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Microgaming Scoops Innovator of the Year Award at IGA

Publishing: February 10, 2016

Microgaming scooped the ‘Innovator of the Year’ award at IGA 2016 (the International Gaming Awards). This honour was given to Microgaming for its work on a game called VR Roulette - a game that was built for use with the Oculus Rift DK 2 headset and Leap Motion 3D Controller. This isn’t the first time that Microgaming has won an award for VR Roulette.

This leading online casino provider also won the ‘Digital Gaming Innovation’ award for its forward thinking work in Virtual Reality and Wearable Technology on September 28th, 2015, at the Global Gaming Awards. Also at this same event Microgaming won the ‘Digital Product of the Year’ award for the Jurassic Park online pokie that arrived in Australian online casinos in August 2014.

The good news for Australian players is that Microgaming is now in the development stages of the sequel to this pokie – a game called Jurassic World. We briefly discussed this in an article that we published on this website on February 3rd 2016, entitled: Microgaming To Create New Branded Pokie.

VR Roulette is just one of several ground-breaking products that Microgaming has been working on over the past 12 months. One of their most famous pokies, Thunderstruck, has now been made available for a smartwatch called Android Wear. They have also developed an in-play sports betting prototype for Google Glass, as well as virtual and augmented reality apps.

The IGA is now in its ninth year and it took place this year on February 1st (Monday) in London at the Savoy Hotel. This prestigious awards ceremony acted as the perfect curtain-raiser to ICE Totally Gaming – another annual event which also took place in London, at the ExCel exhibition centre from February 2nd to 4th. Microgaming previewed VR Roulette in the Microgaming CRYO lab.

While showcasing their latest innovations, Microgaming was also handed an official Guinness World Records® certificate for a record-breaking win that occurred in 2015. On October 6th UK player Jonathon Heywood from Cheshire, England, won the ‘Largest Jackpot Payout In An Online Slot Machine Game’ at Betway Casino. He netted a record breaking £13,213,838.68 (AU$26.7 million). The winner and Betway Casino were also on Microgaming’s stand to pick up Guinness World Records® certificates.

“What a fantastic start to ICE! And what a tremendous accolade for our Research and Development team. They are constantly thinking ahead and pushing the boundaries, and deserve praise for consistently producing pioneering solutions that are effectively shaping the future of online gaming. This award, the second of its kind in recent months, further cements our status as the creative force in our industry. It really is a fantastic achievement – well done to all involved,” said Microgaming’s CEO, Roger Raatgever.

He continued, “It was fantastic to welcome Jon to our stand at ICE for the official Guinness World Records certificate handover. Having spent some time with him today, I can honestly say it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. We’re proud to share the world record and look forward to creating our next jackpot millionaire.” All of these comments came from recent Microgaming press releases.