Bold statement alert: online slots are more entertaining and enjoyable now than they have ever been before.
They have the potential to be more rewarding too, with game developers introducing new ways to win aside from the traditional static jackpots.
One of those is Drops & Wins, the innovative slot mechanic created by Pragmatic Play. That puts more cash prizes into play – not that you’re guaranteed to win them, of course, but the idea is that each and every spin is more exciting simply because there’s extra ways to win beyond matching the same symbols on an active payline.
So what actually is Drops & Wins, and is this a slot game feature that is worth hunting down?
Jump in the Pool
Here’s the key thing about Drops & Wins: it adds more ways to win and a deeper prize pool without affecting the overall RTP of the slot game.
So, you can make your decision on which slots to play based upon your usual parameters – one of which should be the RTP, which varies on whether you’re a high risk-high reward type of person or would prefer to be able to play more spins per hour on your budget.
If you find a Drops & Wins slot with a RTP that works for you, then it’s worth knowing the additional prizes that are up for grabs. Since January 2020, Pragmatic Play has dedicated a specific amount to their annual Drops & Wins prizes – at the time of writing, that’s a cool €20 million (around £17 million). At various celebratory times of the year, Pragmatic will also bump up the weekly prize pool to €1 million.
The annual kitty is divvied up into a prize pool per week, with around £215,000 in funds available and a top individual prize of £21,000. All told, that’s around 10,000 different prizes that can be won from Drops & Wins games in tournament play, plus around 1,500 prize drops in standard slot gaming.
Both the tournament leaderboards and prize drops run all day, seven days a week, with a minimum bet of £0.50 making you eligible to win. All told, there’s thousands of extra ways to win with Drops & Wins slots, and the prize funds are progressive too – the more time that passes without a prize being won, the larger the sum eventually paid out will be.
This is the largest collective prize pool in slot gaming, but just how easy or hard is it to actually land a winning spin?
How to Win at Drops & Wins Slots
In theory, any player that is playing a Drop & Wins slot – and staking the £0.50 minimum per spin – can win a prize at any time.
The tournament style leaderboards are exactly as they sound: the better the results from your spins, the higher you will climb. However, as can often be the case with such things, those that play the most will – often, if not always – dominate the leaderboard. So you’ll need to manage your bankroll and decide if trying to take down your fellow players with a high volume of spins is the road you want to go down.
As for the prize drops, these are randomly awarded. To that end, these Drops & Wins are the same as any other slot – you take a chance that your luck is in and that a prize will come your way. The key thing to remember is that the RTP doesn’t change from that published; so if you’re playing a slot or live casino game with Drops & Wins activated, you’ll know roughly and theoretically how often you would expect to win.
It should also be noted that just because the Drops & Wins mechanic is live, that doesn’t mean the game won’t have other ways to win. These slots retain their bonuses, multipliers and special rounds, so there’s ample reason to get involved – as long as you remember that your chance of winning a prize remains in line with the standard slot gaming expectation.
Which Slots Have Drops & Wins?
You should always do your own research to ensure that the slots you are playing have Drops & Wins mechanics applied to them. Naturally, Pragmatic Play games developed after 2020 are a useful starting point.
As ever, the higher the RTP of a slot game, the more appealing it is, and happily there are some titles in the 96% and over range that also have Drops & Wins attached – these provide the best of both worlds for players.
Diamond Cascade (96.06%), Extra Juicy Megaways (96.4%), Big Bass Splash (96.7%) and Wild Wild Riches (96.7%) are just four such examples, although be sure to do your homework to find the Drops & Wins slots that best meet your needs.
Do Live Casino Games Have Drops & Wins?
If slots aren’t your bag, you’ll be happy to know that the Drops & Wins feature has been added to a slate of Pragmatic Play’s live casino games, and particularly their ‘gameshow’ style action.
There’s prize drops randomly sprinkled into qualifying games, while some titles – including many variants of blackjack – have their own specific tournament leaderboard to climb.
From Power Up Roulette to Mega Wheel, there’s a handful of different live casino titles with Drops & Wins built in….whether you can take full advantage or not depends on whether your luck is in on the day.