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Evolution Gaming is expanding its presence in Michigan with the launch of a second live-dealer studio. Already announced as operational, the new studio is expected to boost the developer’s live-dealer capacity and expand the available Michigan online casino offerings.
The decision to launch another studio in Michigan appears strategic. Evolution now has seven live-dealer studios in the US. Michigan and New Jersey are the only states with two Evolution studios.
Doubling down on Michigan
Evolution opened its first Michigan studio in Southfield in 2021. The developer’s decision to open another studio here is based on Michigan’s market size and performance. Indeed, Michigan is one of the largest online casino markets in the US and consistently ranks among the top three biggest, most competitive states in terms of revenue.
Jacob Claesson, CEO of Evolution North America, acknowledges the state’s strategic importance in the company’s US growth strategy.
“We are incredibly excited to open our new Grand Rapids studio and continue expanding Evolution’s presence in the United States. Michigan is an important market for us, and this new studio allows us to further enhance the player experience while increasing our capacity to offer our world-leading live casino content to operators and players across the state.”
The new studio will stream live dealer games for Evolution as well as Ezugi, the company’s sister brand. Games on offer include different variations of classic table games blackjack, roulette, and baccarat. Specialty titles like Triple Zero Roulette and EZ Baccarat are already available.
Additionally, the developer plans to introduce additional live games later this year, including XXXtreme Lightning Roulette and Ice Fishing.
Creating hundreds of jobs
Evolution needs people to run its new Grand Rapids studio, which will result in the creation of hundreds of new jobs. Early reports indicated the availability of more than 300 job positions, but this number will likely increase as the company continues expanding its operations.
Notably, Evolution already employs hundreds of people in Michigan. The company said it employed about 400 employees in 2024 alone. Moreover, it’s projected that number could exceed 1,000 employees following the expansion of the Southfield studio and the launch of the Grand Rapids studio, Claesson said.
“We’re growing a lot. We’re almost 1,000 employees in Michigan already, but we’re sort of running out of space and capacity.”
Growing with the market
Live-dealer games are becoming increasingly popular across regulated US markets, and Evolution Gaming is the global market leader in this category. Notably, the developer is credited for moving live-dealer broadcasts from the grainy webcam streams to HD, multi-camera streams. Moreover, it pretty much invented the Live Game Show category.
With a selection of 100-plus live games, Evolution is poised to grow with the growing market, and it considers Michigan an integral part of that growth. Michigan has one of the most vibrant iGaming markets, while most other states tend to focus on sports betting.
Evolution already supplies live-dealer content to many major casino operators in Michigan, including FanDuel Casino, DraftKings Casino, BetMGM Casino, and Hard Rock Casino.
