Evolution: the live casino that turned into a television network

From a few tables to a broadcaster

Evolution was founded in Sweden in 2006 as Evolution Gaming, with a simple idea: put real dealers on camera and let people bet from home. It now runs large studio complexes in several countries, Latvia and Malta among them, streaming roulette, blackjack, baccarat and poker around the clock. It dropped 'Gaming' from its name in 2020, which fits: much of what it makes today is closer to light entertainment than to a casino pit.

It also became a group. Ezugi, another live specialist, joined in 2019; the slot makers followed, NetEnt first, then Big Time Gaming a year later and Nolimit City a year after that. So a large slice of the slots on this site, from Starburst to the Megaways titles of Big Time Gaming, now sits under the same owner as the live dealer you are watching.

Three kinds of live game

• Classic tables. Roulette, blackjack and baccarat dealt by a person, with the same rules as a land-based casino. The return is the table game's own: 97.3% on single-zero roulette, and close to 99.5% on blackjack played with basic strategy.
• Enhanced tables. The same games with a twist, usually random multipliers. Lightning Roulette is the best known: straight-up numbers can be struck by multipliers, paid for by a lower standard payout.
• Game shows. Wheels, bonus rounds and presenters. Dream Catcher came first in 2017, then Monopoly Live, then Crazy Time in 2020, which became the flagship.

The return lives in the bet spot

On a slot, the RTP is one number. On an Evolution game show it is several, one for each place you can put your chips, because each segment of the wheel pays differently. On Crazy Time, for instance, the published figures run from about 94% to about 96% depending on the spot. The bonus rounds are what bring people back, but backing only the bonus segments often means accepting the lower end of that range.

The same logic applies to enhanced tables. Lightning Roulette's multipliers look generous, but a straight-up number pays 29 to 1 instead of 35 to 1 when no lightning strikes. The published return is a little lower than on an ordinary European wheel. That is the price of the spectacle, and it is worth knowing you are paying it.

Pace is the real cost

Live games feel slower than slots, and in one sense they are: a roulette spin takes most of a minute. But game shows with several bet spots, and the habit of covering many of them, push the amount staked per round up quickly. Decide the stake per round before you sit down, and keep it there. Our live casino guide goes through table choice in more detail.

Side bets and first-person tables

Evolution's blackjack tables often carry side bets such as perfect pairs or twenty-one plus three. They pay generously when they land, but their house edge is far higher than the main hand played sensibly, so they quietly raise the cost of an hour at the table. The studio also offers first-person versions of several games, animated rather than dealt, which play faster and can be tried at lower stakes. They use random number generation instead of a live dealer, and some casinos offer them in demo mode, which makes them a cheap way to learn the rules before joining a live table.

What you cannot do

There is no demo of a live table: the dealer is real and the stream is live. The nearest thing is watching a few rounds without betting, which most lobbies allow. Do it. Ten minutes of watching Crazy Time shows how rarely the top bonus rounds land far better than any explanation can. The rest of the studios are on game providers, and the most popular games of all are on popular casino games.

Where to find live tables and game shows

Live floors differ more between casinos than slot lobbies do. Among the five we cover, here is where to look for this kind of game, without promising any particular studio.