Aggregation has allowed online casino platforms to massively simplify the way that they build game libraries. Rather than needing to purchase individual games or forge individual relationships with game designers, online casino operators can instead use a game aggregation service to instantly acquire a broad catalog of games.
Before aggregation, putting together a broad catalog of online casino games was a difficult and time-consuming task for online casino operators. They needed to directly engage with every game developer, setting up contracts for each relationship, perhaps even on a per-game basis. This meant that getting a range of different games such as table games, slots and live casino games meant developing a number of unique professional relationships, all of which required nurturing and could become expensive. Considering that the overall value of the global online casino market has been estimated in excess of $23B USD for 2026, according to GrandViewResearch, the simplification of acquiring new games seems highly valuable for operators.
Imagine if a chef at a restaurant had to do the same sort of thing. Every different sort of product that they wanted to cook with required a unique relationship to be developed and shepherded over time. They have a connection for mushrooms, one for carrots, one for chicken, and so on. It would be totally unthinkable, unreasonable and ridiculous, and that’s exactly how it used to be for online casino operators. But not anymore.
Aggregation allows online casino operators to form a single relationship with the aggregation service, which allows them access to an expansive library of games and services. A good online casino game aggregator will provide operators with games from anywhere between 80 and over 200 different developers, allowing them to offer games that will appeal to a range of players who value different sorts of experiences. It’s, to use the parlance of the industry, a game changer.
Let’s take a closer look at what exactly aggregation is, how it is used, and why it has been so important for modern online casino platforms.
What Exactly Is Aggregation In The Online Casino Industry?
The word aggregation itself means to bring together different items and combine them, and its use when talking about the online casino industry is in this sort of vein. It refers to a process whereby games from a range of different software providers and game developers are held together within the same platform or with some sort of integration.
Most good-quality modern online casino platforms will want to host a variety of different games, both in terms of their gameplay and stylistic design and theme. The idea is that the more variation an online casino platform can provide to players, the less likely players are to get bored and go looking elsewhere for a change of pace.
Traditionally, gathering together games from different providers was a lengthy and time-consuming process. For every different software provider an operator wants to work with, they must undertake different negotiations, ensure payment works correctly with their existing software, make sure the software is compliant with the jurisdictions they operate in, and set out a schedule for maintenance for the software.
Aggregation services greatly simplify this process for online casino operators. Instead of needing to negotiate and build relationships with a dozen or more different software providers, operators need only negotiate with a single online casino game aggregator, as they are the ones who have done this legwork already. This also means that integrating the games acquired in this way is easier, with only one integration required for every aggregation service, rather than for every service provider. Aggregation of this sort is not restricted to the online casino industry; plenty of different industries and services make use of aggregation tools and services.
Examples Of Aggregation In Other Industries
Some relatively common examples of aggregation in other industries that you are likely to find can include the following:
- Streaming services: Some streaming platforms provide access to content from multiple distribution partners, as well as their own unique content. Amazon Prime Video might be the best example of this.
- Travel platforms: Many travel platforms, like booking.com, give their users the opportunity to search through all sorts of travel products in one place. These platforms understand that it is logical for people to often need to book a hotel at the same time they book a flight or rent a car, and have combined such services together.
- Online markets: Providing access to products from multiple different businesses and sellers is very common for online markets like Amazon or Etsy.
- Price comparison services: Websites that provide comparisons on the cost of different products or services are all about presenting the comparative information in one place, in an easily digestible format.
- Financial services platforms: Many fintech services use aggregation to bring all sorts of disparate sources of data together and present them to users.
While all of these industries are very different, they all use aggregation to achieve the same end goal: reduce friction as much as possible. This principle is one of the main reasons that online casino platforms use aggregation.
Why Aggregation Is So Necessary For Online Casinos
To put it simply, there are a huge number of games for online casino operators to choose from. Imagine going to the grocery store, and there are ten thousand flavors of chips to choose from; you’re likely to get overwhelmed and not want to choose any of them. But if you could go to a store that presents a curated selection of 500 of those flavors, that sounds like a much simpler way to get a good selection of chips. This is just about exactly why aggregation has become necessary for the online casino industry.
Software providers and game developers are constantly hard at work producing new games, and every software provider has different specialties and design techniques. An online casino platform that wants to succeed is not going to want to invest solely in slot games, or mobile games, or games that are only popular or relevant for a specific type of player; they want games that are going to be playable by as wide a variety of players as possible, which means they cannot rely on only a couple of different software providers, they need a big selection.
Aggregation makes acquiring a large selection of games from different software providers, all with different strengths, much simpler and easier.
Expansion Becomes Easier For Online Casinos With Aggregation
As well as making it easier to acquire a wider variety of quality games, aggregation also makes integrating those games into the online casino platform easier. While the aggregator’s services will need to be integrated, this could mean the addition of any number of different software providers in one swoop, rather than needing separate integrations every time.
Aggregators also regularly add new games to their libraries, which can easily be added if an existing integration is there, allowing for expansion to take place over time without much undue fuss. This saving on expensive technical integrations can prove invaluable over time.
A Curated Experience Is Better Than A Bloated One
A lot of what we’ve discussed is about the sheer number of games that aggregation can give online casino operators access to, but numbers don’t always win. One of the most important things that aggregators do is save online casino operators from needing to establish those separate relationships with multiple software providers, rather than just giving them access to a large number of games.
Having access to 1000s of games through an aggregator doesn’t mean that they need to host all of them on their platform. Instead, they can search for the best-rated, or the ones that they think will complement each other nicely, or for whatever other qualities and qualifications they want, then build a curated selection of games for their players.
If you visit a modern online casino platform, you are likely to find that the game selection is managed in a way that makes it easily searchable and presented intelligently and logically. Aggregation has turned the online casino platform’s catalog into a product that they should spend time curating and managing.
Operators Now Choose Games Differently Thanks To Aggregation
Now that aggregation is so common and game integration is less of a point of friction for online casino operators, the way that games are chosen has changed. The focus is much more on the relevance and performance of the content that is on offer, rather than whether or not integration is worthwhile. Operators are much more likely to care about things like:
- If the games on offer suit the regulatory environment they are operating in.
- How popular the games are on other platforms.
- If the portfolio on offer will appeal to the current audience the casino has.
- Is there anything unique or special on offer.
- If the games are designed for mobile play.
Operators are likely to choose games that will perform decently well and that tick some of their boxes, with less concern over the difficulty of integrating them. For modern online casino operators, one of the most important aspects is likely to be games designed for mobile play, as mobile has become the biggest segment of the overall gaming industry, with 55% of gamers playing with mobile, according to an article hosted on Games.gg.
Trends Can More Easily Be Responded To With Aggregation
Just as with many other entertainment industries, the online casino industry is a slave to trends. Themes rise and fall out of favor, game mechanics sweep the industry by storm, and even the way that people play can all have huge impacts on the industry. A great example of this is the recent emergence of crash games.
Whatever the trend, operators that respond quickly to what customers are demanding and expecting are much more likely to succeed. Aggregation can make responding to trends much simpler. If live dealer games rise sharply in popularity, an operator can simply check the huge range that their aggregator offers and integrate a few extra live dealer games into their catalog.
In this way, operators can have catalogs that are much more liquid than they used to be, able to reform and change in response to changing consumer demands.
Final Thoughts
By reducing much of the friction that existed for online casino operators in acquiring products from different software providers, aggregators have allowed operators to build much stronger and more intentionally curated selections of games, as well as to have easier access to a much deeper pool of games.
Aggregation has allowed online casino operators to be much more flexible with their software provider selections, and to provide a much better experience for their players.
