Pragmatic Play was the big winner at last night’s CasinoBeats Games Developer Awards, where it secured three prizes including the coveted Slot of the Year 2022 title for Gates of Olympus.

The second edition of the Awards took place at the Hilton, Malta in front of an audience of industry executives, who saw 20 honours handed out to winners ranging from the biggest names in games development to the best emerging studios. 

Pragmatic Play’s team walked away with a pair of trophies in the Game Performance section of the Awards, winning the Slot Legacy Title category for Sweet Bonanza, before Gates of Olympus saw off competition from NetEnt’s Starburst XXXtreme and Relax Gaming’s Top Dawg$ to be named Slot of the Year. 

Book of Destiny by Print Studios claimed the Slot Studio Debut 2022 title, while Playtech’s Buffalo Blitz MegaWays was named Slot to Watch 2022 and the Game Performance section was completed by Relax Gaming and CasinoGrounds winning Slot Collaboration of the Year for Beast Mode.  

Habanero’s Orbs Of Atlantis won the Game Innovation award, ahead of Evoplay’s Star Guardians and AvatarUX’s Lollipop, with the category decided by a vote of delegates at the CasinoBeats Summit conference earlier in the day. 

The Game Creation section also saw wins for Blueprint Gaming’s The Goonies Return (Game Licensed Content), Stakelogic’s Up6Timer (Game Retro-Style), Peter & Sons’ Xibalba (Game Narrative),  Evoplay’s Star Guardians (Game Design & Art Direction), and Relax Gaming’s Top Dawg$ (Game Design & Art Direction).

In the SlotCatalog section of the awards, which were decided based on performance data from the leading analytics platform for the slots industry, Pragmatic Play recorded its third triumph of the evening in the Game Studio of the Year – Large category. The Medium and Small studio awards went to Nolimit City and Triple Edge Studios respectively.

The Outperforming Game Studio of the Year awards, which honour the developers that have seen their SlotCatalog Slot Rank rise most over the past 12 months, went to Hacksaw Gaming (Large Studio), G.Games (Medium Studio) and 4ThePlayer (Small Studio), while Reel Kingdom was named SlotCatalog Rookie of the Year. 

Completing the evening’s winners were CasinoGrounds’ LetsGiveItASpin, who was named Streamer of the Year, and Bojoko, which landed the Innovation in Marketing prize for its ‘Are You Sure the Game’s Fair? (National Anthem)’ video ad campaign. 

Rasmus Sojmark, Founder and CEO of the event’s organiser SBC, said: “Huge congratulations to all the winners at the second annual CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards.

“The high quality of the shortlists that our independent judging panels and voters selected the winners from really showcased the industry’s commitment to innovation and creativity. From established major players continuing to come up with stunning original ideas to new studios making a splash with their imaginative releases, the games development sector is in great shape.” 

Sojmark added: “Events such as the Game Developer Awards are made possible by the ongoing support of our sponsors and partners. I’d like to thank our great partner GamingMalta and headline sponsors Evoplay and Synot Games, as well as all the other companies that continue to work with SBC.” 

The Game Developer Awards were the concluding event of Malta’s Spring iGaming Week, which also featured the KPMG Gaming eSummit conference and the CasinoBeats Summit conference and exhibition. 

CasinoBeats Game Developer Awards Winners 

Slot of the Year 2022

Winner: Pragmatic Play – Gates of Olympus

Silver: NetEnt – Starburst XXXtreme

Bronze: Relax Gaming – Top Dawg$

Slot to Watch 2022

Winner: Playtech – Buffalo Blitz MegaWays   

Silver: Relax Gaming- Money Cart 2

Bronze: AvatarUX Studios – Lollipop

Slot Studio Debut 2022

Winner: Print Studios – Book of Destiny  

Silver: Wizard Games – Gods of Kemet 

Bronze: Atomic Slot Lab powered by Bragg – Egyptian Magic

Slot Legacy Title

Winner: Pragmatic Play – Sweet Bonanza

Silver: NetEnt – Starburst

Bronze: Games Global – Mega Moolah

Slot Collaboration of the Year

Winner: Relax Gaming and Casino Grounds – Beast Mode  

Silver: Peter & Sons and Yggdrasil – Valkyries

Bronze: 4ThePlayer – 90k Yeti Gigablox

Game Innovation

Winner : Habanero – Orbs Of Atlantis

Silver: Evoplay – Star Guardians 

Bronze: AvatarUX’s Lollipop.

Game Licensed Content

Winner: Blueprint Gaming – The Goonies Return 

Silver: Slingshot Studios – Game of Thrones Power Stacks

Bronze: Playtech – The Walking Dead

Game Retro-Style

Winner : Stakelogic – Up6Timer 

Silver: Inspired Entertainment – Space Invaders

Bronze: EGT Interactive – Hot Deco

Game Narrative

Winner: Peter & Sons – Xibalba 

Silver: Quickspin – Big Bad Wolf Megaways

Bronze: Betsoft – Return To Paris

Game Design & Art Direction

Winner : Evoplay – Star Guardians 

Silver: BF Games – Cave of Fortune

Bronze: Peter & Sons – Xibalba

Game Music / Soundtrack

Winner: Relax Gaming – Top Dawg$

Silver: Stormcraft Studios – Thunderstruck® Wild Lightning

Bronze: Hacksaw Gaming – Chaos Crew

Innovation in Marketing

Winner : Bojoko – Are You Sure the Game’s Fair? (National Anthem) 

Silver: Call to Action – Taste for Classics

Bronze: Blexr – Popeye

Streamer of the Year

Winner: CasinoGrounds, LetsGiveItASpin

Silver: Hideous Slots

Bronze: Classybeef, League of Entertainment

SlotCatalog Rookie of the Year

Winner: Reel Kingdom 

SlotCatalog Outperforming Game Studio of the Year

Winner – Small Studio: 4ThePlayer

Winner – Medium Studio: G.Games

Winner – Large Studio: Hacksaw Gaming

SlotCatalog Game Studio of the Year 

Winner – Small Studio: Triple Edge Studios 

Winner – Medium Studio: Nolimit City

Winner – Large Studio: Pragmatic Play