Microgaming

Who Trades as Microgaming

The Gambling Commission's public register records microgaming as a trading name of Apricot Investments Limited, account number 39073, with a head office address at 2nd Floor, Twenty-Six Belmont Terrace, Douglas, Isle of Man — and records that trading name as “Inactive”. The two things are easy to run together and they are not the same: the licences on that account are live, and the name Microgaming is no longer a live British trading name on it. The licence summary for that account shows one licence number, 039073-R-319434-031, carrying two active remote activities: Casino (Remote) from 1 November 2014, and Gambling Software (Remote) from 11 February 2015. The register lists no domain name against the account, so no domain is tied to the brand by a regulator.

The Brand Site and Blue Sakura

The live site carrying the Microgaming name is microgaming.io. Its about page states that it delivers 500+ games including regionally tailored formats and exclusive branded content, live on over 1,000 websites and available in 40+ languages and 150+ currencies. Its terms of use state that all content on the site, including text, images, logos and software, is the intellectual property of Blue Sakura or its licensors unless otherwise stated, and that those terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales; the privacy policy is written in Blue Sakura's name. The site is explicit that it is a business-facing site and not a place to play: it states that no games or gambling functions are hosted on it and that it is not directed toward end-users or individual players. It also states that Playboy and the Rabbit Head Design are trademarks of Playboy Enterprises International, Inc. and used under license by Microgaming.

What the Brand Publishes About Its Games

microgaming.io groups the catalogue into slots, live casino and a category it calls Specialised RNG. Of the slots it says that "Microgaming offers one of the industry’s most diverse slot portfolios", and that "Our slot content is crafted in-house by multiple owned studios, each bringing a distinct creative lens". Under the line it uses for its best-known titles — "Beloved by players and known across the industry, these are the Microgaming titles that have built a following" — it names Moonlight Romance – The Awakening, Break Away Deluxe, Kong’s Jungle Tower, Almighty Zeus Empire, Sugar Mania 8000 and Lucky Twins Wilds.

The live casino line is sold as a separate brand: the site states that "Microgaming Live is a premium live casino brand designed for operators who want more than the expected" and puts its range at "15+ titles across classic and modern formats, with flexible pricing and multi-currency support". Of the third group it says that "Microgaming’s Specialised RNG portfolio delivers a world of entertainment beyond traditional slots; from fishing and arcade-style games to Qi Pai and crash classics". Those are the brand’s own descriptions of its own catalogue; no regulator publishes a catalogue of any kind.

Apricot Investments and Games Global

Apricot Investments Limited, the company the Gambling Commission records as trading under the Microgaming name, is described at some length in a filing made by a different Isle of Man games company. Games Global Ltd filed a Form F-1 registration statement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on 16 April 2024, ahead of an initial public offering. The filing names "Apricot Investments Limited (“Apricot”), which holds the right to, customizes and maintains the Games Platform that we use to distribute games to customers, and also resells our games to certain of its own iGaming operator customers as part of its turnkey gaming platform solution". It also records Apricot as the single largest source of its revenue: "our largest customer, Apricot, which accounted for 50.2% and 48.4% of our revenue for the nine months ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively".

Games Global gives its own origins in the same document: "We were incorporated in the Isle of Man on July 8, 2021, pursuant to a carve-out of the game development business of Fusion Holdings Limited." The offering did not go ahead. Games Global withdrew the registration statement on 13 May 2024, writing that "Due to current market conditions, the Company has determined not to pursue, at this time, the initial public offering of the Company’s ordinary shares to which the Registration Statement relates." The filing describes a commercial relationship between two companies; it does not say that either owns the Microgaming brand, and nothing here should be read as saying so.

What Is Not Known About Microgaming

Microgaming’s founding year cannot be settled from what the brand and the regulators publish. Neither the brand’s own site nor either regulator’s register gives a date, and the earliest date any of them attaches to the name is 1 November 2014, when the Casino (Remote) activity on the Gambling Commission licence began. There is no dependable count of the casinos carrying Microgaming games either: the brand says its games are live on over 1,000 websites, which measures distribution rather than casinos, and no regulator publishes a figure. Nor is there a figure for progressive jackpots or for a largest jackpot paid. Return to player is left out on purpose: a return figure belongs to an individual game, and often to an individual build of it, so a single number for a supplier would tell a player nothing.

A Microgaming casino is rarely a Microgaming-only casino. The large sites that carry its games draw on several software providers at once to build a longer games list, so do not be surprised to see titles from other studios alongside Microgaming’s.