Why NetEnt Jackpots Are an Unparalleled Experience
While the quality of NetEnt’s gaming portfolio needs no introduction, we thought it best to hone in on just why their jackpot game library is at the very top of the iGaming pile:
- Play for a collective total in the millions of euros at all times to set your pulses racing
- Many have interactive bonus rounds to enjoy as you play
- Collect dedicated NetEnt jackpot bonuses from specific online casinos/promotions to boost your game
- A sizeable collection of games has been constructed over the years, giving you plenty of choice for your theme
- They are offered by several top platforms, entering the triple figures comfortably.
Local and Pooled Jackpots 101: What’s the Difference?
When you’re selecting your NetEnt jackpot slot, the decision to make is whether to go for local or pooled (also known as networked). You’ll have almost certainly heard of pooled before, with the big hitters such as Mega Fortune and Hall of Gods being classic examples.
These are jackpots that are shared between multiple casinos, enlarging the top prize pot many times over due to several players wagering at the same time from different domains.
The reason why people play networked NetEnt jackpots is fairly obvious – they’re on a quest to acquire that life-changing amount, often into the millions of euros.
A wide range of online casinos give you this opportunity, as the games are undoubtedly fan-favorites no matter your iGaming status – from high rollers all the way to intermittent players.
Local NetEnt jackpots are a lesser-known wonder, with plenty of plus points being attributed to them. Rather than being covered by a broad range of platforms, these slots are often kept at just one.
Of course, this means that the overall total doesn’t shoot up anywhere near as quickly as a pooled game, let alone get to the same dizzying heights, but that’s not always a bad thing…
Competition within local jackpots is vastly reduced, as you’re only playing with/against other people from that same casino.
Furthermore, the average time it takes for the prize to be won (hit frequency) is generally a lot less, meaning more winners are crowned at a local level.
NetEnt’s Jackpot Slot Games Have Been Breaking Records for Over a Decade!
It’s pretty incredible to think that NetEnt’s longest-running pooled jackpot in Arabian Nights was released way back in 2005. Multiple gamers have become millionaires in one simple spin since, and the Swedish slot developer has been smashing records left, right and center in the process.
They’ve been inducted into the Guinness World Records for highest payout ever and highest payout on mobile in previous years, while it’s roundly observed that comfortably more than €500m has been dished out in prizes since their beginning. How long until it reaches €1bn we wonder…
NetEnt jackpots have also become so big that the industry is even starting to focus on individual payouts rather than the entire portfolio. Hall of Gods, for example, has dished out close to €60m since 2012. It’s not just European gamers lapping up these titles either, with local slot Divine Fortune becoming a hit in New Jersey since its release.
With these particular titles a true success across the iGaming board, we only see more being developed in the future.
Select your NetEnt jackpot now to get started, and start dreaming of the possibilities!
What Is A Progressive Jackpot?
A progressive jackpot is a type of video slot with a special sort of win attached to it. This win is called the ‘jackpot’ and this is a one-off, very large pot of money that you can win in special cases. This win is available to any player who wagers on the game, and you could win it during whatever spin you make: whether it be spin number 100 or spin number 1. If you win a jackpot, then someone up there is in love with you because these wins can often be in the multi-millions.
These types of video slots are called jackpots because they have jackpot wins, but they’re also called progressive. Progressive means the win amount in the jackpot is not a fixed figure, in fact, progressive jackpots slowly increase in size as people wager on them – they increase progressively, hence the name. Fixed figure jackpots are often called ‘flat jackpots’, these are the exact opposite of progressive jackpots.
The way that the progressive jackpots increase the size of their win is by pooling money from all of the wagers made on the game. So, every time a bet is placed on the video slot, a small fraction of that wager is deducted from the bet and placed into the winning pot. As you’ll see below, some progressive jackpots only pool from single slots, some from individual slots but all players in a casino, and some across all the casinos with that slot.
How Are Progressive Jackpots Paid?
Technically a progressive jackpot should be paid out in exactly the same way that other wins are paid out:
- There shouldn’t be extra delays.
- The money should be transferred to you in in the same way that you usually withdraw your winnings.
- Hopefully, you should get it all at once.
Progressive Jackpot Pay-out Policies
Although above we just said things should be exactly the same, things could be different when it comes to getting all of your money at once.
Many casinos have monthly withdrawal limits, putting a maximum amount of cash that you’re able to take out of the casino every calendar month.
If so, then this might stop you taking out your full winning all at once. And if you win millions, this might mean you’re going to be drip-fed your winnings over decades – hopefully, both you and the casino are both around decades later too! Good casinos will state whether or not their monthly limits exclude jackpots winnings, so look out for this.
Overdue Jackpots: Fact or Fiction?
So, we have a better idea about what progressive jackpots are, and we’ve got a better understanding of some of the pitfalls and intricacies of the pay-out systems. But there is also another often misleading but prominent feature of progressive jackpots: the overdue indicator.
Many of the progressive jackpots that you’ll encounter will have some form of overdue indicator which will often look like a thermometer, a pressure gauge, or some form of countdown (or up) clock. The point of these overdue indicators is to highlight to us (the players) something about the potential for soon winning on the jackpot. However, this is a complete load of rubbish – overdue jackpots are fiction, not fact.
First of all, these indicators don’t actually represent anything, they’re just graphics there to make the game look more enticing, and make you think you’re close to winning. After all, what could they represent? If they represent the mere odds of hitting the jackpot, then they could never increase. If they represent the odds vs. the time passed, then they should never increase either – this last point brings us to their real flaw.
Secondly, the real flaw of these indicators is that they’re taking advantage of a common fallacy: the gamblers’ fallacy. In essence, this fallacy is a failure of human thought to appropriately track probabilities across time. The fallacy happens to everyone and it is a BIG mistake of thinking that the likelihood of a given event will increase (or decrease) given the number of previous events of that type that have occurred.
Would you fall victim to it? Take a test with us now.
If you tossed a coin 10 times and it was heads 7 of those 10, would you be more likely to go for heads on the 11th toss? You’d be a fool not to right?
Wrong…. there’s still just as much chance of getting tails, unless it’s a weighted coin ?.
This same concept works for roulette, blackjack, and progressive jackpots – don’t be fooled.
Overview Of The Largest Online Jackpots/Netent Jackpots
With one or two exceptions, the largest jackpots online are certainly going to be NetEnt jackpots. If you want an overview of the largest online jackpots or the largest NetEnt jackpots, then this is the place for you to come.
Three of the largest NetEnt jackpots are: Arabian Nights, Mega Fortune and Hall of Gods.
Arabian Nights is a middle-eastern themed pooled jackpot with a 5-reel, 3-row 10 fixed bet line video slot. The game is full of classic tropes that you’d recognise from Aladdin etc., including camels, desert huts, swords and more. In 2012, the game paid out a massive €8.6 million, coming in the top 20 pay-outs of the last 10 years, and another massive €3.29 million in the same year!
Mega Fortune is NetEnt’s largest paying progressive jackpot and actually has three different jackpot modes built into it. It is a 3-row, 5-reel and 25 fixed bet line video, the theme of which is all about money – and we’re talking lots of it! The symbols are limousines, champagne, money clips, brandy, cigars, and everything else the elite enjoy. Mega Fortune is responsible for the second biggest pay-out in history: €17,860,868!
Hall of Gods is the next largest NetEnt progressive jackpot. This game focuses on the ancient gods of the Northern territories of Europe, and has a 3-row, 5-reel, and 20 fixed bet line slot reel. The symbols all focus on this theme, featuring Thor’s hammer, enchanted axes, and red-haired mystics. The game is responsible for some of the biggest wins, and on average pays out a whopping €5,200,000 a year.
All Million Pound Jackpots and Where You Can Play Them
Not all of the progressive jackpots payout more than a million pounds, but there’s certainly enough of them there to make you feel like you could be the next big millionaire. If you want to know where to find them, well you’ve come to the right place.
All of the million-pound jackpots will be featured here on our jackpots page. In fact, you can see exactly which of the slots actually are currently more than one million, because we have tickers on each slot updating regularly to keep you informed.
If you follow the links to each of the million-plus jackpots, you’ll find a detailed breakdown of how the game plays, along with a list of which casinos you can play this game at.
We’ll also list what promotions each of these casinos are currently offering, so you’ll be able to take advantage of those as well as the potential for a world-changing jackpot win.
Slots With Incredibly High Payouts
Video slots on average can have quite high pay-out figures, but it’s progressive jackpots which have the largest pay-outs – with progressive jackpots often giving out the fabled “life-changing” wins.
Take, for example, the four largest pay-outs of all online casino history to date (see more below on this). Together these four pay-outs total more than €65 million!
In addition to this, in 2015 NetEnt’s Mega Fortune broke the world record for the largest ever pay-out on a mobile game. The lucky 2015 player managed to bag themselves a cool €8.6 million!
In fact, the last four most recent NetEnt jackpot wins have been in the multi-millions (you can read about them here), and together total more than €17 million worth of jackpot wins!
It goes without saying then, that the slots with incredibly high pay-outs are progressive jackpots.
How To Play Progressive Jackpot Slots
If you like the sound of all these massive numbers, and you’d like to be in with a chance of getting your hands on them, then you’re going to want to know how to play progressive jackpots.
Well, fortunately enough, we’re here to tell you how. And, the answer, to be frank, is quite simple: you play progressive jackpots. Just like you play any other game.
So, if the progressive jackpot is a video slot (of which nearly all are), then you play it like you’d play any other video slot. You set your wager amount, press spin, and basically hope for the best.
However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t lots of other features built into the progressive jackpot slots. Like any other video slots, progressive jackpots can have all sorts of feature like free spins, re-spins, side betting, wild symbols and much more.
Now, depending upon the type of progressive slot the game is (stand-alone, local, or networked) some of the mechanics relating to the jackpot itself will be different.
Usually, slots that are local or networked will be much simpler than stand-alone ones, they’ll usually just randomly award a player the jackpot win, you won’t have to do anything.
However, a stand-alone slot will more-often-than-not build in a few interesting mechanics for you to get to the jackpot. Typically, you may have to get a simple win, then transfer to a jackpot wheel, then transfer to a super jackpot wheel, etc. to get the big wins.
Top 4 Progressive Jackpot Winners In The History Of Casino
The mantra that the biggest is the best is certainly not always true, indeed, it is easy to conjure up counter-examples: spy cameras, electric bills, pocket watches. However, it certainly is true when it comes to gambling wins: the biggest is indeed the best.
Nobody wants to win small. You want to win big enough so to work (or gamble) again. Therefore, you might want to know what the biggest wins have been in the history of online casinos?
Well here you are, but, we warn you, unfortunately only one of them is NetEnt:
- 1st place: on the 28th of September 2018, a player at Grand Mondial managed to bag themselves an €18,915,721 prize on Mega Moolah Mega Jackpot.
- 2nd place: on the 20th of January 2013 a lucky Finnish player was playing at Paf Casino on NetEnt’s Mega Fortune Mega Jackpot and won themselves the massive jackpot win of €17,860,868!
- 3rd place: Jon Heywood, a British player gambling at Betway, on the 23rd of September 2011 hit a lucky streak when he was awarded a massive €14,602,252.44 playing on Mega Moolah.
- 4th place: on the 30th of January 2019 a lucky Canadian player gambling at Zodiac Casino came up trumps, playing on Mega Moolah Mega Jackpot they won themselves an absolutely unfathomable €13,698,781.87.
Although only one of these top four is a NetEnt game, we’re glad to see that it is number two – and that was number one in the Guinness Book of World Records for 6 years!
How Often Do Progressive Jackpots Hit?
One question that people always ask is: how often do progressive jackpots actually payout; how often do they hit? This is not a bad question to ask, but unfortunately, it is based upon the same misunderstanding as to the overdue indicators: the gamblers’ fallacy.
Progressive jackpots have set odds for the likelihood of a win, which are, as a matter of fact, usually astronomically high. When it comes to hitting the big win on a major networked progressive jackpot, your odds are somewhere between becoming an Oscar-winning movie star and being struck by lightning twice. These odds never change, and they don’t have any effect on the frequency with which a win can come in.
Remember the gamblers’ fallacy from above: the likelihood of a win happening is not affected by the number of past wins that there have been, nor is it affected by the number of future wins that there will be. This means that the frequency with which progressive jackpots are hit is completely random, i.e. how often they hit is random. The super-mega-win could be won 10 days in a row, or it could be won once in ten years.
With that being said, because of the odds of some of the smaller jackpots, and the number of jackpots around, the frequency of the wins are pretty regular. You can expect to see the smaller jackpots win at least a handful of times each year, whereas the multi-million jackpots have come in at least yearly.
Which Is The Biggest Progressive Jackpot?
As we just mentioned above, there are a significant number of progressive jackpots around. This is because there are a good number of game developers around and because there are, broadly, only three different types of progressive jackpot (stand-alone, local, and wide-area).
However, in keeping with our typical readers’ insatiable desire for size… sorry guys, it matters… you’ll want to know: which is the biggest progressive jackpot?
Well, there are a few video slots competing for this title, but the best of the biggest are three NetEnt classics:
- Mega Fortune
- Arabian Nights
- Hall of Gods
These three games have paid out some of the largest wins over the last decade. They’re each regularly featured in the round-ups of the biggest paying games and together they’ve paid out more than £48 million since 2012.
Mega Moolah (from Microgaming) is the fourth that we’d add to the list of the largest paying games. Obviously, this is a very good game, from a good game provider, but, if you ask us, nothing will match up to NetEnt.
So, if you want the biggest progressive jackpot, and you want NetEnt, then Mega Fortune, Arabian Nights, and Hall of Gods will treat you well.
Types Of Progressive Jackpots
Not all jackpots were made equal in the eyes of God (although we certainly think NetEnt’s jackpots are his/her favourite), and not all jackpots were made progressive. Progressive jackpots are certainly best of all jackpots, and they usually come in the following types:
- Stand-alone jackpots
- Local progressive jackpots
- Wide-area (or networked) progressive jackpots
Let’s take a look at each of them.
Stand-alone Progressives
A stand-alone progressive jackpot is a jackpot video slot in which the jackpot figure is not pooled across a number of different machines or sites but is in fact isolated to that one machine that you’re playing on.
Stand-alone jackpots are still progressive, so the jackpot figure still increases with every bet, but it is only your bets that feed the pool. Stand-alone jackpots are not flat jackpots, which are non-progressive. These are typically the smallest jackpot wins.
Local Progressives
Like stand-alone progressive jackpots, local progressives are still not flat jackpots. This means the jackpot pool gradually increases with each wager made by a player. The pooled jackpot, however, is not collected from wagers made on only that one machine, that one time. Rather, it is collected from all players on that machine on that site.
So a local progressive jackpot collects a portion of the wagers from across the whole site. These often have much bigger wins than the stand-alone jackpots because they pool their jackpot figure from a larger number of players.
Wide-area Progressives
Wide-area jackpots are also not flat, neither are they stand-alone. In fact, they’re possibly the most polar opposite to stand-alone jackpots, because they pool the jackpot figure from as wide a reach as possible. Often also called networked jackpots, a wide-area jackpot spans a number of casinos.
Every player wagering on a game across all casinos sites that feature that game will contribute to the jackpot. These are the largest jackpots wins because they pool their jackpot figures from the largest number of players possible – these are the multi-millionaire makers.
LeoVegas’ Huge Jackpot
LeoVegas is already one of the biggest online casinos on the internet and the website of choice for many players. However, now the creators have gone one step further and announced a remarkable new jackpot fund which could see one winner land €5m.
The LeoJackpot is available on many big-name games so you can have the chance to win big whilst enjoying some classic online slots. In order to take part, you will need to opt-in at the jackpot bar before playing, and each bet costs €0.10.
Certain country restrictions apply and this is not available to UK players.
Full details, as well as terms and conditions, can be found by following the below link – good luck!
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