Ganapati brought something few studios in a European lobby can claim: slots made by a company that started in Japan, full of ninjas, anime heroes and neon Tokyo streets. The Ganapati casinos in our database are where that small catalogue still turns up.
Below the list we look at where the studio came from, which of its games are worth finding, how they reached casinos and why the studio has gone quiet.
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What is Ganapati known for?
Ganapati is an online slot studio originally established in Japan, with a head office in Tokyo and a Malta subsidiary that received a Malta Gaming Authority licence in 2017. It is known for Japanese themed slots such as She Ninja Suzu, CrypBattle and Neo Tokyo, and for official slots made with boxer Manny Pacquiao and sprinter Usain Bolt.
The name is shared with the elephant headed Hindu god, but the company is Japanese. Ganapati was originally established in Japan, kept its head office in Tokyo and later added offices in Tallinn, London, Los Angeles and Malta. Its move into online casino games came in 2016.
The first big market did not go to plan. In October 2016 Ganapati withdrew its application for a UK Gambling Commission licence after what it called constructive dialogue with the regulator, saying its subsidiary Ganapati Malta Ltd was the more appropriate applicant. Malta came through instead: in June 2017 the Malta Gaming Authority granted Ganapati Malta a Class 4 licence, which let it supply its Japanese themed slots to Malta licensed operators.
A group structure grew around that. Ganapati PLC sat at the top, with Ganapati Group, Ganapati Europe Holding, Ganapati Malta and a blockchain arm called GanaEight Coin below it. Juliet Adelstein, who joined in 2018, became group CEO in February 2020, and the company liked to describe itself as a B2B brand with a B2C mentality.
What sets Ganapati apart is not the maths, it is the art direction. When BetConstruct took the games, its product manager praised them for “capturing both traditional Japanese art and the modern pop culture phenomena”, and that is a fair summary of the whole shelf.
Released in March 2018, this 5×3 slot on 20 lines follows a ninja heroine with an anger gauge. As it fills, it can expand wilds or set off strikes against her enemies, and multipliers join in along the way.
CrypBattle is an anime style slot based on the online role playing game CrypTract. It runs on 40 lines with free spins, and its sister slot CrypCrusade carries the same story on. Few studios bother to link two slots with a plot, and it is one of the more charming things about Ganapati.
Robots, police and neon flowers in a cyberpunk city. Neo Tokyo drops paylines for 576 ways in the base game, and SlotCatalog says the reel set can grow as far as 12,348 ways, with random wilds and free spins on top.
Smaller titles fill out the rest: End of Edo, Samurai Girl, Twinkle Star and the memorably named Pikotaros Pineapple Pen among them. SlotCatalog also notes that part of the catalogue was made together with CQ9 Gaming, so not every game under the Ganapati label is purely in house.
Few studios this size sign world famous athletes, and Ganapati did it twice. Manny Pacquiao came first. Pacquiao One Punch KO launched in September 2019, according to SlotCatalog: a 25 line slot with cascading wins, multipliers and free spins.
Usain Bolt followed. Ganapati announced the deal in January 2020, Bolt came to ICE London that February to promote it, and the plan was a summer 2020 launch timed for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. SlotCatalog dates the release of the Usain Bolt slot to January 2021. It starts on 5×3 reels with 27 lines, and respins can extend the reels.
Do not let the famous faces do the choosing for you, though. A branded slot is still a slot, and in Ganapati casinos it deserves the same look at features and RTP as any other title.
Look the games up one by one and a pattern appears. These are the figures SlotCatalog lists:
| Slot | Released | Layout | RTP listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| She Ninja Suzu | March 2018 | 5×3, 20 lines | 97.40% |
| CrypBattle | April 2018 | 5×3, 40 lines | 97.17% |
| Neo Tokyo | May 2019 | 576 ways in the base game | 96.09% |
| Pacquiao One Punch KO | September 2019 | 5×3, 25 lines | 97.85% |
| Usain Bolt | January 2021 | 5×3, 27 lines | Not listed |
Many studios settle around 96%, so three games above 97% is worth knowing about. Treat the table as a starting point, not a promise. A listed figure does not guarantee the version a casino runs, and the info screen inside the game is the only number that counts for your session.
Ganapati never ran a casino platform of its own, so it relied on partners. In November 2018 Relax Gaming agreed to add the portfolio to its platform, starting with Sushi Battle and CrypCrusade. BetConstruct then integrated the full suite of original slots, and in January 2020 Boss. Gaming Solutions put the games on its seven white label platforms. If a casino carries the Relax catalogue, it is worth checking for Ganapati titles there, and our Relax Gaming casinos page lists those.
After that, the trail goes cold. The newest Ganapati game SlotCatalog lists is the Usain Bolt slot from January 2021, and the latest trade press coverage of the company we could find dates from early 2020. The old address, ganapati.com, now forwards to a page offering the domain for sale.
We found no announcement of a closure, sale or merger, so we will not claim one. What it means for you is simpler: SlotCatalog lists 21 Ganapati games, and casinos that still carry them are offering a finished back catalogue, not a studio with new releases on the way.
The list at the top of this page shows the open Ganapati casinos in our database, with closed and blacklisted casinos left out. Because the games are older, a casino can list the studio and still only switch on a handful of titles, so search its lobby before you deposit for a specific game.
Start with the licence. The casino has to be licensed for the country you live in, and if online casino play is not legal there, do not play. Then read the withdrawal terms in our review: limits, processing times and when identity checks kick in.
Last, the bonus. Ask which RTP version of a game the casino runs, and whether Ganapati slots count in full towards wagering, because older games from smaller studios are sometimes weighted lower or left out. If none of this suits you, our game provider directory has plenty of studios that still release new slots.
Japan. Ganapati was originally established there and kept its head office in Tokyo, while its European business ran through Ganapati Malta and Ganapati Europe Holding.
Ganapati Malta received a Class 4 licence from the Malta Gaming Authority in June 2017. The company withdrew a UK application in 2016, and we could not confirm a current licence, so rely on the licence of the casino you play at.
She Ninja Suzu, CrypBattle, Neo Tokyo and the two athlete slots, Pacquiao One Punch KO and Usain Bolt. You will find them in most Ganapati casinos that carry the studio.
It does not look like it. The newest title SlotCatalog lists is from January 2021 and the old website domain is for sale, but we found no official closure announcement.
SlotCatalog lists high figures for several of them, such as 97.85% for Pacquiao One Punch KO and 97.40% for She Ninja Suzu. Check the info screen in the game, because the version at Ganapati casinos can differ.
SlotCatalog lists 21 Ganapati games, including some made together with CQ9 Gaming.
Ganapati is one of the more unusual names on our books, and the index below sets it beside every other studio we cover, each with its count of open casinos.
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