A look inside Evolution Gaming

I arrived in Riga last month excited at the prospect of doing a studio tour and meeting some of the team at Evolution Gaming.

The cab ride from from the Airport to the hotel did nothing to dull this excitement. The driver was a very friendly and equally chatty young man who had given me a full run down on the weather (cold but getting much colder), current economic state of Latvia (not so great), his profession during better times (architect), his girlfriend’s good and bad traits (seemed to be more bad than good) and his plans for next summer holidays (somewhere in Turkey, girlfriend not invited) by the time we hit the Vanšu bridge.

Then his attention turned to me.

driver: “So how long you in Riga for?”
me: “Only a couple of days unfortunately”
driver: “First time?”
me: “Yep”
driver: “Work or holiday?”
me: “Work I guess…if you can call it that”
driver: “Where will you be working?”
me: “Have you heard of a company called Evolution Gaming?”

He immediately turned his head 90 degrees and a pair of wide eyes locked onto me. For an uncomfortable length of time I was the only one in the cab watching the road; made all the more uncomfortable by the fact that, at this point all city bound traffic had decided to turn the bridge’s allocated two lanes into three, putting the cars either side of us inches rather than feet away.

Not sure what the Latvian equivalent of, ‘losing your shit’ is, but this is what he did. From there the talk was all models this, and beautiful girls that and a string of cabby facts and anecdotes that painted Evolution Gaming as Riga’s answer to the Googleplex and Playboy Mansion all rolled into one.

Needless to say, I was keen to discover how close to the mark he was. What follows is what I did manage to find out.

Evolution Gaming by the numbers (as at November 2014)

4,400Floor space (in square meters) occupied in the Riga studio

1,125Total number of staff employed in Riga

867Total number of dealers, Riga and Malta studios

109Shufflers and cards inspectors employed in the Riga studio

200Kg’s of coffee beans consumed monthly in the Riga studio staff cafeteria

132Total number of tables in use

71Dedicated tables

91Tables in use in Riga

 

676Number of dealers employed in the Riga studio

70%Percentage of female dealers in the Riga studio

191Number of dealers employed in the Malta studio

50%Percentage of female dealers in the Malta studio

127Most dealers on shift at any one time in Riga (afternoon shift)

10Languages spoken by dealers on localised native speaking tables, including  English, Italian, German, Swedish, Danish, Flemish, Dutch and Russian

3.54Average number of  mistakes made per dealer for the month of October 2009 (when first recorded)

2.27Average number of mistakes made per dealer, for the month of November 2014

45Tables in the onsite (Riga) dealer training center, which is named The Academy

13Academy training staff, including 7 main trainers, 1 Chief Trainer , 4 Spare Trainers and the Head of Academy

14Days to complete the standard training program for blackjack and roulette, including training, exam and documents signing but excluding pre-training interviews and selection process

99.9%Academy graduation rate

1,600Approximate number of hands per day dealt at the generic Casino Hold’em table (one of the dealers’ most popular tables)

Across the entire operation…

244 millionCards dealt per year

21,716kmJust over half the circumference of the earth and the distance covered if 244 million cards were placed end to end

1,300Decks in play when all tables are open

550Tables required in a traditional casino to cope with peak player load. Such a casino would easily be the largest in Europe and the 3rd largest in the world behind Macau’s Venetian & Cotai Central

91 millionApproximate number of virtual chips bet any given day (in millions)

76Tenure of longest serving dealer in months

1,175,000Active players during 2013 which is slightly more than the population of Birmingham

Some other things you probably didn’t know

The focus in the Riga studio is obviously casino gambling and the technology required to deliver it remotely. But there are a few other surprises inside including a gym with private trainer, yoga sessions, a relaxation room where dealers can catch a few z’s in the wee hours, an active lounge area, a canteen with catering available 10 am to 1am and coffee machines that cop a hiding around the clock.

The gaming tables are housed in segmented areas over multiple floors of the premises. It would be easy to get lost in this place without a guide (and not altogether unpleasant).

The nerve center of this maze of tables, cameras and dealers is the MCR, or Mission Control Room. Here a dozen or so operators sit at their monitors and face a wall displaying every currently active table and any tech issues that need attention. Lots of colour and movement here. Pretty sure there aren’t any epileptic’s working inside the MCR.

In a corridor somewhere between the canteen and the MCR is the Wall of Fame containing the pictures of each month’s awarded Dealer of the Month, for each month going back 5 years or so. To say the criteria used to judge Dealer of the Month are more technical (and stringent) than this site’s Dealer of the Week award is an understatement.

Mistakes are all recorded. Deal speeds are measured. Demeanor is scrutinized. A single mistake in a given month and you’re out of the running to make it onto the Wall. Last month’s winner logged 183 hours dealing time with zero mistakes and an average deal speed of 0.83 seconds per card (blackjack), no doubt displaying a big smile and keeping players entertained with conversation throughout.

Scores also determine a dealer’s allocation from the bonus pool, so it’s not just about getting some wall glory. Talk about pressure!

Yep, it’s definitely a lot easier (if a little more expensive at times) to be on the players’ side of the camera. The first lesson learned from 30 minutes spent in the Academy is that it ain’t as easy as the dealers make it look.

My first roulette ball spin made 3 revolutions of the wheel. I dealt four rounds of blackjack for about 42 mistakes and an average deal speed that was no danger of breaking any Academy records. As for the (fake) chat appearing on the monitor in front of the table…way too preoccupied correcting mistakes to respond to any of that.