Pragmatic Play, the iGaming powerhouse, has been in overdrive to boost its live casino lobby lately. Recently, on September 28, the company launched Live Spanish Roulette targeting their Latin and Spanish-speaking players. Before that, in July, the company launched two live baccarat variants, Fortune 6 and Super 8.
The trend continued on October 12 after the company announced the debut of PowerUp Roulette. It's an engaging and immersive live roulette variant with a modern twist while maintaining the core values of this live casino classic. PowerUp Roulette is recorded in 4K from Pragmatic Play's state-of-the-art studio, with ultra-low latency streaming.
The main attractions here are the five PowerUp bonus games. Activating each PowerUp bonus round doubles the prize, with a maximum payout of 2600x to 8000x in the fifth round. The maximum payout from the base game and the five PowerUp bonus rounds is €500,000.
According to Irina Cordines, Pragmatic Play's Chief Operating Officer, the company's product portfolio focuses on delivering high-quality entertainment. The official said they are extremely proud of the production team for delivering the PowerUp Roulette. Cordines added that this incredible creation adds a fresh interpretation to the timeless classic live casino games.
For starters, PowerUp Roulette uses the standard European roulette rules. This means the table has 37 numbers, including the single zero section. The game starts with a betting round lasting about 20 seconds. It's important to remember that only Straight Up bets are eligible for the PowerUp multipliers.
Before the game starts, the game will auto-select three, four, or five digits as the PowerUp numbers. Then, the dealer will manually spin the wheel clockwise or anticlockwise, depending on the last spin. You'll receive a payout if the roulette ball stops on unselected straight-up numbers. But if the ball stops on the PowerUp numbers, the bonus rounds will commence.
In the meantime, each number on the betting grid has a multiplier. So, if the ball lands on a PowerUp number, the multiplier doubles, and the dealer spins the wheel again. The multipliers can reach 8000x, 4000x, 2000x, 1000x, and 500x for the first to the fifth bonus rounds. So, it's theoretically possible to win the 15525x multiplier after betting on each number during each game.
As expected, PowerUp Roulette uses the same paytable as European roulette except for the straight-up bet, which pays out at 24:1 instead of the usual 35:1. That's because the straight-up bet is at the center of how multipliers work. That's quite normal in live roulette variants these days.
For example, the award-winning Lightning Roulette by Evolution Gaming has a 29:1 payout for straight-up bets to compensate for the multipliers. This means PowerUp Roulette is doing okay, considering the maximum multiplier is way bigger than the 2000x on Lightning Roulette.
RTP-wise, all the bets except the straight-up wager have a 97.30% return to the player. The straight-up numbers have a 97.19% RTP, probably because of the increased volatility. Although this difference is relatively small, it can impact your bankroll if you're a budget player.
This is a one-million-dollar question. The thing is that roulette is a game of chance, just like slots, bingo, scratch cards, and more. In simple words, no strategy is sure to reduce the house edge at the best live roulette casinos. But approaching PowerUp Roulette without a plan is like giving away your entire bankroll without a fight. So, apply these strategies to increase your winning odds:
All the numbers on a European roulette wheel have a 1:37 chance of achieving a win. But believe it or not, some numbers can appear more often than others. For this reason, use the comprehensive statistics board on PowerUp roulette to determine the hot and cold numbers. This chart displays the latest 500 results with the previous five hot and cold numbers. Nothing is certain, though!
In a roulette game without multipliers, playing the outside bets like even/odd and red/black is an attractive option. But the 1:1 payout is not worth the trouble, especially with a possible life-changing prize hanging on the straight-up numbers. It's, therefore, best to play the straight-up bets and break even when a win comes. You never know when the stars will align themselves.
Applying all the PowerUp Roulette strategies above will lead to one destination – bankroll management! The truth is that you'll need a big bankroll to get something from the tricky straight-up bets. But even with a big bankroll, remember to keep the chip values as low as possible to enjoy an extended playtime. Playing the straight-up bet with the minimum stake is an intelligent strategy.
This new live roulette game clearly indicates that Pragmatic Play is threatening Evolution's status quo. The game stands toe-to-toe against Evolution's top titles, like Lightning Roulette, XXXtreme Roulette, and Quantum Roulette. The 8000x multiplier is, in fact, the biggest possible win from an online live roulette game. But the game sacrifices straight-up bet payouts to bring the multipliers.
