How Virgin Games started up with their casino gaming
Virgin Games was founded in 1983 as a division of the Virgin Group. Masterminded by a group of people called the Gang of five, Virgin Games has since then been transferred to different owners a handful of times with each company putting a new spin on the business.
By the late 80’s, Virgin Games had become a multimedia powerhouse of the time, with divisions across the UK, Europe and the US. While some of the divisions have folded today, Virgin Games became a legendary game producer and media distributor that have worked with major interactive studios, including Disney.
Below, we’ll take a closer look at the origins of Virgin Games and explore how they started up casino gaming.
How it all started
Virgin was first created as an extension of the conglomerate giant – Virgin, who at the time was invested in over 400 different companies. The business was headed up by Nick Alexander, who had recently left Thorn EMI and was looking for his next opportunity within the music and publishing world.
It’s hard to believe that such a powerful company once relied on the submissions of freelance developers, but they soon rocketed to success and built their very own in-house team just a year after inception. This is the team known as the Gang of Five. Some of their earliest successes include Sorcery and Dan Dare.
A couple of years later, Virgin Games acquired a couple of other smaller publishing companies, including Rabbit Software, New Generation Software, and Leisure Genius. These companies owned the very first computer versions of Scrabble, Monopoly and Cluedo, which Virgin Games became exclusive owners off, purchasing the rights to these titles.
This was a key move on Virgin Game’s part as these games are hugely successful online today and are some of the most popular titles to be played online.
A brief timeline of Virgin Games next moves
Throughout the next couple of decades, Virgin would acquire a number of different production and development companies and change their name multiple times, perhaps distorting the Virgin Games brand reputation. Below is a timeline of such activity:
- Virgin Games was founded in 1983
- In 1987/8, Virgin Games bought the budget publisher Mastertronic and changed their name to Virgin Mastertronic.
- In 1991, Virgin Mastertronic changed their name back to Virgin Games
- In 1993/4, Virgin Games changed their name to Virgin Interactive Entertainment.
- In 1999, Virgin Interactive Entertainment was acquired by Titus Software.
- On July 1, 2003 Virgin Interactive Entertainment changed their name to Avalon Interactive.
- 2003, An unrelated online casino service called Virgin Games Ltd. is founded.
- In 2005, Avalon Interactive went bankrupt with Titus Software.
The introduction of Virgin’s casino games
In 2003, Virgin Games Ltd was introduced, offering exclusively online casino games. Within just a few years of being established, Virgin Games took basic online games and made them a phenomenon with the British public and further beyond too. The site began offering online poker, slots, bingo, and many other traditional casino games.
While real life casino venues were very popular at the time, the start of the millennium introduced new technologies that meant people could access entertainment on demand and at the touch of a button. Virgin Games revolutionised traditional games by adding a spin and making them simply fun and eye-catching.
The transfer of Virgin Games to Gamesys
In 2013, Virgin Games was purchased by a successful games holding company called Gamesys. Gamsys was a multinational software company, focusing on gaming development and sales across the world. Their aim in purchasing Virgin Games was to add more of a social aspect to online gaming, while growing Virgin Games beyond British shores.
At the time, Gamsys was a leading provider of bingo and online slots games, operating leading brands such as Jackpotjoy.com, The Sun Bingo, and Caesars Casino. They also developed their own social gaming properties in addition to this.
After acquiring Virgin games, Gamesys migrated it onto its own platform and did a brand new launch across the UK. At the time, Richard Branson released a statement that supported the acquisition and talked positively of plans for international expansion. After successfully dominating the online casino market in the UK, Gamesys formed a strategy to extend activities across Europe, which is still in operation today.
The future of Virgin Games
As new and ever evolving technologies are developed, the online gaming industry, being one of the quickest to acquire such technologies, will continue to expand. As such, It looks like Virgin Games will continue to dominate the British and European markets for online casino gaming, while continuing to offer new and innovative products on a regular basis.
In the last few years, we have seen the addition of e-sports games which has added a whole new division to online casinos, attracting a wider audience of people from across the world that would like to get in on the sporting action.
In addition, we’ve seen the expansion of online slots, with smarter algorithm technologies being used and themed slot games being introduced. We’ve also seen live dealer poker rooms, bridging the gap between the physical and digital worlds.
Overall, in what started out as a small record company, Virgin Games is today a major player in the online casino gaming world and continues to expand while showing no signs of slowing down.
