Balloon Race Live is a live casino slot game released by Evolution in 2024. It’s one of several new live slots that Evo cooked up in recent years, combining RNG-based online slots with live casino bonus rounds. The live portion of the game is limited, but entertaining in the style of modern casino game shows. The game boasts 96.09% RTP with a minimum bet of $0.10 and a $2,550 maximum wager. It was released in late 2024 and is available on both desktop and mobile in any casino with Evolution software.
Evolution doubled down on its live slots in 2024, releasing several notable games in a genre they never really covered in the past. Spurred by the success of titles like Crazy Pachinko, Balloon Race Live seems to be more attractive for fans of classic online slots. Still, the robust bonus round holds quite a few surprises. Check out the rest of this review of the Balloon Race live casino game for more details and our expert opinion on how good the game is.
Game Specifications | |
---|---|
Game name | Balloon Race Live |
Game provider | Evolution |
Game type | Low Stakes |
Streaming from | |
RTP | 96.09% |
Bet range | €0.10 - €2,500 |
Max win | $500,000 |
Side bets | No |
Supported platforms | |
Supported OS | |
Languages |
Arabic
Chinese
Czech
Danish
English
Finnish
+14
All supported languages
|
Live slots seem to be causing quite a stir in the live gambling community. This relatively new form of gaming has caught the attention of many casino software providers, including the giant that is Evolution. As a quick reminder, live slots combine the simplicity and popular appeal of slot machines with the excitement and authenticity of live casino games. Although they were originally a niche product, it seems that the trend is picking up steam. Several high-budget live slot games have been released throughout 2023 and 2024, and Balloon Race Live is one of them.
If you want to know more about what live slots are, how they came to be, and what’s currently available, check out this article. It explains the concept and appear of live slots and lists some of the best examples we’ve seen so far.
Anyway, Balloon Race Live by Evolution seems to be a rather typical example of the genre. It combines relatively simple slot machine gameplay with a big, exciting bonus round that works like a casino game show. It’s not too different from other Evolution-made live slots such as Crazy Pachinko or Extra Chilli Epic Spins. That said, it seems Balloon Race tries to be a lot more original than many of its direct competitors. The slot part of the game is more complex than we’ve seen with many other live slots (though not quite at the level of Extra Chilli Epic Spins.) Similarly, the bonus round isn’t just a simple rehash of other features and games. It’s sort of inspired by bingo or a lottery but with some twists and turns.
If you want to know more about these Balloon Race features and how they work, check out the gameplay guide below.
Live slots are a relatively new type of game in live casinos, so there isn’t really an established norm in how these games work. Still, the gameplay of the Balloon Race live casino game is not too different from other live slots. Generally, it works the same way as Crazy Pachinko. Some of the elements and features of Balloon Race are different on the surface, but the actual gameplay is very similar.
Essentially, players all enjoy individual slot machines that are not really “live”. The goal is to qualify for the next bonus round, but the slot also has its own payouts. The bonus round’s live stream is not always active, though, which means there’s a single bonus round every few minutes or so. If you successfully qualify, you’ll participate in the next upcoming bonus round. If not, you can just keep playing the slots. Moreover, the Top-Up round allows players who have already qualified to have some fun (and profit!) while waiting for the live bonus round to begin.
If you haven’t had the chance to try Crazy Pachinko yet, no worries. Keep reading for a complete guide to the Balloon Race casino game, complete with strategy tips.
The game is divided into three major parts. Let’s go through each one and see how it works.
The qualification phase of Balloon Race Live is the “slot” part of the whole thing. It’s completely based on computer-generated random numbers (RNG) with no real “live” element. It’s also mostly seen as a way of qualifying for the bonus round.
Generally, it’s very simple and fast-paced – just like most slot machines. The slot itself has 5 reels and 3 rows, so its layout is fairly common for modern online slots. It also has 10 fixed paylines.
As is always the case with slots, your goal is to arrange three or more matching symbols along one or more of these paylines. Every time you do, you get a payout based on the number and value of the winning symbols.
The slot contains 7 types of regular symbols and 2 special ones. The regular symbols, in order of increasing value, are 10, J, Q, K, A, Bronze Ribbon, and Silver Ribbon.
The special symbols include Scatters and Expanding Wilds. Such special symbols are found in almost every slot nowadays. Here’s what they do:
You can increase your chances of qualifying for the bonus round using the XXXTreme spin modes.
The Top-Up phase offers a chance to potentially increase your winnings in the Bonus Round. It is only available to players who have already qualified for the upcoming bonus round. Note that this phase is completely optional – you can just sit back and wait for the bonus round to kick off without doing anything. Similarly, if you want to play the Top-Up round but don’t have time because the bonus is about the begin, you can choose to “skip” the bonus round. You still get to participate, of course – you’ll just have to wait for the next bonus round while playing Top-Up in the meantime.
As for the minigame in this phase, it’s quite simple. Whenever you click the “Top Up” button, 3-6 balloons are released. Each balloon contains a multiplier value.
The balloons float up to the top and end up in one of four positions – Yellow, Purple, Green, or Red. Each balloon increases the reward of that position by its own displayed value. Alternatively, balloons may pop while flying, in which case their multiplier is lost.
Note that the Top Up game in Balloon Race Live does not actually have any direct prizes. Instead, it increases potential winnings in the upcoming bonus round.
With that in mind, the “stake” you use for this round is not used for payouts. Instead, higher bets create balloons with bigger multipliers.
Once the next Bonus Round is about to begin, you’ ‘ll get a pop-up message. Click “Bonus” to move onto the next phase, or “Top Up” to stay in this phase.
After the Top-Up phase, a plane will unleash random multipliers for each colour. These multipliers will be multiplied by the scatter multipliers, then added to your Top-Up multiplier to determine the final multipliers for the live Bonus game.
The Balloon Race bonus game takes you to the sky-high studio of the actual live casino game. This is the only part of the whole game that is actually live, using real presenters and a real bingo-style ball-drawing machine.
After the Top-Up phase, a plane will unleash random multipliers for each colour. These multipliers are multiplied by any multipliers you had on your Scatter symbols, then added to any multipliers secured during the Top-Up phase. This results in four distinct prizes you can see at the top – Yellow, Purple, Green, and Red. Each of these positions also has a corresponding hot air balloon, which starts the bonus round at the bottom of the screen.
The Bonus game features a ball drawing machine with 80 balls in yellow, purple, green and red. There are exactly 20 balls of each of the four colors.
The presenter will start drawing these balls from the machine. Every time a ball is drawn, the hot air balloon of the corresponding color moves upwards. The game continues drawing balls and moving the balloons until one of them reaches the top.
The first hot-air balloon to reach its prize wins. All participating players collect a payout based on the multipliers collected for the corresponding color. While the winning color is always the same for all qualified players, the prizes aren’t. Your actual payout depends on the results of the slot machine and Top-Up round.
The slot in the qualification phase has its own paytable that works much like any online slot you may have seen before. Although the ultimate goal is to hit three Scatters, you can still secure smaller payouts the old-fashioned way – by combining three or more matching symbols.
The five card symbols – 10, J, Q, K, and A – represent various degrees of low pays. They require 4 or 5 symbols on a line to break even. On the flip side, combinations of Bronze or Silver ribbons can pay solid rewards.
The Top-up and Bonus rounds do not have a fixed paytable either. Instead, they both contribute to one big prize at the end, which depends on how the multipliers were stacked and which balloon ultimately wins. You can check out the gameplay guide above for more details on every step and contributing factor. The final formula for calculating Ballon Race payouts is this:
(Scatter multipliers x Bonus round multipliers) + Top-Up multipliers = Final multipliers
Balloon Race Live RTP is 96.09%. This is quite low by live casino game standards, but it’s actually decent when compared to most online slot machines. It’s also important to note that turning on XXXTreme Spins or Super XXXTreme Spins lowers the game’s overall RTP to 96.00% and 96.03%, respectively.
Also, the Top-Up round offers an RTP rate of 96.05%. In other words, it’s okay to play it, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to burn through your bankroll too quickly.
Make sure to choose the game that suits your taste and budget. For more extensive guides on live casino games, check out this page.