One thing that has revolutionised the way in which the online casino industry is viewed is live dealer games.

More importantly for operators and providers in this space, live dealer games are very popular, and also very profitable.

30-Second Summary

• Live dealer games are traditional casino table games like blackjack and roulette,  led by real dealers and video-streamed to players to bet in real-time
• They have grown significantly in the 2000s and now command over 30% of all casino revenues worldwide, thanks to their popularity and significantly higher player stakes
• Advancements in video streaming definition and reliability, internet and bandwidth availability, and user-interface and experience capabilities have driven the sector on
• The 2020s have seen a boom in formats like gameshows, with gamification and personalisation being possible through greenscreen technology, AR, VR and AI
• LuckyStreak have been a leader in the live casino industry since 2014, providing world class games and experiences to platforms and operators worldwide

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Hang On, What Are Live Casinos?

By combining the classical live gameplay of traditional casino games with the convenience of online real-time play, and adding in more immersive and interactive elements, live casino studios create a more authentic experience for players.

In this latest edition, we delve into how live dealer games came about and the current state of this immensely popular format. And give insights into what the future may hold.

A Brief History Of Live Dealer Games

In The Beginning

Live casino games were introduced in the late 1990s, with these initially being innovative solutions that bridged the gap between physical casino gameplay and the online space. 

The games were basic in nature, broadcast from small studios at first, and usually facing challenges of limited interactivity, slow streaming speeds and limited user bandwidth and connectivity. Not good for hi-spec streamed games! 

The New Century Beckons

However, as the 2000s came around, a myriad of technological advancements helped improve these live dealer games drastically, such as internet bandwidth making streaming more feasible and seamless to wider audiences. 

Some of the first live dealer studios were established in places like Latvia and the Philippines in the mid-2000s, offering professional dealers and multiple camera angles that cover various aspects of a game, and more elaborate studio setups.

Into The Twenty-Teens

Now the mobile gaming world began to expand rapidly – and globally – alongside further advancements in quality video and streaming technology. 

In turn, live dealer games saw an explosion in popularity, with game developers now beginning to build their very own state-of-the-art studios across the world, in places like Malta, Costa Rica, the UK and other eastern European nations. 

Now in the 2020s, the genre of live dealer games continued to expand and branch off in different ways, with TV game show style titles first coming to fruition the latter part of the decade.

The Current State Of Live Dealer Games

What’s The Situation Now?

In more recent years, live casino games have become essential components of the online casino experience enabling them to:

1. Broaden their gaming content offer
2. And extend their appeal to new and land-based audiences 
3. Who want a truly authentic gaming experience
4. Delivered in a high-quality way
5. In a particularly engaging “real-people�?format
6. For players who want the level of “transparency�?and trust that live games have 
7. With increasingly hi-spec, high definition and highly reliable streaming
8. Built for mobile-first play
9. For a global audience driven by broadband reach
10. Generating a significantly higher staking, higher volume and ARPU audience

Thanks to technology, the streaming quality has now reached full high definition, with most games streaming at 1080p HD or higher.

In addition, mobile compatibility has drastically improved. Studios are now able to cater to audiences globally, too, with live dealers often speaking multiple languages, and some games even being situated in real casino settings to create even more authenticity, like LuckyStreak’s Dual-Play Roulette.

A Flourishing Sector

Thanks to such things, the market of live dealer games has seen tremendous growth, with annual rates of increase in excess of 10%. This is clear to see in the number of live dealer providers currently active, and new studios launching, whether stand-alone or divisions of existing iGaming businesses.

As for the revenue in the sector, this is estimated to be approximately $2.5 billion as of 2023, with strong growth projected for the remaining decade. This significant number mirrors the continued demand for authentic and interactive gaming experiences, with this genre of games now contributing significant portions of revenue for many casino platforms.

Today’s Trends In Experience

Casino players are beginning to prefer games with social elements and gamification even more as time goes on. 

Our recent newsletter on gamification and personalisation discussed their increasing use in casino games experiences.

Thanks to chat features and being able to interact with dealers and other players in the process, games like live blackjack and live baccarat have been propelled to new heights of player engagement and interaction.

So too has the development of new formats and variants such as unlimited blackjack with no limit on seats at the table – to create entirely new gameplay experiences serving wider player needs: live game show games have grown in popularity. 

These faster-paced, presenter-led formats are major audio-visual experiences, akin to TV shows and have developed a strong following. Being people-led and completely live they fall within the “live casino�?sector however they appeal to a different audience, perhaps at the softer end of the market, a more shorter session and entertainment-seeking player.

And Technology

Another major advance is in the ability to customise the gameplay experience. The use of greenscreen or chroma-key technology enables providers to customise the games to the requirements of the operator or even the player in the form of graphical or video backdrops. 

Additionally, graphical overlays allow for branding and messaging, as well as adaptations of the game elements including table, chips, the user-interface and even the dealer!

What To Expect From Live Dealer Games In The Future

With the ongoing rollout of 5G across the globe, we can expect even more improvements in streaming quality and video definition. With this, lag will be minimal across these ultra-fast streams, with 4k and 8k likely to become the norm. 

What’s more, with casino customisation software becoming more predominant, aspects like customisable tables and other more interactive features are likely to become more conventional, with this making player experiences even more immersive.

Another area is in VR and AR, both likely to be integrated into live dealer games going forward. With this online casino software, players could actually sit at tables constructed in 3D environments, with dealers and players interacting with one another virtually as if they were actually present. 

As with all other industries and sectors, AI will also likely become a cornerstone of live dealer games. With things such as algorithmic learning, experiences will be able to become highly personalised, with tailored recommendations and dynamic table settings all being able to adjust automatically based on a player’s preferences, which integrated AI identifies.

LuckyStreak Live Casino Games

LuckyStreak has been producing and streaming world-class live dealer online casino software since 2014. 

Launched and led by Co-founders Ady Totah, CEO, and Erez Cywier, CTO, LuckyStreak has focussed on continually improving the most popular live casino games for a global customer-base of iGaming platforms and casino operators, to the very highest levels of entertainment, video quality and reliability.

In addition to exceptional live casino games like Blackjack, Baccarat, European Roulette and Auto-Roulette, LuckyStreak has developed a jackpot promotional toolbox enabling operators to challenge, motivate and reward their platters with prize money tournaments.

One area in the iGaming space that continues to evolve and advance is online slot games, with these titles consistently boasting new creative innovations from various development studios in the space.

The worldwide online casino market size was valued at USD 17.13 billion in 2023 with an expected annual growth rate of 12% to 2030. The slots segment captured the largest revenue share, of over 63% in 2023.

The sector however is highly competitive, arguably saturated and over-supplied, with over 20,000 games from over 800 studios competing for game time.

So what exactly can we expect to see change and improve with slot games in the next 12-18 months? From new game formats, emerging features, and even new dynamic technologies, there are a number of things that may shape the future of slot gaming.

In our latest newsletter we take a look at what we could expect to see from this dynamic sector in the near future.

30-Second Summary

• The online casino slots sector is huge with over 20,000 known titles, highly competitive, and worth USD billions in revenue worldwide annually.
• Since the first slot games 130 years ago, slots games experiences are continually advancing through the application of new technology
• Following the mobile boom of the last decade, gamification and immersive gaming are driving products and experiences
• VR, AR and blockchain technologieswill play an increasing role in game development and competitive edge
• Pragmatic Play, Tom Horn, Evoplay and Yggdrasil are among the providers that are pushing the boundaries in slots experience
• LuckyStreak’s content aggregation solution offers choice, favourable pricing, convenience and speed-to-market via a single, reliable and secure API integration

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First: A Potted History of Slots

Slot games have come an extremely long way since their humble beginnings.

Back in 1895 the first-ever slot machine was born, Charles Fey’s Liberty Bell. It featured 3 reels and a single payline, and set the foundations for all other slots that would follow.

Various manufacturers continued to experiment with these physical machines. But it wasn’t until the 1960s that we saw the introduction of the first-ever electro-mechanical slots , paving the way for video slots.

In the 1990s, the advent of the internet resulted in the first online casinos. Along with these came the first online slots –  digital recreations of traditional land-based slots, opening the market to a more global audience.

By the 2010s, slots could be played on all manner of devices, particularly smartphones which have driven the significant increase in the iGaming market. Branded branded slots based on intellectual properties became all the rage, seeing an explosion in themes and visuals.

Innovative mechanics emerged, most notably with the launch of the Megaways from Big Time Gaming in 2015 which completely transformed the way in which slots operated.

Now in the 2020s, we’re seeing a new significant surge thanks to gamification features such as progressive jackpots, expanding symbols, cascading reels, and cluster pays all being staples.

What To Expect From Slot Games Going Forward

We have identified a number of key trends and technologiesthat could potentially begin to shape the iGaming space over the next 18 months.

As covered in our recent newsletter, one of the biggest things is gamification: a nuanced approach that sees video game-style features added to titles, like daily missions, achievements and leaderboards becoming more commonplace.

As demand grows for more immersive and interactive experiences, developers will integrate things such as mini-games and buy-bonuses, in which players could have a direct influence on the outcome. This once again ties into the whole gamification of the online slot world.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)

As is the case in many areas of the industry, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are two things that are likely to have a prominent impact on slots in the near and long-term future:

• With VR specifically, this will elevate the overall immersion of slots thanks to the inclusion of 3D environments in which users can directly engage with their own digital avatars.
• As for AR, this overlays virtual elements into players’ physical world, thus blending digital slots with the real world.
• Although both of these technologies are still in their infancy, the growth in both as well as advances in device compatibility will push developers to create such features.

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Big Strides in Mobile

Despite already being widespread in online slot games, mobile optimisationwill only develop further.

5G networks will continue their global roll-out and become more ubiquitous, and this can not only help games offer better graphics and more complex game mechanics, faster internet speeds will mean quicker and seamless loading.

And games developers will exercise this opportunity to the limit, striving for better experiences and that winning game.

We talked about key trends in mobile gaming in this newsletter.

Crypto and Blockchain

With crypto casino software becoming more prominent than ever, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologieswill only continue their rise, and slots games will exploit this developing opportunity.

• Cryptocurrencies are becoming more prevalent due to wider take-up and the benefits of increased privacy and less scrutiny, transaction speed, global accessibility and generally lower fees. Read more in our recent newsletter.
• Tied-in very closely are the innovative possibilities of the blockchain, providing transparent, provably fair and secure gameplay and transactions.
• Additionally, unique in-game assets such as crypto tokens and NFTs become a possibility, tied into gamification as a whole.

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Which Providers Will Be Leading Slot Developments?

Although many different game developers are likely to present their own unique slot advancements and innovations, there a few major providers that we can expect to make key developments.

Pragmatic Play

One of these is Pragmatic Playwith this team building a reputation over the years which has seen them become one of the leading providers of online slots.

They are known for their visual expertise, diverse range of themes, mobile-first design, feature-packed gameplay experiences, and promotions and reward functionality. And they are only likely to continue broadening their market-leading offering through innovation.

Tom Horn

Another name likely to make major strides in the world of online slots in the coming months is Tom Horn Gaming, with this team having already gained a lot of recognition for its unique designs and experimental game features.

Already adding various elements of customisation into their releases, Tom Horn is positioned to push interactive features and customised experiences to a new level and exploring new technologies that may spring up going forward.

Evoplay

Moving onto Evoplay , this is a team that is already known for its ground-breaking approach to developing games, especially when it comes to the realm of interactive 3D experiences.

Due to their forward-thinking approach and continuous incorporation of gamification already, it should come as no shock if this studio begins pumping out next-generation VR and AR dedicated titles.

Yggdrasil

Yggdrasil Gaming Ltd is yet another slot provider that is not unfamiliar with new and innovative game mechanics, something which is evident when taking a look at the releases already within their portfolio.

Within the next 12-18 months, we expect this team continue to evolve and develop its own unique game formats, all whilst integrating new elements that take advantage of the gamification trend.

How LuckyStreak Is Powering The Growth of Slot Games

LuckyConnect is LuckyStreak’s content aggregation solution. It is built to serve the needs of online casino operators by providing a large, rich library of world-class slots, crash, instant and table games from the world’s leading providers.

LuckyConnect delivers on the key benefits that casino operators seek in a content aggregation solution including:

• A huge choice of high quality iGaming content
• With favourable prices thanks to our volumes
• Enabling diversification of offering
• Conveniently and speedy
• Via the simplicity of one secure and reliable API integration

LuckyConnect offers you an experienced, professional and content-rich aggregation solution.

• Email: hello@velki365live.com 
• Skype: //join.skype.com/invite/dGmzZxfPSz7q 
• Telegram: //t.me/markotel70

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