If there were an award for the “Most Valuable Player” for a single slot title in the last few years, I firmly believe it would have to go to Devil’s Lock from Bluberi. Before you throw a challenge flag, let me provide some background.
An MVP-type award in sports is not about finishing first or winning multiple national titles (like Dragon Link has done). It is for the overall contribution to making a team better or being the most valuable to the organization.
In basketball last season, Nikol Jokic of the Denver Nuggets won the honor over Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics. Yet, the Celtics handily beat the Nuggets to capture the NBA championship. The ’23-’24 pro football MVP award went to Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens. The quarterback was great but failed to make it to Super Bowl LVIII.
The MVP award is very different from the GOAT, or Greatest of All Time. That honor in slots might go to IGT’s Wheel of Fortune or maybe Aristocrat’s Buffalo or even Light & Wonder’s iconic Blazing Sevens reel spinner.
But, just like the sport’s MVPs cited above, Devil’s Lock was truly transformational and virtually elevated their team from obscurity to national prominence. Bluberi, alongside Apex, Gaming Arts, Lightning Gaming, Novomatic, Sega Sammy and Zitro, had been classified as “Emerging Suppliers” behind no less than nine other large manufacturers.
However, calling Bluberi “emerging” was somewhat disingenuous since they had been around for a quarter of a century. But they never made it to the main stage before. The company was started in Drummondville, Quebec, Canada. Their limited number of minor hits were mainly in Native American or First Nations jurisdictions with bingo-based Class 2 games. They did have a handful of Class 3 games. But you could only find them in a few areas where they were licensed. Even then, it was rare for a Bluberi game to perform well for any length of time.
Suddenly, in the summer of 2022, Devil’s Lock jumped to the No. 1 spot in “for sale” games on the national indexes. That has happened before with small companies (in fact it is happening now with a title from Sega Sammy and another one from Incredible Technologies[1]). But it would be rare for any of those to last more than a month or two. Devil’s Lock remained at the top of the charts for months and months. That’s what made it exceptional and forced operators to take notice. After that long run, it has dropped somewhat recently, but with major licensing approvals coming next year, it could be back on top again.
Generally, the sales team from a small manufacturer has to grovel and beg to get a trial of just a few games on the floor of a major Las Vegas casino. But with Devil’s Lock, operators in both Atlantic City and throughout Nevada are anxiously lined up for their opportunity buy these games once they are approved in their jurisdictions.
When you have a top-rated title, failure to get licensed in Nevada seems like a giant mistake, or at worse a missed opportunity. Just the opposite, it was an intentional strategic move. “When I came to the company, they were trying to get a license in Nevada,” says CEO Andrew Burke, “and I stopped it, because I felt Nevada is like Broadway. You don’t go to Broadway if you’re half-baked on your production. You’ve got to be dialed in and be ready to go with service, support, logistics and everything else.”
That process began in January 2020 when Burke jumped from the GM of the slot division at AGS to take over the reigns at Bluberi. Interestingly, his slot career began with a background working for a private equity firm (Alpine Investors based in San Francisco).
Unlike the negative image of greedy, uncaring investment firms which focus only on short-term returns, Burke raved about his time at Alpine. “Their whole program is about people first. They lead with people. That was really instilled in me right out of school [the University of Cincinnati]. They took a much longer-term view than the average private equity firm. I’m also a huge fan of Warren Buffett. He always talks about building a business that can be around for 30 years, and I think when you start making decisions for next quarter, you really lose the ability to make good choices.”
He adds, “I think it’s really about having that sort of long-term vision and saying, ‘What can we be if we keep doing this great, sustained thing, year in, year out, for the next 10 years, for the next 20 years.’ I really try to think that way.”
True to his word, Burke’s first investment was in people. The industry’s pandemic layoffs left many people nervous about their future, so he was able to quickly assemble a new talent-loaded team gleaned from AGS, IGT, Konami and others. As mentioned, he concentrated on some of the less visible aspects of success like service, manufacturing, finance and operations. But he also brought in two key veterans to head sales and product: Casey Whalen and Mike Brennan respectively.
“Andrew is the CEO, but he’s a super collaborative person,” Whalen says, “it’s been so refreshing. I wouldn’t change it for anything. In other places, it’s hard to do easy things because there’s normally a lot of red tape. Here, it’s kind of easy to do things, but they’re very hard things to do because we don’t have a lot of people. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s like, we’re so small, everybody’s kind of wearing five hats, so it’s autonomous, it’s egoless.”
Burke amplifies that stand, “We want to be honest with everybody about that. We want people that want to bring out the best of themselves every single day and work really hard. The thing that makes the jobs hard is egos and personalities and, you know, cliques and stuff like that.”
“We really work hard to try to eliminate a lot of that stuff and be focused on the things that matter.” Actions, even small ones, are often much stronger than words, as Whalen notes, “We don’t have any corporate parking spots!”
That “people” element of a great slot title is often overlooked. However, it is very rare that any No. 1 slot theme didn’t have a great team to develop, launch and support it.
In that respect, Mike Brennan was a great draft pick for Burke. He began his career in product development with Atronic. He then moved up to GTech and IGT before his new position as Chief Product Officer at Bluberi. “It’s more challenging (with a small team), but you learn so much more. I’m a small company guy at heart, so that’s actually one of the biggest reasons I came here. It’s like, man, we can make a difference.”
Often, a downside of small struggling firms is a lack of capital. However, that was not a major issue when Canadian investment firm Catalyst Capital Group bought Bluberi in June of 2019. About 11 months later, they hired Burke, and he quickly put together his team.
Following Burke’s philosophy of the “less egos the better,” Brennan doesn’t take much credit for Devil’s Lock. Rather, he heaps praise on the existing Quebec design studio that came up with most of the key features of the game.
But it was his willingness to support their project, while adding a few enhancements, that made a big difference. “When they showed me this game, independent reels were very out of style at the time in a base game. When we launched the game at G2E in 2021, Devil’s Lock was one of only three independent reel games on the entire G2E floor.”
(INDEPENDENT REELS: Many video slots feature a 3 X 5 grid of symbols with three horizontal rows and five column-like vertical reels. These five reels seem to turn in unison like they were physically printed on a reel strip like one of the older mechanical reel games. Wins were determined by how those symbols lined up on the paylines. However, with independent reels, each one of 15 positions on the grid rotate independently of one another. Imagine there were 15 small reels turning instead of just five. Each can land on 40 different paylines. Most importantly, Bluberi uses the center reel or square for their “Devil” symbol which is always wild and can trigger bonuses.)
There’s a long-running argument in the industry about which of the five core elements of a game is the most important: the Cabinet, Math, Theme, Art or Sound. Brennan said all are important, but he thought the most critical component today was another factor: the game’s “mechanics”. Indeed, it was the “Hold & Spin” mechanic that propelled Aristocrat to many of their recent successes.
Brennan noted that Devil’s Lock combined multiple mechanics, including several overlooked old ones along with a new feature or two. There’s the aforementioned “Independent Reels” on the base game. But there’s also “Pot Fillers,” multiple jackpots directly on the reels, perceived persistence, mystery-based “Nudge” or “Rewind” features, “Cash On Reels,” “Free Spins” and the aforementioned “Helping Hand”.
Not familiar with that last one? It’s the mischievous looking Devil symbol that frequently pops up on the center space. That symbol is probably what most players first notice, and then quickly love about this game.
Brennan says, “Our devil is a little cheeky, right? He’s not just the sweet thing. He’s a little edgy. In fact, there was some worry that not everybody would love the idea of a devil. So, with ours, he’s actually helping you, but he’s a little mischievous. And so that’s why he rewinds, and also why the cost-to-cover is 66 cents.”
That breaks the mold of today’s countless Asian themes using their culture’s lucky “8” number. It has also differentiated the game from the traditional focus on the number “7”.
On the negative side, the “666” tag is a widely recognized symbol for the Antichrist. Therefore, the Bluberi team didn’t push it to the extreme of using triple sixes, rather they compromised on a less objectionable double “6” minimum bet and top award.
Another departure from the norm was featuring not one, but two “Pig” or “Piggy Bank” pot fillers above the reels.
“Devil’s Lock always had the bonus triggers directly on the reels, but after a market visit the team made the decision to move them, placing two cute piggy banks above the reels.” That change from the first version delayed the game’s release somewhat, but the creative team made this important decision purely for the good of the game. “And that’s something that has persisted at Bluberi ever since,” says Brennan, “our commitment to game quality above everything else and at almost any costs.”
Often a high-pitched laughing sound accompanies many of the game’s features. Popular slot influencer Brian Christopher often plays Devil’s Lock, and remarked in one of his video segments, “it only takes one giggle to win.”
The game’s “perceived persistence” feature is also initiated from the “helping hand” Devil, who can make the pigs grow. When they eventually explode, it triggers six lucrative free spin bonuses. It seems like the bigger they grow, the more likely they are to burst at the seams. However, that’s just a perception, since even the smallest piggy bank can burst. They can even explode again while in the Free Spin cycle triggering more awards.
Volatility is another industry buzz word that is often misunderstood. Many players would probably guess that Devil’s Lock is volatile since the frequent bonuses are good sized. However, the design team describes this as a low-to-medium volatility game, with a narrow and consistent range of bonus wins. Notice, that the top “Grand” award on the 1¢ version is just $6,600 at max bet, rather than the more common $10,000. That extra money goes to medium pays and bonuses that give more hits.
Another, almost forgotten mechanic is the “nudge” feature that first appeared on reel spinners decades ago. Once a spin appears to be complete, certain reels can move again (or re-spin a stop or two), often turning into unexpected wins. If you are not sure what triggers this feature or why it can occur on just one, or maybe two or three of the reels; you’re not alone. Brennan said it is random, not set off by any reel combination.
“Surprise is a great design element,” he says, “but you have to be careful, because if there’s too much mystery then people don’t really know what they’re chasing. But Devil’s Lock has its awesome surprises teed up by the devil’s laugh. That creative passion and attention to detail is emblematic of our amazing team in Quebec and the collaboration and leadership that tied it all together.”
Perhaps just as challenging as producing a No. 1 game is doing another one. Bluberi now has five additional design studios across North America working on new games in addition to the original team in Drummondville. There’s even a Devil’s Lock sequel called Devil’s Lock All In.
However, as mentioned earlier, the addition of license approvals in new jurisdictions could boost the original Devil’s Lock back into the Top 10 list. They are hoping for approval in Louisiana any day now, with Nevada and New Jersey up for consideration in the summer of 2025.
Another sign of other good things to come is that in their recaps of the 2024 G2E show, most financial analysts listed Bluberi as one of the companies to watch because of the new games they showed and their creativity right alongside Aristocrat, Light & Wonder and IGT. That’s not bad company, and just one more reason to say thank you to Devil’s Lock for helping the Bluberi team get closer to the tipping point.
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[1] The latest numbers just in show that the Incredible Technologies game dropped out of the Top Ten, but Sega Sammy was still #1, but again with very small numbers.
