Bally Technologies Casinos
Bally Technologies are a developer of slot machines and various other gaming products, based in Enterprise, Nevada, and they’re currently one of the world’s oldest gaming companies, having been initially founded in 1968 as an advanced patent technology. Today, the slot machine developer makes up one of four brands owned by Scientific Games, and the company continues to pioneer various technologies accessible to casinos, both online and off-line.
If you’ve ever played at a UK-licensed online casin or even in a Bookmakers or Slots Arcade, there’s a good chance you’ll have played one of Bally’s games before – even though you may not, at the time, have known it. Below, we’re going to look at the most popular games they offer, alongside a brief history of the company, which you'll fine later on in the article.
Best UK Bally Technologies Casinos & Bonuses
Slots
Bally Technologies are credited with creating some of the most popular slot games in history, and while not all of their games made it onto the online marketplace, the reliability and creativity that can be seen in almost all the releases from the software provider has helped cement their position in the industry as a market leader, and most online casinos and gaming operators consider it an achievement to be able to feature Bally Technologies games at their casino.
While Bally Technologies have – in certain circumstances – worked on developing casino games, their primary focus remains on their slot development, and in this post, we aren’t going to look at the casino table games with the Bally Technologies name attached to them, as they simply aren’t widespread enough – or even available in most jurisdictions.
As Bally Technologies are an American-based company, it goes without saying that some of their games are developed primarily for the American markets. This means that if you’re playing from the UK, there’s a chance you won’t see some of the games listed below available for play
This is the area in which Bally technologies are perhaps most well-known for, and throughout the last two decades, a number of relatively high-profile games have emerged from the software provider centred around TV shows. Below, we’ll look at a few of the most popular slots in this category.
Michael Jackson: King of Pop
Virtually every human being on the planet will have heard of Michael Jackson, and most will be able to list a number of his songs. So, this is one of the most popular video slots from the software provider, of course, centering around the pop icon and his music.
Sharp, pungent graphics accompany every spin, and with the inclusion of actual songs from Michael Jackson, is the perfect game for those who are a fan of the King of Pop.
Pawn Stars
UK players may not be as familiar with this TV show as those living in the US, but it’s definitely worth mentioning, as it’s one of the games that made Bally so popular with American players, particularly in the “post-black-Friday era”.
If you’ve never seen the show before, Pawn Stars centres around a family who own a pawn shop in Las Vegas. The show follows them as they buy unique, abstract items, and the show has developed somewhat of a cult following, thanks to its tongue in cheek humour, and risqué dialect.
The slot version of Pawn Stars is currently only available to play within land-based-casinos, but it’s expected to make its way online soon, as over 70% of casinos in Sin City are said to feature it.
Titanic
One of the most deadly accidents of the early 1900s, later depicted in one of the most popular films in history – there’s very few adults alive on this planet who haven’t seen or heard of Titanic. This beautifully quaint and incredibly well-made slot from Bally perfectly incorporates a feeling of glamour and class into every spin, while ensuring an enjoyable, and exciting gaming experience.
Titanic is also somewhat of a “first” for Bally, as it was one of the first slots to come out of their development studios featuring randomly-triggered bonuses. A randomly-triggered bonus is one that doesn’t require you to land any scatter symbols, and as the name suggests, it simply triggers randomly, in the main base-game. There is also the main bonus, which is landed by getting a scatter symbol in the first, third, and fifth reel – and with eight different bonuses up for grabs, is one of the more entertaining games in the Bally range.
Quick Hit
While it’s evident that the software provider is extremely competent at taking television and film-based themes and turning them into slots, they’re also credited with a number of general slots that don’t rely on popular themes, and one of the most successful of these is Quick Hit – a game that’s found in both land-based casinos and online casinos.
In fact, the game has become so popular that it can even be found in bookmakers throughout the United Kingdom – most notably Coral and Ladbrokes – and while the online and off-line versions are relatively different in terms of gameplay and win potential, they both centre around an internal game jackpot, which is awarded by landing quick hit symbols on the reels.
Some of the other popular games from Bally technologies include Lucky Tree, Vegas Hits, Rocket Returns, Lady Robin Hood, Cash Wizard, Cirque du Soleil, and Dragon Spin.
Jackpot Games
While Bally don’t currently offer any online video slots with progressive jackpots, there are a couple of game specific jackpot games worth pointing out. If you’re not familiar with anon progressive jackpot game, it’s fairly simple to get your head round. Instead of the jackpot been shared amongst multiple online casinos, when you play an internal game jackpot, the jackpot is awarded on a certain combination, and doesn’t change. This means that while it won’t increase to multi-million pound figures, it is a little easier to win, and means you’re also not competing with thousands of other players to hit the jackpot.
88 Fortunes
Bally’s sole jackpot game is called 88 Fortunes, which is an oriental-themed game. It’s playable from as little as 88p per spin, ensuring it’s affordable for players on all budgets. It’s also one of the first Bally games to become fully mobile-optimised, and the reason why is clear: players love it thanks to the four jackpots inside the game, and while they’re not progressive, they can still get relatively high. The jackpots themselves are the mini, minor, major and grand, and the size of the jackpot depends entirely on how much you stake. So, the more you wager each spin, the higher the jackpot amount will be!
To scoop the jackpot, you need to collect enough jackpot symbols to open up the Chinese ornament at the top of the screen. This can be done through the base game, but it’s much quicker through the free spins round. From there, it’s a simple "Pick Me Bonus" to determine which jackpot you’re going to be awarded, and if you’re lucky enough to pick three of the grand jackpot symbols, you will be walking away with a whopping 10,000X.
88 Fortunes hasn’t been around long, but it’s already become a really popular game with players, so it’s likely that will see more like this from Bally technologies. We may even see a progressive jackpot game from Bally – although that remains to be seen!
About Bally Technologies
- Year Founded: 1968
- Owner: Scientific Games
- Publicly Traded: No
History
Bally (or Bally Technologies) is a software developer, best known for creating slot machines, and casino games, provided to online casinos, and land-based-casinos around the world. First founded in 1968, it’s one of the oldest online gambling companies in the world today, and with over half a century of experience working within the industry, the team know a thing or two about meeting players’ expectations! The company was initially founded as “Advanced Patent Technology”, although it eventually underwent a name-change to “Alliance Gaming” before a 1996 acquisition of Bally Gaming International saw them use the new company’s name.
The company was slow to break through to the online market, but when it did, it quickly found success and players were more than happy to play with a software provider they already knew were reliable and honest online. At the beginning of online casinos, players were very sceptical about how “fair” online casinos were, so playing with a trusted, reputable name was a big bonus.
The company went from strength to strength, and in 2014, it was purchased by Scientific Games, of which it is still a part of, making up one of four of the brands owned by the parent company. The other three are: SG, WMS and Shuffle Master.
The Future for Bally Technologies
In terms of what the future holds of Bally, it’s likely we’ll see them continue in a similar fashion to how they’re operating now with perhaps a little more emphasis on mobile gaming, as that’s one of the main, upcoming areas that software providers appear to be targeting these days. Most importantly, however, is the quality of the games, and Bally know they can’t afford to sacrifice their stellar reputation by rushing, so anything we do see from the software provider will likely be very high-quality.