Solid Gaming

About the Company

Solid Gaming Ltd is a mostly Asian-facing provider of online casino games, sports betting solutions, and live dealer studios for the gambling industry.

Launched as part of the Jackpot Joy Group, the parent company rebranded in late 2019 with their acquisition of Gamesys and is now known as Gamesys Group.

We don't find any notices in regulatory listings of the subsidiary being idled or disposed of in any of the mergers or acquisitions the parent company has executed since Solid was established in 2017. We still see press releases in 2020, but the company is small and doesn't move the media meter often.

One announcement in the news sometime back linked Solid Gaming with Golden Hero, a Gamesys company said to be developing games in the Bahamas. However, the Golden Hero website has no content and some of the games listed in their Solid portfolio are actually credited to Japan Technical Games Limited (JTG), a privately held company in Hong Kong, est. 2018.

This is where we find that just below the surface of the mud, there's more mud here.

Not all of the games claimed by Golden Hero are found in JTG's official library. We might assume that both companies worked on the games they have in common and share credit. This is most likely because we don't find any ownership overlap between the two companies - however, we do not know the owners of JTG.  The website now redirects to "Winfast".

Add to this the fact that Solid Gaming doesn't seem to create any games on their own (judging by the lack of a portfolio for them) and Golden Hero is also located in Nassau, New Providence the Bahamas and we might infer that Golden Hero is the studio 'arm' of Solid Gaming.

Since we don't know that with any certainty beyond the fact that both companies are or were owned by Gamesys (JPJ), they share a CEO, and neither of them lists team members in the Caribbean but both do in the Philippines - we'll leave the business review at that and focus on the company's software and services.

Software and Games

The company's website tells us exactly nothing about the game engine, RGS, aggregator platform or delivery platform. The "About Us" page is simply a contact form.

We do find "partners" but all that have an API for aggregated game delivery also are producers or developers themselves as far as we can tell with a cursory search.

We say "as far as we can tell" because about half of the partner logos are missing, but we did open the pages of a handful - and those were game providers or studios - some were also aggregators. The exceptions were sports platforms specifically for Asian markets, such as RWB.

One digression in speculation... in some cases, Gamesys uses the Oryx Hub. Oryx was acquired by Breaking Data Corp of Canada who immediately rebranded to Bragg Gaming. JPJ, originally and again a Gamesys company can trace common lineage to the February 2014 acquisition of Intercasino from Amaya. But Canada is as close as we can peg them to any real commonality.

As none of the 'partners' on Solid's pages are actually B2C operators, we're left to assume that any platform, including the most obvious, Oryx, could be the delivery vehicle and that Solid is first and foremost, if not in toto, an aggregator.

The games

If, as we suspect, Golden Hero is the studio portion of Solid Gaming we can take a leap and identify two types of games - those that are known to belong to or were created in association with Japanese Technical Gaming and those that there's no evidence to indicate they were.

We'll discount:

• Oiran Dream
• Hawaiian Dream Xmas
• Golden Dream (JTG)
• Reel Bonanza

All are found on Solid's main page, only Golden Dream is designated to JTG. We'll discount Hawaiian Dream and the JPG claimed Battle Drawf found in Golden Hero's library which leaves us with...

• Jewel Race
• Wild Dragon
• Mystery Star
• Mystery Box
• Macau 8
• Lucky Stones
• Imperial Colour
• Golden Wheel
• Double Luck

...and ignore Oiran Dream which we know to be created by Golden Hero and JTG together based on both logos appearing on the splash screen.

Jewel Race is a 6x6 matching symbols game with a free spins feature. Payouts are awarded for three or more consecutive matched symbols vertically or horizontally.

The RTP is 96.95% and bets range from 0.20 to 200.00 per game. The game is licensed in Malta.

Once the winning symbols have been counted (paid) they are removed from the board and new symbols drop in as existing symbols fall to open spaces.

Each consecutive win increases the game multiplier up to a max of 8x (2x, 4x, 6x, and 8x).

The rainbow/prism-colored jewel is wild and the diamond is a scatter. Five, six, or seven scatters anywhere on the board will award 10, 15, or 20 free games respectively.

Other special characters include "stones". These drably colored rocks cannot form winning combinations but they will reveal jewels that will either be a non-win-forming jewel or a scatter.

Wild Dragon is an interesting 3-reel, three-line game with a twist. The reel configuration 1, 3, 1 so the central reel has three positions while the two outside reels only have one.

The game has a theoretical return to player percentage (RTP) of 96% and seems fairly volatile. We achieved a few very small wins, had plenty of empty spins, and then hit the jackpot pay of 225x stake.

There are two special symbols, both of which are wilds. The single position wild is also a 2x multiplier.

The Dragon wild appears only on the central reel. When any part of it is visible it will always nudge to cover all three positions if it can become part of a winning line.

Macau 8 is a Malta Gaming Authority slot game from Golden Hero/Solid Gaming. The game has an RTP of 96%.

The game has three reels and a single pay line with special multiplier wild symbols.

Wild multiplier symbols include 2x, 4x, and 8x pays. If two wilds appear in a winning combination with another symbol, only the highest multiplier is applied to the win. Landing three Wild symbols on the line award a fixed payout which depends on the combination of wild symbols.

• Three wilds with a 2x on the central reel pay 100x bet
• Three wilds with a 4x on the central reel pay 250x bet
• Three wilds with an 8x on the central reel pay the jackpot of 500x bet

Mystery Star shouldn't be confused with the ancient game by Novomatic.

This game has three reels and a single pay line along with the bog-standard 96% RTP found on their other games.

The normal symbol-driven jackpot is 250x bet and it is awarded when three wild symbols appear on the single pay line.

Another mystery bonus jackpot of up to 250x is awarded when three wild symbols are scattered anywhere within view, but not on the winning line.

A random multiplier from 2x bet to 250x bet will be awarded.

The Final Analysis

Solid Gaming is headed up by the same CEO as Golden Hero, both are officially located in the Bahamas but the staff goes to work in London and the Philippines.

While Golden Hero has a completely blank website, we do find their games listed on the Solid Gaming website. Further research has confirmed an earlier assumption that Oryx is the delivery platform.

The games are fine and simple games without too many bells or whistles. When the creators combine their talent with the developers at Japan Technical Gaming, the "interesting" quotient goes through the roof.

The current list of developers who currently trust Solid Gaming to package and deliver their games over the Oryx platform includes 1X2 Gaming, 2By2 Gaming, Ainsworth, Asylum Labs, Bet Games Tv, Betsoft, Blueprint, Booming Games, Booongo, Concept Gaming, Dicelab, Ebet, Espresso Games, Evolution, Evoplay, Gamatron, Gameart, Gameplay Interactive, Gamomat, Ganapati, Givme Games, Golden Hero Games, Golden Race, Habanero, Indi Slots, Iron Dog Studio, Isoftbet, JTG, Kalamba Games, Kiron Interactive, Leander, Lotus Gaming, Microgaming, Multislot, Nektan, Netent, Nolimit City, Omi, Onetouch, Oryx Gaming, Pariplay, PG Soft, Pirates Gold Studios, Play'NGO, Pragmatic Play, Push Gaming, Relax Gaming, Revolver Gaming, RTG Slots, Rwb, SA Gaming, Skillzz Gaming, Slingo Originals, Thunderkick, Tom Horn Gaming, Triple PG, Wazdan, Woohoo, and Yggdrasil.

For a closer look at the Golden Hero company itself as well as more games from the provider, please see our Golden Hero Software Review.

On that page, you'll find more information on the original Plain Gaming platform used by Intertain as well as relationships of the current Gamesys Group to the former JPG including Vera & John as well as InterCasino

The most important take away about Solid Gaming is that their focus is mainly on Asian markets and dozens of developers have inked up with them to get their games out there. The Asian markets are huge and largely untapped by most western slots developers. Solid Gaming gives European and other developers a solid inroad to distribution through their constantly evolving host of partners.

We're not sure if they will ever become a household name among players, but their games division might. Golden Hero titles are found at nearly 100 online casinos and Gamesys has a direct "in" for the American marketplace in regulated jurisdictions like New Jersey where they hold a license and provide a platform for sites like Virgin and Tropicana Atlantic City [Internet Gaming Permit (NJIP# 13-005)].