Live Lightning Roulette has become one of the most popular table games in Evolution’s live dealer portfolio. It offers upbeat gameplay, giving you a cross between live European roulette and live game show action thanks to the addition of multipliers worth up to 500x your bet, a presenter commentating on the action, and a community chat.

Award Winning Live Roulette with Multipliers

After unveiling the game at ICE London 2018, Evolution (then Evolution Gaming) became the first live casino platform to release a roulette title with the addition of multipliers.

In the same year, it went on to win Product Innovation of the Year at the 2018 Global Gaming Awards, Game of the Year at the 2018 EGR Operators Awards, G2E Las Vegas and Innovation in Live Casino at the 2018 SBC Awards.

Whether it was the first version of roulette with multipliers, I couldn’t tell you for sure. Land-based or virtual arcade machine versions could very well have already been around at the time of its release. Nonetheless, I did some research, and I couldn’t find any solid proof of this. Therefore, I am giving honours to Evolution as the first casino games manufacturer to deliver a roulette table game with the addition of multipliers. That said, if you know of any roulette multiplier versions that came out before Evolution’s Lightning Roulette release, please let us know.

Adding to the game’s notoriety, Evolution has also released a sequel version of the game called XXXTREME Lightning Roulette multipliers worth up to 2000x. I will make some comparisons of the differences between the two later in this live casino game review. On top of this, there is a virtual version of Lightning Roulette available at most Evolution live casinos, which is called First Person Lightning Roulette.

Where can I play Lightning Roulette? Evolution holds UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) and Antillephone NV Curacao (CEG) licences. These licences cover countries on our best live casinos page: Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and South Africa.

Lightning Roulette Gameplay Explained

Evolution’s Lightning Roulette is a game show-style casino table on steroids. The key difference to a regular tables like Auto-Roulette Live or Live Roulette is that this variant comes with multipliers worth up to 500x paid to players that place straight-up bets and the croupier is a live casino game show host. Aside from that, the game plays like any other live roulette table. All results are 100% natural (no computer-generated outcomes), while there is a random number generator (RNG) in play to assign the multipliers, which is fair enough.

What about the RTP? As for the theoretical RTP (return to player), it is slightly less than traditional European Roulette games coming in at 97.1%, which is a house edge of 2.9%. However, I will explain more about the RTP and house edge for this game in a dedicated section below.

It uses a European auto-roulette wheel so there are 37 pockets, with one of them being the single-zero (green) and the other 36 numbers being red or black. Essentially, you can play your usual game of roulette placing inside and outside bets, plus you can bet on the racetrack for section bets.

To make up for the addition of multipliers paid to straight-up bets, this inside betting option only pays 29:1 if you hit your number when there is no multiplier. As for all other bets on the table, these pay the same amounts you would expect on a regular game of roulette.

Lightning Roulette Bonuses: Some online casinos exclude Lightning Roulette from their bonus money bets system. This is likely because the multipliers are so high. However, if you dig deep, casinos like Hotslots and 888Casino are perfectly fine with your betting on this game title using specific bonus offers. Hotslots is perhaps the best offer as its live casino welcome bonus contributes 100% of your bets towards the wagering requirement.

The game assigns multipliers after you place your bets. To decide how many numbers will receive a multiplier and the value of the multiplier, the games used a random number generator (RNG). This has no effect on the outcome of the wheel, which delivers only natural results. If you have placed a straight-up bet, and the ball lands on that number in the wheel, the multiplier applies to your bet total.

Example: if you bet £-€-$ 1.00 on 29, and this number has a 500x multiplier, then you win 500x your £-€-$ if the result of the coup is 14.

Order of multipliers:

• Place your bets (remember only straight-up bets can win multipliers)
• After all bets are off, the game’s RNG assigns 1 to 5 numbers a multiplier
• Multipliers are worth one of six amounts – 50x, 100x, 200x, 300x, 400x or 500x
• The auto-roulette wheel will spin and the ball will land in a pocket
• If the ball lands on a number with a multiplier, anyone that placed a straight-up bet on that number will have their bet multiplied by the amount shown.
• If you have hit a lucky Lightning Roulette number, you will only receive the multiplier amount
• Winning straight-up bets with no multiplier receive a 29:1 straight-up bet payout, which is 30x your bet (You win your bet back 1x + 29x = 30x)

Only Straight-Up Bets Count: Just to make it clear, only straight-up bets benefit from multipliers. As a result, if you placed a split, corner, or any other type of bet and the number produced by the coup has a multiplier and one of the numbers in your bets are included, the multiplier will not apply.

The Paytable – European Roulette payouts & win percentages

The payouts on Live Lightning Roulette are exactly the same as a European Roulette table. The wheel uses a single-zero and is a TSC John Huxley production, which is the same company that makes Pragmatic Play and Evolution roulette and live casino game show wheels. As per usual, the betting board comes with both inside and outside bets. The only difference in the accompanying pay table to a standard European Roulette table is that the straight up bet does not pay the usual 35:1, and instead commonly pays 29:1. This reduction makes up for the addition of the multipliers.

Explanation of the Betting Board:

• A TSC John Huxley European Roulette wheel is in play
• The wheel has 37 sectors with numbers 0 to 36

Explanation of Outside & Inside Betting Options (see the accompany table below or to the right of this section for probabilities of winning each bet):

• Outside Bets Even Odds 1:1 Payout (48.6%): Odd or Even, High or Low or Red or Black bets are the easiest to manage. Each one covers half the numbers on the table, excluding the zero. As these bets exclude the zero, the RTP is not 50%. The exclusion of the zero gives the house a 51.4% chance of winning.
• Outside Bets 2:1 Payout (32.4%): Column bets take up three rows of 12 numbers running the length of the table, while the dozen bets take up three areas of the table (chunks of numbers) with 12 numbers in each. If any of these bets are successful, you win 2:1 on your bet. Again, these bets do not include the zero, so rather than a winning chance of 33.33%, the odds of winning one of these bets is 32.4%.
• Inside Bets (2.7% up to 16.2%): These are bets directly on the numbers on the inside section of the board. Your options are straight-up bet (1 number) split bet (2 numbers), street bet (3 numbers), corner bet (4 numbers) or six bet (6 numbers).

NOTE: These percentages are not RTP: Your percentage chance of hitting a straight up bet is still 2.7% despite the lower 29:1 payouts. However, these percentages are not the RTP or house edge. They are simply probabilities turned into percentages. I will explain the RTP in more detail in the next section.

• How to Bet: You’ll have a large roulette board to place your virtual chips on the main betting board presented on the main betting interface. You can also use options such as the repeat bet or save betting patterns.
• Table Limits: Lightning Roulette table limits will vary depending on the live casino you play at.
• Commonly found Min Bets: 0.30 CAD-NZD-AUD / 0.20 EUR-GBP / 20 INR / 4 ZAR (varies depending on the live casino).
• Commonly found Max Bets:  25,000 CAD-NZD-AUD / 20,000 EUR-GBP / 2 million INR / 350,000 ZAR (varies depending on the live casino).

Bonus Bets – Avoid Mistakes that cancel your bonus: While your bonus is active, avoid covering more than 70% of the bets available. For example, you cannot bet on red + black to guarantee a win as this covers 97.3% of the numbers. The same applies to playing games like baccarat using bonus bets. If you bet on the ‘player’ and ‘banker’, the casino will not count the bet towards wagering.

RTP , House Edge & How Often Multipliers Hit

Understanding how exactly the multipliers affect Lightning Roulette is not easy because the multipliers are random. However, for all non straight-up bets, usual European (singe-zero) roulette ‘Return to Player’ (RTP)/House Edge percentages apply. You can see the RTPs and House Edge in the accompanying table. The only one that stands out differently from all other single-zero roulette tables is the straight-up bet.

Lightning Roulette Straight-Up Bet RTP, House Edge & Multipliers

It is the straight-up bet that is a real mystery here. If we don’t include the multipliers and simply do the mathematics on the 29:1 return (30x your bet instead of 36x) to make up for the multipliers, the house edge increases from 2.7% up to a massive 18.92%. It’s a 97.3% RTP up to a 81.8% return only if you are unlucky enough never to hit a multiplier all the while you play straight-up bets. Thankfully, probability will eventually put you on one of those multipliers. However, the next challenge is calculating the value of the multiplier because this could be anything between 50x and 500x.

Overall RTP: In the end, although this is one of the most exciting ways to play roulette, and a multi-award winning game, the overall RTP drops from European Roulette’s original 97.3% down to 97.1%. It’s a small drop, but it depends on how much you feel that reduced 0.2% affects your stats.

Lightning Roulette Strategy, Tips & Tricks

There are always plenty of strategies to choose from when playing roulette. In fact, where there is a casino game, someone will have a strategy to suggest. The one important point to note is that casino games make a profit or they would not exist. Therefore, no strategy guarantees a win or the entire casino world would quickly catch on, and the casinos would simply take the game off the menu. From the casino’s point of view, why offer a game that loses money?

Here are some lightning roulette strategies you could test out:

• Quadrant Strategy: As your goal is to hit straight-up bets with multipliers, quadrant strategies can help. You can bet on all numbers within a quarter section of the table or wheel. That’s nine straight-up bets. There is also a three-quadrant strategy betting one-third of numbers, which is 12 numbers per coup. This will increase your chances of hitting a multiplier, eventually.
• Spread Betting the Entire Table: As Lightning Roulette live comes with bets from as low as €-£-$ 0.20 ‘or’ ₹ 15 ‘or’ 5 Rand, you could bet on every number. This guarantees a return of 30x your bet each round, while you lose 7x your bet. Let’s say you bet € 1.00 on all 37 numbers. That’s a € 37 outlay and you are guaranteed € 30 in return. You only lose € 7.00 per coup. Eventually you will hit a multiplier, and if it’s a higher number like 400x or 500x, you’ll win big. However, beware, it is also a risky strategy that requires you to be in it for the long game to see the fruits of your labour.
• Racetrack Bets: Section bets ‘or’ call bets are a great way to spread the risk. They are a mix of split bets, corner bets and straight-up bets. You can win as usual via the split and corner bets, and still have a shot at landing a multiplier on one of the straight-up bets.

Straight-Up Bet Tips & Tricks: These strategies apply to straight-up bets only because this is where the multipliers count. If you are a roulette player who only places outside bets or one that never stakes single numbers, you can still play and receive the same RTP and house edge as you would play any other single-zero roulette table.

Which live casino games are similar to Lightning Roulette?

There are quite a few live casino games and virtual table games similar to or exactly the same as Lightning Roulette. The one you choose will depend on which software provider brand you prefer to play with. Although all game developers stream high quality and professional looking live croupiers and gameplay to mobile and desktop devices, each one offers a slightly different experience.

• XXXtreme Lightning Roulette: This is a more extreme version of Lightning Roulette live with 1 to 10 multipliers and multipliers up to 2,000x. See the next section for an explanation of the key differences.
• Mega Roulette (Pragmatic Play Live): The gameplay offers the same multipliers, RTPs, and payouts as explained above for Lightning Roulette.
• Quantum Roulette (Playtech): Again, the gameplay and multipliers are the same, but there is also the addition of a Quantum Leap feature that multiplies the designated 1 to 5 multipliers. That said, it will not boost a multiplier to higher than 500x.
• Mega Fire Blaze Roulette (Playtech): The multipliers on this live roulette table come via a bonus round. What’s more, you can win up to 10,000x your bet if successful. Usually 5 numbers will receive a Fire Blaze Orb, which you will need to bet on and the coup will need to hit in order to trigger the bonus. If a Fire Blast occurs, 10 numbers will randomly have a Fire Blaze Orb added.
• Super Stakes Roulette Live (Stakelogic): You can land up to 5,000x multipliers playing this version of roulette with multipliers. 5 numbers randomly receive multipliers of 100x up to 1,000x. There is also a ‘Money Wheel’ side bet, which if you hit this, you get to spin on a wheel of fortune game that has 50x up to 5,000x multipliers.
• Mega Sic Bo (Pragmatic Play Live): If you also enjoy playing Sic Bo, then this game places multipliers on numbers, and you win multipliers if the dice roll matches the section of the betting board you bet on and there’s a multiplier value on that section.
• Other Evolution Lightning Tables: Evolution also has two more related live dealer table games. These are Lightning Blackjack and Lightning Baccarat.

Which roulette with multipliers variant should I play? You may find that it is more fun to play with croupiers from Playtech’s Quantum Roulette, or maybe the betting interface and camera angles are better playing on Pragmatic Play’s Mega Roulette version, or maybe you like the idea of Mega Blaze Roulette giving you a chance to enter the bonus round and win multipliers via any inside bet.

Differences Between Lightning Live Roulette & XXXTREME Lightning Roulette

In response to the popularity of Lightning Roulette, and probably the many competitors releasing similar versions of the game, Evolution released XXXTREME Lightning Roulette. Now there are very few differences between the two. The gameplay is exactly the same, however, Evolution made some subtle changes with a high impact on the multipliers.

• Increased number of multipliers: Rather than 1 to 5 multipliers randomly added after players place their bets, the RNG adds 1 to 10 into the gameplay.
• Higher multiplier values: Multipliers on the original version of the game are worth from 50x to 500x. On XXXTREME Lightning Roulette, the multipliers are anything between 500x to 2,000x.
• Lower Straight-Up Bet Returns: On the XXXTREME version, the straight-up bet pays 19.9:1 rather than 29:1 to offset the higher multiplier win potential. This is as opposed to the original’s 29.:1 and roulette’s usual 35:1.

Betting Limits: Most online casinos have set the min-max bet for XXXTREME Lightning Roulette to $-£-€ 0.20 up to $-£-€ 20,000 per as to maintain its appeal to both players on a budget and high rollers.

Live Lightning Roulette FAQ – Most Commonly Asked Questions

How do I know Lightning Roulette is not rigged?

No. The game uses non-computer-generated results, which means the wheel spins naturally with no random number generator (RNGs) in play. Besides, the game operates across multiple licensing authorities from the same studio. This includes the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), Alderney Gambling Control Commission, Hellenic Gaming Commission (HGC) and more. It isn’t worth rigging a game that risks the software provider losing its licence.

Can I bet on every number on Lightning Roulette?

If you really want to, yes you can. It isn’t a bad idea either. If you place a €-£-$ 1.00 bet on all 37 numbers, you can guarantee a return of at least €-£-$ 29 + your €-£-$ 1.00 bet in return making it €-£-$ 30. That’s only a €-£-$ 6 to 7 loss. If you also happen to hit a multiplier, the minimum is 50x. So, you would get back €-£-$ 50 on top. If the number happens to hit a 500x multiplier, you win €-£-$ 500 on top. However, just remember, there is no guarantee the ball will land on a number with a multiplier assigned.

What is the percentage chance of hitting a multiplier?

Every coup is different. The game selects 1 to 5 numbers randomly and each will have multipliers of 50x, 100x, 200x, 300x, 400x or 500x assigned. Firstly, you need to pick a lucky number with a lucky multiplier applied. And this is simply by luck because the game chooses these numbers after you bet. If your bet or bets are on a lucky number, for each one, you have a 1 in 37 (2.70%) chance of landing the multiplier win. Therefore, if you are lucky enough to have two numbers with a multiplier, you have a 2 in 37 (5.4%) chance of winning the multiplier.

Is Lightning Roulette available for bonus bets?

It depends on the live casino you play at. First, check for a live casino review and read the bonus section. If the casino allows bonus bets on live dealer games. Second, check to see if they contribute to the wagering requirement by playing Roulette. Third, and more specifically, make sure the bonus T&Cs do not exclude Lightning Roulette. Also, a quick word of warning, you cannot cover more than 70% of the roulette table (combining inside + outside bets) if you have a bonus active. If you break this rule, your bonus will become invalid.

Which currencies can I use to bet on Lightning Roulette?

Evolution live casino games are available across the globe. This includes Ireland (EUR), the UK (GBP), Canada (CAD), New Zealand (NZD), Australia (AUD), South Africa (ZAR) and India (INR). You can find Lightning Roulette operating at live casinos under UKGC, MGA and CEG licensing frameworks via the Live Casino Central best live casinos portal. For cryptocurrency bets using BTC, BCH, LTC, ETH, DOGE, USDT, XRP, TRX, and more, check casinos operating under the CEG (Curacao eGaming) licensing authority.

Why choose Lightning Roulette over a standard live European game?

Everyone is different or I should say each to their own. If you prefer to play roulette with the added chance of winning multipliers on your straight-up bets because maybe you find it more exciting, then great. Conversely, the reduced straight-up payout to 29:1 (30x your bet) in exchange for the chance of winning multipliers may put some players off the game. FYI – that’s 1x your bet back and 29x the value of your bet, hence 30x.

Are there any other similar roulette games with multipliers?

Yes. Although lightning roulette was the first of its kind to hit the live casino iGaming arena, other software providers have released their version of the game. Quantum Roulette (Playtech), Mega Fire Blaze Roulette (Playtech), Mega Roulette (Pragmatic Play Live), Super Stakes Roulette Live (Stakelogic), XL Roulette (Authentic Gaming), Dynamic Roulette 120x (EGT Interactive/Amusnet), and many more. You’ll find all these games via the Live Casino Central live casino game show guide.