2024: Live Dealer Year in Review

We began 2024 posing the question, what are the most-played live dealer games? The list was dominated by game shows – Crazy Time the perennial favourite topped the list.

M&A season kicked off early with FDJ making a takeover bid for Kindred. The purchase would go ahead and complete before year’s end, creating Europe’s largest online gambling company by market cap.

In February we welcomed the Year of the Dragon, and China was expected to welcome more babies than normal.

Then came the new games.

2024 live game releases

It didn’t take long for new games to make an appearance.

Playtech introduced their first live video poker game. Millionaire Video Poker came with a newly introduced Millionaire Aces pay table as well as an optional bonus game, giving it a bit of a game show feel.

Speaking of game shows, they continued to come thick and fast.

There were new big money wheels:

• Fashion TV Mega Party  – Playtech’s (lower budget) alternative to Evolution’s Funky Time;
• Majestic Wheel Show from OnAir, yet another big money wheel game;
• Lightning Storm from Evolution. Another of their big budget live big wheel games and 1 of 4 new additions to their family of Lightning games.

Multiplier type games came thick and fast, including:

• Cash Collect Roulette and Sticky Bandits Roulette from Playtech, the latter in the running for best game name of the year;
• Hi-Lo Western Live, continuing the western theme from Playtech;
• Mega Sic Bac from Pragmatic Play;
• More Lightning from Evolution:
  – Lightning Dragon Tiger
  – Lightning Sic Bo
  – Lightning Ball

There were the ‘live games’ that aren’t really live.

• Balloon Race Live from Evolution which is more slot game than live game;
• Stock Market Live also from Evolution, bringing more volatility than leveraged cryptocurrency options;
• Busted or Bailed from Playtech…a highway-pursuit version of Stock Market live.

Almost every year since the release of Crazy Time, Evolution have launched a spin-off. This years effort was Crazy Balls.

2024 wasn’t completely dominated by live game show releases. In a welcome development, we were treated to the launch of a whole bunch of blackjack variations. There was a real mixed bag.

• Evolution’s Infinite Fun Fun 21 turned the rules of blackjack upside down;
• 8 Seat Blackjack Live from StakeLogic wasn’t quite as inventive…just adding an extra seat to the table;
• Bet Behind Pro Blackjack from Pragmatic forced you to play perfect basic strategy and maximise your returns;
• Super Boost Blackjack from StakeLogic boosted payouts on your third consecutive hand win (up to 100x);
• Infinite Bet Stacker Blackjack came with the possibility of a house-funded boost to your stake amount; and
• Easy Blackjack took some of the complexity (and RTP) out of the game of blackjack.

Games dedicated to the soon-to-be opened Brazilian market also an appearance. Like Pragmatic’s Super Trunfo Live. Brazil’s newly regulated market launched as promised on the first day of 2025 with 66 companies receiving licenses.

Finally, for players who found all the Speed Baccarat tables out there not fast enough, came Super Speed Baccarat with a mere 5 seconds to get your bets down and then a rapid deal.

Not all business as usual

It wasn’t all smooth sailing.

Evolution’s Georgian operations were mired in industrial action eventually leading to the axing of over 1,000 jobs in their Tbilisi dealer studio. They would later concede that the disruptions during the year had a material impact on overall operations.

That wasn’t the end of the bad news for Evolution. Just before Christmas they were notified that their UK license was under review after the Gambling Commission found their games being offered in the UK by unlicensed operators.

The news was worse for providers and operators based in the Philippines, once an epicentre of Asian market facing live dealer activity. In his July stated of the nation address, President ‘Bongbong’ Marcos announced all POGO’s had to go by year’s end.

Regulatory slaps on the wrist and business closures were put into perspective when news emerged of the attempted abduction of crypto-casino entrepreneur Tim Heath.

US iGaming ended the year on a high

After a slow start to the year, regulated online casinos in the US enjoyed a stellar second half of the year. Towards year end most states were consistently setting new monthly revenue records.

For November, the last reported month at time of writing, all three big states (New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania) saw iGaming revenues over $200 million. Michigan led the pack with $226m.

With only 7 states in play, the US was expected to overtake the UK as the biggest (regulated) iGaming market in the world during 2024.

We ended the year as we’d begun it, seeing which were the most popular live games. Turns out not too much had changed with Crazy Time still the favourite.