Playtech: the London-listed casino and platform maker
Playtech makes casino games, runs live-dealer studios and sells the platform many casinos are built on. Founded in 1999, it is listed in London, and it has recently completed the sale of its Snaitech business.
The company
Playtech's investor site says it was founded in 1999, is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker PTEC and is in the FTSE 250. Its locations page says it is headquartered in the UK, with offices in 20 countries.
The recent change is the Snaitech sale. The investor site says that following its completion Playtech declared a dividend of €1.8 billion, and its about page now calls it "a highly-focused B2B business", meaning a supplier to casinos and books. The investor site still speaks of B2B and B2C businesses, so I'd read that as the direction more than the finished picture. Neither page says when the sale closed. I've kept this profile to what Playtech says about itself today. If the shape of the group moves again, the profile moves with it.
More than games
Most providers in this directory make games. Playtech also sells the machinery underneath: a player-account platform it calls PAM+, payments, sportsbook technology, poker, bingo and retail. So a casino can be Playtech's customer twice, once for the system that holds your account and once for the games on the lobby page. You'll rarely see that from the player's side, and it changes nothing about how a game is priced, but it's why the Playtech name turns up in places you wouldn't expect.
The slots
The casino page says Playtech runs eight content studios with more than 1,000 games, and releases more than 60 new ones a year. It names its own series. Age of the Gods, built on Greek and Roman myth, has run since 2016, and every game in it offers a chance at one of four jackpots, "subject to territory regulation". The Fire Blaze series dates from 2019. It also lists branded slots from film and television licences, including Gladiator, The Mummy, Rocky and The Walking Dead.
Two things there are worth a player's attention. "Subject to territory regulation" means the jackpot you see depends on where the game is being played, so the same title can be a different game from one market to the next. The jackpots page explains where a jackpot's money comes from. And a famous film on the reels says nothing about the price. I'd open the help screen of a branded slot exactly as I would any other and read the return, as the RTP guide explains.
The live studios
Playtech's live page names a flagship studio in Latvia, others in Romania and Spain, a presence in Peru and Brazil, and in the United States dedicated space in Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, plus a studio run with MGM Live in Las Vegas. The games run from blackjack and roulette to its Quantum Roulette and game shows built on licensed television formats such as Deal or No Deal and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
The quiz-show tables are fun to watch. I'd still find the payouts and the return for each bet in the help screen before playing, because the bet with the loudest music is seldom the one priced best. The live dealers page has the reasoning.
The licences it lists
The footer of Playtech's site gives two. It says Playtech Plc is licensed in Great Britain by the Gambling Commission under account number 38516, and the Commission's register shows that account with active remote licences for casino, bingo, betting and gambling software, among others. It also gives a Malta Gaming Authority licence, MGA/CRP/137/2007, and the MGA's own register shows Playtech P.L.C. holding it as a B2B critical supply licence.
Those licences let Playtech supply games and systems in those markets. They don't make a casino using them licensed where you are.
Where you'll find it
None of the casinos we have reviewed so far names Playtech among its game makers; the casino directory filters by provider as reviews are added. Whether you can play them for money depends on where you live, and so does which version of a game, jackpot included, you'll be shown.