Look back at live dealer gaming 2013

Not long now before we say good bye to 2013 and usher in the new year.

It’s been a big year.

Lance Armstrong finally conceded to Oprah that he was a prolific doper (although apparently still not a cheat). Barrack Obama won a second term as the main man. We had a new Pope and Paddy Power breathed a sigh of relief that he was Argentinian and not Nigerian (in which case their, ‘If the Pope’s black you get your money back‘, promo would have been expensive). A  Brit won Wimbledon for first time in 77 years. Lovely Nigella Lawson surprised all of us with admissions of a closet cocaine habit. Not so lovely Mayor of Toronto Rob Ford surprises nobody when he admitted to smoking crack. In England there was the birth of a Royal; in South Africa the death of a legend. The Philippines was hit by Typhoon Haiyan followed up by an epidemic of Manilla Rock Star Syndrome.

It’s also been a big year on the live dealer casino front.

The year kicked off with a bunch of casinos rolling out Evolution Gaming’s mobile friendly live roulette. The emergence of live dealer games for iPad, and mobile devices generally would become the theme of 2013.

Playtech announced an in-casino streaming deal with Casino Gran Madrid in Spain. Later in the year Evolution Gaming announced they’d be doing something similar out of Casinó Campione d’Italia near Como.

Net Entertainment, the biggest online casino developer not yet involved in live gaming decided they had better get on board and announced their dealers were coming soon. A month later Unibet launched Casino Royale, powered by guess who?

Playtech joined the mobile live dealer race when bet365 launched live roulette for iPhone and iPad. Paddy Power must have liked what they saw as soon after they made the switch from Evolution Gaming to Playtech and introduced us to a swish new private live room.

The year was still early and a billion or so Chinese were welcoming the Water Snake for their New Year celebrations. Still 2 months from Easter, bunnies made an early appearance at Microgaming & 32Red.

Before the halfway mark, Evolution Gaming roll live baccarat for iPad, allowing players to enjoy live roulette, blackjack and baccarat on mobile devices. Possibly one of the reasons they took out the EGR B2B Live Casino Supplier Award for the 4th year running.

Livedealer.org got a face lift. The surgeon proclaimed it a success. The patient is still suffering from constant headaches and nervous twitches as a result.

In September we got the news that a new dealer studio based in Malta would soon come online for Evolution Gaming. Soon after Betvictor launched a new dealer studio of their very own and Victor’s Live Casino started accepting bets.

In November, in perhaps the biggest development of the year, licensed online casinos started taking bets in the US, first in Delaware, then in New Jersey. No live dealers yet. But Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Hope your year’s been a successful one, and more importantly, 2014 proves even better!