Roulette Strategy: Jet Set Racing (Playtech Live Casino Review)

In a rapidly changing industry, Playtech is a true blue chip company. Since their founding in 1999, the Estonian firm has leapt to the top of the industry – they had a valuation of nearly $1b all the way back in 2006, and are traded publicly on the London Stock Exchange.

From the first, the core of their business has consisted of partnerships with top brands. Their software powers some of the UK’s most beloved online casinos, such as William Hill, Ladbrokes, and BGO.

These days, they’re headquartered on the Isle of Man, boast annual profits North of $200m, and have their live dealer studios in Estonia, Manila, and Romania, while also streaming table games live from Spain’s Casino Gran Madrid.

In sum, these aren’t rank amateurs! When this team drops a new release, all of us in the general gambling public would do well to take notice.

It’s not exactly a new idea to introduce bonuses into the mix with classic casino games.

Neither is it exactly progressive to combine love of sports (and sports betting) with traditional online gambling.

But to be honest, while both of these topics have been explored before, neither of them is usually done well.

Adding both at the same time? And doing so while bringing the whole concept across on a high level?

That’s more or less unheard of!

Here’s how it works. There are two Roulette wheels in operation – Orange and Teal – bets are split evenly between them in every betting round. There are also two sets of virtual race predictions (which open the way to the bonus multiplier features).

Visually, the main screen has been set up to resemble an ESPN-style sportscast. We must admit that while Playtech’s games are uniformly strong across the board, graphic design isn’t always the strongest element of their catalogue. This title is a different story, though! It’s one of the best-looking games from this designer yet.

Perhaps the best way to explain how this game works is to break down the a single betting round.

First off, gamblers make their wagers – just as they would on any other roulette table! Just adjust the bet size to match your bankroll, then head over to the betting table to select your wager(s).

(It’s important to note at this point that every wager placed is active on both wheels: the total bet is split in half, then divided equally between the two wheels. This means that you have twice as many chances to win as at a traditional roulette table… but it also means that your payouts will be cut in half, when you win on only one of the two wheels. It also means that you’ll see multipliers twice as often as in Playtech’s similar titles, such as the blockbuster hit Lightning Roulette.)

Second, it’s time to predict the races! Once the Roulette wagers are locked in place, the type of simulated race is determined at random: it will be either horses, greyhounds, carriage races aka trotters, or a speedway motorcycle race.

As on the wheels in the previous step, there will be two races, Orange and Teal – your wager will be split in half and applied to both. (Unlike races in the real world, the actual winner will be determined by RNG.) Where things get interesting, though, is the application of racing odds to this phase of betting! The higher the number displayed for a contestant, the less statistically likely it is for that racer to win… but if she does win, the multiplier is applied instead of the regular payout. If you also happen to win an Inside bet, that is!

Players select a 1st and 2nd place winner for each race, for a total of 4 picks. (If you have an active bet and don’t choose a racer, the game will automatically select the favorites for you.)

Finally, it’s time to determine multipliers and payouts!

Of course, it’s possible to win in this game without any multipliers at all – in fact, the multipliers only work on Inside bets anyways! Even if you do place (and win) and Inside bet on the Roulette wheel, there still won’t be any multipliers if your race predictions don’t pan out.

If you win both and Inside bet and a race prediction, though, the situation gets much more interesting very fast.

Multipliers are awarded for correct racer predictions. If you get the winner right, the 1st place multiplier is applied to any applicable roulette payouts. If you accurately predict the 2nd place winner, the 2nd place multiplier is applied instead. If you get both right, you get a special combo multiplier which is higher than the sum of these two. If you get both predictions right on both the Orange and Teal races, you get a special Jet Set Multiplier with any wins in that round.

[One last note: RTP is 97.29% for this title, which is a very strong figure. You might notice, though, that standard payouts are a bit lower than usual for Roulette games. This is done purposefully, so that the house can make up for their lost revenue in offering multipliers. At the end of the day, this is neither better nor worse than standard Live Roulette, it’s just a different payout structure.]