While online casinos continue to prove popular with players, there are still aspects of brick-and-mortar casinos that players miss. One of these is the ability to sit and play games, such as roulette, blackjack, and baccarat at physical tables that feature a dealer or croupier.
Fortunately, many iGaming companies have bridged the gap between online and land-based casino gaming via the development of live casino games. These are games streamed in real-time from a dedicated studio (or even a land-based casino) that feature fully trained live dealers or croupiers. Players place their bets using their desktop or mobile devices and watch the stream to see if they have won or lost.
Essentially, it is like playing at a brick-and-mortar casino without physically being at one. Today, we have access to hundreds of online live casino games, but when did they first appear, and how have they evolved over the years? We aim to answer that as we look at the history of live games at online casinos.
A Timeline of Online Live Casino Games
Since the first online casinos launched in the mid-90s, development companies long had designs of creating live casino games. In fact, there were several attempts at creating such games before the technology could support them.
Those of you around at the time will know just how primitive the internet was in the early days. Dial-up modems were used to establish an internet connection that time could transmit data at rates of up to 28.8k kilobytes per second. That equates to just over 1.7 Mb per minute and 100 Mb per hour.
Compare that to the 100s of Mb/s most of us have access to today, and you can see that internet technology was not nearly adequate to stream an online live casino game.
The Launch of Live Casino
As we know, technology caught up to this idea, eventually. Evolution (formerly Evolution Gaming), successfully launched its B2B live casino solution in 2006. The firm did not operate online casinos itself and instead allowed partnering platforms to lease and host its solution on their casino websites.
Since then, the company has not looked back and is still regarded as the leading supplier of live casino products today. Evolution now has live studios in European countries, including Malta, Belgium, and Latvia, and more recently, in the US and Canada.
Over the years, more live casino suppliers have sprung up to claim a piece of the pie. In fact, there are so many it is difficult to count them all. NetEnt and Ezugi (both since acquired by Evolution), Lucky Streak, Microgaming, Extreme Live Gaming, and Playtech Live were all among the earliest to try their hands at developing live casino games.
Today, Pragmatic Play Live, OnAir Entertainment, Amusnet Interactive, Stakelogic Live, TVBet, HollywoodTV, BetGames and Vivo Gaming have joined that growing list of live casino suppliers.
The Best Live Casino Games Today
In the early days, developers in this casino vertical focused on creating live variations of popular casino table games. You could initially play live blackjack, roulette, and baccarat titles. However, as we know, many new live casino games are now accessible on all desktop and mobile devices.
Live variations of poker games, including Casino Hold’em and Caribbean Stud, and dice games, such as Craps and Sic Bo, were soon added to that list. However, while traditional titles still prove popular, the most popular live games these days are unique variations of those table games or live gameshows.
In some cases, we can now play live blackjack and roulette tables that offer random multipliers of up to 1,000x. Other titles make use of unlimited seat technology so that any number of players can enjoy the game at the same time. Some providers, including Evolution, even offer live games streamed live from land-based casinos worldwide.
Live Casino Games at mBitcasino
Below are some of the best crypto live casino games you can enjoy here at mBitcasino using your favourite cryptocurrencies.
- Lightning Roulette (Evolution): Lightning Roulette was the first game of its kind. On each round, up to 5 straight-up numbers are assigned a multiplier of between 50x and 500x the stake. You win that multiplier if you put your money on that number to win. Lightning Roulette has a 97.30% RTP, the same as any standard European Bitcoin roulette game.
- ONE Blackjack (Pragmatic Play Live): Although ONE Blackjack offers the same rules as most American Blackjack games, there is a big reason it will appeal. You do not have to queue up to sit at the tables as it uses infinite seating technology. It works by letting all players play the same hand. Players make independent decisions during the hand, which is why you might see the live crypto blackjack dealer dealing other cards after you have stood. ONE Blackjack is an excellent game if you like a lower house edge – the RTP is a whopping 99.28%.
- Crazy Time (Evolution): If you’re looking for something different to live titles, such as the best Bitcoin blackjack games, you should check out live gameshows. Crazy Time is one of the best and is still one of the most played games at online casinos. Essentially, you bet on segments of a giant wheel to win multipliers of your stake or gain access to one of four lucrative bonus rounds. The average RTP is 95.4%, so it’s lower than the other titles mentioned. However, when you consider you can win up to 20,000x your stake, it is well worth checking out.
That is a small example of the best crypto live casino games featured here at mBitcasino. You will find nearly 80 in total, courtesy of Evolution, Pragmatic Play Live, and Ezugi. The best part is you can play those titles using popular cryptocurrencies, including BTC, BCH, ETH, and LTC!
