Capecod Gaming

About the Company

Capecod Gaming is casino game developer and platform solution provider located in Castel Bolognese, a commune in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. The company, formerly known simply as Capecod, changed their brand name when they were acquired by Novomatic in 2017. The company's tagline is "100% Made in Italy".

The company began as a software house in 1987 and carried that experience forward with them when they launched the first 100% Italian poker platform in 2007. Although revised since then to keep up with and ahead of the curve, they released their iGaming Platform® in 2008 and by 2012 had become the first company to port and distribute slots from land-based suppliers to online and mobile platforms in Italy. In 2013, they made their own in-house developed games available to online operators in Flash and HTML5 and after the new HTML5 language was officially published in 2014 all of their games were offered in the new format for play on any device. They reportedly decided to join forces with Novomatic in 2017 in order to guarantee commercial success through increased market penetration.

Operators using the company's games prior to the Novomatic Italia acquisition included Snai, William Hill Italy, Mr Green Italy, Eurobet, Stanleybet, Merkur-Win, and nearly 70 others. The company sells their casino products to over 20 providers including large networks like Microgame, not to be confused with Microgaming. The Italian Microgame S.p.A. was launched in 1996 and controls about 30% of the Italian poker market.

Software and Games

The company's trademarked iGaming Platform is, in effect, a full turnkey casino software solution allowing operators to manage multi-channel and multi-product businesses from a single platform. Many of the online sites that carry Capecod games also offer sports betting. The company provides player support including live chat and help desk ticketing, in-depth stats for player management with the ability to drill down to see every transaction made by individual players, and promotion support from within in the back office.

The platform has ready access to the Capecod Gaming suite, NetEnt including live casino, WorldMatch, Game360 and more as well as poker, sportsbook, bingo, national lottery scratch cards and La Scopa, an Italian card game.

The company speaks of having deployed over 50 of their own games to market. In addition to more than 40 slot titles, they also develop table games such as blackjack and roulette. One of their roulette titles is Fair Roulette. The game loads with a black and white splash screen. It is basically English Roulette with a single Zero and no special rules. The RTP is 97.30% as expected with no la partage as is sometimes found in French roulette rules, which increases the RTP to 98.65%.

All games are available on any device and are all 100% made in Italy. The slots load quickly with only the sound effects component keeping launch over 10 seconds on the first load. Stardust Evolution is a 5 reel, 3 positions, 10 pay line game with an interstellar backdrop, epic soundtrack, and auto-play feature. The reel icons are colorful gleaming jewels, black diamond BAR symbols, and jeweled 7s. The game features expanding wild symbols on the central three reels. Wilds trigger a re-spin. Expanded wilds stay in place while the remaining reels spin again. If another wild appears, it will expand as well and the re-spin is repeated. It is possible to get three re-spins and fill reels 2, 3, and 4 with wild symbols.

Fans of futuristic slot games may want to try Neon Strike.

Many of their slots are high in narrative value such as Guardians of the Kingdom, and Bella Napoli. And while older releases such as Lido and Little Duck may present flat graphics, Lido is raucous and fun with a busy game screen and multiple bonus games including a scratch bonus, magic spin bonus, and card bonus as well as two wild symbols. The 25 pay line Little Duck slot has a wild symbol that can cover 6 positions on the 5x3 reel set. There is also an interactive mini-game with multiple bonus features that play out during free spins.

Final Analysis

With a solid history, some great games, and now the power of Novomatic behind them, Capecod Gaming is set to expand beyond Italy if they choose to. It's always interesting to explore novel game developers and this one has plenty to offer.