This week, our live casino news roundup is dominated by yet another high-profile acquisition – this time it’s Evolution Gaming that have bought up their rival developer Ezugi. Elsewhere in the live casino world, NetEnt have finally found a way for Danish players to join their tables and Authentic Gaming have announced their plan to stream live roulette from a German casino for the first time. Oh, and there’s some top new offers from Royal Panda and Mr. Green too.
An exciting week indeed!
In a shock development, perennial live casino top dog Evolution Gaming has bought out their competitor, Israeli developer Ezugi, for $12 million. The Tel-Aviv based company was only founded in 2012 and has been on the rise since then. Just over a month ago they expanded their market into the legal US states by opening a dedicated Ezugi live casino studio in New Jersey. They’ve also been building studios all over the world in recent years and have been widening their player-base considerably.
Apparently, Ezugi will continue to operate under their own brand name with some autonomy involved. This can only be good for players, as market consolidation can sometimes lead to a reduction in the range of games available. For example, as much as we love Evolution’s titles, some of Ezugi’s live blackjack games have unique and interesting features that we would hate to see disappear after this deal.
Evolution “the acquisition [of Ezugi] will increase Evolution’s geographic footprint and accelerate growth in key markets. It is expected to add 2-4% to 2019 revenues and be slightly accretive to Evolution earnings per share during 2019.”
Ezugi’s founder and CEO Kfir Kugler had this to say: “Evolution’s superior offering in areas such as streaming quality and speed, user experience, game choice and all-round operational excellence will help bring the Ezugi service to the next level.”
Who knows exactly how this deal will work out? But for now, you can personally try out Ezugi’s games at Leo Vegas, Casino Estrella and Codeta – amongst others.
Latest innovation by Evolution Gaming, Lightning Roulette combines the excitement of playing live roulette with the winning potential of slots. Before every spin, between 2 and 5 numbers are awarded an improved multiplier between 50 and 500 times of your wager.
It gets better. The RTP on it is matching that of European Roulette (97.30%) which means that you give up nothing, but get to play a much more exciting variation of live roulette.
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