| Balloon Race Live Game Quick Info: | |
| 🎲 Game provider: | Evolution |
| 🎲 Game type: | Live casino game show |
| 📅 Release year: | 2024 |
| ⭐ Our rating: | 4.5/5 |
| 🤩 RTP: | 96.09% |
| 💵 Minimum bet: | €0.10 |
| 💵 Maximum bet: | €6,000 |
| 💵 Maximum payout: | €500,000 |
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How To Play Balloon Race
First things first, it’s really easy to play this game and there are 3 sections to it.
- Qualification Phase
Your first goal is to get into the bonus feature by completing the ‘Qualification’ phase online slot. The Balloon Race rules require you to land either 3 Scatter symbols, 3 Expanding Wilds or a mixture of both to do this.
There are a couple of boosts that you can add to help trigger this:
- XXXtreme Spins: Choosing this will cost 5x your base bet and will give a guaranteed Scatter or Expanding Wild. It also boosts your chances of landing better multipliers.
- Super XXXtreme Spins: This is the pricier option at 50x your base bet but will give you 2 Scatters or Expanding Wilds. It also increases the chance of getting better multipliers.
You don’t have to purchase these extras, but they will be useful if you are going to use a Balloon Race strategy. Statistically speaking they should get you into the bonus round quicker.
- Top Up Phase
Once you’ve passed the Qualification stage you’ll join the optional ‘Top Up’ phase. Here you’ll be given the option to boost the Multipliers that are waiting in the live bonus round.
By pressing the ‘Top Up’ button, 3-6 balloons will be released and float upwards. Each contains a possible Top Up amount. They have the potential to burst and fail or reach the top of your screen. The successful balloons will then reveal the Multiplier value which is added to the bonus round total value.
The greater your top-up bet the greater the multipliers will be. But bear in mind this won’t impact your possible winnings from the bonus round.
The next stage is the Balloon Race live bonus round which you’ll be auto-transferred to. I’ll cover this in the features section a bit further on.
Place Your Bets!
The range of stakes you can play is between €0.10 and €6,000 - which I think is generous for a live casino game show. If you have a smaller budget or just want to eke out your sessions, then the minimum amount will allow this. Whereas those high-rollin’ types among you will appreciate the large max bet.
When you get into the Top Up phase you can buy in using the same betting pattern as the base game.
Entering the balloon race bonus feature you’ll notice a Bonus Bet indicator. This will show the bet you qualified for this round with. It’s this amount that will then be used to calculate your bonus round payout.
Balloon Race Payouts
These amounts vary for each step of the game. The payouts in the preliminary online casino slot phase aren’t that great and the max win here is just 15x your bet:
Symbol | x3 | x4 | x5 |
Purple ribbon | 4x | 7.5x | 15x |
Bronze ribbon | 1.5x | 5x | 10x |
10 | 0.1x | 0.3x | 1x |
J | 0.2x | 0.5x | 1.3x |
Q | 0.3x | 0.8x | 1.5x |
K | 0.4x | 1x | 2x |
A | 0.5x | 1.5x | 3x |
Just as you’d expect, the largest prizes can be found in the live dealer bonus round. Your final payout will be based on combining all the Multipliers from your Qualification, Top Up, and bonus round.
The maximum win from Balloon Race is capped at €500,000. This is something that Evolution and Pragmatic Play does quite a lot in its live casino game shows. So I wasn’t surprised to see the same thing here. I still think that half a million is a pretty sweet amount though!
Balloon Race RTP
When thinking about how to win at Balloon Race it’s worth bearing in mind that there are varied RTPs. These depend on the phase you are in and also if you choose one of the boosting extras:
- Normal spin:96.09%
- XXXtreme Spin:96.00%
- Super XXXtreme Spin:96.03%
- Top Up:96.05%
Game Features
The main intrigue is the Balloon Race bonus round and it’s as visually stunning as the rest of the game. The clouds part to reveal the live dealer who is virtually sitting in the basket with a bingo machine. This is filled with 80 balls of purple, yellow, green, or red and Multipliers - matching the balloons at the finishing line. Some of these in my rounds reached up to 450x!
As the round begins a cartoon airplane will fly across the top of your screen to reveal the Multipliers from the Top Up phase. When each ball is drawn randomly, the matching colored balloon will float upwards one step. This process repeats until one balloon climbs the 5 steps and hits the finishing line of the race (top of your screen).
Once this happens the bonus round is over and the winning balloon and Multiplier will determine the payout for each of the players.
Balloon Race Strategy
We all want to know how to win at Balloon Race, right? Well I don’t have a surefire way for this, otherwise I’d be sitting on a private yacht by now. But hey, the key factors to remember here are that you're playing for fun and entertainment. Winning is great but taking part should be entertaining too. My top tip is to always gamble responsibly, play within your budget, and stick to it.
I think you also want to know whether it’s worth choosing the boosters in the slot Qualification phase. Well with each option you will have to pay more. Remember that the RTP dips slightly when either of these is in play. The more they cost you, the more profit you will need to make to cover this. Also, bear in mind that if you get through to the Top Up quicker, then you may miss wins from the base slot itself. I would personally use the normal spin mode and take a couple of chances with the XXXtreme Spins as this costs less.
Should you buy into the Top Up phase? Well, it’s an unusual round but it’s important to remember it doesn’t guarantee that the balloons will be what you will win. Your final payout isn’t calculated this way so don’t wind up paying more than you could win back. If you want to add an extra element of fun, then go ahead. But I personally wouldn’t bother.
Balloon Race Review: My Verdict
My first impression was that this is just going to be like the Quickspin Big Bad Wolf Live game show. A qualifying slot and then a not-too-inspiring live bonus round. Thankfully I was proved wrong and there’s so much more to this Balloon Race live game.
I really enjoyed having the option to buy boosters in the slot. Rather than spinning away and waiting for the Scatters and Wilds to land. I think the wins in this phase could be a bit larger though.
The Top Up phase added some more intrigue and whilst I tried it a couple of times, it didn’t do much for me. The bonus feature is where I got the majority of my fun and wins from.
I think that the 96.09% RTP is decent when you consider that most live game shows hover around 95% or less. The max payout is eye-wateringly good too and falls into line with the likes of Lightning Lotto and Vegas Ball Bonanza.
I would definitely recommend giving the Balloon Race a try. It has to be the prettiest game I have ever played and it has a lot to offer all types of players. It’s also a good stepping stone for slot fans who want to dip a toe into the live casino scene.
Play Balloon Race at Online Casinos
The good news is that you won’t have any issues locating Balloon Race at an online casino. Evolution is the most popular live game supplier and the majority of platforms will host its award-winning titles. Plus this game show has been hotly anticipated with quite the build-up. This means that online casinos have been clamoring for the exclusivity to offer it to players.
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