Whilst some big hitters in the gaming industry, and certain markets in general, such as Sweden’s, are seeing something of a contraction at present, other, smaller outfits seem to be going from strength to strength.
This is certainly the case with Yggdrasil, the Scandinavian developer founded barely a couple of years ago by some former NetEnt employees.
It’s called the tree of life, and with good reason.
These hip newbies have announced in their report for the first half of 2014 that they had achieved record turnover during their short existence.
Yggdrasil are far too-cool-for-school to actually release the figures, though they have also gone on to itemize some more recent successes, including:
- A new sales center in Gibraltar, development hub in Krakow, Poland, and another studio in Ukraine (!).
- Accession to the prestigious if somewhat embattled GBGA, Gibraltar’s gaming authority.
- A growing portfolio of client operators, spread across 15 sites — some good ones like Mr. Green and Vera&John, some not so appealing (like Unibet) — with more to come.
In fact Yggdrasil are remaining true to their counter-culture roots (Yggdrasil was a mythical tree, geddit?) in supporting the GBGA’s battle with the UK Government and its crackdown on the industry, which Yggdrasil claim hinders the free movement of services.
Yggdrasil aren’t the only developer to post strong results in H1 of 2014 — fellow travelers Playtech are also enjoying happy days, although the latter follow a different approach to their deals with casinos.
Whereas if you open an account with Mr Green you’d be able to play not only with Yggdrasil games but also NetEnt, the company Yggdrasil’s founders came from — clearly there’s little or no bitterness there — as well as IGT. But not Playtech…
That’s because Playtech will pretty much only sign exclusive deals at this time — a casino either carries just Playtech games and none from any other supplier, or no Playtech games at all.
In any case, it’s great to see both parties doing well, regardless of their differing philosophies and games output, as it keeps the market more vital and provides more variety to the player.