Rival Gaming

THE HISTORY OF RIVAL (POWERED) GAMING

Rival Gaming is a Canadian company which was first incorporated in 2005. Significant time was spent organizing and preparing the company for business. For example, the company had previously found four partners to set up “showcase” online casinos, giving them a head start and introducing their name to the online gambling world.

This demonstrates the foresight of the management of Rival Gaming – they were already predicting issues which may come up in the future and dealing with them, even before they had settled on the Rival name.

For the longest time, Rival eschewed the multi-platform model that is becoming the default style of online casino in 2021. Rival Gaming had more than 50 online casinos using their white label service and liked the idea that if you wanted to play Rival Gaming casino games, you would have to visit a Rival casino.

The Best Rival Gaming Casinos

With such a wide range of choice available, it’s important to pick out a casino that suits individual player needs and offers all the game selections hoped to be found – so here are a couple of Rival Gaming casinos to try.

Wild Casino

A newer casino on the market but one that is very vibrant with a unique visual aesthetic, whilst Wild Casino also offers games from the likes of Betsoft and Concept Gaming too, most of the games available are powered from Rival Gaming for their biggest titles.

Slotgard Casino

Another new name in the casino world having only been established earlier in 2022, it’s already gained a reputation for being a great place for players to look for Rival Gaming powered casino games, it also features a very unique and vibrant aesthetic themed after Norse mythology.

WHITE LABEL VS LICENSING INDIVIDUAL GAMES

Rival Gaming continues to offer their casino platform as a white label service and the company believes that this is the only way to continue bringing new and unique features to online casinos, and they could well have a point. It is often said that the only differences between most online casinos today are the quality of their support, the number and generosity of their promotions, and the speed of their withdrawals. When almost all casinos have the same slots and table games, the actual experience is pretty uninspiring at times.

Rival Gaming has since given in to industry pressures and created versions of their most popular games – the full suite contains over 260 of them – which can be added to a modern multi-platform casino. Despite this, Rival’s slots and table games are still quite difficult to find if you are a European player – the company is licensed in Curacao, which is not accepted as a trustworthy license by some of the larger European operators.

Rival Gaming don’t seem too worried about this – their primary markets are the United States and Australia, where they currently have a decent portion of the market sown up. It would be nice to see Rival Gaming games spread further around the world in the future.

AN EARLY MISTAKE

Rival Gaming made an early mistake in not trademarking their name – it is perhaps possible that “Rival” cannot be trademarked, as searching for the term “Rival Gaming” on Google today reveals that an e-sports company is also using the name at this time.

Worse still, this e-sports company even often appears above Rival Powered in casino gaming company in search results, though interestingly neither company owns the name rival.com – America Online (AOL) is still holding on to this domain, having failed to sell it for several tens of millions of dollars on several previous occasions. Strangely, we couldn’t find any information on why AOL owns the rival.com name in the first place!

FAST FORWARD: RIVAL GAMING SOFTWARE TODAY

Depending how long you have been playing online, you may not ever have experienced Rival’s casino software at all. This is because Rival’s big hitters such as Superior Casino, Ignition, Black Diamond, and Desert Nights were previously available to players all around the world, but this situation changed in 2015 as a result of the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) enforcing new rules and regulations which caused all Rival Powered casinos to retreat from the majority of the worlds gambling market.

Considering they were something of a late entrant in the online gambling space, Rival has done reasonably well. They have over 50 casinos using their white label “casino-in-a-box” product, and the decision to create standalone versions of their games which can be used on multiplatform casinos is sure to begin bearing fruit very soon.

The bottom line is, if you haven’t heard of Rival, or played their games before, get ready: just like when the company was first formed, Rival’s management haven’t rushed the decision to create multi-platform versions of their games. The question is, will they have their games audited by a body that the UKGC will allow.

The problem is, for a casino game to be offered by a casino that holds a UKGC license, all of the software used on their site must also be audited and licensed by the UKGC or a gaming commission that they trust as well.

Also, because the UK is one of the biggest markets for online gambling, most of the large multi-platform casinos are keen to hold a UKGC license, so there are few that offer Rival games.

Considering that Rival is now based in Cyprus, it would make sense for them to start working with the MGA (Malta Gaming Authority) which has been keeping an eye on the industry for decades now.

RIVAL ONLINE CASINOS GAMES

The total library of Rival Powered games currently stands at 260 – far less than competitors such as Microgaming, but quality rather than quantity is the mantra that Rival believes in and is why many online gamblers still prefer Rival Gaming software over alternatives. Their library includes a large number of video slots, which appear to be the companies primary focus at this time.

There is a decent number of video poker games too, with most of the popular variations catered for. Devotees of table games are perhaps the least well served, but Rival’s games are extremely high quality – every game is available in 11 languages and runs equally well on every type of device.

Rivals Gaming games were tested on several devices including two laptops and various mobile devices including both Apple and Android smartphones, and their accompanying tablet variations as well.

There were no issues with any game we tried, and most impressively of all, the games all use responsive design techniques to make the most of the platform they are running on. Many companies add touchscreen support as an afterthought, whereas Rival Gaming have clearly built their games with both touch and mouse input in mind.

SLOT MACHINES AT RIVAL GAMING CASINOS

Slot fans are well catered for at Rival Gaming casinos – there are old-school three-reel games, payline based casino games with up to fifty paylines, as well as grid slots and 243 way-based slots as well. Rival have had trouble creating a blockbuster hit, despite trying for years.

The closest they got was probably Scary Rich, but they really need to make a game like Immortal Romance, Thunderstruck 2, or Dead or Alive – something that people will talk about on video slots forums and come back and play constantly at online casinos.

Although Rival Gaming hasn’t managed to create one of those hugely successful slots just yet, many of their “iSlots” do show promise; they have an awful lot of excellent, very high-paying slots. You can find the best Rival Gaming slots listed in the table below:

Rivals Top Slots

Slot Name	RTP %	Layout	Paylines	Jackpot	Notes
Cosmic Quest: Mystery Planets	98.95%	5×3 Reels	20 Lines	5000 Coins	The jackpot can only be won in the bonus round in this game.
Rock on!	98.00%	5×3 Reels	20 Lines	500x Stake	Some casinos are yet to switch to the HTML5 version.
Reel Crime: Art Heist	97.03%	5×3 Reels	15 Lines	5000 Coins	Casinos can select from multiple RTP levels –          the lowest is 94%.
Watch the Birdie	96.29%	5×3 Reels	15 Lines	133.333x Stake	Multiple RTP modes are available in this game too – a 95.47% RTP version exists.
Wheel of Cash	96.29%	5×3 Reels	20 Lines	6000 Coins	Stay away from the Sloto side game! The players odds are terrible.
Ten Suns	96.06%	5×3 Reels	25 Lines	Progressive
Reel of Fortune	96.00%	5×3 Reels	20 Lines	1500 Coins
As the Reels Turn 2	96.00%	5×3 Reels	15 Lines	5000 Coins	Maximum win seems very small when playing low stakes.
Atomic Age	96.00%	5×3 Reels	15 Lines	500x Stake	Another RTP selectable game – the lowest option is 94.84$
Goldenman	96.00%	5×3 Reels	20 Lines	25x Stake	Some casinos are yet to switch to the HTML5 version.

 

Rival has a total of 163 slot machines in their library, but only 14 of them have an RTP greater than 96%. The higher the RTP, the more time you will be able to play the game without going bust – do not think that a higher RTP means you are likely to win more from these games.

Many of Rivals slots are at the lower end of the variance scale – you won’t be finding any 100,000x stake wins here. Other slots worth an honorable mention are Ride’Em Poker (97.04%), Mystic Wolf (94.90%), Big Bang Buckaroo (94.38%), and Wrath of Medusa (93.86%). Remember, the lower RTP usually means less play time – but Progressive Jackpots the highest paying games can sometimes be the ones with the lowest RTP as well!

Progressive Jackpots

If you like progressive games, Rival casinos may not be the place for you – several options are available, but the choice is limited and the jackpots tend to be quite low, especially when compared to record setters like Mega Fortune and Mega Moolah.

Nevertheless, here’s a quick rundown of the progressive jackpot games available at Rival casinos:

Slot Name	Current Value	Average Win	Biggest Win	Average Time	Last Won
Diamond Rhino	$206,692	$22,295	$76,693	9w 4d	42w 2d ago
Jackpot 5x Wins	$103,300	$109,239	$280,170	17w 6d	39w 1d ago
Major Moolah	$4,971	$13,151	$76,797	4w 1d	10d 20h ago
Money Magic	$56,578	$88,034	$303,835	27w 8h	45w 6d ago
One Million Reels BC	$8,640	$35,108	$174,770	8w 13h	13d 8h ago
Strike Gold	$46,169	$45,983	$76,717	21w 5d	30w 5d ago

Note that many casinos sometimes offer multiple versions of these games, as they also offer a link version which is connected to other casinos in their group (or just that they are friendly with!).

Other Games at Rival Casinos

As much as we love slots, we sometimes just feel like a break from them – and a trip to the Blackjack table often seems like the perfect answer! Rival’s version of Roulette is impressive too, but as always, be sure to choose European rather than American roulette – the only difference between the two is that the casino makes twice as much profit from American roulette!

Table Games

When we first played at a Rival casino, we couldn’t help but be impressed by the quality of the graphics used in their table games – whilst some of the slots look a little out of date, the absolute opposite is true of the table games. So, what’s on offer? You’ve got your regular Blackjack, sometimes with a few variations – side bets, play multiple hands at once, that kind of thing. Other favorites such as Baccarat have been created too, as well as some of the lesser-known games like Red Dog and Pai Gow.

Video Poker

Rival won’t win any awards for their video poker selection – only the most basic forms of the game are offered at Rival casinos, though the games themselves look and play excellent. The following table shows the short list of games available, along with which pay table is used and the corresponding maximum payout percentage.

NB: Each game is available in 1, 4, 10, and 25 hand variants.

Game	Pay Table	House Edge
Aces and Faces	Full House = 8, Flush = 5	0.74%
Deuces and Joker Wild	Full House = 9, Flush = 6	0.93%
Deuces Wild	Four Deuces = 250, Wild Royal = 45, 4OAK = 4	0.63%
Double Joker Poker	Full House = 8, Flush = 5	1.90%
Jacks or Better	Full House = 9, Flush = 6 (Full Pay)	0.46%
Joker Poker	5OAK= 1000, 5OAK= 17	1.40%
Tens or Better	Full House = 6, Flush = 5	0.86%

As you can see, the selection is far from ideal, with notable omissions such as Bonus, Double Bonus, Double Double Bonus, and all Aces all missing from Rival’s online casino library. On the plus side, the pay tables are extremely fair – the Jacks or Better one is particularly small, it’s just a shame that Jacks or Better isn’t much fun to play!

The graphics and animations used in all these Rival Gaming casino games are top notch – amongst the best of any online casino software for video poker. The interface is intuitive and responsive, works well on multiple devices, and overall, delivers a solid game of video poker.

Our picks of the bunch are Aces & Faces and Deuces Wild, although Double Joker is probably the most exciting of the casino games on offer – it’s just a shame that it comes with a very high house edge to match.

SPECIALTY GAMES

There is very little to report on here – “specialty” games are generally just an extra category that an online casino tacks on so they have somewhere to put their strange and unusual games that don’t fit easily into any other category.

In Rival’s case, that means Bingo, Keno, and Sudoku, and not a lot else at the Rival casino I tried. It’s possible there are more casino games that have not yet been converted to HTML5, but in all honesty, you probably aren’t missing much.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE FOR RIVAL GAMING?

As a software provider, Rival Gaming has the ability to provide games that people keep coming back to. That’s an enviable talent to have. It would be interesting to see them develop their catalog out towards larger markets, as they’ve left Europe mostly untouched up to now and that feels like a place that would really appreciate Rival Gaming slots, with their innovative approach and focus on quality over quantity.

There is a decent chance that Rival Gaming will not grow all that much, and that its contribution to the online casino industry will continue to be as a creator of more “boutique” games as opposed to blockbusters.

They could maybe add some more progressive jackpot games to their slate, as that feels like something they could do without compromising the brand and it would still help Rival casinos to impact the online gambling industry in a positive way.

One way or another, there is definitely a place for Rival casino software, and a steady fanbase that will seek out its slots and table games. It’s telling that casino reviews for sites that carry their interactive slot games tend to deliver a positive verdict time after time – innovative games are as important as casino bonuses in keeping players coming back.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

WHO ARE RIVAL GAMING?

Rival Gaming is a Curacao-licensed provider of online casino platform and iGaming content, predominantly focused on American online casino players.

WHICH GAMES DID RIVAL GAMING CASINO SOFTWARE MAKE?

Rival Gaming brings many great video slots, esoteric games and casino games to life with exciting themes, features, payouts and more.

WHAT ARE THE MOST POPULAR RIVAL GAMING CASINO GAMES?

Although it’s hard for everyone to agree on the best Rival games, video slots like Desert Nights, Black Diamond and Ignition have proven big hits.

WHERE CAN I FIND RIVAL CASINO GAMES ONLINE?

If you’re looking for the best Rival Games, look no further than our list of recommended Rival Gaming casinos online.

CAN I PLAY RIVAL GAMING GAMES WITH A NO DEPOSIT BONUS?

You can find a list of the best Rival Games no deposit bonus casinos here at casinogenie.org. Here you will also find an extensive list of casino bonuses of other kinds, too.