Habanero Systems made its name in Asia and has since grown into a supplier with players across most regulated regions. Unlike many studios of its generation, it does not stop at slots: table games and video poker sit alongside them, so one integration can cover several sections of a lobby. Here is how the company developed, how it is set up and what its catalogue offers an operator.
Habanero at a glance
- Origins: Habanero Systems B.V. was set up in 2010 and changed direction in 2012, when a group of European investors acquired it.
- Offices: the team is spread across the capitals of Ukraine, Bulgaria, South Africa and the Philippines, which gives the brand coverage in most regions. North America is the main market it has not yet entered.
- Regulation: its content is approved for more than 20 regulated markets, Malta included.
- Fairness testing: games are certified by BMM Testlabs and iTech Labs.
- Catalogue: more than 150 slots, table games and video poker titles, all built in HTML5 so they run on any desktop or mobile operating system.
- Events: a regular presence at major trade shows since 2016, including ICE, EiG and iGB.
How the studio grew
For its first two years Habanero barely registered with operators. The 2012 change of ownership turned that around: the new investors paid for a steady pipeline of new games and pushed the company to look beyond the European and CIS markets it started in.
- 2014: the company began a determined push into Asia and opened an office in Manila.
- 2016: success in Asia had made Habanero one of the region’s four leading RNG suppliers. That year it also converted its full catalogue to HTML5 and exhibited for the first time at ICE in London and EiG in Berlin.
- 2019: the studio marked its 100th slot with Colossal Gems, whose bonus multiplier can climb to 64x the stake. Techno Tumble, another release from that period, has an average RTP of 96.73% and a top win of 13,080x, and SlotBeats named it Slot of the Week.
- 2021: Habanero added licences from the Malta Gaming Authority and Romania’s ONJN, and entered Latin America, Spain and Africa through agreements with operators such as 888 and Betway.
- 2022: Orbs of Atlantis took the Game Innovation award at the CasinoBeats Summit in Malta, ahead of Evoplay’s Star Guardians and AvatarUX’s Lollipop.
Ownership, team and finances
The business is still in the hands of the European investor group that bought it in 2012, and its shares are not listed on any exchange. The team numbers a little over 100 people. Habanero treats revenue as commercially sensitive. The only public pointer came from a company press release, which said gross gaming revenue for 2018 could come close to double the 2017 figure. Results for later years have not been made public.
Features operators should know about
- every title plays on desktop and mobile, in portrait or landscape mode;
- 34 languages and multiple currencies, Bitcoin among them;
- players can run several games side by side;
- in-game statistics update in real time;
- a proprietary management platform lets the operator control the whole portfolio;
- jackpots can be configured, and several RTP settings are available;
- the range spans slots, table games and video poker instead of a single vertical.
Inside the Habanero catalogue
Many newer studios specialise narrowly. Habanero chose breadth, and its catalogue stands comparison with long-established names such as NetEnt or Playson.
Slots
Slots are the core of the offer: 142 titles as of January 2023, with a new release every four to six weeks. Asian themes are a particular strength, with games such as Panda Panda, The Koi Gate, Fenghuang, Fa Cai Shen and Dragon Tiger Gate. Players who prefer Western settings can turn to London Hunter, Gangsters, Roman Empire or Sir Blingalot. Animal, Egyptian, pirate, ancient-world and space themes fill out the rest, and the bonus mechanics change from title to title: free spins, expanding wilds, multipliers and more.
Table games
Blackjack, roulette and baccarat are all there, but so are Caribbean Stud and Caribbean Hold’em poker, Dragon Tiger, Sic Bo and War of Bets. Few slot-led studios offer a table range this wide. The games share a clean, minimal design, include built-in statistics and have a dedicated rules screen, so a first-time player is never left guessing.
Video poker
Ten video poker games follow the same tidy design. Before the first deal the player picks how many hands to play: 1, 5, 10, 50 or 100. Each game offers in-play hints and a paytable that lists the payout for every combination.
Where Habanero fits in a lobby
A few practical points help decide how to use the studio:
- Asian-facing brands get a deep bench of culturally themed slots from a supplier with a long track record in the region.
- Casinos with a thin table section can add variety such as Sic Bo, Dragon Tiger and War of Bets through the same integration as their slots.
- Mobile-first audiences benefit from games designed to work in both orientations.
- Multi-market operators can use the configurable jackpots and RTP options to fit each market’s rules and their own promotional plans.
Before switching the games on, confirm which titles are approved in each country you serve, agree the RTP setting per market, and check that your target languages and currencies are on the supported list. It also pays to plan placement: a dedicated Asian-themes category, a table games tab and a video poker corner will show off the breadth of the range far better than dropping every title into one long slot list.
Adding Habanero games to your casino
Browse the studio’s titles in our Habanero games list or read the full Habanero provider profile. Habanero is also part of our Slots Bundle, which brings content from many studios together under one contract and one integration, with no need to negotiate with each provider separately. To check availability for your markets, get in touch with our team.
Written and reviewed by the iGaming Software Solutions Editorial Team.
