SBC SlotCatalog Awards 2022
This year`s SBC Event presented CasinoBeats Game Development Awards with three special SlotcCatolog nominations with seven winners: Rookie of the Year, Outperforming Game Studio of the Year (Small, Medium, Large), Game Studio of the Year (Small, Medium, Large)
Introduction
Seven brand new SBC/SlotCatalog award categories were announced at this year’s SBC’s award ceremony to celebrate successes and innovations in the online casino gaming industry. We would like to say a big thank you to CasinoBeats Summit for the opportunity to present a brand new approach to selecting winners and appreciating companies that move iGaming forward. What makes these new award categories special is that their winners were selected by a formal approach with no subjective judgment involved.
To obtain objective results, we used our own ProviderRank (more information about ProviderRank v2). The main idea behind ProviderRank is to have a tool that tracks the popularity of game developers. Even smaller studios can achieve remarkable results, and ProviderRank can reliably highlight this.
SBC | SlotCatalog Award 2022
Nominations:
- Rookie of the Year
- Outperforming Game Studio of the Year (Small, Medium, Large)
- Game Studio of the Year (Small, Medium, Large)
To choose winners, we use ProviderRank v.2.0, which was calculated for the last 12 months (Apr. 2021- Apr. 2022)
For five core markets are the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Japan, and Norway.
We’re excited to be working with SlotCatalog on these new awards. Using SlotCatalog’s data-driven approach to determine these three categories means the winners will be studios that have produced games that really connect with players, so it will be fascinating to see who triumphs.
Rasmus Sojmark
Founder & CEO of CasinoBeats Games Developer Awards organizer SBC
SBC | SlotCatalog's award "Rookie of the Year"
Click to see dynamic of the ProviderRank
This category was created to celebrate new studios that achieve substantial results. We looked at companies established in 2020 and later that reached the highest average ProvideRank for the last 12 months.
The competition was tough, with several new studios reaching top 100 positions. SpinPlay, Spribe, and Wizard Games all came close, but, in the end, it was Reel Kingdom that took it down with its average ProviderRank of 32.5. As you can see from our visualization, Reel Kingdom’s rank jumped from 54 to 13!
This success can be mainly explained by the studio’s Bass Bonanza series of games, which are regularly seen at the very top in casino lobbies. Reel Kingdom was able to distribute its slots so widely thanks to its exclusive partnership with Pragmatic Play, which shows just how crucial such strategic partnerships can be.
Our congratulations go to the representatives of Reel KIngdom and Pragmatic Play!
SBC | SlotCatalog's award "Game Studio of the Year"
The Game Studio of the Year category was created to recognize the best game development studios that achieved the most noteworthy results overall. Formally speaking, we looked at studios with the highest average ProviderRank by SlotCatalog over the past twelve months for key markets. To reflect the contributions of developers of all sizes, we decided to split the category into three subcategories - Small, Medium, and Large. For the Small subcategory, we looked at companies with fewer than 30 titles. In the Medium subcategory, we included businesses with between 30 and 100 games, while the Large subcategory was reserved for teams with more than 100 games in their portfolio.
Game Studio of the Year (Small)
Click to see the dynamic of avg. ProviderRank
As you can see in our visualization, Triple Edge Studios took the first place in this subcategory by reaching an average ProviderRank of 21.8, mainly thanks to the popularity of its “Oz” slots. These games were distributed far and wide thanks to the Quickfire platform and the studio’s partnership with Games Global (Microgaming).
Finishing only slightly behind were Gameburger Studios (26.2) and Reel Kingdom (32.5). Gameburger Studios climbed up mainly thanks to slots like 9 Pots of Gold, 9 Masks of Fire, and Hyper Strike, which all proved to be hits. We certainly anticipate this subcategory going all the way down to the wire next year as well!
Congratulations to Triple Edge Studios!
Game Studio of the Year (Medium)
Click to see the dynamic of avg. ProviderRank
Nolimit City bagged the Medium subcategory and deservedly so, as the studio’s slots with mechanics like xNudge, xSplit, and xWays kept players busy throughout the previous 12 months. Nolimit City’s average ProviderRank was 14, while the nearest competitors - Relax Gaming, Push Gaming, ELK, and BTG - were stuck at around 20.
We thoroughly enjoyed the incredible reaction of James Davis (Head of Account Management), but our congratulations naturally go to the entire Nolimit City team!
Game Studio of the Year (Large)
Click to see the dynamic of avg. ProviderRank
As expected, the competition was incredibly tough in this most prestigious subcategory. After all, this was where all the heavyweights - including Play’n Go, NetEnt, Evolution, Red Tiger Gaming, and Pragmatic Play - fought it out. Only one studio could prevail, however, and Pragmatic Play eventually did with its avg. ProviderRank of 1.4. In comparison, Play’n Go clocked in at 2.2, Red Tiger Gaming had 4, and NetEnt stopped at 6.6. The race was tight throughout the year and the top position changed hands several times before Pragmatic Play managed to hold onto it. Interestingly, NetEnt has slid down a lot during the last 12 months.
Our congratulations go to Virginie Luce, Hamish Carr, Nemanja Grujicic, and the entire Pragmatic Play team!
SBC | SlotCatalog's award "Outperforming Game Studio of the Year"
The Outperforming Game Studio of the Year category wants to highlight studios that saw their SlotCatalog ProviderRank rise the most over the past 12 months. Formally speaking, we were looking for a studio that had its ProviderRank better than 100 in April 2022 and that had the biggest difference between the average ProviderRank in the February - April 2022 period and the average ProviderRank in the April - June 2021 period. Again, we decided to split the category into three subcategories. For the “Small” subcategory, we looked at companies that released less than 13 games. For the “Medium” subcategory, we considered studios that released between 13 and 24 games. In the “Large” subcategory, we included companies with more than 24 releases.
Outperforming Game Studio of the Year (Small)
Click to see changes in ProviderRank over last 12 month
We are delighted to have won this award! I have been a big fan of Slot Catalogue for many years, so the fact that the award is in collaboration with Slot Catalogue and that it is based on actual data and game performance is the icing on the cake. Thank you, Casino Beats and Slot Catalogue—hopefully, this is the first award of many more to come.
Andrew Porter
CEO 4ThePlayer.com
Before we get to the winner of this subcategory, we need to mention that many studios made a lot of progress during the last 12 months. For example, the ProviderRank of Print Studios, who released only 3 titles, is now 113.3. To make the subcategory more reflective of the overall status, we decided to consider only studios that had their ProviderRank higher than 1000 in the April-June 2021 period and higher than 100 in the February-April 2022 period. With this in place, 4ThePlayer won this subcategory, recording a 65.9 points boost (from 146.5 to 80.6)! Our congratulations go to the entire team!
On a side-note, we should mention Spribe, who finished close second with a 63.3 points boost (from 141.3 to 78). This success, largely based on the studio’s Aviator game, shows how popular crash mechanics and games based on them are among online casino gaming fans.
Outperforming Game Studio of the Year (Medium)
Click to see changes in ProviderRank over the last 12 months
G.Games grabbed the first spot in the Outperforming Game Studio of the Year (Medium) subcategory. The studio’s ProviderRank jumped by more than 57 points during the last 12 months, from 117.7 to 60.2. Over that time period, the company launched 17 games, many of which were scratch games and bingo games. Even then, though, much of the hard work was done by the several released online slots.
Our congratulations go to Helen Walton and Amnon Liebermann from G.Games!
Outperforming Game Studio of the Year (Large)
Click to see changes in ProviderRank over last 12 month
It’s easy to see that the Outperforming Game Studio of the Year (Large) subcategory is the most contested subcategory of them all. Having a big portfolio of games makes it hard for a studio to get a significant boost in ProviderRank. Nevertheless, Hacksaw Gaming managed to rise to the top over the last 12 months, raising its average ProviderRank by 36.8 points (from 55.5 in April to June 2021 to 18.7 in February to April 2022). Even though many of its 31 released games were simple scratch games and reskins, they proved to be popular with the community, and the number of online casinos with Hacksaw Gaming games is constantly growing!
Our warm congratulations go to Marcus Cordes (CEO of Hacksaw Gaming), Gabi Star (Head of Account Management), Luke Hammett (Head of Business Development), and the entire Hacksaw Gaming team!
Conclusions
- Let’s all take a while to celebrate and appreciate all the winners. You all achieved awesome results - keep going!
- A big thank you to SBC Events and the CasinoBeats team for giving us an opportunity to present our ranking platform that allows developers of all sizes to compete on an equal footing! A special thank you then also goes to Rasmus Sojmark!
- We would like to encourage all developers to lead the iGaming industry forward. Hard and smart work pays off, and we are constantly looking for ways to improve our algorithm to be as objective as possible.
- Finally, we are already looking forward to presenting our data during the next awards ceremony!
Sincerely,
Your SlotCatalog Team :)
