Tops in Slots
The eighth annual Eilers & Krejcik Gaming Slot Awards show, held February 26 at the Palms in Las Vegas, demonstrated that competition is still intense among the elite few suppliers at the top of the slot market. The awards also revealed that Aristocrat Gaming still has a hold on the top spot among slot manufacturers.
For the eighth consecutive year—the entire history of the competition—Aristocrat won the award as Best Overall Supplier of Slot Content.
While maintaining its status as the top overall slot supplier, Aristocrat still faces tough competition from other top manufacturers. For instance, Aristocrat dominated the individual awards in the early years of the program. This year, in the land-based category, Aristocrat won a total of four individual awards, plus one online award. Light & Wonder also took four land-based awards (including one omnichannel game), plus one in the social gaming category. IGT, meanwhile, took three individual awards.
Aristocrat, in addition to the top supplier award, took awards for Top Performing New Core Video Game with Spooky Link: Yo Yetti; Top Performing New Premium Game with Phoenix Link: Queen Chiu; Top Performing New Core Cabinet with Baron Portrait; and Most Improved Supplier of Online Content.
Light & Wonder got the nod for Best New Mechanical Reel Game with Blazing 777 Triple Double Jackpot Wild: Nudging Stacks; Top Performing Third Party IP Branded Game with Kong Skull Island; Most Improved Supplier–Premium; Top Performing Omnichannel Game (retail and online) with Huff ‘N Even More Puff; and Social Slots Game of the Year with Quick Hit Casino from the SciPlay subsidiary.
IGT won in the category it has always dominated, with its Major Multipliers Poker taking Top Performing New Video Poker/Keno Game; and scored the Top Performing Game-EMEA with Money Gong. IGT also won in the hardware category with its Wheel of Fortune Trio getting the nod as Top Performing New Premium Cabinet.
Elsewhere, the industry’s emerging slot suppliers did well. Zitro won for Top Performing Game-Latin America with Kung Fu Frog. Bluberi took the award for Most Innovative Land-Based Game with Devil’s Lock-Slice N Dice.
AGS took the award for Most Improved Supplier-Core, and Top Performing New Online Table Game with Blackjack Single Deck. Sega Sammy got the nod for Top Performing New Game from an Emerging Supplier with Super Burst-Bouncing Lions. Evolution’s Red Door Roulette won as Top Performing New Online Live Casino Game. Bragg Gaming’s Almighty Pegasus Connect and Collect was named Most Innovative Online Game. And finally, as usual, Interblock is the Top Performing Electronic Table Game Supplier.
In addition to the individual awards, two new members were inducted into the EKG Slot Awards Hall of Fame. In the Game Development Category, pioneering slot developer Dan Marks was inducted. Receiving the honor in the Slot Operations category was Bruce Rowe, the longtime slot operations VP at Harrah’s Entertainment.
“On behalf of everyone at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, I would like to congratulate all the individual award winners, as well as this year’s Hall of Fame Class,” said Todd Eilers, principal at Eilers & Krejcik
Gaming, LLC. “I would also like to thank our board of advisors, official voters, VIPs and our event sponsors. It was an amazing night celebrating the industry’s top games and people.”
The land-based category winners for the EKG Slot Awards were determined by voting from more than 120 qualified slot directors representing over 320 casinos across the U.S. and Canadian markets, and representing roughly 330,000 total slot machines. For the iGaming and Social Casino segments, winners were determined by voting from a distinguished panel of industry experts.
Eilers & Krejcik Gaming Slot Awards 2026
Land-Based Awards
Top Performing New Core Video Game: Spooky Link-Yo Yeti, Aristocrat
Top Performing New Core Mechanical Reel Game: Blazing 777 Triple Double Jackpot Wild-Nudging Stacks, Light & Wonder
Top Performing New Premium Game: Phoenix Link-Queen Chiu, Aristocrat
Top Performing New Core Cabinet: Baron Portrait, Aristocrat
Top Performing New Premium Cabinet: Wheel of Fortune Trio, IGT
Top Performing Third Party IP Branded Game: Kong Skull Island, Light & Wonder
Top Performing Electronic Table Game Supplier: Interblock
Top Performing New Video Poker/Keno Game: Major Multipliers Poker, IGT
Top Performing New Game from an Emerging Supplier: Super Burst-Bouncing Lions, Sega Sammy Creation
Top Performing Game-EMEA: Money Gong-Emperor, IGT
Top Performing Game-Latin America: Kung Fu Frog, Zitro
Most Innovative Land-Based Game: Devil’s Lock-Slice N Dice, Bluberi
Most Improved Supplier-Core: AGS
Most Improved Supplier-Premium: Light & Wonder
Best Overall Supplier of Slot Content: Aristocrat Gaming
iGaming Awards (Real-Money Online Gaming)
Top Performing New Online Slot Game: Gates of Olympus Super Scatter, Pragmatic Play
Top Performing New Online Table Game: Blackjack Single Deck, AGS
Top Performing New Online Live Casino Game: Red Door Roulette, Evolution
Most Innovative Online Game: Almighty Pegasus Connect and Collect, Bragg Gaming Group
Best Overall Supplier of Online Content: White Hat Studios
Most Improved Supplier of Online Content: Aristocrat
Top Performing Omni-Channel Slot Game (Retail & Online): Huff ‘N Even More Puff, Light & Wonder
Social Casino Awards
Social Slots Game of The Year: Quick Hit Casino, SciPlay (Light & Wonder)
Retail-Branded Social Casino of the Year: Hard Rock Neverland Casino, Seminole Hard Rock Entertainment
Social Casino Operator of the Year: Product Madness
2026 Hall of Fame Inductees
Game Development: Dan Marks
Slot Operations: Bruce Rowe
