Online casinos were developed by software providers in the mid 1990s. These software providers not only offered a wide range of online casino games but also the complete system required for players to transact online. This included logging in mechanisms and maintaining separate accounts for each player, carrying out deposits and withdrawals in secure environments, administering bonuses and comp points and providing customer support. The entire package was licensed to online gaming operators. Therefore there flourished online casinos that offered games from only one software provider and did not offer other online gambling products like poker or sports betting. A large number of such online casinos are successfully operating even today, notably the Vegas Technology powered brands of the English Harbour group and the Microgaming powered brands of the Casino Rewards group.

When sports betting went online it became instantly popular and drew significantly greater business than online casinos did. Most people, if only occasionally, would step into their nearest retail betting shop to place a wager on their favorite football team or horse. Now they could do that without leaving home. Sports betting sites began to exploit the online potential by offering other online gaming products like casino and poker. Therefore one had major land based sports betting operators like Ladbrokes and Victor Chandler offering online gaming with separate portals for betting, poker and casino. These online casinos also were powered using licensed software from a dedicated software provider. Ladbrokes online casino was powered by Microgaming and Bet365 online casino was powered by Playtech.

Online casinos offering games from only one software provider were great for the brand equity of the software provider. In fact these casinos came to be known as Microgaming online casinos or Cryptologic online casinos depending on the software provider. But what about the online player? He would obviously be aware of the different software providers and the different games that they offered. He would want to wager on the games offered by different software providers. The only option available to him was to sign up at a number of online casinos each powered by a different software provider because the software providers did not allow for inter-mixing of their games.

One of the first software providers to break away from this structure was WagerWorks. WagerWorks was the online gaming subsidiary of IGT, which was one of the biggest names in land casino slot machines. WagerWorks had converted the best of these slot games to the online format. WagerWorks developed a remote gaming server, popularly known as rgs, which allowed gaming operators on other software platforms to select from its portfolio of games. These games could then be offered to the players of that gaming operator without having to license the entire WagerWorks platform. Cryptologic had two ranges of slot games that were very popular. One was the branded Marvel super hero series and the other its Casual Game series. Cryptologic began to enter into agreements with other software platforms and gaming operators to integrate a selection of these games with their software. Finally Microgaming and Playtech also created platforms that would allow its games to be picked up by operators on other software platforms.

This has resulted in online casino portals offering games from a number of software providers. To distinguish these from the single software casinos, gaming operators have named such portals as Games. Today most multi portal gaming operators have added a Games portal to their offering. Prime examples are Ladbrokes, William Hill and Bet365.