Casino Software

The majority of games you will play at online casino sites are provided by third party software platforms.  The primary reason for this is so that casinos can host the biggest and most famous titles, achieve higher jackpot and prize amounts than they could do on their own and to reduce the costs to the casino of developing, running and maintaining their own games.

Many of us prefer certain software providers over others and will seek out casinos that host titles from a specific brand.

Different casinos sites however have a very different set ups, some will host a single software with a comprehensive selection of their games, others host multiple software packages but will often cherry pick the titles.

Whether you prefer a sprawling casino with 1000’s of games from 10’s of providers or you would rather have a more bijoux brand that specialises in one package, we list a mixed variety of casino sites to suit everybody’s needs.

In our software guides you can find casinos that host those titles as well as information about the software brands, top titles, history and much more.

Casino Software Guide

What are casino software providers?

It would be hugely expensive for each individual online casino site to design and develop their own games from scratch and so in general most virtual casinos licence and host games from independent software providers.

The software provider is the company that make the games we like to play and therefore you see some of the same games at different casino websites. It is also the reason that progressive jackpots get so high, as they are fed by players from hundreds of casinos not just one.

This is a very efficient and effective means of running casinos. Having central software providers allows online casinos to save a fortune on developing and maintaining titles, which ultimately means the games provide themselves provide better value to the player.

Some casinos make their own games or run their own proprietary software, such as 888 and Dragonfish, but overall most casinos simply licence the games they would like to feature. Some online casinos specialise in games from just one software, such as 32Red who only offer Microgaming games, but most will host titles from numerous providers (but not always the entire catalogue).

How Do I Know What Software A Casino Uses?

To be honest it is not actually that easy to tell a lot of the time. Some online casinos will break down their games by software but most do not. Unless you are familiar with specific games from individual software providers it can be difficult to tell what software a casino uses.

Casinos tend to package games into sections; slots, table games, jackpots, etc., and in there they may have games from several different software companies. Other casinos run different software packages in different sections. Ladbrokes, for example, have a main casino section with Playech games only but in their games and slots sections they host games from NetEnt and a range of other providers.

In general a casino will have one or two main software packages, where they host most of the game from those catalogues, alongside a selection of cherry picked titles from other operators. The best way to find out how many games from each provider a casino has is to read our in depth casino site reviews or simply ask your casino site directly.

Download casinos are in effect run by the software provider, not the casino itself, so if you are playing through a download you can be fairly sure you are playing with just one software provider. Not many offer download options anymore though, so this won’t be a factor for most players.

If you want to know which software provider created a specific game they best way to find out is to simply search for “game name” software.

Single vs Multiple Software Casino Sites

There is no particular benefit to using a casino site with one or multiple software, it all comes down to what you want from casino.

I personally have accounts with many casino sites, this gives me the best of all worlds as I can use single software casinos or multiple software casinos depending on what games I want to play and what promotions I want to take advantage of.

Of course this also allows you to take advantage of more than one welcome bonus or retention offer that might add further value  to your gameplay.

Benefits of Single Software Sites

Single, or low number, software casino sites tend to have a smaller catalogue of games, although this is not necessarily a bad thing. Too many titles can make interfaces both crowded and slow while also making find the games you want to play difficult. If you predominantly play games from just one provider it actually makes a huge amount of sense to play with a single software site.

Another benefit of playing with single software casinos is the promotions and features are tailored to games from that provider. This means if you like playing Microgaming games for example then when playing with a Microgaming only brand you are more likely to get rewards and therefore better value over time.

Customer support is often much better with casinos that use fewer software’s. This is mainly due to a better understanding between the casino site and the software provider that enables them to focus more on the user experience and customer service.

Finally you are more likely to get a complete catalogue of games from single host sites and so if you want to be able to play all the titles from a given provider, not just the biggest, then look for a site like this. If a casino offers a download it will contain pretty much all of the games from that software company.

Benefits of Multiple Software Sites

Choice is the obvious pro when using a site with games from multiple providers, so if you don’t prefer a specific games provider then you will be better off with a more diverse site. Multiple software casino sites also tend to, have a higher number of total games available.

Sites that run games from several companies are better for strategic players. If, for example, you like to play multiple jackpot games but you like to target those with the highest payouts or are due a payout then the best way to do this is with a site that features many providers.

If you are someone who likes to play new titles as they come out then you will have the best chance of doing this with multi-software casinos.

Finally multiple game providers allow you to broaden your game play more so than single providers. It is easier to compare and contrast the games from various software companies when using sites like these.

Are Bigger Software Providers Better?

By no means. Bigger providers have a larger games catalogue and a greater range but just like anything in life bigger isn’t always better. Many smaller developers can provide unique, novelty and bespoke titles or fill certain niches that larger companies often miss.

There are many who will search far and wide to find casinos that host games from smaller outfits as this tends to give them a less corporate feel.

Smaller developers are becoming rarer, the way the industry has become many of the big software companies now simply buy up smaller brands. Playtech for example have been on a merger and acquisition mission over the last ten years acquiring smaller brands such as Ash Gaming and Quickspin.

Overall the larger companies keep these brands as separate entities but whether this lasts only time will tell. It is possible in another ten years that the casino software industry may have been consolidated into just a few super brands and I am not sure that is a good thing for players.

HTML5 vs Flash Casino Games

For me, I would always prefer to play games in HTML5 format rather than flash, even before Flash reached its end of life. The advantages of HTML5 over flash are clear but it is still going to take many years for older games and content to be updated to the new language – if they are updated at all.

Flash

Flash has been around since the mid 1990’s with its first version released in 1997 and this made it to the go to language for rendering video and audio in web browsers. A process critical to playing instant play casino games. Flash has come in for a lot of stick over the years, its famous bowser plugin is cited as one of the major causes of browser crashes globally and a source of huge irritation for users, especially those playing casino games at the time.

People can be a little unfair about flash, the plugin has brought us all the ability to watch and stream through web browsers bringing instant enjoyment to the masses for many years. Then again in all of that time they never did find a way to make the system stable and most users watched its final days with no love lost.

There are lots of casino games that are still Flash based but the software is no longer supported or updated, so having it installed on your computer isn’t as safe as it once was and is therefore not recommended. Flash was still a better system for 3D rendering and for high graphic output though even when it officially reached its end of life.

It is mobile and other small devices where the biggest problems with flash are seen. Less than 5% of mobile devices support flash and many modern tablet and small PC devices struggle to support the flash plugins. It is the switch from using desktop to mobile for entertainments, such as playing casino games, that has led to the decline of flash based media with HTML5 now the preferred language.

Flash games were more reliable if you have the latest version of your browser plugin downloaded and you reduce the number of widows open using flash.

HTML5

When HTML5 came along it offered a mainstream alternative for playing audio and visually enriched media to the Adobe Flash system. Although HTML4 could support animations using JavaScript it was clunky. HTML5 however provided a hassle free means for playing enriched content, such as casino games, that works on over 97% of mobile devices and in all web browsers.

HTML5 allows media to be rendered directly in your browser or on your device without the need for a third-party plugin. Cutting out the plugin itself reduces the chances of your device or web browser from crashing several fold. The technology also requires no additional configurations whether you are using an android, apple, windows, MAC, or any other operating system.

Often compared to Flash, in fact, HLTM5 is a very different technology and although you can use both for playing content in web browsers HTML5 on its own cannot be used to create the original animation. For this it must still be supplemented with programming languages such as JavaScript.

What HTML5 does in basic terms is streamline and improve the language for supporting the latest multimedia while at the same time maintaining an easily readable format for both devices and people. The technology was set up in a way that different processing models can be used in different combinations to extend the versatility and range of the language.

HTML5 was created with low powered mobile devices in mind. The flexibility of the language coupled with the ability to play media on almost all platforms means that the tech is now the preferred choice for cross-platform casino products. With most casinos sites now designed to move interchangeably between any sized device HTML5 has become the new go to language for new games.

Flash and HTML5 reflect the landscape they were born in, back when Flash launched all devices were desktop but when HLTM5 launched proper in 2014 most people were in the process of switching to mobile devices as their primary means of using the internet.

HTML5 is now the major language for the majority of online casino games from software providers.