In order to produce a really high-quality product, first of all you need experience. For example, Mercedes has more than 90 years of experience in the production of cars, Coca Cola has been producing the famous soda for 130 years, and Microsoft creates the best software thanks to 40 years of experience. In the field of development for online casinos is similar: to be the best, you need experience. And IGT has a lot of experience.
IGT is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. In addition, the company has its offices in other cities including Las Vegas, Rome, Providence, London, Manchester, Tallinn, Stockholm and others. Currently, the company has more than 12,000 employees who are working to create high-quality software. All slot machines are created c using the latest technology that allows them to get on top of the popularity immediately after release.
At the beginning of its activity, IGT created slot machines for land-based casinos and bars. Later on, the IGT developers were able to apply this experience to online games as well.
Initially, IGT operated only in the United States market but since 2005 it expanded its geography to the international market. Now IGT occupies about 90% of the market of bitcoin slot machines for land-based casinos in the United States with the annual turnover exceeding $2,000,000,000.
History
The founder of IGT is William S. Redd. His father was an ordinary farmer, so the family was not rich. As a teenager, William made his money delivering newspapers and spent his first profit to buy a pinball machine and a broken jukebox. After fixing them, Redd approached a roadside restaurant owner with a request to place the machines in exchange for a portion of the profits from them. As a result, William began to make money, which allowed him to accumulate enough money to buy several more machines. Soon his machines were operating in several states and brought a lot of money to Redd.
For reasons unknown, in the 1960s William was forced to sell the business and move to Las Vegas. Sometime later he learned that the owner of the Sparks Nugget casino, Dick Graves, was selling a Bally’s slot machine franchise. Paying $70,000, Redd became its owner and named the company Bally Distributions. Immediately after acquiring the company, William began working to convert the machines from mechanical to elector-mechanical, and then to computer platforms.
A few years later he sells Bally Distributions but pays the new owner $1,500,000 to retain all of the gaming rights. He then acquires Nutting Enterprises, which produced video games, and forms the A-1 Supply Company.
In 1981, he renamed the A-1 Supply Company the International Game Technology, which is the name the company still uses today. The very next year, Inc. Magazine included IGT in their list of the 100 fastest-growing public companies in the U.S. (24th position), and Forbes included the company in their list of the 150 most promising small companies in the U.S.
In 1983, the first slot machine from IGT called Fortune II M. was released. It was the starting point for the long history of the company, which has now produced more than 925,000 machines.
In 1984, IGT acquires EDT (Electronic Data Technologies), the company that introduced the ability to remember and reward players in slot machines. This acquisition marked the beginning of many other purchases of the company: in the next few years Barcrest, Sodak Gaming, Silicon Gaming, Anchor Gaming, Acres Gaming and Wager Works were acquired. All these acquisitions helped IGT to become a leader in the field of development.
In 1986 the world’s first progressive slot machine called Megabucks paid out a jackpot of $1,000,000.
In 1996, IGT launched its own brand, Game King Video Poker. In 1996, after working with Action Gaming, the company released Triple Play Video Poker, a slot machine that became one of the most popular in casinos, bars and other establishments. In the same year was launched, which later became legendary, video slot Wheel of Fortune.
In 1998 IGT acquired Barcrest Gaming and Sodak Gaming. In the same year Triple Play Poker was launched.
In 1999, the company introduced the technology “ticket-in, ticket-out” in machines with EZ Pay. It allowed to avoid handling cash payments. The player could pay for his ticket at the cash desk, insert it in the machine, play and his winnings were printed on the ticket which was later returned to the cash desk and exchanged for money. Also, at the same time a new system of reels spinning in slots called S2000 appeared.
By the year 2000, IGT had produced more than one million machines.
In 2003, Wheel of Fortune machines produced more than 1,000 jackpots totaling $3,000,000,000. In the same year, the company’s founder William S. Redd.
In 2004 they launched their first multi-level progressive jackpot machine called the Fort Knox.
In 2005, IGT purchased WagerWorks in order to expand into the online gambling market for $90,000,000. That year also saw the launch of the first multi-level Fort Knox progressive jackpot and the opening of offices in Macau, Mexico and Russia.
In 2010 IGT produced more than 2x million slot machines for land-based casinos. That same year WagerWorks and Million-2-1 united into a global structure with an office in San Francisco and started to release games for online casinos. That’s how IGT video slots appeared in online casinos. One of the first slots was a game called Star Trek.
On April 7, 2015 IGT merged its assets with GTech. The deal cost $6.4 billion. The merged company was named International Game Technology PLC.
IGT for land-based casinos
At the moment, IGT portfolio contains more than 3,700 games created by IGT Interactive.
If we talk about ground-based slot machines, they can be conditionally divided into two categories: slot machines and lottery machines. The first category includes such machines as AXXIS, S3000, Crystal Dual, Crystal Slant, Max Vusion and others. Lottery machines include Quasar, Prodigi Vu, G20V2 and others.
IGT company primarily known for its land-based casino machines and its popularity is fully deserved. Its developers use personal experience and also take into account local peculiarities of each region where they install the machines. This makes them more convenient, and thus popular among users.
If you get the chance to play one of the slot machines from this developer, make sure you take advantage of this opportunity. With a complete list of machines can be found on the IGT website.
IGT for online casinos
The games portfolio for online casinos at IGT is not as wide as for land-based casinos since the company has been in the sphere of online gambling for such a long period of time. From games IGT offers video slots, bingo, video poker, table games, interactive games, progressive slots, video lotteries and many more. However, mainly the company specializes in slots. Many of them have become famous around the world primarily because they are simply online versions of slots from land-based casinos around the world.
Many games (mostly passionate) from IGT have slightly clumsy graphics compared to games from BetSoft Gaming or NetEnt (they did it because they wanted to bring them unchanged online), high payout percentage, reliability but at the same time high quality. At the same time all new games coming from under the pen of IGT developers have rather good graphic component.
The developers from IGT have also released several lines of slots that are based on the TV series and TV shows. Among the games from IGT for online casinos include Bubble Craze, Wild Wolf, Nordic Heroes, Miss White, Vegas Baby, Day of the Dead, MEGA Jackpots Siberian Storm, Sherlock Holmes the Hunt for Blackwood.
There are also table games in the company’s portfolio: roulette, blackjack, craps, Stud, baccarat and more. Each of the games has several options and allows players to enjoy the atmosphere and excitement. The only problem is to find an online casino that uses these games.
IGT developers did not ignore the owners of mobile devices who like to play gambling. Relatively recently, the company has started releasing games for mobile gadgets and the first of them are Cats, Da Vinci Diamonds, Elvis – A Little More Action and Treasures of Troy.
Also, the games from IGT are placed in the largest social network Facebook. This has opened up access to IGT games to the entire audience of Facebook users.
Integrity and Safety
When it comes to such a big company as IGT, the question of user confidence goes away by itself. The company’s vast experience, its awards, the number of users around the world and the amount of annual turnover exceeding $2 billion speak for it. In other words, the company does not want to risk their reputation, which she earned over the years.
When creating slots, the developers use 128-bit SSL encryption technology, which is an excellent security measure for players and their electronic wallets.
In 2015, IGT was officially certified by the World Lottery Association (World Lottery Association), confirming its honesty and openness to the players.
IGT – company awards
2015:
- Company Vice President inducted into the Lottery Industry Hall of Fame
- Winning two categories in the 2015 Global Gaming Awards: Product of the Year and Innovation of the Year
- Awarded “Best Technology Innovation” by the National Response Center”
- Legal Department of the Year” in Italy
- Winning the EGR B2B Awards
2016:
- Winning “Best Custom Mobile Solution” at the International Gaming Awards
- Global Gaming Awards awarded IGT the titles of Land-Based Industry Supplier of the Year and Casino Product of the Year