Buying Roulette Software: Live Roulette, or Online Roulette?

Online roulette software, or live roulette software games? It’s a question players often have to ponder when deciding what to play. As a casino, this question is also one that your company should consider for the sake of your game library. In this article, we’ll check out some differences between these two types of roulette games, to help your company decide which might be more suitable to include in your casino, or possibly even both if your budget permits it.

Table of Contents

  1. Online Roulette
    1.1 Cheaper Costs
    1.2 Players Can Dictate Their Own Pace
    1.3 Wider Variety of Gimmicks
  2. Live Roulette
    2.1 Atmosphere
    2.2 Social Interaction
    2.3 Perceived Transparency
  3. Call to Action

Online Roulette

Cheaper Costs

There’s no denying the fact that online roulette software games are a lot cheaper to set up than live roulette software. With live roulette, your company needs all sorts of equipment, like the wheel, the lights, and the camera. And that’s not yet taking into account the cost of renting a studio long term, whether it’s done by your company, or by a provider that then passes on some costs to you. Or even the salary requirements to hire a host! 

With online roulette, your company just needs to pay for the software, if your company already has an existing casino website. It’ll be easier to maintain too, without the risk of physical equipment like the wheel breaking down.

Players Can Dictate Their Own Pace

Online roulette software also benefits newer players as well as those who prefer slower-paced games. At physical and live roulette software games, these players have to keep up with the host, and other players who might not slow down to accommodate them. Because of this, frustration sometimes sets in as they fail to bet on time and miss rounds. Or even worse, they might place the wrong bet without enough time to think it through.

While some players enjoy this fast-paced gameplay, others might just be turned off and leave for good. To increase player retention, it’s helpful for your casino to offer online roulette software options. That way, players can experiment and try the games out at their own pace. They can pause between spins as long as they want, take time to think, and even go off to do chores if they are playing at home. Offering this level of convenience could lead to higher customer satisfaction.

The ability for your players to play at any time and anywhere also translates to a higher player volume, as they won’t be limited by full roulette lobbies unlike live games.

Wider Variety of Gimmicks

Another advantage of online roulettes is that they can offer your players a wider variety of interesting and exciting gimmicks, instead of being forced to adhere to a standard wheel-and-host setup. 

While there are some live roulette software games that shake things up a little, like Lightning Roulette by Evolution Gaming which has ‘lightning’ strike certain lucky numbers, they are mostly still limited by the fact that the host needs to spin the wheel. This means no weirdly-shaped wheels that can’t spin, or even roulette games without a wheel.

With online roulette software, there are no such limitations, since the wheel is just a graphical abstraction with the background software running everything. There are loads of crazy online roulette software games, including Lucky Star (a star-shaped roulette), and a Pinball Roulette made by Playtech! Many of these online roulettes offer unique bonus mechanisms as well, which could make things even more exciting for your casino players.

Live Roulette

Atmosphere

Atmosphere is an aspect where live roulettes still triumph over online roulettes, even with how much technology has advanced. As well-made as graphics and sound effects are, they can’t fully replicate the feeling of sitting in a casino (or at least a live streamed lobby) alongside other players, watching excitedly as the host spins the wheel and everything lights up. 

It’s safe to say live roulettes offer a higher level of immersion and excitement for players, especially if they are more used to real casinos.

Social Interaction

In that regard, live roulettes also offer more opportunities for social interaction. Yale University’s research has indicated that social gamblers account for 96% to 98% of the gambling population! Of course, that doesn’t mean these gamblers can’t also play solo, but it does show that socialization is an important part of gambling for many players.

Online roulette software games typically don’t have many avenues for communication between players, if they even allow multiplayer sessions to begin with. On the other hand, live roulette software games have live chat features, allowing your players to not only communicate with each other, but also the host of the game!

Perceived Transparency

Rightfully or wrongly, live casino games including roulette tend to be perceived as fairer compared to their online counterparts. This is because players assume that since they can see the wheel being spun, there is no foul play or any errors committed behind the scenes by your casino. 

The truth is, online roulette software games have more unbiased results due to Random Number Generators handling the results instead of a human host. Human hosts may be prone to inconsistent behavior, like spinning the wheel with different levels of force each time.

But none of that matters to the players, since the perception of fairness is what really counts rather than the truth. 

Call to Action

It’s safe to say both live roulette software as well as online roulette software games have their upsides and downsides. It’s important to make sure your company’s goals and target audience are clear. It’s also important to engage with a good provider who can advise you on your options and potentially provide both choices. In this regard, your company needs to choose a provider wisely, and partners like Nautilus Games are good options to pick.