NetEnt Live Casino has been closed down

[neilw]

It happened on the 1st of December and there has been no official statement yet, but Evolution has shut down all NetEnt Live Casino studios and games. Up to 300 staff have been put at risk of redundancy.

From what I understand casino operators weren't warned beforehand, and clearly no one at netEnt new, as they were launching a brand new live casino game on the day of the closure.

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on my thoughts on the matter.

 

[deleted20230521]

You'd have hoped evo would merge them into its current staff pool. Be a shame for more redundancies in this current time

 

[Slottery]

It's gonna be loads of redundancies, unfortunately. Evolution got that deal on goal last week Monday (buying all shares of Netent) and first of December was the first possible day they could do this when everything came official and they have all power over Netent. Not really cool way of action, many could say that they could have done it bit different and keep on running NE live games for while and informing all staff this will be over within next few months but this was a kind of example of how to get negative PR for the company.

Before beginning of December they just didn't have any legal rights to do things and therefore thought it's not a good idea to inform even current management what gonna happen as it would probably have a negative impact to staff when they know they are kicked out soon instead of doing it like this.

Not really great for these few hundred people who most probably are made redundant, even Malta still remain main country for many operators operations, many just have found out that it's much cheaper to run many "entry level" departments like live games, customer support etc... in somewhere else where expenses (salaries) are way lower than in Malta (think Evolution is operating their live games in Latvia, correct if remember wrong), by quick look, Latvia was 4th poorest European country based on stats 2015 so you can imagine that wages there are lower than in most of other countries.

 

[sapit222]

Evolution =

 

[dunover]

It happened on the 1st of December and there has been no official statement yet, but Evolution has shut down all NetEnt Live Casino studios and games. Up to 300 staff have been put at risk of redundancy.

From what I understand casino operators weren't warned beforehand, and clearly no one at netEnt new, as they were launching a brand new live casino game on the day of the closure.

Read a bit more

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

on my thoughts on the matter.

Got this from an affiliate programme:


Dear Valued Affiliates,

As you may be aware, businesses have received confirmation today that All NetEnt live games have been discontinued with immediate effect and that the NetEnt live business and studios closed down yesterday without any advanced notice given.

There is no impact on our NetEnt slot games and all are fully operational.

We are awaiting further communication from NetEnt Live, but we have removed all NetEnt Live products from High 5 Casino.

We apologise for the request for immediate action, but this was out of our control and we thank you in advance for your speedy action in removing NetEnt Live from our reviews on your websites.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Many thanks,

 

[deleted20230521]

They could have waited till after Christmas...Nothing requires such a drastic change. The market for casino's has probably never been better seeing as people are at home locked down. Nothing some paint and rebrand couldn't fix.

Shame on you evo - No one needs redundancies now!!

 

[Lemon]

Yeah but -

Dreadful timing, but it's the same as it ever was - they don't give a fuck.

 

[News Hound]

We covered this two days ago over on Casino Gazette --> NetEnt Job Losses at Malta Live Casino Studio

 

[Slottery]

They could have waited till after Christmas...Nothing requires such a drastic change. The market for casino's has probably never been better seeing as people are at home locked down. Nothing some paint and rebrand couldn't fix.

Shame on you evo - No one needs redundancies now!!

It's really uncertain at the moment, staff haven't been made redundant yet but sent home, operations closed down and they were told they will receive email. Normal story that they go through all employees and try to see who they can keep etc... but they agreed that hundreds of jobs are in danger (as for really sure they don't keep live games operations in Malta as Latvia is much cheaper, maybe some could be offered to work there but not sure who many like to move and would be in life situation that it's even possible, you don't feed family of 3 with one Latvian live dealer wage).

Happily they naturally are still receiving their wages as normal, most who have passed their probation have at least one month notice period to get paid and they have quite many on fixed time contracts which Evolution need to compensate.

Overall, really bad handled for such big company what they come now after buying Netent, would thought there would be some bit better planning and executing of this but seems not. Many igaming companies even they are big valued, are still quite young and many started with some few peeps without that much overall business education in this level, as we have seen from some weird decision in many operators time to time.

 

[colinsunderland]

Surely NetEnt/Evolution had contracts with casinos that they would be in breach of? Unless they all have a break/termination clause of the 1st December?

 

[Slottery]

Surely NetEnt/Evolution had contracts with casinos that they would be in breach of? Unless they all have a break/termination clause of the 1st December?

I believe these are quite easy to sort out, especially this moment when there is no huge supply of live games so if you decide to fight with Evolution, you have bit problematical situation if you want to have live games on your casino.

edit: Just to add, i think it really suck what they did and not supporting Evolution actions in any spirit, all comments just my views how things are and probably goes. Unfortunately now they have quite clear monopol in live games which then gives them too good position after this shitty thing they did for many, not to mention that they also have control to Netent slots, even they have gone huge way down in that segment (what was last success from Netent?), they still have DOA:s and other well performing games, they own Red Tiget etc... So unfortunately my guess is that Evolution just get over this within short time and that they actually have counted this to be most beneficial for them, moneywise, it sucks but don't see much bad to happen for them.