Hall of Gods™, the popular online slot game from Net Entertainment, on April 20 paid out yet another life-changing online jackpot, the fourth million euro win in recent years for Hall of Gods™. This time the jackpot amounted to 6.7 MEUR and the lucky Swedish winner, a man in his sixties from the town of Norrköping, staked 2 EUR in the game Hall Of Gods™ at the Malta-based operator Betsson.

This Betsson-jackpot is the third biggest in their history, one being the 2011 Guinness World Record Jackpot of 11.7 MEUR from Net Entertainment’s video slot Mega Fortune™. The next largest was landed last summer when a man from Linköping won 3.12 MEUR in Mega Fortune™ with a 2 EUR stake.

Hall of Gods™ is a progressive jackpot and part of Net Entertainment’s jackpot network, where the liquidity from players from many of the most popular European online casinos is pooled. In Hall of Gods™ players come face-to-face with Norse mythology in a 5-reel Triple Jackpot featuring the Midgard Serpent in the expanding wild, and Odin’s ravens on the scatter symbol. The bonus game features Thor’s hammer which players can use to break shields and match three to win one of the three jackpots or a variable coin amount.

Although this latest win didn’t break January’s World Record Jackpot of 17.8 MEUR from Net Entertainment’s video slot, Mega Fortune™ it is another huge return for the winner.

"Announcing yet another million euro winner so soon after the World Record Jackpot in January is a great testament to our games and continues our history of creating millionaires from our popular progressive video slots. Net Entertainment’s ability to offer high liquidity in our progressive slots sets us out from the crowd and helps player acquisition for operators through the ability to quickly build up jackpots. Net Entertainment would like to wish the winner all the best and congratulate Betsson for another life-changing win." comments Per Eriksson, President and CEO of Net Entertainment.

Net Entertainment’s progressive jackpot portfolios consist of Arabian Nights™, Mega Fortune™ and Halls of Gods™ video slots, all part of the Net Entertainment jackpot network, pooling the liquidity of players from several of Europe’s largest online casinos.

We have been seeing some incredible growth figures for the mobile gaming sector of the online gambling industry. It has become obvious that this sector has grown so fast and so quickly, due to the fact that mobile technology now offers the capability of entertaining gamblers on the go. Increased smartphone use is one of the biggest heralds for this boom, and mobile-friendly online casinos are taking advantage of the feeding frenzy.

Some pundits of this industry are telling us that the mobile gambling marketplace will be worth more than $100 Billion by the year 2017. This could be more, but online gambling concerns are banking on sharing $45 Billion in profits, if the market reaches this figure. As one can imagine, some serious business people are looking at this business rather seriously.

Now that smartphones and tablets have been blamed as being the key drivers for this increasing trend, researchers have been taking a look at these users. Currently in the UK alone – 62% of the population are in possession of a smartphone. This is an increase of 14.2% since October 2011. Combine this use with the fact that gambling online has also grown, and we see that the mobile sector is responsible for a massive amount of virtual gambling spend, and it is they who are sparking increased profits for operators. In fact the fastest growth sector has been seen in online, and in-play sports betting by mobile.

Currently 15% of the entire gambling sector of the UK is driven by mobile gamers. A smartphone or tablet is eminently portable, much more so than a laptop ever was. The smaller these devices are, the more desirable they are, and much of a smartphone is taken up by screen. This makes it easy to use to access a game, and the game is easily seen, with superior graphic quality.

We have mobile banking apps too, so, it hasn’t taken long for gambling operators to work out mobile payment systems for playing these games for real money, and winning real money prizes too.

Gone are the days where we had to get dressed up, travel, and pay through the neck to have a night out in a casino. We take our mobile phones wherever we go, so wherever we are is our mobile casino. Games and many apps are free to download, can be played for free or real money, and casinos offer a ton of incentives to get us to play these games. They even give away free money.

I have always been a huge fan of Net Entertainment games; this product is used by many UK/European-facing online casinos, and you may even recognise some games names: Jack and The Beanstalk™, Gonzo’s Quest™, Muse: Wild Inspiration™, Demolition Squad™, Zombies™, Blood Suckers™, Hall Of Gods™, Jack Hammer™, Wild Turkey™, Scarface™ and so many more. These games are of such a high quality it is my personal opinion that they outstrip the quality of Microgaming products.

This online gambling development software company has produced excellent results for 2012, and have even been named as the 22nd top employer in Sweden. Yes, they are a Swedish company, listed on the Swedish Stock Exchange, but operate with a remote license out of Malta. They therefore feature together with some of the biggest, and best names in online casinos available to a UK-facing, and European audience.

The operational excellence of this company for the year 2012, only serves to take me back to the days when I used to say "Microgaming had better watch out". The company is growing stronger by the year, and although are not as aggressively producing "mass quantities" of online casino games at the same rate as Microgaming, they produce them with the same if not far better quality.

New (2012) performance records have been set by Net Entertainment, with 12,300,000,000 gaming transactions in total, a 23% increase in revenues (year on year), and since the year 2006 – a median twelve-monthly growth of 32%. They have increased their European market-share to 27%, and the gaming transactions figures we see above, represent an increase of 43%.

NetEnt continues to enter new markets (Italy and Denmark are new), sign more new gaming partners, and has paid out a record breaking Progressive Jackpot Prize amount of over €17 million. In all honesty, what online gambler would not like to play at a site with PJP gaming network potential such as this?

This year, massive online gambling brands have been seen to be offering NetEnt slots, and if they are not, I don’t want to play there. Paddy Power recently joined the fold as did Boyles Sport. They are already found at Unibet, Smart-Live, Bettsson, BetVictor and many, many more. The group says that they are properly geared for opening in newly regulated territories, and it is here they intend to be "in the right place, at the right time".

I still believe that Microgaming has a tough fight on its hands from NetEnt. This brand has signed an agreement with 888 which has its own software development company( what’s that about?) And have also inked a deal with Bonza Gaming for Facebook.

Anyone want to take a bet which developer will come out on top?

One of the reasons we enjoy playing slots so much, is the massive prizes that can be won. Even though the odds are low, every now and then another online winner land a prize that literally takes our breath away. The latest in a long line-up of these wins has become a history maker.

A 49-year old family man recently went to the "Party" branded website to play some online poker. He was keen to meet the requirements for the Montreal World Poker Tour. While he was there he decided to play the Melon Madness slot in the casino section of the site. Just as well he listened to this "inner-voice" because it cost him a $3 wager to land a staggering prize of $7,525,851. This was the progressive jackpot prize in a five-reel, thirty pay-line video slot that had been growing for quite a long while. Imagine a pop-up appearing on your screen, telling you, you had won this amount of money?

Lady luck has smiled on many such people, and more so since we have been able to play slots games online. In this instance we now have the largest ever recorded online slots prize at Party Casino, which is even better publicity for the Party brand. The nice thing about Melon Madness however, is the game is actually seeded with a progressive jackpot prize of $1,500,000. So anyone could go back right now to play, win, and still become an instant millionaire. They call this the "Big One Colossal Cash Jackpot".

In another huge online windfall; a 31 year old UK man recently landed a €3.1 Million, on the Mega Fortune Slot Jackpot. How do you like them apples? The father of two was wagering £2.50 per spin on Valentine’s Day, and recons this is the best Valentines gift he ever gave to his wife and children – saying it will be a hard one to top. We agree, but this is also not the largest progressive prize paid out by Net Entertainment ‘s Mega Fortune video slot.

Only a short while ago, this company saw one member win, the BIGGEST online slots prize that has EVER been given away. If you think that $7.5 million is a great deal of money, how would you feel about winning €17.8 Million? Yes… this is no exaggeration. On January the 20th 2013, 40-year old man from Helsinki landed this prize. This new world record came close on the heels of €6.9 Million win, and there is one thing that we can be sure of – online slots games are leading the way in making instant millionaires out of many players who are willing enough to buy a ticket in it to win it.

Sheriff Gaming has long been at the forefront of developing new and ingenious online slots games. They are credited with being the leader of the pack in the development of 3D slots – that is slot machines that rely heavily on 3D animations and witty, humoristic videos to wide appeal. However, their eventual move into the mobile gaming market has long been awaited, and now it finally appears as though it will become a reality.

Sheriff Gaming this week announced that they would be unveiling two brand new mobile casino games at the ICE Total Gaming event in London at the ExCel between the fifth and seventh of February. The two new titles are also believed to have a future in the online casino market also.

Any online games developers move into the mobile casino market would always have been big news, but that it is Sheriff Gaming is remarkable, given the nature of their 3D slot games. Rumours are already rife that the games are just as good graphically and entertaining as much as the original online casino slot releases are, despite rumours that mobile phones won’t be able to handle the graphics and animations required to run Sheriff Gaming slots.

The new titles released by Sheriff Gaming will be run under the SMARTTM brand, which currently offer games via Android, iOS and HTML5 technology platforms already. It is widely thought that the move has been made to further make Sheriff Gaming stand out from already existing developers of mobile casino games. Sheriff Gaming has already gained this reputation due to the uniqueness of their online slot machine games (in regards to the genre they develop).

None of the new mobile slot machine games demos have been revealed at the moment, though reports have surfaced that state that the two slots will be called Spartania and Amsterdam Masterplan. The exact specifics of the way these new 3D mobile gaming slots will run is also being kept closely under wraps, although it is through that Sheriff Gaming will incorporate bonus games of some sort of another into the overall game play of their mobile slots. The latter of the two titles is believed to be based on a heist in Amsterdam, as best as can be understood, which Spartania having a wheel of fortune based bonus game of some kind.

Both of these new online slots are hugely anticipated and Sheriff Gaming’s competitors in the market will be looking on which keen and eager eyes to see what Sheriff Gaming can do in the mobile gaming industry with their first attempt.