Pragmatic Play Doubles Down on Pokies and Live Casino With Three New Releases

In the most recent news surrounding Pragmatic Play, the company has decided to pull back from its sportsbook and bingo divisions as part of a broader strategic review.

While the supplier had expanded into multiple verticals over the years, its biggest successes have come from its casino products.

Pokies like Gates of Olympus, Sweet Bonanza, and the various Big Bass releases have become some of the most recognisable games in the industry, while its live casino division has grown into one of the largest out there, with multiple roulette, blackjack, baccarat, and game show-style games.

However, according to a company spokesperson, they have decided to focus on their core market-leading verticals, including pokies, live casino, crash games, and RNG games. Since these areas have demonstrated the strongest performance, they will remain the company’s primary strategic focus, and Pragmatic Play will “no longer offer Bingo and Sportsbook products”.

The spokesperson noted that they’ll support their partners as they move to alternative platforms, and judging by their recent release schedule, that renewed focus has certainly not slowed development down.

The first of Pragmatic Play’s latest releases is Big Bass Football Bonanza, another addition to one of the provider’s most successful pokie franchises.

It launches just ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and it swaps the familiar Big Bass fishing boats and lakes for football stadiums. Obviously, it keeps most of the familiar mechanics, like the classic 5×3 grid and the collection mechanic during the Free Spins feature, and a maximum possible win of 5,000x the wager.

Knowing Pragmatic Play, the timing of the release is definitely not a coincidence. With football fans around the world preparing for the World Cup, the provider appears to be capitalising on one of the year’s biggest sporting events through one of its most recognisable brands.

Pragmatic Play has also expanded its live casino collection with the launch of Seotda Baccarat, a new title that combines traditional baccarat with elements from Seotda, which is a popular Korean card game.

Unlike classic baccarat, Seotda Baccarat is played using a 20-card Hwatu deck, where each card represents a month between January and October and carries its own points value. Players still bet on whether the Player or Banker will end up with the stronger hand, but there’s no third-card draw rule, which means that this is a card-comparison game similar to Dragon Tiger.

Another major difference comes from the introduction of three special ‘Bright’ cards. These are the highest-value cards in the deck, and there are several optional Seotda Baccarat side bets that are based on these ‘Bright’ cards.

The game will feel familiar to most baccarat players, but the use of Hwatu cards and Bright card side bets gives it enough unique elements to stand out from standard baccarat games.

Rounding off the trio of releases is Candy Rush – yet another candy-themed pokie that follows a tried-and-tested formula.

The game, as the name suggests, follows a candy theme and is played on a 7×7 grid. It uses the cluster-pay system, where wins are formed by landing groups of matching symbols. Whenever a winning combination is created, the symbols disappear and are replaced by new ones that tumble into place, creating the possibility of consecutive wins from a single spin.

The unique mechanic in Candy Rush is its Multiplier Underlay feature. Namely, beneath each symbol, there’s a multiplier that activates when winning clusters land on top of them.

As new symbols tumble onto the grid, additional multipliers can be collected and combined, thus increasing the payout potential during a sequence of cascading wins and a maximum potential win of 15,000x the wager.