NetEnt: the slot maker inside Evolution
NetEnt is one of the oldest names in online slots, started in 1996. Since 2020 it has been a brand of Evolution, the live-casino company, and the licence on its website is Evolution's.
Who owns it
NetEnt was its own company for most of its life. Today it is one of the brands of Evolution, whose timeline records that in 2020 "Evolution acquires NetEnt, NetEnt Casino and Red Tiger". Evolution's 2025 annual report says NetEnt "started in 1996" and "played a big role in shaping today's online video slots", and that NetEnt went through a brand update during 2025, bringing its older catalogue up to current design.
That makes NetEnt a slot studio inside a bigger group, not a company you can look up on its own. Questions about who owns it, where it's listed and what's happening to the shares belong to Evolution, and the Evolution profile has them.
What it makes
Slots, mostly. The NetEnt website is a showroom for them, with a demo of each game, release dates and a roadmap of what's coming. Next month's release, Gonzo Goes Mental, is due on 26 November 2026.
What I like about the site is that it publishes the numbers. Each game page gives the maker's RTP, the hit frequency, the top payout as a multiple of the bet and the bet range. Here are three of the older titles, as the pages show them today.
| Game | Released | RTP | Hit frequency | Top payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gonzo's Quest | 15 March 2010 | 95.97% | 41% | 2,200 x bet |
| Starburst | 23 January 2012 | 96.08% | 23% | 800 x bet |
| Divine Fortune | 24 January 2017 | 96.59% | 20% | 1,000 x bet |
Hit frequency is the share of spins that land a win of some size. At 23 percent, Starburst hits on a bit under one spin in four, and a hit isn't a profit, since plenty of wins pay back less than you staked. I'd read the hit frequency beside the top payout. A game that hits often and tops out at 800 times the bet is built for a steady ride. One that hits less often and pays a lot more at the top is holding more of its return back for the rare big spin.
Divine Fortune also carries three jackpots, according to its page. Where that money comes from is on the jackpots page.
The figure to trust
The RTP on a maker's website is the maker's figure for the game. The game at your casino is the one that counts, so I'd open its help screen and read the return there, as the RTP guide explains. If the two don't match, believe the one in front of you. The slots page covers the rest of what a slot's numbers mean.
The licence it lists
The footer of NetEnt's site names Evolution Gaming Malta Limited, registration number C 44213, as "licensed and regulated by the Malta Gaming Authority under license nr. MGA/CRP/187/2010", and adds that the Evolution group is licensed in a number of jurisdictions. NetEnt's site doesn't list them. Evolution's own licences page does, for the group and for some of its brands, and NetEnt isn't one of the brands with a separate entry there. I'd read the group list as the one that covers it.
Where you'll find the games
None of the casinos we have reviewed so far names NetEnt among its game makers; the casino directory filters by provider as reviews are added. Whether you can play them for money at all depends on where you live, and so does which casinos can offer them to you.