NetEnt Software Review

A Bit of History

NetEnt’s roots reach as far back as 1963 when Bill Lindwall and Rolf Lundstrom founded AB Restaurang Rouleter. The company provided pokie machines to restaurants in Sweden, quickly becoming the leading figure in that space. The business would rebrand to Cherryforetagen in 1972, a brand that’s still popular to this day.

By 1996, the Swedish government was in the process of cracking down on pokie machines in bars, restaurants, and other places. Seeing the writing on the wall, Bill Lindwall’s son, Pontus Lindwall, founded NetEnt. The company’s focus was on the still new online gambling market, which wasn’t facing as much government scrutiny.

It turned out to be the right call, as the explosive growth of online casinos just a few years later catapulted NetEnt into prominence. The company was successful enough to be listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 2009, opening the door for big investments to start pouring in. Players didn’t have to wait long to start seeing the benefits. The cash injection funded beloved NetEnt classics like Gonzo’s Quest, Starburst, and Twin Spin.

NetEnt bolstered its ranks in 2019 when it acquired Red Tiger Gaming, a rising star in the online pokie space. It was around this time that the company also began experimenting with live casino games, aiming to expand into a new market. However, that came to an end just a year later when Evolution purchased and integrated NetEnt into its operations. Now part of a bigger entity, NetEnt has been refocused on doing what they do best: making awesome pokies.

The studio’s drive for quality and innovation has earned it quite a few awards over the years. At various events, it was named Slot Supplier of the Year and Mobile Supplier of the Year. NetEnt also remains one of the best developers in terms of graphics, a fact that keeps many players coming back for more.

Frequent Themes and Bonus Features

NetEnt has produced over 250 online pokie machines to date, so you’ll likely find something fun for you, regardless of your preferences. The Swedish developer has a knack for launching fun games that are easy to enjoy and figure out. They usually implement two or three unique and fun features without being overly complicated. Striking a balance between the two is an art many new developers haven’t mastered.

One of the ingredients for their success was the use of unique features. They’ve innovated a couple of times, being one of the first to use the Avalanche, synced reels, Starburst’s Expanding Wilds with re-spins, and many more. They’ve also improved on existing features, and generally, their games are pretty different from one another. You don’t get the feeling that they’re just changing the skin each time.

Their slots are always fun to play for someone who cares about the graphics used in slot machines. Even the ones they released back in 2012 and 2013 look as good as most you get from the other developers right now, a decade later.

In terms of theme diversity, NetEnt is giving us the same stories as everyone else, ranging from the classics to Wild West bandits, luxury, pirates, mobsters, or ancient civilizations. Obvious exceptions would be their branded pokie machines, ranging from cinema/TV (Narcos, The Invisible Man, Vikings) to rock n roll (Guns N’ Roses, Jimi Hendrix, and Motorhead, among many others).

NetEnt has always designed pokie machines with gorgeous graphics, and they have a long history of delivering unique features and mechanics. Much of their popularity over the last decade has been built on this amazing content, with above-average designs and features, like the following:

Twin Reel: It’s a system where you’re playing with two or more adjacent synced reels. The game selects two to five reels, and they will show the same symbols. Obviously, such a setup enables triggering multiple winning combos more easily. You can check it out in slots like Twin Spin or Twin Spin Megaways.

Avalanche: These days, it’s also known as cascading reels, among other names, but NetEnt’s Avalanche got this trend going. The feature triggers whenever you have winning combinations formed, taking away the symbols involved and bringing others to the reels in an attempt to keep you winning. You can get as many Avalanches as your luck allows, so if you keep winning, they keep triggering.

Our Thoughts on NetEnt

While some data reveals NetEnt lost some of their market share in the previous few years, they haven’t been fully absorbed by Evolution’s acquisition. The brand stands strong, with so many new competitors, thanks to the quality of their work and the attention to detail they seem to be putting in every game.

The graphics are always excellent, the features don’t feel like standard fare, and lately, they’ve also started delivering bigger jackpots. They seem to have the recipe down for popular pokie machines, and they’ve managed to entertain players with many games over the years.

Lately, we’ve been seeing a lot of new developers delivering a matching level of quality, and sometimes new and powerful game engines and features manage to steal the spotlight from NetEnt.

While they have a lot more competition at the same level these days, they remain one of the developers to keep an eye on. New pokie machines from NetEnt will always get a recommendation from us as long as the quality stays the same as we move forward.