September’s 2023 SBC Awards, which highlighted the year’s best in class in betting and iGaming, threw up a handful of surprises as well as some predictable results. This was certainly true in the Supplier Class, where Evolution Gaming has dominated the Live Casino Supplier award category for the last three years.
Evoplay has also popped up with several notable wins in recent years, including a win in the Innovation in Casino Entertainment category and a Silver Award for Casino/Slots Developer of the Year at the 2022 awards. Evoplay was nominated in seven categories at the 2023 ceremony, eventually winning the Industry Innovation of the Year award.
One of the supplier’s calling cards is marrying the idea of sports and iGaming, with the recognition in its seven nominations coming for its Football Pack and Penalty Shoot-Out games. These titles harken back to the arcade-style titles that arrived on iGaming platforms in the late 1990s but with improved graphics, gameplay, and other innovations.
Evoplay is a relative latecomer
Founded in 2017, Evoplay arrived somewhat late – relatively speaking – to a crowded iGaming supplier market. But it, along with fellow latecomer Pragmatic Play (founded in 2015), has been a regular fixture at award ceremonies, with the latter often picking up gongs in the best games categories.
While Evoplay’s stated focus was Europe, Asia, and Latin America, it has picked up in North America recently. For example, it supplies games to growing social gaming brands like Scratchful.com.
Scratchful offers scratch-offs, lottery, and casino-style games with Gold Coins, featuring suppliers like the aforementioned Pragmatic Play, Booming Games, BGames, 3Oaks, and another permanent fixture at recent SBC Awards ceremonies, Relax Gaming.
Evoplay’s six years in the supplier business have been characterized by the pursuit of innovation. It turned heads in 2019 with the release of Dungeon: Immortal Evil, considered the world’s first 3D RPG-inspired iGaming title. Evoplay also gained recognition for Sprinkle, a 3D/AR game that can be augmented with an AR/VR headset.
Gaming and iGaming crossovers
In 2020 and 2021, Evoplay began to get industry-wide recognition, picking up several awards and nominations from SBC and EGR. It again returned to the theme of video games and slot crossovers with a new flagship title, Star Guardians, which was the industry’s first third-person shooter style game. Terms like RPG (role-playing game) and third-person shooter (TPS) obviously resonate with the video gaming community, but Evoplay’s more recent success has been in creating games that appeal to sports fans.
Soccer Solo Striker, Penalty Series, Football Scratch, Penalty Roulette, and Long Ball are among the soccer/football titles that Evoplay has launched in the last couple of years, but the company’s goal of tying in with the 2022 FIFA World Cup was one of the reasons its 2022 range of games got noticed in awards season. Catching crossover trends is important for iGaming suppliers, and Evoplay has shown it is adept at recognizing them and taking a risk to bring its ideas to the market.
As for the future of Evoplay, we expect it to grow, particularly in North America, which has seen an appetite for social-style, arcade, and scratch games. As mentioned, Evoplay is relatively young compared to established suppliers like Playtech, IGT, and Microgaming, but similar to suppliers like Push Gaming and Relax Gaming, its willingness to put creativity and innovation first will likely mean it carves out a significant niche for itself in the years to come.
