Paddy Power’s new (Playtech) live casino

Yesterday Paddy Power launched their new live casino and when  I say new…I mean new.

New provider, new tables, entirely new dedicated room/area within Playtech’s Riga live site. Yep, their live casino is now powered by Playtech (not Evolution Gaming).

It’s a significant change for Paddy Power, but it’s also a significant development for Playtech who have rolled out their first real private live room. They’ve done private tables for the likes of bet365, Gala and Betfair, but this is something altogether different. It includes a European Roulette table and 4 blackjack tables all within a dedicated Paddy Power branded area (including soon to be revealed Paddy Power dealer attire).

In addition to the private room tables, Paddy’s customers also get access to the many tables on the general Playtech floor – European roulette, French roulette, 7 seat blackjack, unlimited blackjack, baccarat and casino hold’em poker.

The switch wasn’t exactly the best kept secret in the history of online gambling with rumours circulating for a while now, so it doesn’t come as a surprise. But still, it’s a bold move discontinuing a very popular live games platform. In time players will vote with their feet (or chips!) and we’ll know whether the change proves a success…but for what it’s worth, I’ll give you my humble opinion.

It’s very impressive.

The room has a nice ambience, Playtech’s dealers are as welcoming and engaging as ever and the quality of the live video feed seems to have gone up another notch.

Live roulette in Paddy’s new private room…

Not everyone’s excited about the new casino (disappointed the new dresses haven’t arrived?)

It’s worth noting that while this looks like a very different live casino to the one Paddy Power offered prior to April 17…the changes are largely aesthetic. From a game rules point of view not a lot changes.

• European and French roulette tables offer identical bets and payouts (La Partage applies on the Playtech French tables as it did on Evolution’s);
• Blackjack rules are practically identical.  Playtech’s live blackjack applies ’10 Card Charlie’ (player wins where they draw 10 cards without busting, unless dealer has Blackjack) while Evolution Gaming do not. Disconnection policies are different also. But both of these differences won’t impact the vast majority of players.
• Baccarat standard bets and payouts are identical (Player, Banker, Tie). Playtech baccarat has a couple or additional side bets (Big, Small) but you probably want to avoid these anyway.

Of course not all players will like the change, but I suspect most who you enjoyed playing Paddy’s old live casino will continue to enjoy the new one.