must now bring these experiences to desktop and mobile play if they are to meet player expectations, especially among the lucrative Millennial and Gen Z cohorts who are not interested in traditional, single-player, casino games like blackjack, roulette, and slots. Black Cow’s MultiPlayer Remote Gaming Server can be used to develop interactive multiplayer casino games to attract this younger demographic.

Just how operators and suppliers go about this will depend on the technology solutions available. For example, Black Cow’s interactive event-driven gameplay approach is diametrically different to BeyondPlay’s pooled stake concept.

Black Cow’s Multiplayer RGS allows multiple players to share an interactive experience on the very same game at the same time. This makes our product the only transactional multiplayer server in the market right now – players can enjoy the same base game in real time whether the same deck of cards, the same slot, to share a bonus round and winning experience together.

It can support any game type and provides a robust foundation for easily adding features and functionality such as community jackpots, bonus rounds and tournaments.

The advantages that can be unlocked through this content are significant. Multiplayer games help operators and suppliers create compelling experiences that foster strong player loyalty and brand awareness, in addition to the social, interactive, and ultimately more enjoyable gaming they provide.

For example, our technology is being used right now by the likes of Pixiu Gaming, PlayJeux Studios and Light & Wonder to create multiplayer slots. Playing in pods of 4 players, each player plays their own base game but, once one of the players in the pod triggers the bonus, everyone goes in and plays the bonus round together.

The first title to launch will be Light & Wonder’s Raging Rhino Multiplayer Wonderverse, set to hit online casino lobbies in the summer. This will appeal to fans of the original game, who can experience it in multiplayer for the first time while welcoming new players to the title and the format.

Using existing, player-favourite titles to introduce the multiplayer format allows players to familiarise themselves with how it all works through a game they already know well. This is the approach Light & Wonder is taking, with two huge classic titles to follow hot on the heels of Raging Rhino.

With each, the standard game is taken to the next level with a thrilling, interactive and fun set of multiplayer bonus rounds.

But this is just the start of what can be achieved via the Black Cow Multiplayer RGS and with multiplayer games in general. For me, the idea of launching multiplayer online casino games, with an experience similar to Fortnite and Roblox, is no longer a fantasy. The technology is now available to develop such a player experience, an experience that players are calling out for.

This is why multiplayer games are now hitting the headlines, and why the entire Black Cow team and I are so excited to be pioneering the tech required to deliver this content and the endless opportunities it provides.