Playtech brought online casino live dealer competition to Pennsylvania on Nov. 28 with the soft launch of its third studio. Soon, the iGaming software and services provider will provide live dealers to online gamblers “24/7.”
This debut completes the “tri-state iGaming project,” Playtech (Playtech PLC 737,00 -1,21%) announced on Nov. 30.
The announcement quotes Playtech Live CEO Edo Haitin:
We are thrilled to complete the tri-state iGaming expansion and conquer yet another key territory. The launch of our state-of-the-art studio represents an exciting new chapter in our growth, showcasing our commitment to driving innovation within the industry with our dedicated focus on crafting customised gameplay experiences for the American market.
Haitin’s July 27 Q&A with Bonus talks about those plans, as well as an example of the customized gameplay. Playtech offers a live dealer game show, Adventures Beyond Wonderland (ABW), to New Jersey’s Bet365 Casino gamblers.
Playtech’s site notes that its other live dealer products around the world offer augmented reality, as well. Those include baccarat, blackjack, and roulette.
As for games offered in Pennsylvania, Playtech’s announcement mentions “VIP blackjack and roulette.”
Playtech Live Dealer Faces Competition
On Dec. 26, 2021, Playtech opened its live dealer studios in Michigan and New Jersey. That brought the first competition to Evolution, which held a near-monopoly on online casino live dealer partnerships with online gambling operators.
Evolution (Evolution AB (publ) 3,51 -0,28%) still dominates the US live dealer market, with studios in Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Evolution also live streams to West Virginia online casino gamblers.
However, Playtech entering Pennsylvania may be a big deal.
That’s where Evolution houses “one of the larger US studios,” with 500 employees staffing the 24-hour operation, Jacob Claesson told Bonus in July 2022. Now Evolution’s North American CEO, Claesson was head of Evolution’s North American operations when he led a Bonus reporter on that tour of the Philadelphia studio.
Playtech’s career page shows the company is hiring live dealers in Bensalem, a suburb of Philadelphia.
However, Evolution and Playtech have another competitor. As of Oct. 5, Light and Wonder’s (LNW) subsidiary, Authentic Gaming, is authorized to provide live dealer gaming to Michiganders.
Also, when Bally Casino launches in Rhode Island in 2024, it will use StakeLogic for live dealer games.
Playtech Live Dealer Operator Partners
Playtech didn’t name its online casino operator partners for live dealer games in Pennsylvania.
The company generally tends not to do so.
However, Playtech’s New Jersey ABW debut announcement mentioned Bet365 Casino. Plus, Unibet Casino is a partner in the Garden State.
In Michigan, PlayGunLake employs Playtech Live.
However, with a smaller pool of operator partners than Evolution, Playtech may feel a profound loss when Unibet exits its US operations in 2024.
Or maybe not. It’s unclear which new online casino operators may partner with Playtech, and those new operators keep coming.
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