Jackpots – a term that is omnipresent and instantly understood in (and out of) the world of iGaming. When people think of the term, the iGaming industry offers a vast variation of interpretations of what it actually means.
Before diving into an example, let me clarify how the ThrillPots product works: Players decide if they want to participate in the jackpot by opting in. Once they are opted in, a secondary bet is placed, a side bet, each time they consume your core product which the jackpot is mapped to (e.g. Slots or Live or Sport or all content). For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume the side bet into a jackpot is 10 cents. Player-funded jackpots run on a fixed RTP which clients set.
ThrillTech provides the opportunity, technology and expertise to implement meaningful and relevant jackpots across your brands using our advanced technology. Understanding key elements is vital for success:
1. Life Cycle Stage of Your Brand – The Importance of Progressive & Non-Progressive Jackpot Tiers
We work with startups and public corporations alike, yet we always need to make sure that whatever jackpot model we propose will make sense for the lifecycle stage of your operation.
Let me give you an example: If you start a brand, you will have low traffic in the beginning and less players contributing to a jackpot meaning that you need a model that makes sense from a psychological view. The most basic form of visualising a jackpot is by using jackpot tickers (those visual counters that show your players how much they can win). To create the feeling that other players are participating in the jackpot, you want these jackpot tickers that count up steadily, otherwise players will feel that nothing is happening.
Imagine the following 3-tier jackpot example with starting seeds of 100 EUR, 1,000 EUR and 10,000 EUR.
If an operation is young, we often suggest a mix of progressive and non-progressive jackpot tiers. So imagine all jackpot contributions go into the mini and minor tier and the major tier stays non-progressive. From a psychological point-of-view, the product is perceived to be “alive and active”. Players like to see that other players are also participating in the jackpot.
Example A – Startup B2C Operation
| Jackpot Tiers | Mini | Minor | Major |
| Seed Values | 100 EUR | 1,000 EUR | 10,000 EUR |
| Jackpot Type | Progressive | Progressive | Non-Progressive |
Now, in the case of an established brand / group of brands with significant traffic, this looks totally different. As long as a brand has more than 10 bets / second (36,000 bets per hour), we can build an exciting all-progressive model that fits your commercial and brand strategy.
Example B – Established B2C Operation
| Jackpot Tiers | Mini | Minor | Major |
| Seed Values | 100 EUR | 1,000 EUR | 10,000 EUR |
| Jackpot Type | Progressive | Progressive | Progressive |
For the sake of simplicity, we will refer to Example B throughout the other sections in this article.
2. Jackpot Winning Mechanics – The Key To The End User Experience
When building jackpot models, we try to understand the end-user experience an operator is trying to produce. But what does this even mean?
In general, it is important for the ThrillTech team to understand whether your objective is to produce frequent winners with low values, whether you want to produce millionaires, whether you want a mix or maybe even something totally different. Based on your objectives, we have a toolbox to design and calibrate bespoke models that are fit for your purposes.
The classic jackpot winning mechanics are time-based, value-based and probability-based jackpots – this is nothing new.
So imagine we go back to our example B and we assume mini is value-based, minor is value-based and major is probability-based.
| Jackpot Tiers | Mini | Minor | Major |
| Seed Values | 100 EUR | 1,000 EUR | 10,000 EUR |
| Jackpot Type | Progressive | Progressive | Progressive |
| Winning Mechanics | Value-based | Value-based | Probability-based |
One can already achieve a decent model with this. But what if there were more? Well here is where our hybrid winning mechanics come into play.
We have spent a significant amount of time developing an algorithm to manage intra-tier hybrid winning mechanics. It sounds more complex than it is and to explain this, let’s go back to our example.
Imagine you want to control the behaviour of a jackpot tier past the basic tipping point mechanics.
So let us assume the following: A “mini” that must drop every hour but also no higher than 500 EUR. You just combined two winning mechanics in one tier.
Or imagine a “major” that runs on probability until it reaches 100,000 EUR and after you want it to guarantee a drop between 100,000 EUR and 150,000 EUR. You just combined value & probability on a tier.
And suddenly your model looks like this:
| Jackpot Tiers | Mini | Minor | Major |
| Seed Values | 100 EUR | 1,000 EUR | 10,000 EUR |
| Jackpot Type | Progressive | Progressive | Progressive |
| Winning Mechanics | Time- & value-based | Value-based | Probability- & value-based |
Generally speaking, versatile winning mechanics enable endless possibilities to create the most granularly calibrated jackpot model for any operation.
3. Jackpot Payout Mechanics
Another important aspect to any jackpot is deciding who actually wins. The natural thought would be “winner takes it all”, right? Well in our case we enhanced this by allowing you to create community payout experiences as well.
Imagine the “mini” and a “minor” jackpot tiers are configured as single player wins, but you want to have the “major” win to be split across multiple players? Well – it can be done, and we have multiple payout strategies, with new ones being added regularly:
And suddenly your model looks like this:
| Jackpot Tiers | Mini | Minor | Major |
| Seed Values | 100 EUR | 1,000 EUR | 10,000 EUR |
| Jackpot Type | Progressive | Progressive | Progressive |
| Winning Mechanics | Time & value-based | Value-based | Probability & value-based |
| Payout Mechanics | Single Winner | Single Winner | Community Winners |
When it comes to community winner payout strategies, we support not only the basic “random picker of X community winners”, but we also provide more sophisticated strategies which can select winners based on their jackpot activity, their overall contributions over the lifetime of the jackpot or their contributions to a specific pot until it is won.
4. Know your target audience
From experience, we have seen that the most successful jackpot models are those that are built with the player’s experience in mind. Players are different from market to market – some are attracted by life-changing amounts while others gravitate towards jackpots that appear to be “realistic” to win. This is why all of our early modelling discussions start with a simple question: “Tell us about your average players, your VIP players and what attracts FTDs to your brand?”. This discussion is, arguably, one of the most important as it helps anchor the discussions around what players will most likely want to play.
5. Jackpot Reach – Brand / Operator / Network
Another crucial point to consider is whether you want a jackpot to run locally on a single brand, across all brands of your operation, or even create a network jackpot between multiple operators. From a pure technical perspective, ThrillTech supports all of these business models. From a regulatory and an operational point-of-view, various complexities can arise based on your choice. During the exploration phase, we guide you through the various aspects and consult you to make the right decision.
Summary
Successfully launching a bespoke jackpot for your operation depends on a multitude of factors. It is an interdependence between technology, product, regulation, mathematics , target market and end-user experience.
The most important work that happens during any client onboarding is the creation of a bespoke jackpot model, or what we call the “right” maths – for each and every client we work with. Our team spends a significant amount of time to design and propose various jackpot models creating billions of data point simulations using our proprietary jackpot simulation tool. This mitigates the overall product risk and creates a level of predictability towards product performance that puts our clients’ minds at ease.
If everything comes well together, sky’s the limit for the success of your jackpot. We guide you during this process and are by your side from conception to go-live.
