While there are literally hundreds online casinos for players to choose from, few online gambling venues actually develop their own proprietary gaming software. Instead, they license and brand a software platform from one of many casino software developers.
While not all casinos utilizing the same software platform have identical games, the vast majority of them are in fact the same with minor variations such as color, graphics and limit changes. In a nutshell, that means from a gaming perspective there's little difference from playing at casino A and casino B if both are using the same type of software.
That said, different casinos using the same software may have other distinguishing characteristics - such as better bonuses, customer service, larger game selections, faster payouts, different banking options and other reasons why a player may opt to choose one venue over another.
There's actually quite a few gaming software developers that have emerged over the years, but some are much more popular than others. Below are the most widely used software platforms in online gambling today - click on the corresponding logo for more information about casinos using the brand and the games offered.
Originally founded in 1996, Boss Media is headquartered in Växjö, Sweden. Initially created as a standalone casino product for an in-house brand "Gold Club Casino" (which has since been sold), they have long since expanded into offering their software platform to a number of independant operators.
Chartwell Technology is a Canadian company with offices in Calgary, Vancouver, London, Singapore, and Malta. Traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under CWH, it's not one of the most popular casino brands, but does offer a good variety of well made games that are primarily licensed by sportsbook/casino combinations.
A pioneer in the online casino industry, Microgaming is a privately held company headquartered on the Isle of Man that opened it's first casino online in 1994. Today it still remains one of the largest providers of online casino and poker room software in the industry, licensed to well over 100 venues around the world.
With it's head offices in Stockholm, Sweden and founded in 1996, Net Entertainment offers a wide variety of innovative games that can be found on many leading online casinos around the world.
Founded in 1999, Playtech is a UK based (British Virgin Islands) software company utilized by a number of large online casino operations, and is publically traded on the London Stock Exchange under PTEC as of 2006.
Originally founded in Atlanta, Georgia in 1998, Real Time Gaming (RTG) has since moved it's development offices to Costa Rica soon after acquisition by Hastings International in 2007. Used by many online casinos over the years RTG has had it's share of controversy with players, though some very reputable operators use RTG.
Headquartered in Cyprus, Rival is one of the newer widely adopted software brands in the online gambling market (having debuted in 2006), albeit one that quickly gained popularity in part due to it's involved 'i-slots' and their innovative concept.
Previously known as "Odds On", Vegas Technology has actually been around much longer than it's new name as of 2005. Established in 1998, the company originally started out as an online banking processor for the industry before moving into game and platform development.
Wagerlogic is actually the subsidiary company of Cryptologic Limited that licenses their gaming software to online casinos - as such, people often associate either name with their game offerings. Now headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Cryptologic was originally founded in 1995 in Toronto, Ontario (Canada), and their first licensee, InterCasino launched in 1996.
