Live Slots
For purposes of this article, we are defining a "live slot machine" and all similar variants as a category that includes two main types: physical slot machines that can be played online and games like community slots/live dealer-style games (e.g., Gonzo’s Treasure Hunt) where hosts interact directly with players. Both types offer players the excitement of live-action gameplay without needing to visit a casino in person.
We’ll take a look at physical slot machines sitting in a casino or a studio first. These games can be played from a distance as we’ll explain below. After looking at live physical slots that you play just as if you were sitting in front of it in a casino, we’ll look at the live dealer casino streams that offer community slots where everyone plays the same game at once. When it comes to live physical machines with gameplay streamed over the internet, there’s not a lot that can be said about them, it’s more the technology and the company behind them - after all, any electronic gambling game you can play in a land casino can now be delivered over the internet, so there’s no sense in reviewing individual games.
A notable provider of live slots we are aware of is Softweave. As far as we know, the only Internet casino using their service is the Hard Rock Online Casino , available in the state of New Jersey only. The next iteration of Softweave’s Winafar product was launched in March of 2021 with live physical slots online for Loto-Québec. That launch was done in association with Canadian distributor, RBY Gaming.
The way it works is a camera is installed outside of a specific slot machine. There is also a device inside the machine to spin the reels when the user makes a bet and transmit the outcome.
Winafar was named Product Innovation of the Year at the EGR B2B Awards and received the same honors at the EGR North America Awards in 2020.
While the idea never really took off on the company’s first attempt, the company decided to stick with it. Softweave has been around since 2010. The company is based in Tel Aviv, Israel, and is headed up by 888 alumni who kept the business afloat and growing for well over a decade. The company handled gaming solutions from live dealers and RNG games over a remote gaming server to social sports betting apps and considered itself a pioneer provider in the gaming industry. The self-pitch was always oddly non-descript such as “delivering advanced solutions for interactive and engaging gaming experiences,”, which tells us next to nothing without a lot of further digging. So we dug in.
The three core principals we have identified all worked at high positions at 888 before starting Softweave in 2010. After the New Jersey online and the Loto-Québec launch, one of the world’s largest private equity firms acquired the company and the name was changed to awager. We have enough breadcrumbs to put in a line to more than assume that Oakfield Capital acquired Softweave. Oakfield is owned in the majority by Brookfield Asset Management. In March of the next year, an enigmatic figure came on the scene as Commercial Director for Europe.
Mathias Larssen founded XIN Gaming and acquired the legendary TAIN several years ago. Aside from joining awager, some of his more recent startups have been The Solutn-dot-com (business development, strategy, and sales consulting); Ethereal Gaming - a new kind of company that helps customers create their own games, and Sportslots, which will deliver its games over the ethereum network. More talent at awager comes from companies like Evolution, Pragmatic Play, and DraftKings among other leading iGaming businesses.
The new company, awager plans to deliver more than just live slots - all electronic games in land-based casinos can be used with the product. The software, mechanics, cameras, and streaming can be applied to slot machines but also to various physical electronic table games. The games can be streamed live over the internet from anywhere at any time so remote players can hear the sounds on the casino floor and enjoy real camera views while using a cutting-edge interface to participate in a live casino gaming experience from anywhere in the world.
By the end of 2024, the company planned to have launched the third version of its product with three of the four major online providers in the US and to be serving hundreds of thousands of remote players.
As of the time of this update in late 2024, there’s not much happening on the live physical slots scene that we can see, but awager seems to be positioned to take advantage of the opportunity - they have an idea, the talent, and the money to make a change in the industry.
A quick aside
We did run across a couple of European casinos in 2017 that were purported to do much the same thing as is happening in reality today.
We didn’t bother to look too deep into the technical aspects of it or even the veracity of the claims, but a reviewer on World Casino Directory did play the games for real money online. They reported the online games were fake Novomatic titles and that operator was subsequently blacklisted across the network for that and other issues.
Whether or not the games were being broadcast from real gaming cabinets or not doesn’t matter because the games weren’t even real in the first place. What could have been an industry breakthrough in 2017 now goes down as a footnote of rogue behavior in the dustbin of history.
If you stick with real live slots providers with decades of experience in the industry you can’t go wrong. If you get excited about the concept of playing a physical casino game remotely with no assistance from a live dealer host and throw caution to the wind, your guess is as good as ours as to what the outcome will be.
Below is a video by Softweave, demonstrating their product.
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Live Dealer Slots
Live dealer slots are usually community slot games. Each one is different but they all seem to follow a sort of game show format. To date, there have probably been fewer than a dozen of them launched. Some are still available and some have fallen by the wayside. In these games, players participate in immersive experiences guided by a live host who interacts with them while the game plays out.
For instance, Gonzo's Treasure Hunt by Evolution is a hybrid of live-action gaming and virtual slots. The host leads players through the game, creating a shared, interactive environment that bridges the gap between solo slot play and social casino entertainment. Some people are drawn to this sort of game for its mix of experiences where they get the personal thrill of a win but also get to share kudos and get kudos from other players. Gonzo's Treasure Hunt was the first online gambling game show with VR mode.
The First Known Live Dealer Slots
Evolution announced in late 2010 that they would be bringing Mermaid’s Fortune Live Slots to debut the game at ICE 2011 in London. It was billed as an online RNG slots game mixed with live dealer gaming. The slot itself was played on a 20-line, 5-reel slot display and offered personal progressives, Wild multipliers, and a hostess dressed as a Live Mermaid who interacted with players. The mermaid would offer players a chance to increase winnings during live bonus rounds. It’s unclear when the game was pulled but it was most likely before Playtech came out with their own “first-ever live slot” almost a decade later.
Buffalo Blitz Live
In late 2019, Playtech launched Buffalo Blitz Live, a big board slot with a host or hostess leading the game, depending on when you logged in. With this type of game players simply participate in community spins. You place a bet on a fixed number of lines as other players do and the presenter spins the reels. It’s suggested to auto-bet on this game so you don’t miss a round because there’s a new spin every few seconds.
The live game was based directly on the existing slot by the same title and it still enjoys a loyal following today. Buffalo Blitz Live is online slots meeting live casino. The game has 6-reels and 4,096 ways to win. There’s a chat panel so you can share your wins with other players. Since there’s nothing much under your control except your bet level or whether to sit out a few spins here or there, it’s mostly just a community slot experience unless you hit the big one.
Age of the Gods: God of Storms Community Live Slots - discontinued
Age of the Gods Live Slot brought slot play and the community experience together again in the summer of 2020. The games were hosted by live presenters in a studio setting and featured real-time commentary to recreate a streamer-style experience which was very popular at the time. This title was helped a lot by immersive sound and wind effects going through the augmented reality studio which seemed to trigger nostalgia for players already familiar with the Age of Gods games in other metrics. It was also the first live slot to include an integrated chat function, or at least the first using that particular tech.
To play you just had to set your overall limit, the number of spins, and the bet per spin. The game ran automatically with spins happening every few seconds. Playtech also announced that the game introduced Free Spins for the first time for live slot games.
Playtech’s Age of the Gods series debuted in 2016 and eventually expanded into Live Casino, Bingo, and Poker variants. God of Storms was one of the series' early titles, unfortunately, it appears as if the live slot has been discontinued.
More Playtech live dealer slots
Rather than sticking with a chronological order, we’ll just stay with Playtech for now. There aren’t too many more to cover but in the end will look at a couple of games that have slot elements to them but that aren’t slots in the purest sense.
Everybody’s Jackpot Live
Everybody’s Jackpot Live stays with the concept of making live slots a shared experience with all players participating in the same spins. The live game is based on a regular Playtech title. As far as basic mechanics, the game is a five-reel, five-line slot machine. Wins require three matching symbols in a line.
There are four possible bonus rounds, unlocked by landing three scatter symbols. The third scatter determines which bonus round will be played. A paid Double Up feature is also available, doubling all multipliers during bonus rounds for a higher potential payout. The Block Bonus Round offers the game’s largest possible win multiplier of 8250x.
As the title suggests, Jackpots are a big part of the game’s allure. The Daily Jackpot awards 50% of the prize to a single player, while the rest is shared among the community. The Grand Progressive Jackpot follows the same structure - it gives one player half of the winnings and spreads out the rest of it to everyone else. It's “everybody’s jackpot” because everyone wins whenever a jackpot falls to any player.
It has a wide betting range from 0.10 to 20.00 per spin so players with any sized bankroll can get in on it but the RTP is bumping against the low end as it varies between 94.14% and 94.32%. Jackpot games can have lower RTPs simply because part of each spin can feed the jackpot value so that’s not a terrible percentage in perspective.
Big Bad Wolf Live
Quickspin Live is part of the Playtech empire so it’s no surprise they chose an in-house game developer’s title to create a new live dealer slot. Big Bad Wolf Live came out in the summer of 2023, a decade after Quickspin initially launched the original game. It’s always been a popular title so again, it’s no wonder Playtech chose it to adapt to community play.
Big Bad Wolf Live brings something new to live dealer slots with its exclusive Buy Feature, letting players access the communal Live Bonus Game for 40x their bet. The game also has a unique feature - a Top Up Game - a straightforward 3-reel, 1-line setup that gives players a chance to increase their winnings while waiting for the Wolf Bonus game to come around.
Gonzo’s Treasure Map Live
Evolution’s Gonzo’s Treasure Map Live (not to be confused with the flagship Gonzo’s Treasure Hunt) takes players to an ancient Incan world where a huge 70-square map holds the key to hidden treasures. Players place bets on one or more squares, aiming to predict the locations of Gold and Multiplier blocks while uncovering stones with Gonzo keys. After bets are placed, the map reveals three Gonzo Key stones that can unlock the Bonus Round.
In the main game, five blocks randomly drop onto the wall, offering either a 10x multiplier (Gold block) or a 20x multiplier (Multiplier block). The Bonus Round takes it even further, with Gonzo revealing another map filled with multipliers ranging from 25x to 500x, or even more if Double tiles are hit. The round continues until a Ruby block lands on a multiplier, potentially doubling winnings multiple times before the game concludes.
Extra Chilli Epic Spins Live
This Evolution game takes things to a whole new level by blending the thrills of Big Time Gaming's Megaways slot mechanic with a live game show experience. All players play the spin and get five spins per round. There are six vertical reels and a single horizontal reel so you can try to match symbols or collect letters to spell “HOT” and win up to 16 Free Spins. Multipliers build up with chances for more bonuses through Gamble Wheels or Piñatas, which offer rewards like extra multipliers or instant entry into Free Spins. It’s an engaging community slot because all participants are hoping for the same thing.
9 Pots of Gold StreamIcon Edition
OnAir Entertainment was formed in late 2020 and uses the Games Global (fka Microgaming) platform to deliver its live dealer slot created by Microgaming Studio Partner, Gameburger. The popular leprechaun-themed slot gets a live studio setting treatment enhanced by what they call StreamIcon technology. Players make a bet, choose their spins, and watch as a live host physically activates the game using a spin button. Look for a Free Spin Wheel, live chat, chat stickers, and multipliers up to 2000x.
Other similar games
While most of the live dealer slots incorporate novel approaches to gameplay and bonuses, they all follow a hosted game show format. There are a few games that have slots elements but are predominantly community game show gambling rather than built on the concept of betting on the random result of spinning the reels.
Crazy Coin Flip from Evolution is a three-stage game that starts out as a slot game - the spin of the reels sets the stage for the remainder of the game. That’s about as close as any other the not-slot-slots come to being a live dealer slot.
Authentic Gaming (part of Light & Wonder) brings us 7’s on Fire LIVE. The game merges European roulette with elements of a slot game and creates a hybrid. Players bet on roulette numbers or slot symbols like Lemon, Cherry, or 777. The payouts are affected by multipliers from the slot results.
The roulette part of the game uses a standard 37-slot wheel, while the slot component applies 3x multipliers to winning roulette payouts if symbols match. The game has an RTP range of 97.14% - 98% and low-to-medium volatility, with wagers ranging from €0.10 to €200. The game lets you choose your own volatility to a degree with the slot segment having low volatility and the roulette game offering riskier bets because straight-up numbers are the only bets allowed on that portion. The game was released in July 2023. It probably doesn’t get much traction because the setup is fairly complicated, but it’s ultimately an easy game to play. Unfortunately, live games don’t usually allow demo play bets so you might want to start on slot/symbol bets until you get a feel for the game.
Rainbow Riches from Authentic Gaming goes even further from the beaten path and mostly resembles slots only in its name and some of the iconography, but since we mentioned 7’s on Fire Live, it seemed only fitting to conclude with another hybrid that sounds like a slot but has nothing much to do with spinning reels, even if the symbology is similar.
Conclusion
Live dealer slots and physical live slots represent two very different but still intriguing frontiers in online gambling. Physical live slots, pioneered in the light of day by companies like Softweave (now awager), let players spin real machines remotely. It doesn’t take much imagination to see where that tech is taking us if we want to go along for the ride. There’s nothing intrinsically different about a slot machine and an electronic blackjack game, roulette, or baccarat on a casino floor that the same technology can’t adjust to. Any electronic gaming machine in a casino can be played on a mobile phone or a desktop computer. The fact that it hasn’t caught fire yet doesn’t mean it won’t in its own time, which should be shortly after the 4th version of awager software is released.
Live Dealer Slots like Evolution’s Gonzo’s Treasure Hunt and Playtech’s Buffalo Blitz Live, bring a social element to slot play that a lot of players seem to be looking for. The games mix traditional slot play with interactive features and live hosts to create a hybrid experience that bridges online play with the camaraderie found in land-based casinos.
Physical live dealer slot technology applications and community-style slot games keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in online gambling. Sometimes the game show format can go so far as to not be recognizable as a slot game, but to be fair, many of those games aren’t billed as slots anyway.
It’s an interesting segment to keep an eye on and certainly worth checking out if you haven’t already.