Back in September last year (2011) Unibet joined the ranks of operators who had secured a license from Italy’s online gambling regulator and launched their Italian online casino at Unibet.it.

We lamented back then the fact that it was missing live dealers.

Well, lament no more you hot blooded Italian blackjack, baccarat and roulette players, because now you can play with a beautiful live dealer rather than just simulated computer games.

At the end of last year their Evolution Gaming powered live casino was made available at Unibet.it and it comes with all the Italy-centric bells and whistles that helped Evolution Gaming get their platform AAMS certified…like Italian speaking dealers.

Unibet’s Daniel Eskola said in a release that Unibet were, “very excited about offering an enhanced local service for our Italian customers through www.unibet.it”.

Not as excited as Silvio Berlusconi, who now has another online casino with gorgeous dealers to play at.

Related pages at livedealer.org:

Unibet.it now live for Italians

888 live casino now open to Italian players

Live dealer casinos for Italian players

Il miglior Casinò con live dealer per i giocatori italiani

A little darker. A little plusher. A little more mood lighting and black-rimmed table to match.

I figured this was just a studio re-fit.  Not so apparently.

A little birdy has told me that Evolution have moved to larger premises to accommodate players’ ever-growing appetite for more (blackjack) tables.  While you can serve an unlimited number of online players from a live baccarat or roulette table, a 7-seat blackjack table serves, you guessed it, 7 players. More online tables requires more real tables on the studio floor, which in turn requires more floor space.

It also seems that more and more casinos are snapping up extra exclusive tables – last time I counted at William Hill they had 7!

This is Evolution’s second move to bigger premises in relatively quick time, and it probably won’t be their last.

The old studio (game played at Party Casino)…

The new studio (game played at William Hill)…

More tables!  Not just a one or two more.  Many more.

Evolution Gaming has almost doubled the number of available tables and dealers available for live blackjack and it’s a very welcome increase, because it was getting difficult to get a seat during busy times. Before the increase, 6 – 8 tables were on offer at most casinos depending on the number of dedicated tables they licensed.  Now players will have up to 15 tables/dealers to choose from – the largest live blackjack table range currently offered.

While roulette and baccarat can be provided as a ‘one to many’ games (ie a single table/dealer can theoretically serve a limitless number of players), a 7 seat live blackjack table can only serve a maximum of 7 players. Variations to the traditional 7-seat format have been devised by some operators to try and get around this issue…eg Playtech’s unlimited live blackjack, and Smart Live Casino’s ‘one to many’ version on the game.

But for good old fashioned 7 seat blackjack (which some would say is way the game should be played!) … if you want to serve more players you need more tables and dealers.

Well done Evolution Gaming!

New tables galore at Unibet, William Hill and Paddy Power, and plenty of spare seats!

Live casino with beautiful Italian speaking dealers

I fear however it may say something like:

- Casino croupiers live with beautiful Italians
(Maybe some do, but not all…not what I was trying to say); or
- Beautiful live casino croupiers are Italian;
(they are also Latvian, Costa Rican, Filipino, British etc); or
- Live casino croupiers with beautiful Italian language;
(close and their grasp of the Italian language may well be beautiful but it was more their appearance that I was referring to).

The crux of this post is that Evolution Gaming are set to expand their staff of Italian speaking dealers in the wake of their recent certification by Italian gaming authority Amministrazione Autonoma Monopoli di Stato (“AAMS”).

They already have a game tailored to the Italian market…Venezia Roulette which was showcased at ICE London back in January and has been live at participating casinos since then.  It’s basically European roulette set in Venetian surrounds and conducted by fluent Italian speaking dealers.

Evolution describe it as an, “online Roulette room with a unique appeal…[e]xuding effortless style and grandeur… with the best and most experienced professional croupiers, headhunted from Italy’s top land-based casinos.”

Evolution’s official stamp of approval by Italian regulators will now give licensees like 888.com the ability to aggressively market their live casino within Italy…meaning more Italian players and of course the need for more Italian dealers.

Related pages:

• Live casinos for Italian players
• Evolution Gaming platform review

It’s the second year these awards have been held, aimed at recognizing the best and brightest suppliers of technology products and services to the online gambling industry.

Once again they’ve included a live gaming category, titled Live Casino Supplier of the Year and the shortlisted nominees for the award have been announced as:

• ComTrade d.o.o.
• Evolution Gaming
• Media Live Casino
• Playtech
• Portomaso Gaming
• Visionary iGaming

Evolution Gaming and Playtech would be juggling favouritism with Visionary iGaming and Media Live the dark horses.  If either Comtrade or Portomasa win then someone will need to have a serious chat to the judges and make sure they don’t smoke so much weed during deliberations next year.

If I had to put money on the winner…hard to go past Evolution Gaming.  Last year they won this award as well as Software/Network Rising star of the year so the judges do love ‘em and they haven’t gotten any worse during the past 12 months.  They’re also one of the events major sponsors this year…call me a cynic but I can’t see this hurting their cause even if it shouldn’t be relevant.

All will be revealed Tuesday night!

Now Evolution Gaming starts the clock at 8 seconds to place your blackjack bets

Don’t like to wait too long before your next live blackjack deal?

This must have been the feedback Evolution Gaming were getting from players because they now give you a mere 8 seconds to place your bets before the next deal starts!

This has been applied across all casinos and all blackjack tables (standard blackjack and VIP blackjack).

The faster the better I say.  Nothing more frustrating than waiting around twiddling your thumbs between deals (unless of course you’re engaged in a deep and meaningful discussion with your dealer). It wouldn’t surprise me to see other platforms/casinos speeding things up a bit also.

Below is a quick snippet of the place-bets-window just to give you a sense of the timing.

Casinos offering this fast deal live blackjack powered by Evolution Gaming include:

888 | William Hill | Unibet

I think the post title translates to, “Live blackjack in German“.

If it doesn’t then it should because that’s pretty much what we’re talking about here. As well as offering Spanish speaking live dealers Evolution Gaming now have blackjack tables with German speaking live dealers.

You won’t hear a word of English while playing at this table.  From, “willkommen, wie geht’s dir?” on arrival to, “Auf Wiedersehen” when you leave, and everything in between….all in Deutsche.

It’s only live blackjack and only certain times (evenings Deutsche time I’m guessing) where you’ll find the German dealers.

Offered at: William Hill, Unibet, 888.com

Oh, and ‘Blackjack’ in German….”Blackjack”

The upgrade is largely cosmetic with an altered interface look and feel.  Game rules and interface functionality, to a large extent are unchanged. A couple of notable differences are the ability to play multiple seats where available in blackjack, and the addition of a new high limit roulette game….London Roulette.

One thing I do want to comment on is the quality of the video at slow connection speeds.  I guess it’s worth pointing out from the outset that you can actually adjust the video quality to suit your connection. If you’re on a high speed connection, go with the high definition setting.  If your connection’s crawling, you can opt for a lower quality feed to maintain video continuity.

But quality settings aside, it has to be said that this is a very tolerant video technology they’re using. I’m no video streaming expert but even a layperson can see that even at slow connections, video clarity and continuity with these games is very, very good. You don’t get the super-high definition video of the new Playtech live games but by the same token these games just aren’t as playable in the 0.5-1Mbps range as you’d want them to be…the Evolution Gaming games are.

Below are some assorted screen shots taken of the new platform during a session where my tested connection (at speedtest.net) was hovering around the 0.7Mbps mark and the videos were crystal clear. Deal latency was also not a problem at the time.

Blackjack…

Roulette…

Baccarat…

London roulette…

Oh and one final note…

The dealers certainly aren’t getting any less attractive!

Related pages:

Evolution Gaming blackjack

Evolution Gaming roulette

Evolution Gaming baccarat

Evolution Gaming platform review

Evolution Gaming’s platform upgrade appears to be running at most of their licensee casinos now.

Full game reviews are on their way but in the meantime I figured it’s worth pointing a new feature that blackjack fans might be interested in.

Notice the multi-seat buttons in the above pic?

Now if there are spare seats at the table you’re now welcome to take them…even if you are already a seated player.  Player malcmaser above is already playing a couple of hands, and he’d be able to play six if he wanted to (assuming I stayed at the table and no other players joined.

One of the biggest criticisms of live online blackjack has always been game speed (or lack thereof).  Playing a single hand at a full table can get pretty laborious if fellow players are a bit slow with their decision making.  Playing multiple seats/hands at the one table certainly alleviates the waiting time and allows you to play far more hands in any given session.

Of course this is all subject to seat availability.  But there’s good news on this front too with more and more casinos taking up the private/dedicated table option made available to them by Evolution Gaming.  Some casinos now have a number of dedicated blackjack tables at their disposal improving seat availability even at peak times.

cheers

LD

Evolution Gaming describe it as an “opulent, live online Roulette environment replicating the rich experience of playing at one of London’s top casinos. No detail has been overlooked – from the superb interior design, lighting and ambience, to the intuitive user interface, to the real-time interaction with British croupiers…designed to appeal to super high-rollers”

Now I haven’t been to any of the London casinos so I’ll have to take their word for it on the ambience side of things; it certainly looks nice enough. But on the ‘super high-roller’ claim I can confirm that limits are high.

The below game played at William Hill has an upper table limit of (£,€,$) 40,000 depending on your chosen currency.  High enough for all but the biggest whales I would’ve thought.

And yes the croupiers are definitely British (or at least Billy, below was).

In all other respects (bets, odds, payouts, user interface functionality) it’s the same as the EG’s European roulette.