Relax Gaming Slots
Relax Gaming might sound like the world’s most chilled place to work, but it’s not all horizontal slacking at RG. In fact, there’s precious little time for kicking back and taking things easy – there’s always far too much to do and not enough time in which to do it.
The 60-strong software company is based across Europe, with staff reporting in from Tallinn, Malta, Barcelona, Finland, Sweden and the UK. It’s currently looking to add to that number, with vacancies including3D and 2D artists, HTML5/JS game developers, UI/UX designer and, perhaps most intriguingly of all, a Fraud Prevention Scientist.
If you’re wondering what that entails, Relax Gaming in typical humorous fashion, have summarised it as follows: “Honey how was your work day?” “Great, we caught a 6-man bot ring”.
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So there you have it: Relax Gaming is a hard-working, enterprising and innovative gaming company that nevertheless doesn’t take itself too seriously.
The firm’s origins, as they proudly proclaim, began like all good ideas in the pub one evening. In 2010, Patrik Österåker and Jani Tekoniemi met in a Maltese pub and, while the spirits flowed, the pair bonded over their shared skills and interests. The result of this bacchanalian encounter was Relax Gaming, which was founded with the goal of providing a gaming platform that was of a higher quality and more flexible than anything else available at the time.
Relax Gaming received a major boost early on when it partnered with Unibet who became a longstanding customer and who still work closely with the software company today. Initially, Relax Gaming employed just a handful of staff, but from humble beginnings it has grown to become a European gaming operation with its finger in many pies and staff in many countries.
In the years it’s been active, RG have developed three generations of poker products, bingo products, a huge range of themed slots that pay real money, and is now working on a complete casino solution. While the company is several times larger than it was just a few years ago, its expansion hasn’t come at the expense of the fun-loving, adventurous spirit that first fuelled it.
Today, Relax Gaming has reached the stage where it can handle pretty much everything in-house. From initial concepts to design and UX and from platform integration to licensing and compliance, RG retain staff who can handle it all. The company holds gaming licenses in key territories such as the UK, Malta, Denmark and Alderney. While business is booming, the company still finds time to visit the pub, the place where it was born all those years ago.
Relax Gaming’s Scandinavian roots start with CEO and co-founder Patrik Österåker who was born in Vaasa in Finland. Following various software jobs, he became CTO of an online gaming operator in Malta, which is when the opportunity to found RG materialised. The company was based initially in Tallinn on the Baltic coast of Estonia.
Aiding and abetting Patrik is COO Martin Stålros who was born in Skåne in the south of Sweden. Following stints with Ladbrokes and Unibet, where he worked as head of poker and bingo, Martin joined Relax Gaming and is now based in Tallinn.
There’s also another Finn who holds one of the top jobs at RG and he’s been there from the start. Kai Palomäki holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology and works as Relax Gaming’s CTO. The final Finn to occupy the upper echelons of the company is Markus Kruk, who hails from Helsinki. He has an accountancy background and works as the firm’s CFO.
Understanding the Relax Gaming story would be impossible without delving into Unibet Poker, a product in which the company’s fortunes are intertwined. Relax Gaming claims to have made poker fun again by providing a dramatically simplified playing experience that levels the playing field, allowing poker pros and amateurs alike to play. The company’s proprietary poker software favours a stripped back design that nevertheless crams in a lot of features.
Unibet Poker is a poker client that can handle a wide range of popular poker games including Texas Hold ‘Em NL, Omaha PL and Fast Fold. It’s also designed for sit and go and multi-player tournaments. Prize structures can be as simple or complex as the client desires, with achievements built in along with missions and bonus features. Players can select multiple aliases and avatars, while there’s the ability to enable a loyalty program and casino bonuses tailored to each operator.
Backgrounds can be customised, the animations are smooth and stylish, there are push notifications and the software has been designed to work as well on desktop as it does on tablet. RG have developed several versions of their phenomenally successful poker software, with a Flash-based browser version offered alongside Unibet Poker as a native iPad app. It’s also available for PC and Mac desktops.
One of the best thing about the poker client is the way its special achievements allow players to access high value tournaments. The missions, which award additional points, provide another effective means of increasing player loyalty.
Poker isn’t the only platform that Relax Gaming have tackled and mastered. Silver Bullet is the name given to their open gaming platform which has been growing in size since it was debuted, with content and distribution both being cranked up.
Silver Bullet allows clients to launch on all channels simultaneously, with a particular emphasis on mobile. As a full service product, Silver Bullet provides everything the operator could wish for including simple integration that gels with all major channels and platforms.
Silver Bullet’s flexible API allows gaming clients to get up and running within a month or less and comes packed with useful features. This includes data feeds to aid with warehousing and a web-based back office that allows for seamless reporting and player management.
Bingo is a game that’s shaken off its old-fashioned tag in recent years and begun to attract a newer, younger and more mobile generation of players. In 2014, Relax Gaming launched its bingo network in conjunction with Unibet. The platform they developed looks excellent and integrates well with existing casino products. It includes a number of useful features such as a loyalty system that increases player retention.
Relax Gaming is proud of its bingo platform but it’s not resting on its laurels: the company is still striving to refine its bingo software further with the ultimate goal of developing the ultimate bingo platform, the yardstick by which all competing products are measured. Relax Gaming’s bingo network is currently in use by Unibet as well as Maria, Bingo.com and iGame. The company is in the process of finalising partnerships with a number of other major sites.
In recent years, Relax Gaming has done what most developers tend to do, and moved into the online slots arena. Their portfolio covers a broad spectrum of themes, styles, and features, with high-end graphics and gameplay throughout. Some of the biggest hits include the Top Dawg$ online slot, which stars a collection of streetwise pooches, the Roman-themed Marching Legions, and the classic subject of Ancient Egypt is covered with games such as Maze of Osiris, and Ramses' Revenge.
Of course standard gameplay wouldn't do for a business as innovative as Relax Gaming and you'll find no end of ingenious bonus features. The Great Pigsby is an online slot slot with 243 ways to win across the reels, plus free games with gradual symbol upgrades. Snake Arena is based around the retro mobile game where a serpent chases its tail, only this time, it leaves wild symbols in its path.
Check out their range here at VegasSlotsOnline, and if you like what you see, why not explore games from similar free-thinking developers and play Push Gaming slots, or High 5 Games slots.
The future for Relax Gaming looks extremely positive. The firm was granted a gaming licence in Romania, one of the first to be awarded. It now holds a B2B supplier licence which will see its Silver Bullet platform as well as its poker and bingo software rolled out to Romanian partners.
In the coming months, Relax Gaming will continue to expand its staff as it looks to perfect its existing products and to develop fruitful partnerships in new territories. From a Malta pub to the furthest corners of Europe, Relax Gaming is an unfettered success story.
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