Amaya Gaming is a Canadian software developer and operator who have extensive experience in many reaches of the iGaming industry. What you may not know is that they probably won’t be called by this name for much longer. At the company’s AGM (Annual General Meeting) this year, shareholder’s approved Amaya’s plan to rebrand as The Stars Group, and move to Toronto from Montreal. Why? Find out below.
Amaya Gaming was founded in Canada in 2004 by David Baazov, the company’s former CEO. Amaya, at first, focused on developing slot and games content for online casinos. They have since branched out into other online avenues, including real money and free play (freemium) poker, sports betting (sportsbook), and fantasy sports on both desktop and mobile.
In 2014, Amaya purchased the Rational group which meant that the company incorporated a cornucopia of well-established poker brands into its fold. These brands include PokerStars, Full Tilt, BetStars, StarsDraft, PokerStars Casino and the PokerStars Festival live poker tour brands. These in and of themselves include the European Poker Tour, PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Latin American Poker Tour and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour.
Cumulatively, these brands form the world’s largest poker community with more than 108 million registered users between them. Amaya Gaming, through all its third-party interests and subsidiaries (including the PokerStars network), are licensed in 17 jurisdictions around the world, more than any other online gaming brand in the world.
Amaya have designed and produced many online slots including titles such as Jenga, Just Vegas, Golden Jaguar, and Zodiac Wilds. Amaya have also struck numerous agreements with brands to create exclusive slots based on movies, comics and television programmes. These include DC Comics slots Wonder Woman Jackpots and Superman: Last Son of Krypton, as well as The Italian Job, Street Fighter II and Forrest Gump, all branded slots exclusively licensed to Amaya Gaming.
The company also partnered with Aristocrat Gaming, known for their terrestrial slot machines found on the Vegas gaming floor. Amaya brought many of these classic titles to the world of online casino for the first including Wild Panda and Pompeii.
Amaya Gaming also bought the Dublin-based software application provider Cryptologic back in 2012 for a cash fee of $35 million.
The company has been embroiled in controversy recently, as the former CEO David Baazov awaits trial on charges of insider trading related to the takeover of Rational Group (the Parent Group of PokerStars). The aforementioned corporate rebranding comes at a time when perhaps the company wants to try and shake off some of this controversy.
The rebranding is expected to be completed by the end of August, so do not be surprised if this page changes its name in the near future.
Amaya Gaming are also contemplating expansion into the as yet untapped Indian market. The Chief Technology Officer suggested that it would only be a matter of time before Amaya became “as usual the market leader when it comes to poker.”
For now, find all the best online casinos that feature Amaya Gaming’s slots and games.
