EGT Interactive

About the Company

EGT Interactive is a Sofia, Bulgaria based online game provider and division of Euro Games Technology, established in 2002. The company made their break into the online gaming world in a partnership with Belgium's Ardent Group subsidiary GAMING1. Ardent owns and operates Circus casinos online as well as Belgium's finest land-based properties including Casino de Spa, built in 1763.

The company belongs to the Gaming Standards Association (GSA) and the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM). Their gambling products are certified by numerous regulatory agencies and testing laboratories including SIQ and GLI.

Before entering the online gaming sphere EGT had built up a distribution network with bases in over 18 countries and had introduced their products into more than 75 regulated jurisdictions.

The interactive division primarily works on converting the company's land-based portfolio into online games. The digital portfolio contains slots, roulette, video poker, and keno. According to the company, their games use math models with a high return to player percentages (RTP) as they have found that it increases customer retention.

In early 2016 they launched over 70 online games in partnership with GAMING1 on Romania's circus.ro after already operating in the country for over 12 years.

In October 2016, Novomatic sued the company and their German distribution partner, D-Systems GmbH in a Berlin court claiming that they had "systematically and unfairly used essential elements (including the reel strips)" from several NOVO games. The lawsuit sought an injunction to make the companies stop selling the games. They also asked for information and monetary damages. They named the following EGT titles in their complaint: "Ultimate Hot", "Olympus Glory", "Flaming Hot", "5 Dazzling Hot", "Lucky Hot" and "Extremely Hot".

We compared several of the games and in the end tend to agree with the District Court's decision that because the claims were not based on trademark law or competition law they couldn't find for the plaintiffs because the court didn't recognize "essential game elements" outside of those parameters.

It is very easy to see Novomatic's point as well, especially when comparing NOVO's Ultra Hot Deluxe to the defendant's Ultimate Hot. Of course, fruit looks like fruit, but the double groupings of cherries, oranges, lemons, etc are very similar. The grouped sevens and stars are also similar but whereas the originals are separate, the "copies" overlap slightly. Perhaps if NOVO is offended by mimicry, they could try being a little more original in their creations.

Software and Games

They produce games with various features, bonuses, line counts, and bet levels across a variety of themes. One game we found very interesting was the 6 reel, 225 pay line Thumbelina's Dream. This game can be found at SlotsMillion among many others. Rather than simply abandoning win-lines altogether for the 243 "all ways pay" 3x5 model, they have crafted a unique reel set-up to achieve a unique number in a similar way. The first three reels have 3 positions each while the rightmost three reels display 5 symbols each. Like many of their games, there are also four randomly triggered progressive jackpots, any one of which could be awarded on any spin.

The graphics are crisp and clear, the color scheme is vibrant as is the case with most of their games. The slot includes scatter symbols, free spins, and expanding wilds. Catching the expanded wilds for a huge win on a spinning game with 225 lines, Thumbelina expanding left and right after already being stacked to cover the second and/or fifth reel may be all you need to become a fan of the game. The least you would win if both wilds fully appear is 250x225 (56,250) betting 50 coins - and the most you could win would be 5,000x225 (1,125,000) at a 1,000 coin max bet.

The Final Analysis

EGT Interactive is a great case study in what a well-established land-based operator can do to cover all the bases. When they were an American company, IGT pioneered the process when they purchased WagerWorks in 2005 to take their legacy content online. The landscape is far different now with multi-developers platforms, distribution partnerships, aggregators, remote gaming servers, and a steadily expanding international regulated marketplace.

The company has produced hundreds of games and has deployed their most popular titles online in what is truly a short period of time in the greater scheme of things. We found the intrinsic quality of most of their online games to be quite good, while others were mechanically fine but ho-hum in action, especially the close copies of Novomatic slots.

External Links

EGT INteractive Web Page
Official Youtube
Official Facebook