IGT Slot Machines & Online Casinos

International Game Technology (IGT) focuses on the development, design, production and leasing of electronic gaming products and systems equipment, such as slot machines, along with mobile gambling apps for the Android and iOS as well as online solutions. The global company is based in Nevada, US, with major offices in the casino capital of the world, Reno and Las Vegas.

IGT also has offices scattered across the United States. At present, the President and Chief Executive Officer of IGT are Eric Berg and Patti Hart respectively. IGT has reported an annual revenue of over $1.5 billion and is one of the leading casino gaming technology developers in the world.

IGT Innovations in Slot Machines

IGT has always been synonymous with innovative gaming products. One of the most successful slot machines of all time, titled Wheel of Fortune, was created by IGT. Although the game was developed for land-based casinos, it has also raked in considerable revenue as an online slot game at popular casino sites.

In 2005, Fort Knox, the first progressive Mega Jackpot multi-level product was launched by IGT. The following year saw IGT celebrate the success of its Wheel of Fortune slot with the release of a special addition which included community bonus and group play games.

The WagerWorks acquisition in 2005 allowed IGT to offer slot and casino games to reputed online casinos including Betfair, William Hill and Paddy Power. Some of the successful online slots developed and released by IGT include Wheel of Fortune, Rainbow Riches, Da Vinci Diamonds, Cleopatra and Elvis all of which are Mac compatible. Online players are offered almost 110 real money betting options in several regulated jurisdictions. The mobile portfolio of IGT Interactive offers table, slots and other casino games to players utilizing different mobile technologies such as Android and Apple.

IGT has won a number of awards including the Best Slot Manufacturer of the Year in 2009 and 2010 at the International Gaming Awards. The company continued to win several accolades including the top honors at the 8th Annual Global Gaming Business Expo and over 15 awards in the Best of Gaming 2010 held by Casino Player magazine. IGT also scooped 35 awards at the Best of Slots Awards held by Strictly Slots. In late 2010, the company launched its 2 millionth slot machine and celebrated with a grand function.

IGT continues to design, develop and release innovative gaming products across its land-based and online casinos (see this page for online) as the company is determined to provide superior gaming and gambling entertainment to its valuable customers.

The road to IGT’s success has been a long and steady one. The company was founded in the beginning of the 1950s and was registered as a private company. IGT soon released video poker machines which became a resounding success. The machines gave IGT the opportunity to venture into different arenas of gaming and gambling products.

Bolstered by the incredible business of the video poker machines, IGT became a public company in the beginning of the 1980s. The following decades would prove to be some of the most important business years of the company. Electronic Data Technologies was acquired by IGT in 1984 and allowed the company to track players with a computerized concept.

IGT used this advanced technology to incorporate the Frequent Player program to rewards its valuable players. The company was one of the first to introduce these programs which have since become a norm in the casino industry to retain existing players and attract new ones. IGT did not rest on its laurels but decided to further develop the technology which today is the IGT Advantage and sbX systems.

IGT introduced several new product portfolios after it was publicly listed. Exactly a year after the company went public; the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) listed the company in early 1991. IGT opened branch offices across the world starting with IGT Europe in 1992 and continuing with service and sales offices in South Africa and Argentina. Following the resounding success of the company in these few years, IGT was named one of the top-performing stocks by the NYSE.

Important Acquisitions by IGT

Notable acquisitions made in 1998 by IGT included the company’s games product distributor, Sodak Gaming and UK based Barcrest Gaming. The company continued to discover and succeed at new frontiers of the gaming industry with its product offerings and business strategies.

In the early 2000s, IGT was an unstoppable force that acquired several small gaming companies such as Anchor Gaming and Silicon Gaming. The acquisition of the latter was one of IGT’s smartest business decisions, as gaming operations revenue doubled with the announcement of the same.

IGT continued to swallow several gaming companies including Acres Gaming which offered path-breaking systems and bonus technology to the company’s gaming products portfolio. It was around this time that IGT realized the relevance of a presence in the rapidly rising gaming and lottery markets in Canada. Within a few months, IGT Canada had been launched.

In its 25th year as a publicly listed company, WagerWorks, a leading online gaming developer, was acquired by IGT in 2005. The company took advantage of the emergence of gaming markets across the world and established IGT offices in Russia, Mexico and Macau.

At the Global Gaming Expo held every year at Las Vegas, it became typical of IGT to make an announcement of a new revolutionary gaming product offering. For a long time, gaming was considered a solo experience until IGT’s announcement of a product launch in 2006 at the Global Gaming Expo. The company launched the first M-P Series in the gaming industry which allowed multiple players to wager on the same table game. The product specialized in electronic baccarat and roulette games.

IGT established several Research and Development facilities all over the world beginning with one in Nevada in 2008 followed by another in Beijing, China in 2009. Cyberview Technology, Inc was taken over by IGT to diversify its market and business opportunities in the untapped UK market. In the following year, IGT ventured into online and mobile gaming with the launch of its Interactive products division which has since garnered a notable reputation. In 2011, IGT took over the reputed poker network Entraction which was based in Sweden. A Seattle based Facebook Company was acquired in 2012 titled Double Down.