This roulette variant is based on the European game, and it gives the player a little more flexibility than a regular spin of the roulette wheel.
The game’s developer, Barcrest, has done this by introducing a side bet called the Key bet, and as this is an RNG based game it can be played at whatever speed suits the player.
Gameplay is a little different than normal but only in the sense that there is another stage to each round as we will explain in this article. The base game of roulette remains the same.
The Key Bet
This is essentially a side bet which adds an extra pocket to the wheel, and you will need to have placed a bet on this outcome in order to benefit should the ball land in it.
The minimum stake on the Key Bet is £1 and the maximum is £250, and since the top payout for this bet is 100x (they call it ‘the pot’) players have the possibility of much higher returns than any standard roulette payout.
Bets can be placed using the standard table layout as seen above, or using the wheel itself as shown below.
There is also another view specifically for placing neighbour bets.
The Outer Disc
Before the wheel is spun and the ball released, an outer disc will spin around the wheel as shown in the image below.
This will happen regardless of whether you have placed any chips on the Key Bet, and will dictate the value of the Key Bet’s top prize. In our example we have made a £2 bet which means there is potentially £200 up for grabs. This is shown in the top right hand corner of the image where it says ‘POT’.
You have a 1 in 12 chance of it landing on ‘the pot’.
The outcomes are:
- 20x (2 chances)
- 25x (1 chance)
- 30x (2 chances)
- 35x (1 chance)
- 40x (2 chances)
- 45x (1 chance)
- 50x (2 chances)
- Pot/100x (1 chance)
The multiplier that the disc lands on will then apply to your Key Bet for that spin.
So obviously, assuming the ball lands in the pocket then the bigger your bet on that outcome the larger your payout could be.
Here are a few examples of what you can expect using the minimum and maximum stakes on the Key Bet:
| Bet | Disc Result | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| £1 | 20x | £20 |
| £250 | 20x | £5,000 |
| £1 | 50x | £50 |
| £250 | 50x | £12,500 |
| £1 | The Pot | £100 |
| £250 | The Pot | £25,000 |
As you can see, the payout for what is essentially a straight up bet on the Key Bet can be much better than a regular straight up bet which pays out at 35:1, but only if the disc lands in your favour. That means this is only a value bet 7 times out of 12, or around 58% of the time.
RTP
The trade off for the chance to win larger sums of money is that the theoretical return to player percentage is lower than the standard 97.30%.
If you don’t place any chips on the Key Bet then your theoretical RTP sits at 94.74%, but if you do utilise the Key bet it goes up to 95.34%.
This means there is little point in playing the game if you are not going to wager on the Key bet, as you will be taking a lower RTP for no potential extra benefit.