Fester’s Findings – March 2016
Easter eggs aside, plenty to digest in live casino land for March.
Welcome to the new Vegas
As forecast William Hill opened their new Vegas themed area in March. After 13 months service the old Vegas area
was ditched with the arrival of a bigger, bolder, showier and frequently noisier Vegas.
The ‘second generation’ Vegas area is the latest phase of a major transformation and relocation of William Hill’s private tables at Evolution.
The new roulette table is another Immersive Lite installation complete with Vegas lettering on the wheel.
Blackjack tables significantly increased from 2 to 7(currently) in the move and now feature a video screen backdrop wall with rolling imagery of Las Vegas.
As LD pointed out, thankfully there’s
no background slots sound track …yeah
in the new Vegas area. But the old dealer guidance of making it a lively atmosphere and encouraging cross table dealer chat remains. With more dealers in the area the potential for noisy disruption is to be expected. As I said when the original Vegas area opened I’ve never liked cross table chat. Especially when dealers turn their backs on players to talk to another dealer. I always found it so rude, but then again several William Hill players are very rude to dealers and aggressive to other players.
On opening day I did come across a couple of players telling a dealer to stop talking with other dealers around her. Obviously they hadn’t experienced the old Vegas area working ethos. It’s hardly surprising some players are unaware of all the different chat rules applied across William Hill tables.
Another player I chat with regularly described the area as resembling a “market” and depending on the mix of dealers “too noisy” at times.
Obviously nobody forces you to use the Vegas tables if they are not your cup of tea. The Macau and Mayfair tables offer plenty of choice for William Hill players.
New tables at 888
888 live casino also continue to expand at Evolution. Not quite at the rate of rival William Hill who generously ‘gifted’ their old Hearts/Clubs/Spades table area to 888. Albeit involving new signage and renaming the tables Supreme (pictured below), Ace and Choice.
Contrary to some early spider senses the 3 new blackjack tables opened under the 888 label and not sister casino 777. Maybe they couldn’t source anymore of those delightful ladybird neck scarves for more 777 tables, pity :D.
888 were also running a Spring promotion during March with table decorations and female dealers looking very nice in white attire.
Poker tables facelift
The generic Hold’em poker table at Evolution switched mid-March to using the new UI that was introduced on the Caribbean Stud Poker table.
A few days later the private tables belonging to William Hill and PokerStars were also upgraded to the new interface.
All the tables look visually impressive in the new format. Although I do wonder how many of those players who keep asking for ‘BONUS’ every round have noticed the aesthetic enhancements :). Poker loving players at PokerStars are probably more appreciative that the Caribbean Stud table is now available at their favourite Evolution casino.
By the end of March the generic and private Three Card Poker tables likewise switched to the new UI.
As I mentioned in January’s blog, one consequence of the new UI is that the poker tables join the ranks of the new baccarats, Immersive roulettes and Caribbean Stud in that they can’t be played in Multi-Game Play mode.
Evolution also updated the Immersive roulette interface in March with more betting selections (including Jeu zēro/zero spiel) and other visual changes bringing it in-line with the new UI (as on the Vegas table above).
Playtech does Playboy at Easter
Once again Playtech’s Euro studio brought out the bunny ears and did their Easter Playboy tribute act. No doubt the studio exec’s would vehemently deny any such Playboy suggestion. I’ve always found the Easter spectacle slightly demeaning for the female dealers and it sits more uncomfortably now the studio tries to portray an image of respectable equality including increased male dealers, with less attention to ‘idealised’ dealers (without visible tattoos etc.), and in theory more focused on entertaining players. If it truly is simply for Easter fun why not have the male dealers wearing ears…I’m sure male rabbits have ears also.
At least some Playtech casinos did have Easter (if only in name) promotions running in 2016 as opposed to all those years when it was simply all about the ears, eggs and nothing more.
Bet365 went with the eggs theme. But avoided any accusations of dumbing down the dealers.
Hi-Lo developments
Playtech’s Hi-Lo game has been updated to allow players bet on more than one position in the same round, such that you can now bet on Red & High, Black & 2-5, and so on.
The Riga table remains available at very few casinos, notably Bet365, CORAL and Gala casino. Most recent Hi-Lo arrived at Ladbrokes.
Artemis more accessible, less often
Playtech’s Artemis roulette table has finally made its first step onto mobile devices. The table is now available on Bet365’s iPad App. However the table now only opens around peak shift (afternoon to late GMT) and not 24/7 anymore.
In my casino travels I’ve come across various labels for the Ruby Room roulette table including VIP, 3D and least accurately Exclusive. As LD once said in the forum,
‘exclusive’ has to be the most liberally used word in the online casino industry
Usually means exclusive to anyone who wants to give it a go, and excluding only those not interested
Not quite the same meaning of the word exclusive as when Betfair customer support once tried to tell me ‘Exclusive‘ meant it was their private table.
It’s took a long time for Artemis to arrive on mobile and there are still some notable Playtech tables missing such as the Casino Hold’em. Although the London roulette table is now playable on Bet365’s iPad App.
Playtech decide two pairs of ears are better than one
In Febuary’s blog I reported how Playtech had introduced a shuffling machine on the Hold’em table. One month later it’s back to a hand shuffle on the poker table.
VIP blackjack
Playtech have opened a new VIP higher limit blackjack table. Well more accurate would be to say they have recycled an old personal favourite private table. The VIP table previously belonged to Gala casino before they opened a new area in the Euro studio.
In its pink heyday the Gala table featured an attractive patterned surface. Unfortunately the table lost some of its charm when the surface was replaced with plain blue to accommodate Coral players in 2015.
The table is now a generic blackjack and available at Bet365 and Ladbrokes.
German Roulette
Playtech’s Riga studio found more unused space and enough fluent dealers to open a German language roulette table. So far it’s more often closed than open, but it was a similar situation when the Russian (Moscow) roulette table first opened.
Evolution tables popping up everywhere
The way things are going, soon the majority of casinos will have Evolution Gaming live dealer tables. That’s the overall impression anyway as more casinos make use of the Riga and Malta tables.
LD covered the news of Dublinbet, and previously Betway now having Evolution tables.
Meanwhile it was announced that Evolution tables were to be made available on the BetConstruct platform. If that wasn’t enough, Sporting Index (best known for sports spread betting) launched its first live casino featuring Evolution and NetEnt dealers.
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