Yggdrasil Gaming

Yggdrasil Gaming - an underdog fast becoming a top industry name

Yggdrasil Gaming is a developer of online and mobile casino games. It’s been around since 2013 and is currently based in Malta. Its somewhat unusual name comes from Norse mythology, Yggdrasil being the mythical tree of life whose branches connect the nine worlds.

The developer promotes itself as ‘an underdog among giants’ as it’s not the biggest nor the best-known name in the online gambling industry, yet it still puts out top-quality gaming content. While it mostly produces video slots, it’s also released a number of progressive jackpots, keno games, and scratch cards. In addition, the de-veloper has partnerships with a number of national lotteries and produces various lottery services.

STRENGTHS

If there’s one thing that Yggdrasil Gaming is known for, it’s the excellent quality of its video slots. Specifically, the developer has gained quite an excellent reputation for creating Slot games with very high production value. The HD graphics are immersive and beautifully rendered, while the sound effects are realistic and lifelike. Their slots are significantly more advanced, and they look very visually appealing.

When you play the Yggdrasil online slots, you can tell that a lot of effort has gone into making them as fun, entertaining, and captivating as they can be. What makes the developer stand out is that it puts the same amount of effort into its other games, namely its keno and scratch card offerings, as it does its slots. Many developers don’t focus too much on these types of games because they’re not as popular.

With Yggdrasil Gaming, you’ll find the keno and scratch card games have been produced to the same very high standard.

WEAKNESSES

A pivotal weakness to point out about is that its collection of games isn’t that large compared with what many other developers have to offer. This is mainly because the developer is quite young. It’s very likely that in the coming years, Yggdrasil Gaming will continue to grow its portfolio and have a games collection to rival many of its competitors’.

While its slots have been praised for their production and graphics, they’ve been criticised for having a very high variance, with very few wins. Many developers have slots that pay out reasonably often, albeit smaller amounts of money. With Yggdrasil Gaming’s slots, you’re likely to experience fewer small payouts than you might be expecting. Another point worth mentioning is that the developer’s games aren’t available at too many casinos, mainly because it’s still establishing a name for itself in the industry.

Instead of launching a constant stream of games, the developer has instead chosen to focus on ensuring its games are of the highest quality possible.

KEY INFORMATION

1. Yggdrasil Gaming currently has active gambling licences from no fewer than four different regulatory bodies: the UK Gambling Commission, the Malta Gaming Au-thority, the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority and Romania’s National Gambling Office. In total, the developer has seven licences from these organisations.
2. Though it’s not as well known as other developers, that hasn’t stopped Yggdrasil Gaming from receiving some industry recognition. So far, it’s won several major awards, including the following:
   1. The award for Innovator of the Year at the International Gaming Awards 2018
   2. The award for Innovator of the Year at the International Gaming Awards 2017
   3. The award for Slot Provider of the Year at the EGR B2B Awards 2017
3. iSENSE 2.0 is Yggdrasil Gaming’s HTML client framework. This enables all games published by the developer to be available on mobile devices as well as desktop computers as soon as they’re released. Many developers have games that aren’t yet available on mobile devices; with Yggdrasil Gaming, all of its games can be played on mobiles.
4. The developer is soon to launch the first in a series of table games: Sonya Black-jack; and others soon to follow include roulette and baccarat games.
5. What makes these games so innovative, is that they use motion capture technology to combine the best aspects of animated and live dealer table games. While these games are animated, there is a dealer whose movements are based on an actual dealer’s motions, thanks to the motion capture technology. There are some different dealer characters available, and each one is capable of interacting with the player. There’s also customisation available, so you can tailor the dealer and the game setting to your preferences, for a truly unique and creative way of playing table games.

FINAL VERDICT

It’s always encouraging to see new developers try to make their mark in the online gambling industry, which is precisely what Yggdrasil Gaming is doing. They take the time to produce well-rounded games that have substance and offer thoroughly enjoyable worthwhile gaming experiences. It’s great that they’ve won several top industry awards for their efforts and hopefully, they’ll win more prizes as they continue to expand and release more games over the next few years.

The company can't quite compete with the likes of Microgaming and NetEnt, but it’s certainly well on its way to challenging them and becoming a top provider in the online gambling industry. If it’s upcoming table games are any indication, the devel-oper certainly stands a perfect chance of gaining more fans and becoming a much bigger name over the next few years.