Iron Dog: the story of a casino game developer

Online gambling attracts many young developers who come in hoping to find their niche, achieve success and make money. Not everyone succeeds. Even professional and talented game designers find themselves out of work due to a lack of connections. Others cannot reach the top due to low-quality content.

Iron Dog Studio is an exception. The provider debuted on the market in 2016. By 2018, the company's software could be found in every second licensed online casino. The developer's slot machines have also found their way onto the slotlair.org.uk platform, where gamblers have highly praised the level of gameplay.

How did Iron Dog's story begin?

The difference between this provider and its peers is that its creators did not rush and did not focus solely on the end product. Iron Dog initially came up with a development strategy, calculated the pitfalls and took potential mistakes into account.

The final staff of the company was formed after the merger of several development teams. Young talents (programmers, designers and managers) found each other and started working on a provider project that could become competitive in the slot machine segment.

The creators decided to take a back seat and not roll out their video slots through official presentations, but to negotiate with licensed operators and obtain certificates from international regulators. And even a large-scale presentation of the games would hardly have brought the team success: announcements and reviews would simply get lost among hundreds of similar ones.

It is clear that no official online casino would respond to offers from an unknown brand. Operators usually do not even consider these options, unwilling to take risks or even spend time on negotiations, checks and other red tape. It is much easier to find a proven supplier.

Iron Dog managers began searching for a partner who could take the young studio under their wing. To this end, letters with examples of slot machines and accompanying information were sent to the offices of several large providers. A few weeks later, 1x2 Gaming responded to the provider's offer.

By 2016, 1x2 Gaming was, if not a global giant, then at least a European one. Slot machines were released monthly under the brand's umbrella, and the software was represented in dozens of casinos around the world. Most importantly, the company had its own platform for hosting and distributing gaming machines, as well as a partner support programme for newcomers.

1x2 Gaming signed a contract with Iron Dog, under which the developer's video slots were released under the studio's brand, but were distributed among 1x2 Gaming's partners, which received a percentage of the revenue from each gaming machine.

The parties continue to cooperate in this format to this day. Although Iron Dog has managed to gain independence and release new slot machines without the involvement of a third party, the team still does not refuse to use the support of its first partner.