Casino dashboard: May 2021
It’s all change at the top! For many months now the top three spots in our charts have been hogged (and in the same order) by Starburst (NetEnt), Book Of Dead (Play’n Go) and Bonanza (Big Time Gaming). Despite a raft of new arrivals each month competing with a few older hands, the top 3 never seemed troubled by all that jostling in the lower leagues.
But this month there’s a breakthrough by a relative newcomer, Big Bass Bonanza by Pragmatic Play. Spawned in Dec 2020, it has been making steady progress. Last month it was gills and gills with Blueprint’s Fishin’ Frenzy and has now landed third place. The fact that the game isn’t some new fry, riding a wave of razzmatazz means it could reel ‘em in for some time yet…
Top 20 games by distribution
Book Of Dead has been challenging for second place over the last few months and so it was the holophrastic Bonanza by Big Time Gaming that was knocked off the podium. With over 50 games from 30 suppliers having Bonanza in their title, there is clearly mileage in exploiting familiarity. Some of Pragmatic’s other Bonanza variations have also performed well, but it was the magic coupling with a fishy theme and a simple mechanic that hit the spot.
As for new releases this month, Pragmatic Play also has a new entry, Power Of Thor Megaways, whilst Microgaming have three new arrivals: Book Of King Arthur by Just For The Win, 9 Blazing Diamonds by SpinPlay games and 8 Golden Skulls Of Jolly Roger Megaways by Buck Stakes Entertainment.
On the dealmaking front, Relax Gaming, Gamingtec, Solid Gaming, Emara Play and BetB2B all announced a couple of new studio partners this month. So too did SoftSwiss, however, keeping them a nose in front of BlueOcean Gaming on our rolling six-month chart for aggregators.
Biggest aggregator dealmakers
The last word this month is reserved for Pragmatic as they signed up new distribution partners White Hat Gaming and Jazz Gaming, making them top studio dealmaker across the last six months.
Biggest studio dealmakers
There are plenty of recipes to success in our sector and some great niche players too but if you’re competing at scale with the Evolving Pacman and other conglomerations, this one’s not too shabby: why not produce lots of titles with very familiar themes and mechanics, then cast that net wide. Cleopatra Bonanza or Bonanza Star for the masses anyone? That last one could be a classic…
* Please note these are live charts which update every month so please ensure the month of April is selected in the drop-downs to match the analysis
**Data on deals by month was collected from April 2020 onwards. Deal relationships between companies from all time are available on other charts. Note that only deals reported on company websites or in the gaming press are collated.
***The games chart here excludes live games and table games. Game rankings are determined by the number of game appearances on the casino homepages of more than 1,000 casino sites. To access many other charts including game rankings, live and table games, positions on subpages or to filter by operator type and size, ask for our demo from our partner, egamingmonitor.com, which covers 32,000 games, 1,100 suppliers and 1,000 operators.