A Deep Dive into Blueprint Gaming
Founded in 2007, the company is a well-known name in the online gaming industry, with well over one hundred titles already in its portfolio. Although Blueprint Gaming are often regarded as an independent company, and do indeed operate with a considerable amount of autonomy, they are in fact a subsidiary of the major German gaming conglomerate, the Gauselmann Group.
Gauselmann spotted the potential of the Blueprint Gaming operation at an early stage, taking a 50% controlling stake in the company in 2008, shortly after its launch. This partnership enabled Gauselmann to tap into the innovative creative abilities of the new start-up. It also enabled Blueprint Gaming to make use of Gauselmann’s significant financial investment and powerful platform to make their games available to players all over Europe, and subsequently worldwide.
The arrangement worked well for both parties – Gauselmann enjoyed the increased profits their new partner’s games brought in, while Blueprint Gaming were able to expand and develop even more games. In fact, so successful was the relationship that it was formalised in 2012, when Gauselmann enacted a full takeover, and became sole owners of the UK firm.
Their new German owners are renowned as benevolent operators, so Blueprint Gaming have been able to operate much as before. However, with the financial power of the Gauselmann Group’s resources behind them, they have gone from strength to strength. In the financial year up to December 2018 (the last year for which full figures are available at the time of writing) Blueprint Gaming posted a turnover of well over £26 million. This represented an increase over the previous year’s revenues of around 40%. After tax profits for the year were declared at a little under £10 million, up around 25% on the previous year.
Today, Blueprint Gaming remain a wholly owned subsidiary within the German gaming conglomerate. They operate alongside another major gaming software subsidiary within the group called Merkur Gaming. Merkur are more focused on the real world, land based casino industry, where they are a major player in their owners’ casino slot machine design and manufacturing business.
Blueprint Gaming Slots Titles
With a relatively long history of online slot design, Blueprint Gaming have developed an extensive range of consistently high quality games. With a three figure sum of slots already on the board, it is easy to spot some tendencies and patterns in their portfolio.
One definite strength is their range of officially licenced and branded games. The company are renowned for their slot versions of big name movies, TV series and game shows, and they have built up quite a repertoire over the years.
Successful movie conversions include The Goonies and Ted. Even the British 1960s comedy classic Carry on Camping has received the Blueprint Gaming magic touch, with its clever slot design bringing nostalgic memories of the gang’s bawdy yet timeless humour to many patriotic Brits of a certain age.
Several TV programmes have also been slotified, including many cartoon and animated series which are just perfect for being developed into slot formats. The Hanna Barbera classic cartoon character Top Cat is a prime example of this, but Blueprint don’t just stick to the old favourites – more recent, more irreverent animated series are also in the range. New slot incarnations of Beavis and Butt Head and Rick and Morty have been well-received by millions of fans of both of the original TV series.
In fact, when it comes to cartoon themed slots, Blueprint Gaming have yet another string to their bow. This is because they have even made a slot out of comic strip characters. The irreverent and anarchic adult magazine Viz also has its own officially licenced slot. Surely even Roger Mellie himself could never have dreamed of such fame and fortune.
Returning to successful TV formats, the blockbuster quiz show Deal or no Deal is also the subject of several different Blueprint Gaming conversions, all of them very popular with the show’s millions of viewers all around the world.
Finally on the officially licenced theme comes the company’s purely commercial deals. In what must be a lucrative niche for Blueprint Gaming, the company also specialise in unique one off games designed exclusively for its commercial partners. These include sports betting companies like Dafabet and William Hill, but also telecommunications and media partners like Virgin.
But players who prefer the traditional slot genres will not be short changed by Blueprint Gaming’s roster of games either. Popular themes like the ancient pyramids are well covered by titles like Eye of Horus, Scribes of Thebes and Wonders of Egypt. Meanwhile, followers of Irish themed games can enjoy games like Luck O’ The Irish, Slots O’ Gold and Wish Upon A Leprechaun.
Finally, the company also have a selection of scratch cards, mostly based on simplified conversions of their slot titles.
Blueprint Gaming Summary
Blueprint Gaming have done well to retain their independent culture and character despite their membership of the corporate machine for over a decade now. They have managed to extract maximum advantage from the financial and industrial muscle which belonging to the Gauselmann Group affords them. Yet they have also managed to survive without succumbing to the stifling influence that some smaller companies experience when taken over by a gaming industry giant.
Blueprint Gaming’s ability to continue to produce excellent new titles means that they are definitely a company to look out for when you are enjoying games at your chosen Jumpman casino.