In casino terms specifically, mobile players faced a situation whereby they were waiting for their mobile devices to effectively catch up with desktops in terms of power, graphics and playability. After all, anyone that remembers playing casino games on their old Symbian powered devices or WAP handsets will know that the process of loading and enjoying a game was somewhat painful compared to sitting down in front of a computer and logging on to an online casino. However, numerous factors have combined to ensure that this is no longer necessarily the case:

• The current mobile hardware on the market, such as iPads and Samsung Galaxy Tabs, far exceed the capabilities of what were the industry standard desktops when the first online casinos came about
   
• The introduction of app stores on mobile devices have offered both players and developers a central hub from which they can find the latest and greatest software for their device, including a wide range of mobile casino apps
   
• Portability now matters more than ever, and the fact that even casual players are likely to have a spin while commuting means that casinos are seeing players spend more time on the slots or tables than ever before
   

Naturally, this news vindicates the decisions of all of those companies that have placed mobile casino gaming at the forefront of their vision for 2013, such as Microgaming and the constant improvements and additions to their mobile Spin3 platform and Probability who are dedicated solely to the mobile market. We have already stated numerous times here at MobileCasino.net that 2013 will be the year of mobile casino gaming and this evidence boosts that claim even further, to the point that it is now pretty much inevitable.

Even developers that have not quite made mobile gaming their number one priority will be almost forced to do so in light of this news, so players will no doubt benefit greatly, with greater choice and huge advancement in technology and gaming options as the race to become the premier provider of mobile casino games begins to take shape.

Players at any of the top Microgaming mobile casinos such as Platinum Play and All Slots Mobile will be no strangers to the concept of winning progressive prizes on their mobile. Mega Moolah was one of the first titles to be developed for the revamped Spin3 platform and is fully integrated with the same progressive jackpot pool that can be won online. However, there is now much more to the suite of such games following the launch of Major Millions and CashSplash to the full range of mobile devices.

Major Millions has been through a number of iterations over the years with the main focus being on the top prize itself, supported by a number of truly cash themed symbols and a range of smaller prizes. Among the choices presented to players of the full online game is the option of the original three reel classic version or the updated five reel version. Players with a taste for a little nostalgia on their mobile devices will be pleased to know that the iPhone and Android version of the game is based on the classic three reel version with three win lines and a one coin per credit betting system. As always, three Major Millions symbols on the third win line pay out the progressive prize which, true to the game’s name, often reaches upwards of a million dollars.

CashSplash is similar in that it too has seen both three and five reel variants over the years and once again the Microgaming mobile team has opted for the classic three reel version for mobile players. The progressive jackpot is often smaller than its Major Millions counterpart but with only one win line in play, it is also a lot easier to scoop. The classic gameplay action is perfectly translated to the mobile screens at the likes of Platinum Play and All Slots and both games are fully loaded with jackpot prizes and ready to play now.

Elsewhere, the month has also seen the addition of something new for fans of standalone Microgaming mobile slots, starting off with Break Da Bank Again. Experienced Microgaming fans will know that the original Break Da Bank quickly established itself as one of the leading classic Microgaming slots, and this updated version has seen all sorts of refinements to make it a great mobile game in its own right. It is joined on mobile handsets by Loaded, complete with its reputation for being one of the only slots around to be based on rap music. Five reels and a fun free spins round make it a popular choice and a welcome addition to any Android or iOS player’s casino gaming experience.

We also recently reported on the addition of Microgaming’s Blackjack training app to the app store and they have continued to branch out from their main casino market by dipping their toes into the world of mobile bingo. Both Bingo in a Box and Dream Bingo are currently heading to an app store near you, regardless of your device of choice, and both feature classic bingo gameplay that represents something new both for Microgaming and its legions of fans.

One final update coming out of the Microgaming camp that will be of note to many mobile players is that the company has added Paysafe as a method for both withdrawing and depositing to its mobile platform as standard. A popular payment method around the world, this minor but welcome feature means that playing at a mobile casino where the full version supports such transactions also opens it up to use on mobiles and tablets.

You can try out all of the great games released this month and even make use of the Paysafe payment method at many of the top Microgaming mobile casinos. If you are looking for a great place to get started then you can check out our Platinum Play Mobile and All Slots Mobile Casino reviews here at MobileCasino.net, where we cover everything that makes these casinos such well respected players in the industry.

Mr Green has already established itself as one of our favourite mobile casinos and while the company started out primarily as an online provider, their commitment to mobile players is clear to see and illustrated by comments from Markus Aurala, Chief Product Officer at Mr Green made shortly after the conclusion of the new deal. “Mobile gaming has grown in popularity very quickly and the key to sustaining this is to offer players mobile versions of their favourite online titles. IGT’s leading brands and top performing mobile games will be a significant tool for us to help drive customer acquisition and loyalty.”

Indeed, IGT is responsible for some of the best known casino gaming franchises in the world and has wasted no time in ensuring that the majority of their most popular games are available to a mobile audience. Among the titles to have already hit the screens of Mr Green Mobile Casino players are Cats, Wolf Run, Kitty Glitter, Cleopatra and the all-time classic Da Vinci Diamonds. Each and every one has been fully optimised for use on both iOS and Android devices, including availability in both portrait and landscape modes depending on player preferences. The nature of IGT’s remote gaming server means that as they add more games to their expanding mobile range, Mr Green can begin offering them to players effectively at the flick of a switch.

The deal does of course work both ways and IGT are happy to be on board with a mobile casino with the reputation of Mr Green. IGT’s Commercial Director of Interactive for the EMEA region, Leigh Nissim, stated: “Mr Green is an operator that places a firm emphasis on delivering a quality gaming experience so we are extremely pleased to be announcing this extension to our relationship. This agreement reinforces IGT’s ability to leverage our strong online performance and offer the same great games across multiple channels.”

Indeed, something that truly makes Mr Green stand out in the mobile casino community is the fact that they are not tied down to a single developer. Players can be enjoying Da Vinci Diamonds one minute and then switching to the progressive jackpot action of Microgaming’s Mega Moolah the next, all on their mobile device. This has allowed them to capture a large market share as players are always able to find their favourite games regardless of who designed them, and the addition of the full IGT range continues to make Mr Green one of the most compelling mobile casino options around.

You can find out more about Mr Green Mobile Casino, including their game selection, promotions and support by taking a look at our dedicated review feature here at MobileCasino.net.

While Probability continues to successfully operate its two standout mobile casinos, LadyLucks and Moobile Games, their advancements as a software provider to other companies is clear to see. For example, we have reported on several occasions that Probability was one of the first companies to enter the newly regulated Italian mobile casino market through the purchase of Playoo and the agreement to provide mobile slot games to the mammoth Lottomatica organisation. This partnership already looks to be paying dividends and will undoubtedly provide a cornerstone of the company’s future success.

Of course, the road to profitability was by no means accidental, as explained by Charles Cohen, CEO of Probability. “This has been a transformational year for Probability with the company entering the Italian market and the core UK business delivering its maiden quarterly profit and a modest earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation profit for the full 2013 financial year. Although achieving profitability in the fourth quarter, we experienced softer demand in January and February 2013 following record income in December of 2012 across both business to business and business to consumer sectors. Given the seasonality experienced we actively chose to reduce planned marketing spend within the period as we look to maximise the impact of our marketing investment.”

The development of the business to business aspect of Probability’s offering has been clear to see for many players in their native UK market. Anyone playing at any of the major independent mobile bingo operators or any mobile offering from 888 will have seen the addition of a full suite of Probability mobile slots to their apps and web interfaces, while Paddy Power went ahead and commissioned a custom built slots game from Probability for inclusion within their own mobile games portal. The games kept on coming at the mobile casinos of both partners and Probability’s own brands following the development of their Slot-O-Matic platform which actively reduces development and deployment time from a matter of months to just days, with virtually every mobile platform supported automatically. Charles Cohen identified the significance of the new platform when commenting “We remain confident of growth in fiscal year 2014 as we invest in both business to consumer and business to business revenue streams, supported by aggressive future-proofing of our technology platform and game offerings with Slot-O-Matic and other innovations.”

The company as a whole has already forecast full year revenues amounting to £8.8 million which would represent a 20% improvement over the 2013 period and be by far the company’s best performing year to date. Among the most likely revenue drivers in the coming year are extensions of the company’s strategy for getting into new markets as soon as they become available. With both the French and Spanish markets becoming increasingly amenable to foreign companies, not to mention the increasing likelihood of legalised online gambling in the US, it may well be the kind of strategy that makes Probability as a major player.

As we wait and see how the year develops for the company, you can check out our reviews of both LadyLucks Mobile Casino and Moobile Games here at MobileCasino.net for a personal view of exactly what the company has to offer mobile players.

The news kept on getting better for the lucky player as he decided to continue his play the following day, this time playing at the desktop version of All Slots Casino. The game was the same, as Stephen opted to play Burning Desire once more using the Instant Play, browser based version of the casino interface. The result was a swift $30,000 boost to his already considerable bankroll, making for one of the largest two day streaks ever seen on a standalone game at All Slots.

David Brickman, the Vice President for Player Affairs at All Slots, had this to say about the impressive win: “We’re proud to offer a highly flexible gaming experience, with a wide variety of games on three different gaming platforms. With our robust download casino, sleek Instant Play platform and cutting-edge mobile casino featuring a growing number of the casino’s most popular games in full HD, players like Stephen can log in and play wherever it’s most convenient for them, and increase their chances to hit the big one.”

The win and Brickman’s comments illustrate just why the All Slots brand continues to be so highly regarded among mobile and online casino players. Microgaming has opted to do away with convention and is now instead looking to build and develop slots and table games that automatically work across a range of devices. Burning Desire is the perfect example of such a game, having hit the catalogues of both the online and mobile versions of All Slots at virtually the same time. Naturally, the $54,000 in winnings accumulated by Stephen W. bear testament to the fact that winning is possible no matter where players choose to enjoy the game.

Burning Desire itself is one of the most recent additions to the Microgaming portfolio and gives players the chance to enjoy traditional Microgaming slot action with the added bonus of using the 243 Ways to Win system – something that was rarely available to mobile players beforehand and ensures that the wins keep on coming.

As noted, the All Slots brand is one of the most popular around and you can read more about our thoughts on their mobile casino in our All Slots Mobile Casino review. Great bonuses and a constantly updated selection of games make it a top choice for any mobile casino enthusiast, with the added bonus of seamless integration with the desktop platform, meaning that you really can win big whenever and wherever you feel like playing.

One of the first large brands to enter the market was 32Red, one of our most highly recommended mobile casinos who went to great lengths to ensure that they were prepared for a smooth launch and ready to take advantage of the tangible first mover advantage in the country. This entailed hiring specialist Italian staff to offer both support and general games tweaks, not to mention tailoring the games themselves and promotions to the new market. The need for this was based on the fact that while foreign companies such as 32red can now enter the market, there are still certain aspects of their offerings that need to comply with the revised legislation.

What put 32Red in such a strong position in Italy is that it was the first among its major competitors to receive full clearance to bring online and mobile casino games to the country. While other companies are still battling their way through the various legal issues associated with an Italian remote gaming licence, 32Red has possessed such a licence since the first half of the year and has put a lot of time and effort into ensuring that everything is just right for their launch in the country.

First on 32Red’s list when it comes to the market are online slots. Italy boasts very few of its own online and mobile casino operators, and the market which has always been traditionally in favour of gambling has been crying out for an international provider with the expertise and service levels of 32Red. The company is already a major player across all forms of online gambling and has reported increased revenues on an annual basis for the last five years. The opportunity to enter a market such as Italy is seen by many as being a natural progression, where the barriers to entry are worth overcoming to access such a sector.

A quick glance at the 32Red website reveals that plans are already well underway. The company has long been considered an international provider and offers their full suite of services in Italian. They have offered the euro as a currency for a number of years, so there is certainly no problem there. Italian players can even take advantage of round the clock live chat support in their native language, meaning that just about everything an online and mobile casino needs to do for a market has been completed.

While online slots are the first port of call for the company who are looking to cement their place as the market leader, adapting their mobile casino for the market is certainly next on the list. Approval for such an offering is already in place as part of their existing ten year operating licence and the viability of such casinos in the country is further proven by the fact that Probability plc also holds a similar licence.

Probability is a publicly traded UK company, just like 32red, and operates a number of dedicated mobile casinos including Moobile Games and LadyLucks. In general terms, they have nothing to offer the Italian market other than mobile casino games, and the fact that they received similar approval to 32Red means that the Italian government has absolutely no issue with the concept of mobile casinos in the country.

32Red slots are already available to Italian players, having launched officially on December 3rd, and the company aims to have its mobile casino, powered by Microgaming, up and running in the coming months. The news has been greeted well by industry professionals and investors, with many feeling that there is little that can go wrong with 32Red’s expansion and many analysts marking their stock as a “Buy” option.

32Red is one of the biggest brands in the sector and players have been enjoying their mobile casino for many years. It has a highly deserved place on our list of recommended mobile casinos and you can find out more about their offering in our review.

This is something of an unusual step, but serves to show that the mobile casino industry does not necessarily have to follow precisely in the footsteps of what has taken place in the online industry beforehand. Now, more than ever, both online and mobile casinos have taken the chance to step away from the single software provider model and are instead shifting towards becoming games aggregators, with the recently added Jetbull Mobile Casino being a perfect example, as it offers games from Net Entertainment, Microgaming and IGT among others.

This development from 32red Mobile takes things a stage further and makes their entire selection of games stand out simply because enjoyable titles are not available anywhere else. By combining their own games with those of Microgaming, their primary software provider, 32red Mobile is giving players a chance to combine all-time classics and favourites with unique games.

Space Blaster itself has been available for a number of months on 32red’s main online casino platform, but an in-house redesign in HTML5 has prepared it for launch to a brand new market. Similar to some classic arcade games, the objective is to pilot a spacecraft and take out asteroids that land in your path. Unlike the classic Asteroids game of the 80s, the more asteroids you destroy the more cash you win.

This is planned to be the first of many mobile games that are exclusive to 32red. As Paul Soithongsuk, the company’s mobile marketing manager, succinctly explains: “Space Blast is one of the first bonus games to be released but will not be the last.”

You can find out more about 32red Mobile Casino in our review, including everything to do with getting started and enjoying some of the best mobile games around, including Space Blaster.

Rather than coming in the form of a new mobile game to be added to Microgaming’s existing portfolio of mobile casinos, the new Bronzebeard Blackjack: The Strategy Coach game involves no real money and is completely standalone in nature. Available for free on the Microsoft Windows Phone Store, it can be downloaded for free and does not require an internet connection to play once it has been successfully installed. It works across a variety of levels with the focus firmly on teaching newer players how to play, presumably in an effort to encourage to take up the real money game at popular mobile casinos such as All Slots when they have completed it.

There are two main standout factors for players that may well indicate what Microgaming has up its sleeve for the future. Firstly, the game is rendered in 3D like few others, with stunning graphics across everything from the main blackjack game to all of the relevant tutorials and practice modes. While the app has the obvious benefit of being self-contained, there can be no doubt that the latest iPhones and Android handsets are more than capable of running similar graphical styles and we may well see more mobile games with similarly stunning aesthetics in the near future.

The other main standout is that the app allows Microgaming to really put their multi-platform development scheme to the test. As you may have seen, the company wants to design games outside the boundaries of a single piece of hardware, making it work identically across smartphones, tablets, desktops and pretty much any other entertainment device. Bronzebeard Blackjack: The Strategy Coach is already out on mobiles, but there are plans in place to release it for both the Windows 8 desktop platform and even Xbox Live, which will really give the entire industry an insight as to how well such games perform both in terms of gameplay and popularity, especially with a juggernaught such as Microgaming behind it.

If you own a Windows 8 smartphone, then you can download Bronzebeard Blackjack right now. Otherwise, you can find an excellent selection of Microgaming mobile casino titles at some of the most popular operators in the world, including the aforementioned All Slots Casino and Platinum Play Mobile Casino.

The world’s leading casino game provider’s strategy was made clear at trade shows going back a few years – they never want to rest on their laurels in spite of having the largest online casino gaming catalogue in the world by a country mile, and the releases keep on coming on a monthly basis. Unlike some competitors, this does not just apply to their online casinos, and fans of mobile gaming are the clear focus of some of the most important members of the Microgaming team.

An impressive six titles are heading to mobile touchscreens this month, following last month’s addition of the all-time classic Thunderstruck 2. Arguably the most important release for long time Microgaming players is Avalon, which has become something of a cornerstone of Microgaming’s online range for a number of years. The game shows its age only from the perspective of being well worn over the years and remains one of the most played slots to this day. The classic gameplay with a King Arthur theme has been faithfully transferred to the mobile platform and will undoubtedly be one of the first of the new games that many players will try.

Also on the list of new releases are some of the more recent additions to the online gaming portfolio of Microgaming casinos, including Agent Jane Blonde, Adventure Palace, Deck the Halls, Burning Desire and Tally Ho. Many of these slots still hold a new veneer in their own right, and mobile players will definitely welcome their rapid addition to their favourite casinos. Each and every one includes the same graphics and gameplay as the originals, meaning that experienced players can jump straight in and play the very same games as on their desktop client, and brand new mobile gamers can quickly get to grips with everything that Microgaming has to offer.

All of the new releases are a clear check in the box for Microgaming’s new development and release strategy. Prominent members of their management team have come out and said that they want to design games with no specific platform in mind, with the end result being something that works well on any device from home computers to tablets and mobiles. The speedy transition of these games, not to mention the clear effort that went into developing Avalon for a mobile audience, mean that players at Microgaming mobile casinos can look forward to an extremely bright 2013 with games hitting their screens almost at the same time as the full online versions.

You can enjoy all of these new games, not to mention the entire Microgaming mobile back catalogue right now at some of our most highly recommended mobile casinos. If you are looking for somewhere new to play, then we would definitely suggest both All Slots Mobile Casino and Platinum Play Mobile, two of the most established and highly regarded operators in the world. You can find out more about each in our Mobile Casino Review Section.

We have already covered two crucial parts of the awards in our news section, with the nominees looked at in detail in our ICE preview and full coverage of IGT scooping the Best Remote Product of the Year award for their Remote Gaming Server. However, even some of the categories that do not necessarily affect mobile casino gaming to a huge extent still saw some familiar faces being called up on stage.

Paddy Power was an early winner on the night, taking home the award for Best Online Social Responsibility. They have cropped up in our news sections on multiple occasions over recent months as they lead the way in innovation in the mobile industry with all manner of dedicated apps and one of the best Playtech mobile casino experiences around. We are, of course big fans of social responsibility in gaming and so definitely support the award going to such an outstanding operator.

Incidentally, Novomatic, another name that crops up regularly here at MobileCasino.net, scooped the land based equivalent of the Social Responsibility award. The news was no doubt greeted with large cheers in the auditorium as ICE 2013 was particularly notable for attracting many online and mobile casino enthusiasts from Germany. With IMA, the Dusseldorf based German equivalent of ICE being cancelled this year, many of the would be attendees opted to visit the UK instead in support of Novomatic, a domestic giant in the German gaming industry. Such was the influence of the German contingent that some stands in the show, Novomatic included, took to providing German beer and even bratwurst to those that stopped by.

The Remote Gaming award is undoubtedly the most important in terms of mobile casino gaming, and so we are pleased that IGT received recognition in the field and hope that it spurs them on to bring their excellent selection of games to more and more mobile casinos around the world.