Merkur Gaming – Slots, Casino Games and its History
Merkur Gaming are a top ranked casino game design company. Merkur are part of the massive German gaming conglomerate Gauselmann. The Gauselmann group are not well known in the United Kingdom, but are a massive player in the European and worldwide gaming market, with Merkur being their best known brand. The Gauselmann group as a whole employs close to 15,000 people in more than forty countries across the globe when all its many sub-divisions and subsidiaries are included.
The Merkur division is based in Lubbecke, a small town in Northern Germany, around fifty miles west of Hannover and south of Bremen. The company are responsible for the design of approaching two hundred different online slots. They also design and manufacture cabinet based slot machines for land based casinos too.
Indeed, Merkur are a major regional employer in this relatively rural part of the country. The company employs over five hundred people in total, whereas the town of Lubbecke itself has a population of less than 30,000. The company’s slot machine cabinet manufacturing operation is based in the town. Merkur also has substantial software operations in India and Peru, and smaller development offices in the United Kingdom, the United States and also in geographical neighbours Austria, Holland and Serbia.
The company is one of the largest land based casino game manufacturers in Europe. Merkur’s Lubbecke factory passed the two million mark for numbers of cabinets produced in 2014, so it must be well on the way to three million machines milestone by the time of writing. It is true to say that land based design and manufacture is the real focus of the company, but it has produced some excellent online slots too. Many of these are based on its tried and tested cabinet games.
Merkur’s online games are well regarded by casino operators, who appreciate their quality and range of titles. They provide an excellent option for operators looking to expand the range of their slots beyond the usual popular favourites. They know that their players will value the extra choice Merkur’’s extensive range of games gives them. They provide a fresh challenge for players looking for something different to play. Let’s take a look at the range of games on offer, focusing on some of their more notable titles…
Some of the Merkur Games
Merkur have well over 150 different slots in their portfolio, so their titles cover just about every conventional genre and more. The standard of graphics and game play is consistently high, so it is a little strange that the company have few big hit classics to their name. Merkur titles rarely feature on any players’ all-time favourites lists. Nevertheless, they have produced some excellent games which have stood the test of time.
Of all the genres, it’s perhaps the classic fruit machine theme that is best covered by Merkur.
Titles include the likes of 77777, Double Triple Chance, Sevens Kraze, Super 7 Reels and Triple Chance. Fans of the closely related fruity favourite genre are spoilt for choice of sweet and citrus flavoured themes. There’s Fantastic Fruit, Fruit Slider and Fruitopia, and that’s just titles beginning with the letter ‘F’. There’s also Blazing Star, Candy & Fruits, Cash Plus Fruits and more.
The Irish Luck theme is perhaps not so extensively covered. Under the Rainbow is probably the pick of the bunch if leprechauns and plentiful pots of gold are your thing. There’s no shortage of choice if you favour Pharaohs though. Fire of Egypt, Lucky Pharaoh, Pyramids of Egypt and Scribes of Thebes are just some of the titles on offer.
Coffee House Mystery and 221B Baker Street bring an atmosphere of classic intrigue to your spins, while those who are feeling a little peckish may enjoy Pizza Express (not a game officially licenced from the high street restaurant chain) and Taco Tuesday. More unusual titles include the cool vibe of Jazz Nights, while Voodoo Shark is a bit of a weird mash up of themes.
In truth though, Merkur do tend to stick to the tried and tested topics. For those looking for something other than standard genre fayre, Wild Frog is an enchanting delight, and your guess is as good as mine as to what Sonnenkafer and Tizona are about. They are clearly German in origin, and may be a little lost in translation over here in the United Kingdom. Humour is hard to come by, although I’ve always been attracted to Pirates Arrr Us, for the title if nothing else.
The company also have a small range of table games to offer players who prefer the traditional side of the casino.