NextGen Gaming Online Software Review

NextGen Online Casinos feature software focused towards video slots. NextGen Gaming has been operating in the business-to-business (B2B) support since its launch in 1999 by a pair of Australians. Today, NextGen Gaming is a subsidiary of NYX Gaming.

NextGen Gaming software is in many popular online casinos, though players might not know the brand. At present, NextGen Gaming software is licensed by 191 online casinos. William Hill, 888 Casino, Party Gaming, and Unibet all use the developer’s software, yet you might have never heard of the company.

Collaboration with other Companies

When players go to a review site, they might notice a game has several developers. Multi-party development is often done by the subsidiary of a larger company, which collaborates with the in-house design group. It also might mean a company like Microgaming or Amaya paid an independent design house like NextGen Gaming to supplement their content with additional proprietary video slots.

In the case of NextGen Casino Software, collaboration with Microgaming, Amaya, or Aristocrat is done through Openbet Casino. They designed cross-platform software which allows companies to share games. For years, Next Gen Gaming has been one of those companies. NYX Gaming bought Openbet in April 2016, but NextGen Gaming has been a part of the Open Bet network for years.

NextGen Gaming History

NextGen Gaming was founded in 1999 by Tony McAuslan and a fellow Aussie, who left the business at a fairly early stage. For the company’s first two years, Tony McAuslan was the CEO. Now he is the Director of Gaming Development, meaning he works on the design side. One gets the idea that Tony McAuslan is the design genius behind the original NextGen Online Casino video slots and early on McAuslan realized he preferred games more than the gaming business.

The Leader of the Company

Matt Davey joined NextGen in 2005 after years working for the Northern Territory government as a regulator of the Internet and e-commerce. Davey brought with him a knowledge of the emerging online economy, along with a working knowledge of politics, governmental bureaucracy, and the business community. Davey founded his own company in 2002, but took the chance on NextGen Gaming, becoming its CEO in 2005.

Over the years, Matt Davey has emerged as the face of the company, as well as the executive who handled acquisitions, mergers, and other business decisions. The partnership has worked out tremendously well, as NYX/NextGen is on the verge of becoming a massive player in the global gaming industry.

Acquisition by NYX Interactive

In 2006, NextGen Gaming was acquired by a Swedish online gaming solutions developer, NYX Interactive. Though his company was the acquisition, Matt Davey became the CEO of the merged company, NYX Gaming. Since then, NextGen Gaming has been the online and mobile slot machine developer for NYX Gaming. In this article, I provide information about both companies, because players must know one to know the other.

Matt Davey and the top executives moved from Sydney to Las Vegas. A branch of the company remained in Stockholm, while NextGen Gaming’s design house remained in Sydney, Australia. Today, NYX Gaming controls 4 in-house games studios, 3 third-party gaming studios, and 600+ games across all genres. NextGen Gaming is the chief in-house gaming studio.

Next Gen Timeline

With the acquisition of Openbet, the history of NYX/NextGen goes back even before the founding of the company. The following timeline provides red-letter dates in the growth of NextGen Online Casinos. Mergers and acquisitions are featured, along with a few awards and recognitions. This guide to NextGen’s history also shows when certain key titles were released.

1999	Tony McAuslan co-found NextGen Gaming Pty Ltd. McAuslan launch as a developer of online slots.
2005	Matt Davey becomes the CEO of NextGen Gaming. Mainly through acquisitions, Davey grows the business from 5 employees in 2005 to 131 in 2014.
2006	NYX Interactive is founded in Stockholm. NYX Interactive focuses on gaming system solutions for the World Lottery Association members.
2008	NYX Gaming had its first major funding round. Nordic Venture Partners (Per von Zelowitz) invested €5 million, or $7.34 million.
2011	Vitruvian Partners buys OpenBet for £208 million in a management buyout. Vitruvian later would sell Openbet to NYX.
2011	A company reorganization takes some duties off of Next Gen Gaming. NextGen becomes the online and mobile slots developer for NYX Gaming.
2011	Matt Davey becomes the CEO of NYX Gaming Group Ltd in October 2011.
2014	NYX Interactive went public. The company’s IPO launched on December 30.
2016	NYX Gaming Group buys OpenBet for £270 million. William Hill (£80m) and Sky Betting (£20m) backed the acquisition with a £100 million equity investment.
2016	In July 2016, NextGen announced it has revived Cryptologic’s licensed DC Comics slots, including Batman Slots, Flash Slots, and Green Lantern slots. All three are 50-Line slot machines. Superman soon will be released.

Advantages and Disadvantages of NextGen Gaming

NextGen Online Casinos Slots

NextGen Online Casinos are known for a variety of striking features in their slots: SuperBet, Select-a-Play, Up Wild, and Slide a Wild. SuperBet unlocks new features and enhancements with a small side bet. Select-a-Play games provide a choice of free game types, balancing the number of free spins versus the size of the multiplier.

Up Wild is a NextGen’s name for stacked wilds. Slide a Wild allows a player manual control over the placement and behavior of wild symbols. This lets a player set the game’s volatility.

Other Online Slots

Next Gen Online Casinos List

This is a list of Casinos developed using Next Gen Gaming Software:

OpenBet Subsidiary

To understanding how NextGen Online Casino business operations work, it helps to look at another NYX Gaming division: OpenBet. OpenBet is an open gaming platform and product suite which serves 20+ online customers and 200 different partners worldwide.

OpenBet is active in Australia, London, Singapore, and North America. The company was founded in 1996, but in May 2016 was acquired by NYX Gaming. It handled over a billion wagers in 2014 alone, serving top companies like Ladbrokes, Betfair, William Hill, Paddy Power, PMU, and SKyBet.

OpenBet’s Tools for Online Casinos

This might not sound important to what NextGen Gaming does, but OpenBet Casino works as a kind of back-end clearinghouse for online and mobile games. OpenBet’s official site describes its various partners connecting games to the Openbet Casino. When the games are connected, it allows all other partners to pick-and-choose from hundreds of titles to include in their gaming package. The site says, “Partner games are fully integrated, allowing the operator seamless use of back-office tools and controls“. As new games are released, OpenBet provides regular updates “so that all content is available to all operators“.

The list of partners in the Openbet Casino project is impressive by any standards. Take out Microgaming and NetEnt and it reads like a who’s who of international online gaming companies.

Readers can see this as a blueprint for how NextGen Gaming’s online slots end up in hundreds of prominent online casinos. Imagine Openbet as an open market for top competitors to pick-and-choose the games they want. Since May 2016, NextGen Gaming’s parent company owns Openbet outright, meaning NextGen slots are likely to be featured a bit more than in the past.

OpenBet Account Unification

Openbet’s Omni-Channel technology now allows players access to “a true multi-channel experience”, offering players the ability to play using “one account”. This gives the members full information on the player’s gaming habits, thus allowing them to tailor their development to the wider needs and wants of the player’s community. Openbet and NextGen Gaming are thus on the cusp of a new way to gamble online. Those interested in learning more should learn about Omni-Chanel’s Unify account program.

NYX Gaming Offices and Executive Staff

NYX Gaming has offices in Las Vegas, New Jersey, Malta, Belgrade, Rome, Gibraltar, and Sydney, Australia.

The key executives at NYX Gaming are Matt Davey (CEO, Las Vegas), Art Hamilton (CFO, Las Vegas), David Flynn (Exec. VP of Business Development, Stockholm), Hamish Brown (COO, Sydney), Huw Thomas (CCD and Marketing Officer, United Kingdom), John Stevens (Chief People and Culture Officer, Las Vegas), Matt Stafford (Legal Counsel, Las Vegas), Scott Smith (Chief Product Officer, Sydney), Slava Aizenshtat (Chief Tech Officer, Toronto), and Joann Head (NYX Investor Relations Manager, Toronto).

NYX Gaming and NextGen Gaming uphold the regulations of the Lotteries and Gaming Authority of Malta, The Swedish Lottery Inspection Organisation “Lotteri Inspektionen”, the French State Lottery, and The Gaming Supervisory Commission of the Isle of Man. The company is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission.

Contact Information

Conclusion

NextGen Gaming is the jack-of-all-trades of the software developer. NextGen Online Casinos are able to provide games which are adaptable for many platforms and as many other businesses as possible. That means it has not mastered the complex field of cinematic 3D video slots and doesn’t offer a lot of progressives. As one reviewer noted, NextGen Gaming is the most famous software developer you don’t know.

It might better be said that NextGen is the most popular or widespread casino software you don’t know. Their games are in William Hill, Intercasino, 888, Virgin Games, Bwin, Victor Chandler, and a host of other popular European and UK casinos. Their slots are in Platinum Play, 7 Sultans, Vegas Palms, and Royal Vegas casinos, which are so popular in Australia. NextGen Gaming titles are even in WGS Technology sites, meaning US-friendly online casinos like Liberty Slots and Miami Club Casino use the brand. Because this is a business-to-business (B2B) transaction, NextGen Gaming is not breaking US laws, even if their games are being used.

Licensed Casino Game Software

That brings us to the final point. To operate in this broad range of jurisdictions, NextGen Gaming has to maintain licensing in a huge number of countries worldwide. The UK Gambling Commission licenses NextGen Gaming, so the company has to maintain the highest standards. NextGen Gaming is a trusted and reliable operator. Players in the US gaming market understand that is a boon.