EA

About the Company

EA is a long-standing live-streaming game provider for the online casino space. The company’s main focus had been on Asian markets since launching its first studio in Manila in 2004 before later branching out into the European markets.

Ownership of the company is a bit murky, as is almost always the case with Asian gaming entities. The company may have spun off or been spun off of the original brand Entertasia and may or may not be owned or managed by a member of the Ho Gaming family, Lucinda Ho of Macau. Ho is listed in some industry databases as the project manager at Entertasia.

Regardless of ultimate ownership, which really doesn’t matter much to players, there is nothing murky or non-descript about the brand. You will know the games and dealers when you see them. The product simply exudes class and competence.

The game interface is supported in Chinese, English, Korean, Indonesian, Japanese, Thai, and Vietnamese.

The company itself is listed on some reports as one of the Macom Group of companies which includes Macom communication (MKT), Entertasia Technology, and G-WIN, a Chinese gaming info portal. Celia Ho is associated with Macom as the marketing director.

Another company associated with it in the past is Entwinetech, which also owns the n2-LIVE platform. One reason all of the past and present associations are not clear is that private companies do not tend to divulge much if anything about their inner workings unless any given development is seen as a public relations opportunity - aside from jumbled and inconsistent information in the news over the last decade or so, there’s no real history, timeline, or even principle participant curriculum vitae to piece together into a viable snapshot.

Entwinetech and EA seem to share a common history, listing the same milestones and trajectory from 2004 to the present, so the reader’s guess is as good as mine as to who is actually who and what is what.

The company claims a license from PAGCOR and certification from the Isle of Man as well as GLI Labs games audit and certification but like almost all other Asian providers, they provide no links to documents where public copies exist.

EA serves over 80 licensed online casinos worldwide and now boasts some 500 employees according to the company’s digital literature.

We know that Entertasia began to supply live games to 888 as early as 2008 as part of 888’s 888zhenren.com in an initiative to expand more deeply into Asian markets. Gigi Levy, 888 CEO a the time said: “We see Entertasia as the best partner to achieve this goal and exploit this exciting opportunity." The CEO at Entasia at the time, Jason Chan added: "We are the leading gaming solution provider in Asia because we understand exactly what Asian customers want. 888 have chosen three of our most innovative products and we look forward to helping them achieve significant success in Asia."

A few months later the company was seen to enter into an agreement with Cryptologic to supply the Playboy Asia online brands and then in 2010 partner with CTXM to open studios in Latvia. No more news came of that as the Amaya debacle imploded around the Canadian company’s acquisitions but skipping some developments and looking at a 2018 deal we see Entertasia (EA) open the first Asian live dealer studios in Europe with the launch of services from Riga, Latvia.

An unidentified EA spokesman said at the time said: “While Asia is the traditional home of the live dealer concept, and most of the innovations and ideas that have produced the slick, intuitive and profitable live dealer solutions we see around today have foraged in the highly competitive and demanding world of digital Asian betting, EA believes the Live Dealer market in Europe is now ready for explosive growth and EA’s state of the art Live Dealer solutions are well placed to dominate the European marketplace.”

While they were certainly correct about the coming “explosive growth” Euro live dealer casino gaming, they could not have known that a company like Evolution could expand so fast and acquire so much momentum that they would soon acquire industry giants like NetEnt, gobble up the only other live dealer supplier in the US at the time, Ezugi, and pick up more assets like Big Time Gaming and their Megaways slot mechanic now used by almost every tier one slot developer, the acquisition of Red Tiger Gaming, and more.

Software and Games

As was mentioned in a quoted press release earlier, Asian companies like EA are to be credited with much of the innovation that went into making the online live dealer gaming experience what it is today - but even more so - they may have saved the entire online gaming industry or at least hastened on it current state which is highly preferable to the experience of just a few years ago. Two major advancements paved the way for the multi-software mega-casinos of today with instant play browser games.

The first is API integration. API is an acronym for Application Programming Interface and the live dealer industry developed the first “modules” for web browser coding. Live dealer streams of old required a separate installation (download client), an app, or an extremely inefficient and insecure browser plug-in like Adobe Flash. They also required a separate wallet much like some sportsbetting casinos that require you to move money from one account to another to play.

The development happened almost in tandem and they weren’t all accomplished by Asian programmers for live dealer streams, but HTML5 browser-based instant play was used first by live dealer providers and only adopted later by slot developers and providers. Flash has been dead for quite some time now and some labs still don’t have all of their games converted. Many of those in the old format are possibly gone forever.

In a nutshell, live casino gaming is stable, high resolution, and secure while the programming behind it optimizes the presentation for whatever type of device you are using. It simply works on all devices with a browser and a connection to the internet. Thanks in large part to the work live dealer providers like EA contributed in the earlier days of the industry.

The games

EA provides a stunning selection of traditional casino floor games along with a few Asian specialties. In addition to baccarat, roulette, blackjack, and Sic Bo, look for a live version of Bull Bull and RNG (random number generator) versions of Bull Bull and Wu Xing Dragon Tiger.

Baccarat

The VIP baccarat tables have 7 seats each and the mass gaming tables have unlimited participation. Along with the classic online variant of the game with no player dealing and consistent 3rd card rules you’ll also find no commission as well as side bets such as Super 6, Big/Small, and Pairs.

Roadmaps and detailed statistics are available for all players in all games. Table limits are set by the casino operator.

If you are new to the game we would suggest that western players could consider it about the same as a coin toss. However, bets on the Banker's hand have a very slight statistical edge after paying a commission, and tie bets are discouraged except as a last resort as the payouts are not commensurate with the actual odds. The game will result in a tie in about one in eleven hands, on average and payouts are 8:1 along with your returned bet.

Roulette

Depending on the operator you will most likely find a live dealer roulette and an auto-roulette option. Unlike RNG roulette you will not be able to set the pace of the game when playing a live round. For those who prefer more spins per hour, auto-roulette offers a faster game round.

The house edge is cut in half by using the single zero roulette format and that's what EA provides. The game is obviously preferred by players in Europe and Asia. Aside from one bet on American roulette (00) with terrible odds (0, 00, 1, 2, and 3), there is really never any reason to play the game with two ways to lose rather than just one.

Players can utilize multiple camera angles. Detailed statistics are provided for the prognosticating player.

Sic Bo

Much like roulette, Sic Bo is a game that allows players to switch up the volatility of their bets with every round. After bets are placed, 3 dice are pooped and the results are shown. Like red/black, odd/even players can predict big or small. You can also predict almost any combination of the dice, every possibility is laid out in the kaleidoscopic array of betting options before you. Or the greatest risk and reward you can predict a particular triples result such as 1, 1, 1, or 5, 5, 5, etc for a payout of 150:1.

Blackjack

EA allows an unlimited number of players for each round of their Ultimate Blackjack by using a common draw. This simply means that all players at the table play the game from a common set of cards placed on the table.

The game here offers four different side bets for those who want to increase the game's volatility and potential payout and don’t mind giving the house a little more of an edge to do it. Simply place your bet and select one of the icons on the table that include 21+3 and Perfect Pairs.

Live Bull Bull

“HD live streaming, popular Double / Equal betting with player & banker, original bullbull roadmap & real-time winning hand ratio, most popular with Chinese strategic players, the game is extremely fast, exciting and thrilling.”

RNG Bull Bull

“RNG arrange the cards to make the best hand possible in each hand. Like the Live Bull Bull, according to the game rules to combine cards, Banker and 3 Players compare hand to decide the winner.”

RNG Wu Xing Dragon Tiger

Like Bull Bull, this game is most widely played by Chinese statistical players with advanced strategies but anyone can enjoy it with a self-guided primer simply by reading the rules. You will choose your risk and potential reward, arrange the cards for Dragon and for Tiger and reap as much as 50:1 in the payout.

The Final Analysis

EA is an industry veteran entertainer and serious gambling game provider. As such they were on the cutting edge of many developments all online gamblers enjoy today.

Once you visit the live dealer suite at one of your favorite operators you will come to know the Asian and Euro versions of their games at first sight. With the number of operators carrying the games approaching 100, more players are bound to discover them each year.

Please see the list below for rated and ranked casinos that carry the games. The greater the star power, the closer to the top of the list the operation will be. These ratings come from players and members at about half a dozen sites in our network and represent the current player community pulse of approval.

Simply because a site isn’t at or near the top of the list, doesn’t mean it’s not a good or even a great site. People could be responding to bonus offers, instant payouts, free tournaments, or any number of elements that improve gaming quality. Any site with a rating of 3.5 or above should be just fine. If you don’t want to read the reviews - which we have prepared for many of them, you can be reasonably sure a site with a 4.2 or better rating will be golden.