The Betdigital Story

Betdigital was founded in 2011 with a mandate to create content and systems for both the UK and international markets. Its key players possess over 50 years’ experience in games development and sales between them, and this in-depth knowledge enabled the firm to get off to a promising start.

The Betdigital team excel at systems development and content development, the former based around their proprietary GRID and SystemX technology. The company have billed SystemX as the industry’s first truly cross-platform gaming engine, and it was this, more than anything, that sealed the company’s early success as they drew attention from third party and online games developers seeking to infiltrate the land-based gaming market.

Coupled with Betdigital’s high quality games, which are developed in-house and deployed on major platforms, the company appears to have struck gold. Betdigital claims its Oxford office, which is situated five minutes from the A34 Marcham Interchange, is a fun place to work, with a convivial atmosphere, strong work ethic and flexible working patterns. They’re also not averse to a few after-works drinks or informal lunch/dinner; good to know should your CV wind up winging its way to them.

Proprietary Technology

Every software company maintains its share of proprietary systems and Betdigital have two to their name. Known as SystemX and GRID, these systems are integral to the company’s vision and ongoing success. The two systems complement one another, while fulfilling distinct roles.

SystemX is the firm’s cross-platform integration system: it’s what makes Betdigital’s products work with third-party software and enablesonline casino operators to seamlessly mesh various systems and games together.

GRID, meanwhile, is Betdigital’s game engine. Flexible and finely tuned, GRID is at the heart of every game the Oxford outfit creates, enabling it to bring new titles to market within a short timeframe whilst ensuring that they will not be beset by bugs and glitches.

Third party developers may use SystemX and GRID, or the SystemX interface only if they already have a game framework to work with. The benefits for developers are manifold: thanks to SystemX they can access a stable platform, work with multiple operators and reduce the time it takes to bring titles to market; Betdigital estimates this time can be reduced from an average of 16 months to as little as 12 weeks. With Betdigital taking care of the testing and liaising with the operator, the developer is free to focus on creating the best quality game they can.

SystemX, Betdigital’s proprietary multi-platform interface, allows for a game to operate on multiple platforms via a single common interface. This ability significantly reduces development costs and enables Betdigital to pass on these savings to the client.

Thanks to its API, SystemX is highly configurable and allows for seamless integration. It’s also been designed to be easily upgradable, both for web and land-based platforms. SystemX additionally comes bundled with full support, including comprehensive web documentation and vendor tools. Because SystemX is regularly updated and supported, clients can utilize it in confidence, knowing that games will work smoothly not just now, but for the foreseeable future. It’s a similar story with GRID which is an acronym of Game Rapid Integration & Development System.

Betdigital’s game development framework is easily configurable using XML and has been designed with other game developers in mind, allowing them to create quality games without the lead-time typically associated with such an undertaking. GRID is fully integrated with SystemX and utilises a hardware accelerated OpenGL. Graphics, animations, movies and sounds are all fully configurable via XML with no recompilation needed. Games designed with GRID are characterised by unlimited reel displays, reels-in-reels and the ability to rotate and scale, which is ideal for mobile devices in particular.

It also includes TrueType and bitmap font support, ensuring that games look consistently sharp across all devices. Such are the time-savings afforded by GRID, the development cycle can see XML scripts for the game personality completed in under a week, with the code for the state-driven C++ game engine delivered in anywhere from 2 to 8 weeks.

Testing on the target platform will take around a week, followed by release to the platform provider and deployment onto the market which take just a day each.

Digital Games from the Digital Developer

While SystemX and GRID will be of interest to developers and operators, end-users are more interested in Betdigital’s games. You’d expect the company to excel at using its proprietary system, and you’d be right: Betdigital games are every bit as smooth, playable and enjoyable as you’d hope.

The Oxford firm’s online slots are immersive and well designed, from both an operator’s perspective and a player’s. City of Gold is a 5-reel slot that sees players plunge into a world of Aztec adventure and glittering treasure. Clean design, with an emphasis on legibility, make the slot satisfying and simple to play.

It’s a similar story with Super Pots, whose retro design is based around the BAR, O and X symbols that were once commonplace in many British amusement arcades.

Every self-respecting games developer has a fruits-based title and Betdigital’s is called Fantastic Fruits. Again, the graphics are top-notch, deploying a style that’s markedly more lifelike than that of most devs. Caesars Palace might just be one of the most copied slot machine titles of all times; Betdigital’s might not score many points for originality, but the huge wins that can be generated more than atone for this.

Most of the company’s slots employ 5 reels and around 20 lines, with playing card symbols often used, interspersed with theme symbols; crowns and precious stones in the case of Royal Gems. Shamrock Surprise squeezes in every Irish trope imaginable, but wraps it up in cute graphics that it’s hard to find fault with. Big Money Bingo adopts a similar format, while Magic Multiplier Bar-X is a highly popular slot that again mimics the fruit machines of yore.

For operators or players who are interested in testing Betdigital’s games before putting real money on the line, the company is happy to share playable demos on request.

Thanks to its ability to create stable, cross-platform compatible games and to supply its proprietary SystemX and GRID technologies to third parties, Betdigital’s international reputation is fully merited. There may be newer gaming companies out there, but few can hold a flame to Oxford’s finest developers of gaming software.

With a focus on quality over quantity, Betdigital have elected not to saturate the market with games that bear an uncanny resemblance to one another; instead, the titles they have released have been chosen for their longevity and stability, terms that may not be buzzwords, but which are worthy descriptors for any company that intends to build lasting relationships with its clients.