When visiting online casinos, it’s common to find slots as the most plentiful category in the game lobby. This is also the case at our online casino, where you can find several thousand slot games and new titles added daily.

Slots are the first choice of many players because of their entertaining nature and the gameplay, which is easy to master. But if you’re new to these games, it’s understandable that you might not know everything that comes with them, like the mechanics, RTPs, volatilities, and themes.

We are here to tell you all about the essential slot characteristics you should know before playing, so sit tight!

Mechanics

When the first slots appeared, they were physical machines with nothing more than a screen, a few buttons, and a lever to pull. But since these games got their digital forms and started filling the lobbies at online casinos, they have been modernised and now include various mechanics. Some of the things you should know are:

• Slot Grid: The gameplay on slot games includes reels and rows. The exact number of each depends on the slot in question, but you can have anywhere from 3 to 8 reels and the same number of rows. As soon as you start a spin, the symbols on the reels mix and match and give you new combinations that can trigger a possible win.
• Paylines: Paylines are preset symbol combinations that trigger winning spins. Some slots can have only a few paylines, but it’s common to see slots with thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of paylines. These slots include the ‘Megaways’ feature developed by game provider Big Time Gaming in 2015.
• Bonus Features: One of the best things about slot machines is that they can include one or more in-play bonuses and make it easier for you to trigger wins. Some common bonus features that the slots in our lobby include are free spins, multipliers, wilds, scatters, expanding symbols, cluster pays, tumbling reels, etc.

RTP

RTP stands for Return to Player, which helps you determine the percentage of return the slot machine pays out over time. The percentage can always be adjusted and vary between sources, as it might change with time, depending on how many players use the slot and what the outcomes of their gameplay are.

The industry standard RTP is between 95% and 97% on modern slots, while it might be lower on some of the slots released in the past. We recommend focusing on slots with at least 96% RTP, as this shows you that the slot has a decent return percentage, so you can expect to land some winning spins during your gameplay.

Volatility

The volatility is another important feature of slots, as it signifies how often you can expect winning spins to land on your grid and the amount you can expect to receive per winning spin. There are three types of volatility:

• Low Volatility: This type of volatility means that winning spins can be triggered often, but the amount you receive per payout will be relatively small. It all depends on the amount you invest per bet and the actual payout percentage of the slot.
• Medium Volatility: Medium volatility is the perfect balance between the number of winning spins you can trigger and the amount you receive per winning spin. With this type of volatility, winning spins will be common, and the payout will be quite acceptable.
• High Volatility: Probably the most common volatility among modern slots, high volatility means that you might not receive winning spins that often, but when you do, the payout will be high.

Some slots can have mixed volatility, meaning they can be listed as medium- to high-volatility slots. Don’t be surprised if you also find this feature under the name variance, as the term refers to the same feature.

Theme

Game providers have found inspiration for their slots in almost all themes you can think of. Whether it’s ancient civilisations or some everyday events and items, everything can serve as a possible theme in the world of slots.

If you’re not sure about the type of theme you want to explore, we urge you to try out our advanced filtering option that allows you to review all of the themes currently available in our game lobby. At Unibet, you can find just below 40 themes, along with a category of ‘Other’ that houses all slots with unique and uncommon themes. As for some of the other themes you can come across, they include:

• Ancient Egypt: Book of Dead, Le Pharaoh, and Mystery of the Nile.
• Animals: Honey Hunters, The Dog House, and Razor Shark.
• Asian: Big Bamboo, Triple Pot Gold, and Shaolin Panda Hold & Win.
• Easter: Eggs Bonanza, Rabbit Royale, and Good Luck & Good Fortune.
• Fishing: Big Bass Bonanza, Fishin’ Frenzy, and Gold Carp Bonanza.
• Horror: SixSixSix, Immortal Romance, and Infectious 5.
• Princess: Star Kingdom, Moon Princess, and Money Mansion.
• Western: Wanted Dead or a Wild, Bandit Megaways, and Duel at Dawn.

Top Slots in Unibet’s Library

At Unibet, we work towards improving our lobby every day. Thus, we constantly add new releases and popular slots to our offer. Currently, you can explore over 4,000 game titles from 112 providers, including popular names like Pragmatic Play, Games Global, NetEnt, and Play’n GO.

For those interested in some of the top slots in our game library, we have selected 10 premium titles that you should look into. Here’s more on each one: