What Is A Progressive Jackpot?

In the online gambling context, the word ‘progressive’ refers to progressive jackpot games. These games aren’t too different from standard video slots in terms of gameplay, but they feature progressive jackpot prizes which can grow, often up to seven- or even eight-digit amounts. Progressive games are available at every, or at least almost every online casino.

What is a progressive jackpot, is a question posed by many online slot enthusiasts, and even those who are aware of progressive jackpot games sometimes aren’t quite sure how these games work and how the jackpot funds are gathered. If you are one of those who are looking for answers on these and many other questions related to progressive jackpots, stick around we provide answers to every question that might be of interest to you.

What Is A Progressive Jackpot – Prizes

Firstly, let’s look at the most important aspect of the question ‘what is a progressive jackpot’ – the jackpot. Now, these jackpot prizes can vary from tens of thousands up to tens of millions. Yes, the difference is quite drastic, but so is the likelihood of hitting one of the respective jackpots. Namely, you are a lot less likely to hit a jackpot with a lower progressive prize than a one with a much higher prize.

The jackpot amount is determined by the number of times the game has been played in a specific period and the amount that players have wagered on it over that same period. There are few other factors. The game providers themselves determined what could be the minimum progressive jackpot prize a player can win. That is the amount at which the jackpot seeds. So, as soon as a progressive jackpot is hit, it starts seeding again and when it does, it seeds at the minimum jackpot prize.

So, if the game developers have set the seeding amount at £100,000, it means that if someone hits the prize right now, the jackpot amount would drop to £100,000 and then start growing progressively depending on the wagered amount.

Progressive Jackpot Prize Pool

‘How does a progressive prize actually grow?’, might be your next question. Well, it is quite simple. Each and every wager on the game has an impact on the progressive jackpot prize. It is usually linked to a percentage and that percentage is set by the game developer. Let’s say that the progressive jackpot percentage is set at 1.50%. This means that out of every £100 that have been wagered on the game, £1.50 would go towards the jackpot pool.

If players have wagered a total of £10m on a game and the progressive jackpot percentage is 1.50%, the progressive jackpot prize would be £150,000.

How Often Do Progressive Jackpots Hit

Many players wrongly assume that once a jackpot has been hit, they should avoid that game for a certain period of time. That is a misconception though, there’s no rule that a progressive jackpot can’t be hit on two consecutive days. In fact, a progressive jackpot prize can be hit once in the same day. If you have a look at the statistics for a specific progressive jackpot game, you will notice that there’s an average period for a jackpot to be hit.

For instance, if a jackpot has been hit 15 times in two years, that means that the prize is hit on average once in every seven weeks. But that’s not a rule. It could be the case that it was hit thrice in a fortnight, and then it wasn’t hit for more than ten weeks. It is a matter of luck and it is entirely random. That’s why we wouldn’t advise you to try to predict the period when a jackpot is supposed to be hit.

It is true that if a jackpot hasn’t been hit in a while the jackpot amount will grow. If a jackpot seeds at £100,000 once the pool reaches that amount, every subsequent wager adds to the jackpot pool. On the other hand, the interest grows as the jackpot prize grows, so a lot more players would be playing as soon as the jackpot prize reaches a certain amount. In turn that causes the jackpot prize to grow further, but it also decreases your likelihood of winning it, as there’s a lot more competition.

Top Progressive Jackpot Prizes Ever

So far, we’ve discussed the theoretical aspect of progressive jackpot games. Some of you would obviously prefer more direct examples and explanations. So far, the largest online jackpot prize exceeded £13.2 million and it was won by a British man.

The prize that he won was only slightly (well, about £10K) higher than the prize that was won by a Finnish player. It seemed that the player from Finland managed to hit the highest jackpot prize, but the prize that he won was in euro, so when the currency conversions were done it seemed that the then 26-year-old ex-soldier from Cheshire hit the highest jackpot prize.

If we have a look at the all-time list of progressive jackpot winners, you’ll notice that only few players have won prizes over £10m. On the other hand, the number of players who have won amounts exceeding £1 million is pretty long. There are few online slots that are known as million makers, due to the fact that many people became millionaires after hitting the jackpot.

If you’re looking to play progressive jackpots online, you’re at the right place. Check out some of the games featured on Secret Slots, some of them come with pretty impressive jackpot prizes.

Conclusion

One of the most commonly asked questions is ‘how often do progressive jackpots hit’, but we have to say that we can’t give you a precise definition. It depends on the game and it is still random. If you’re looking to know ‘how are progressive jackpots paid’, there’s no need to worry about it, most providers pay them out in full, or in several instalments as soon as you hit the jackpot. Unlike other prizes that are paid by the casino provider, progressive jackpots are paid from the jackpot pool.

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