Progressive slots are a special category of slot machines known for their huge
additional prizes which keep rising every time 🌝 someone spins the reels.
With jackpots
that can run into the millions of pounds, it’s not surprise that ‘progressives’ are the
🌝 most popular type of slot at online casinos. Let’s see how they work, how to play
progressive jackpot slots, how 🌝 to bag a jackpot and which are the top progressive slots
at PlayOJO.
Ready to feel the FUN? Here are some 🌝 games you can check!
What are
progressive slots?
These games are called progressive slots because the jackpot prize
isn’t fixed – it 🌝 progresses with every bet made, until it’s won. Some progressive
jackpots automatically pay out if they hit a certain size, 🌝 but most are uncapped and
can, in theory, get bigger and bigger until someone wins it.
Progressive jackpot slots
are only 🌝 different to the rest of the slots universe because of the monster prizes.
Some slots are dedicated progressives, while others 🌝 are merely versions of existing
games that are connected to a jackpot network.
Progressive slots meaning: A casino slot
machine which 🌝 features a progressive jackpot – a cash prize that gets bigger every time
someone places a real money wager and 🌝 the jackpot isn’t won. A small share of each
wager is added to the jackpot, and the jackpot size is 🌝 usually displayed in real time,
so players can see it rise. When the jackpot is won, it is reset to 🌝 a pre-determined
minimum amount called a seed.
But casinos and games developer wanted to find ways to
offer bigger prizes without 🌝 stumping up the cash themselves. A shrewd game designer
figured out that if they got players to fund the jackpots 🌝 themselves using something
called a stake contribution, it would produce bigger prize funds. These would attract
more players, who would 🌝 fund bigger and bigger jackpots, and so on!
This innovation
basically means that millions of players each contribute a few pence 🌝 so that one of you
becomes a millionaire, a bit like a lotto.
Thanks to the massive popularity of games
like 🌝 Cleopatra, IGT’s progressive MegaJackpots prizes are some of the biggest in the
UK.
How do progressive slots work?
Let’s answer that question 🌝 by going under the hood
of these casino games and taking a closer look at the model these slots use 🌝 which makes
huge wins possible.
The contribution
For every bet you make, a small portion is
siphoned off into a separate pot 🌝 which is used to fund the jackpot or jackpots. Play
any Red Tiger slots linked to their Daily Jackpots feature 🌝 and around 3% of your bet
will fund the jackpot pool, while IGT’s MegaJackpots take around 2.3% of your bet.
The
🌝 seed
What happens when someone wins a jackpot and why doesn’t it start at zero?
Progressive jackpots have to start somewhere, 🌝 because no one would play a slot with a
jackpot of £0 or £10.
That somewhere is called the ‘seed’ amount 🌝 and it’s guaranteed by
the casino or game supplier. IGT’s MegaJackpots™ prize pool is seeded at £500,000, for
example.
The prize
A 🌝 progressive jackpot is just one which keeps rising as it’s played,
until it’s won. The million-pound progressives get all the 🌝 attention but progressive
slots come in all shapes and sizes, with some slots even having their own progressive
jackpots of 🌝 less than £1,000.
IGT’s MegaJackpots games have paid out average jackpot
wins of £846,000 and has been won (again, on average) 🌝 every 10 weeks.
Different types
of progressive slot
Progressive jackpots have continued to change since they were
invented decades ago. What started 🌝 as single-game jackpots have now evolved into
jackpots that are funded across an entire international network of casinos. The more
🌝 players participate, the bigger the jackpots AND the more frequently they’re
won.
Here’s Blueprint Gaming’s Jackpot King feature, which shows their 🌝 3 networked
progressive jackpots and the rules.
Here are some of the progressive jackpots you’ll
find at PlayOJO:
Game jackpot: Games like 🌝 Ozwin’s Jackpots have their own progressive
prize, although they are still funded from players across different online
casinos
Games like Ozwin’s 🌝 Jackpots have their own progressive prize, although they are
still funded from players across different online casinos Network jackpot: Game
🌝 providers now bolt on a network-wide jackpot system to their most popular games, so
that players can choose from over 🌝 30 different slots and still have the chance to win
the same prize.
Game providers now bolt on a network-wide jackpot 🌝 system to their most
popular games, so that players can choose from over 30 different slots and still have
the 🌝 chance to win the same prize. Tiered jackpots: Many progressive slots now offer as
many as 4 different progressives, ranging 🌝 from Mini pots worth hundreds of pounds that
are won every few minutes, to Mega prizes worth hundreds of thousands 🌝 of pounds which
are won every few weeks. This makes jackpot bonus games more interesting, as you’re
more likely to 🌝 win something, while keeping the potential for the biggest win
alive.
Many progressive slots now offer as many as 4 different 🌝 progressives, ranging
from Mini pots worth hundreds of pounds that are won every few minutes, to Mega prizes
worth hundreds 🌝 of thousands of pounds which are won every few weeks. This makes jackpot
bonus games more interesting, as you’re more 🌝 likely to win something, while keeping the
potential for the biggest win alive. Timed jackpots: Red Tiger pioneered the online
🌝 timed progressive with their Daily Jackpots, which feature small and medium progressive
pots that are guaranteed to pay out by 🌝 a particular time of day.
How to win a
progressive jackpot
Fortunately, if you already know how to play online slots, then
🌝 you’ve got the skills to win a progressive jackpot too. It’s all luck, so just pick
your stake, spin and 🌝 go!
But how does the game know to pay out? Let’s get technical and
see how these special slots award their 🌝 biggest prizes.
Progressive slots have been
around since the 1980s. The jackpot win is just another line in the math model 🌝 that
powers the slot, so it’s controlled randomly in much the same way as the other slot
prizes.
The jackpot has 🌝 a win condition that’s built into the slot’s maths design. It
can be a fixed probability event (e.g. 1 in 🌝 6.43 million spins) or a randomly selected
time, total staked across all slots, or jackpot size.
The slot provider picks the
🌝 design of the jackpot event and the random number generator inside the game software
does the rest. That’s the how 🌝 software that powers the slot chooses when a jackpot is
won. But what happens on-screen differs from game to game.
In 🌝 the early years of
progressive jackpots, you would have to match special symbols on a payline. With 21st
century progressive 🌝 jackpot slots, you’ll usually trigger a bonus game first. You won’t
be guaranteed the biggest jackpot, and you might not 🌝 even be guaranteed any of the
tiered jackpots.
With Red Tiger’s Daily Jackpot games like Dynamite Riches, you have to
land 🌝 3 jackpot symbols during a base game spin. You’ll then get to spin the jackpot
wheel, which features the Daily 🌝 and Mega progressive jackpots you can see above.
IGT’s
MegaJackpot is a simple beast; if you land 5 jackpot symbols on 🌝 the centre payline.
Blueprint Gaming’s Jackpot King is a different animal.
To trigger the jackpot bonus
game, you must first trigger 🌝 the Jackpot King Deluxe bonus feature, then spin 15 or
more Kings to enter the Wheel King jackpot game. It 🌝 is possible to go straight to the
Wheel King if you land the correct number of Wheel King symbols.
But even 🌝 once you’re
in the Wheel King, a life-changing win isn’t guaranteed, as you could scoop a cash
multiplier instead of 🌝 one of the 3 jackpots.
Popular progressive slots
Almost all game
providers now offer progressive slots online, although it’s difficult for the 🌝 newer or
smaller game studios to go out on a limb with bigger prizes, so the biggest and most
popular 🌝 prizes are usually reserved for the likes of Games Global, NetEnt and
IGT.
Because the 3 network jackpots from Red Tiger, 🌝 IGT and Blueprint now dominate the
slots world, their participating games tend to top the charts of best progressive
jackpot 🌝 slots.
There are a few exceptions such as IGT’s Mega Fortune which you can see
above. This famous slot has its 🌝 own jackpot and as you can see, it’s usually one of the
biggest UK online progressive jackpots out there.
At the 🌝 other end of the progressive
spectrum, games like Play N’ Go’s Celebration of Wealth and Yggdrasil’s Dr Fortuno have
much 🌝 smaller jackpots because fewer players spin them from day to day. The advantage of
these smaller jackpots is they’re easier 🌝 to win, as there’s less competition.
Our top
jackpot slots
You can tap the Jackpot section of our casino for the latest 🌝 progressive
prizes, but here’s a snapshot of the best progressive slots this year.
Progressive slot
FAQs
Does anyone ever win progressive jackpots?
Although 🌝 the odds of landing a
progressive jackpot are tiny on any given spin, progressive jackpots are won pretty
often, because 🌝 millions of spins happen every week.
The biggest online progressive
jackpot win came in 2024, when a UK player won £13.2 🌝 million on Mega Moolah. In recent
years at PlayOJO, many six figure progressive jackpots have been won. Leisureles won a
🌝 £100,182.51 progressive on Top Cat, Richvandam1 bagged £205,056 on the Divine Fortune
slot and Vericeca won £118,546 on our Mega 🌝 Fortune slot.
How can I improve my chances
of winning a jackpot?
There’s no silver bullet which gives you better odds of 🌝 winning
progressive slots online, but there is a myth about looking for jackpots that are
‘due’. There’s some truth in 🌝 it, too. Sure, progressive jackpots pay out randomly, they
are more likely to hit once the jackpot is bigger than 🌝 the average. Be wary though, as
other players may have the same idea too, so your chances of winning may 🌝 not really
improve.
You can give yourself a better chance of hitting a win on slots by playing
more lines at 🌝 lower stakes, playing at casinos which offer the fairest rewards. The
more spins you can squeeze out of your carefully-managed 🌝 bankroll, the more chance
you’ll have to win a progressive jackpot. You can get more tips and strategies in our
🌝 slot machine guide.
How do progressive slot RTPs compare to regular slots?
Because of
the extra contribution to the jackpot funds, progressive 🌝 slots tend to have slightly
lower Return To Player percentages than regular non-progressive slots. The official RTP
for the classic 🌝 Fishin’ Frenzy slot is 96.12%, but the Fishin’ Frenzy Jackpot version
linked to the Jackpot King networked progressives has an 🌝 overall RTP of 95.64%.
When
you break it down, the base game has an RTP of 93.32% and the progressive feature 🌝 has
an RTP of 2.32% which includes 0.68% contribution to the reserve to seed future pots.
If you are very 🌝 price conscious and prefer immediate returns, you should consider
sticking to non-jackpot slots.
Do you need to play maximum bet to 🌝 qualify for a
progressive jackpot?
Not always, but you should check the game rules to make sure you
know how to 🌝 qualify. Most of our progressive slots have no minimum, but some games do
require you to select the maximum number 🌝 of paylines or coins to be eligible to win the
game. Knowing the rules inside out sounds like a chore, 🌝 but it’s one of the key factors
in how to win at slots.
All providers used to do this to create 🌝 a level playing field,
so that high rollers weren’t at a disadvantage against small stakers. But these days,
providers have 🌝 discovered new and inventive ways to allow any player the chance to win,
although higher stakers will have a better 🌝 chance of triggering the jackpot.
Now, It’s
your turn!
That’s your lot for the ultimate guide to slots. What we haven’t covered 🌝 so
far, isn’t worth knowing! Now you know what are progressive slots and the top
progressive jackpot we have at 🌝 PlayOJO. Time to go spin and win!
