Big Time Gaming online casinos legal where you live
What to remember about Big Time Gaming
- Identity: Big Time Gaming, or BTG, has been making online slots since Nik Robinson founded it in Sydney in 2011. Based in Surry Hills, the studio sells its titles to casinos and never takes real-money players itself.
- Megaways: this is the invention that made its name. On every spin, six reels each show between two and seven symbols, which gives up to 117,649 ways to win. Dragon Born introduced it in January 2016, before Bonanza made it famous that December.
- Megaways trademark: since April 2018, BTG has licensed its mechanic to other developers, with Blueprint Gaming as the first licensee. More than 200 Megaways games existed by 2021, and the trademark has been registered in the studio's name in the United States since 5 January 2021.
- Evolution: the Swedish group, parent company of NetEnt and Red Tiger, bought BTG in 2021 for up to €450 million, earn-out included. The year before, the studio had posted €29 million in EBITDA on €33 million in revenue.
- CASINO button: at the top of the page, it shows the licensed online casinos that offer BTG and legally accept players from your country. An empty list means that no operator of this kind is available to you.
- Restricted markets: some countries ban online slots, while others keep them under a state monopoly. A provider licence never replaces the casino's own licence, so the CASINO button stays empty wherever no licensed operator offers BTG.
- Licence: Spelinspektionen, the Swedish regulator, has granted BTG a game provider licence valid from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2028. The studio had also announced a licence from Alderney's AGCC in 2012.
- Game range: on 12 October 2026, the official site listed 91 games, 49 of them in the Megaways format, and the studio has released eight to twelve titles a year since 2021. Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Bonanza and Monopoly have spawned the most spin-offs, and recent game pages list up to 36 languages.
- Mechanics: Megaclusters and Megaquads in 2020, Win Exchange and Megapays in 2021, Megadozer in 2023, Megapots and TapCards in 2025, then Power Play all built on Megaways. Megapays is a progressive jackpot reserved for the Relax Gaming network, while the three Megapots prizes can only be won in Hold and Spin.
- RTP: the stated return to player ranges from 91.97% (Lucky Streak) to 96.90% (Queen of Riches), with a median of 96.45%. Casinos can set TapCards as low as 86.46%, so it pays to open the help screen at your operator before placing any bet.
- Demos: the official free-play mode, Big Time Vegas, requires a Google or Facebook login. That is why this page offers neither a BTG demo nor a GAMES button.
- Blind spots: the studio's Casinos page listed 100 offers on 12 October 2026, most of them behind affiliate links. As for the tenth anniversary contest, announced at €100,000, it has been on hold since December 2021 after €40,000 was awarded.
Big Time Gaming online casino and the Megaways legacy of the Sydney studio
Big Time Gaming, known across the industry as BTG, is an Australian online slot studio founded in Sydney in 2011 by Nik Robinson and owned since 2021 by Swedish group Evolution. In a country where land-based gaming machines made the fortune of an Australian manufacturer listed on the ASX since 1996, BTG bet on the web browser from the outset and has never left it. Its name remains tied to a trademarked invention, Megaways, which changed the way the entire industry designs its reels.
The principle is easy to sum up. A Megaways grid lines up six reels that each show between two and seven symbols on every spin, and you get the number of ways to win by multiplying those heights together. Seven to the power of six gives the now famous figure of 117,649 ways to win, first seen in Dragon Born in January 2016 and popularised eleven months later by Bonanza.
The CASINO button at the top of this page lists every Big Time Gaming online casino that holds a licence in its jurisdiction. The selection depends on the country you connect from and only includes operators authorised there. An empty list simply means that no casino of this kind is available where you are, with no hidden directory and no access on request.
You will not find a GAMES button on this page, and that is no oversight. Demos on the official site run through a platform that requires you to sign in with a Google or Facebook account, a condition I refuse to impose on my readers for a few test spins. All the figures below were collected on 12 October 2026 from bigtimegaming.com, its 92 press releases and the public registers listed at the end of this article.
How does the Megaways mechanic work?
BTG describes its invention as a “random reel modifier”. Every spin draws a new height for each reel, so two consecutive spins almost never play out on the same grid. For example, one reel of two symbols next to five reels of seven produces 33,614 combinations. Six full reels hit the ceiling of 117,649.
Many titles add a horizontal row above the four middle reels, the Extra Reel, along with cascades that the studio calls Reactions. Winning symbols disappear, new ones drop into their place and the ways counter is recalculated with every fall. It is this pairing, far more than the raw number, that gives BTG games their unmistakable rhythm.
Grids that come close to three million ways
The studio then pushed back the walls of its own invention. Gold Megaways, released in August 2021 for the company's tenth anniversary, reached 1,000,000 ways during free spins thanks to expanding reels. Rasputin Megaways went further in December 2022 with 2,985,984 ways, or six reels of twelve symbols. As for Slot Vegas Megaquads, its game page announces up to 16,777,216 ways when four machines played at the same time merge during the bonus.
This grammar caught on far beyond Sydney. At the time of the 2021 takeover, Evolution already counted more than 200 Megaways games from several providers, and the variable-height grid is now part of the standard toolkit of video slot studios found in any lobby. Few studio inventions have spread that widely.
Dragon Born then Bonanza in 2016
Dragon Born paved the way. The 21 January 2016 press release presents it as the first game built on OMNI, the studio's own HTML5 engine. It was initially reserved for operators on the NYX network, then reached Microgaming and OpenBet partners on 2 April. Queen of Riches followed in May with an advertised return of 96.9%, then Star Quest in October, which paid both ways.
The real turning point came on 7 December 2016. Bonanza was set in a gold mine and added mine carts that react horizontally with the reels, plus an uncapped multiplier during free spins. Nik Robinson warned that players would think the game was broken when they saw that multiplier climb. Seven years later, he still described Bonanza as the game that popularised Megaways.
A game designed for streamers
BTG never hid it. The Bonanza press release explains that the game was built for Twitch streaming stars, with free spins a commentator can call like a horse race. The studio went further in May 2017 with Danger High Voltage, whose first real-money spins were played live by a Swedish streamer. A week later, viewers could bet on the outcome of 500 broadcast spins, with odds drawn from the game's maths models.
White Rabbit introduced the Feature Drop in October 2017. Players could buy the bonus as soon as the game opened, at a price that fell as they collected BTG coins on the reels, and the studio spoke of eighteen months of development for that feature alone. Its expanding reels climbed to twelve symbols and 248,832 ways.
A mechanic licensed to rivals from 2018
On 25 April 2018, BTG opened Megaways to the competition. The press release issued that day names Blueprint Gaming, the British studio of Germany's Gauselmann group, as the first licensee of the mechanic, under a deal BTG described as revolutionary. Storm Gaming signed in September, followed in October by Red Tiger, a British studio that is now a sister company. Nik Robinson predicted at the time that the format would end up eclipsing the classic grid of five reels and three rows.
In January 2019, a British bookmaker even created a tab entirely devoted to Megaways games. BTG took the opportunity to name its current and future licensees. The list included Blueprint, Scientific Games, Storm, Kalamba, Fantasma Games, iSoftBet, Relax Gaming and Red Tiger. More than seven years on, the studio's homepage still invites casinos and developers to join its licensing programme at [email protected].
The name itself is firmly locked down. In the United States, the MEGAWAYS trademark has been on the Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) register under number 6,240,815 since 5 January 2021. It is registered to Big Time Gaming Pty Ltd, with a first use declared on 6 January 2016. US law requires a declaration of use to be filed by 5 January 2027, not counting the grace period, and the file still showed no trace of it on 12 October 2026. The studio has also spoken of a patented system since its December 2015 announcement, without publishing any patent number on its site. Another trademark is still waiting for its moment, Teraways, registered on 24 May 2022 without any released game carrying it.
Nik Robinson and the history of the studio
Nik Robinson was no newcomer. BTG's About page recalls that he founded New Tech Media in 1996, a company sold to News Corp and later merged with Orbis to become OpenBet, the betting platform born of that merger. The same page credits Huw McIntosh with the studio's technical direction and Ian Schmidt with its creative touch. The founder still signs every press release in 2026, with the title of Founder and CEO since March.
The Flash years before Megaways
The first known deal dates back to 27 September 2012. BTG announced its arrival on Quickfire, the Microgaming platform that would become the distributor of its first titles with major European operators. OpenBet followed in January 2013 with a deal for twelve exclusive games delivered over three years, including Feathered Frenzy, Diamonds and Mr Multiplier.
Feathered Frenzy, launched in August 2013, was described as the flagship of the Reactors range, proof that cascades were part of the company's DNA long before Bonanza. Gold, a slot built around the Spandau Ballet hit under licence from EMI and Dagger Entertainment, went live with the first operators at the same time. In December 2013, BTG asked CORE Gaming, the HTML5 developer in charge of the mobile versions, to adapt Lucky Streak and Gold for phones and tablets. The studio understood very early that the future would be played out in players' pockets.
The company did not stop at reels. In December 2013, its Auto-Roulette, which could chain sequences of automatic bets, climbed to the top of the most played games in the arcade of a British betting exchange. That title is a reminder that before it specialised, BTG also took on online roulette providers with a highly statistical approach. In 2014, Golden Goals celebrated an “unofficially official” World Cup, and the press release pointed out with very Australian humour that FIFA had endorsed none of it. Viking Quest and Temple Quest then introduced giant four-by-four symbols.
Why does Gold matter so much to BTG?
In 2021, Nik Robinson called Gold the studio's “very first game”. That is why it was chosen to celebrate the company's tenth anniversary, reissued as Gold Megaways on 18 August 2021 with its million ways in free spins. One small detail says a lot about how the site is archived. The official Gold page is dated 15 July 2014, while two press releases from 2013 already describe the game as live with operators.
A Surry Hills company on the Australian register
The official site's footer is signed Big Time Gaming Pty Ltd and places the studio at Suite 203, 50 Holt Street, in Surry Hills, a Sydney neighbourhood with the postcode 2010. The federal ABN Lookup register lists a private company called Bigtime Gaming Pty Limited, with ABN 65 151 000 592 (ACN 151 000 592). It has been active and registered for goods and services tax since 19 May 2011, with its main business location declared in Sydney's 2000 postcode. The name, the year and the city all match the studio's, despite the one-word spelling.
Other registers blur the picture a little. The US file for the Megaways trademark places the owner at 250/50 Holt Street, still in the 2010 postcode, while the Swedish licence register spells Surrey Hills with one e too many. None of these discrepancies calls the company's identity into question. They do show, however, that a studio bought for several hundred million euros publishes very little legal information on its own website.
€450 million to join Evolution
On 12 April 2021, Evolution announced the purchase of the entire share capital of Big Time Gaming Pty Ltd for up to €450 million. According to the Swedish group's official announcement, €220 million was payable on signing, including €80 million in cash and the rest in new shares. An earn-out of up to €230 million depended on EBITDA for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 financial years. The deal closed at the end of June 2021, with 1,105,032 Evolution shares issued on 30 June.
On the day of the announcement, Nik Robinson published an enthusiastic post on the studio's website comparing the deal to gaming's “iPod moment”. The numbers explain the buyer's appetite. In 2020, BTG generated €33 million in revenue and €29 million in EBITDA, a margin close to 88%, with a small team and a handful of releases a year.
The takeover changed the way games reach operators. Since January 2023, most new releases have come out first on the Evolution network. BTG slots also share a joint promotion called Spin Gifts, worth up to 100 free spins, with those of NetEnt, the Swedish developer Evolution bought before it, Red Tiger and Nolimit City. The Sydney studio nonetheless keeps its own identity, its website, its merchandise shop and its pace of around ten releases a year.
The studio in figures at the time of the takeover
| Indicator | Value | Source |
|---|
| Revenue 2020 | €33M | Evolution press release, 12/04/2021 |
| EBITDA 2020 | €29M | Evolution press release, 12/04/2021 |
| Payment on signing | €220M, including €80M in cash | Evolution press release, 12/04/2021 |
| Maximum earn-out | €230M, payable 70% in cash and 30% in shares | Evolution press release, 12/04/2021 |
| Shares issued at closing | 1,105,032 on 30/06/2021 | Intergame, 30/06/2021 |
Where can you find a Big Time Gaming online casino?
Big Time Gaming titles are distributed on a large scale, but rarely directly. They go through Evolution's One Stop Shop platform, through the Relax Gaming network for Megapays jackpots or through other aggregators. The same title can also come out exclusively with a single operator a week before the rest of the market. For you, the useful question is simpler. Which licensed casino offers these games where you live?
What the CASINO button shows based on your location
The CASINO button on this page answers exactly that question. It lists the online casinos that hold a valid licence in their jurisdiction and offer BTG titles, then filters them by the country you connect from, so a reader in Stockholm, Geneva or Toronto will not see the same names. I do not open accounts or deposit money with these operators. I check them from the outside instead. I verify each licence with the regulator, read the bonus terms and make sure the games on offer are genuine, because fake copies of famous slots circulate on dubious sites.
An empty list is neither a mistake nor a selection reserved for a few insiders. It means that no licensed online casino offering Big Time Gaming is available from your country at the time of your visit. The situation can change from one month to the next, as licences and distribution deals evolve.
Why the list stays empty in some countries
In some countries the CASINO button will stay empty, and that is the expected result. Several jurisdictions still ban online slots, while others keep them under a state monopoly. A provider's own licence changes nothing in either case. The supplier licence BTG holds in Sweden lets it provide games, not accept a single bet, because every casino needs its own operator licence in the market where its players live. Kynox therefore shows no operator wherever no licensed casino offers BTG titles legally.
Regulated markets opened one at a time
The studio regularly reserves early releases for a large British operator group, such as Monopoly Rush Hour in January 2026 or Monopoly Megapots in March. The Gambling Commission has banned credit card gambling since 14 April 2020, and one of the British offers relayed by the studio indeed specifies that a debit card is required for the first deposit. One curiosity of the British public register is that no business under the name Big Time Gaming or Bigtime appeared there on 12 October 2026, which suggests distribution under another entity's licence.
The only licence I could verify in the studio's name is Swedish. The Spelinspektionen register lists a game provider licence, spelprogramvara, granted to Big Time Gaming Pty for the period from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2028. In December 2012, the studio also announced an essential services licence from the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, the AGCC, of which its current footer keeps no trace.
The rest of the map takes shape through press releases. Bonanza reached New Jersey as early as August 2019 through Scientific Games' Open Gaming System. In October 2023, Nik Robinson mentioned a recent launch of his games in North American markets, where other Australians such as the Newington-based manufacturer already supply online operators. BTG entered Switzerland in May 2024 through the online site of a Swiss land-based casino, connected via Evolution's platform, then gave a Spanish operator a one-week exclusive on Extra Chilli More Chilli in September 2026.
Why does this page offer no demo?
The “Play for fun” button on bigtimegaming.com leads to Big Time Vegas, a free-play platform run by the studio, where you can only play after signing in with a Google or Facebook account. The terms of use displayed on the official site are in fact a generic privacy policy written for bigtimevegas.com, in force since 18 October 2018, which provides for personal data to be transferred to Australia. I would rather point curious players towards demos you can play without a Google or Facebook login, offered by other developers. Nobody should have to hand over their social profile to try out a slot.
The official game range under the microscope
The Games section of the official site remains the best way in to measure the studio's output. It lists 91 published game pages as of 12 October 2026, while the site's content management tool counts 94. They run from Lucky Streak, dated 1 April 2014, to Extra Chilli More Chilli, posted on 15 September 2026. The earliest creations from 2013 and 2014 are missing, among them Feathered Frenzy, Vegas Dreams, Viking Quest, Temple Quest and Auto-Roulette.
A pace of around ten releases a year
The pace picked up sharply from 2021. The site lists 4 pages in 2016, 3 in 2017, 4 in 2018, 7 in 2019 and 8 in 2020. It then counts 12 in 2021, 12 in 2022, 11 in 2023, 8 in 2024, 12 in 2025 and already 8 in 2026. To compare this rhythm with that of other studios, the Kynox directory you can filter by game type remains the quickest tool. The site's tags offer another reading of the range, with Megaways on 49 pages, bonus buy on 41, Win Exchange on 23 and a brand licence on 20.
A marketing pack and Monopoly Money merchandise are already online, even though no game page bears that name. The studio is therefore probably preparing a new Monopoly-licensed release, the sixth in the series if you count Monopoly Megaways from 2019.
In-house mechanics after Megaways
Megaways eventually got some younger siblings. In June 2020, Star Clusters introduced Megaclusters, a cluster system in which each winning symbol splits into four smaller ones. The grid grows from 4x4 to 8x8, then up to 16x16 positions during free spins. In September of the same year, Slot Vegas launched Megaquads, four machines played at once for a single stake, which BTG presented as the third instalment of its trilogy of Mega formats.
The features that followed all go after the same thing, getting players into the free spins. Win Exchange, which appeared with Gold Megaways in 2021, lets you swap a large win for a chance at the free spins. That win is often worth between 25 and 100 times the stake depending on the game, and above a certain threshold the free spins are awarded outright. Megadozer, unveiled with Bonanza Falls in December 2023, drops bonus coins from the top of the grid like a fairground coin pusher. Power Play, introduced with Warlocks in December 2025, makes bonuses more frequent in exchange for a stake multiplied by five to eight depending on the game.
Megapays and Megapots are not the same thing
Megapays, launched with Bonanza Megapays in June 2021, is a four-tier progressive jackpot fed by a fraction of every stake, which the studio describes as a global system. According to the July 2022 press release, it runs exclusively on the network of Relax Gaming, the Maltese aggregator that hosts the Megapays jackpots, and BTG's homepage still presents it as open to every partner on that network. Only four game pages carry it, all released between 2021 and 2022.
Megapots, which appeared in April 2025 with Big Bucks Deluxe, works differently. Three prizes called Mini, Midi and Mega sit above the reels and change on every spin, but they can only be won by landing three identical icons during the Hold and Spin feature, triggered by six or more coins. Nothing in the official documentation describes them as progressive, which sets them apart from the progressive jackpots of other developers as well as from the in-house Megapays. Six game pages carry the Megapots tag as of 12 October 2026.
TapCards and the return of scratch games
In June 2025, BTG stepped away from reels altogether with TapCards, cards you reveal with a tap that borrow their rules from scratch tickets. Each card reveals 7 to 16 symbols, and three, four or five matching ones anywhere make a win. Three tiers of Tap Pots promise up to 25,000 times the stake, or 30,000 in the Monopoly version. The series puts the studio up against online scratch card providers, with Bonanza, Millionaire, Extra Chilli and Big Bucks Deluxe versions, then Monopoly in January 2026. Its configurable return rates go as low as 86.46%, a detail I come back to below.
From brand licences to a rock playlist
Twenty game pages carry the Licensed tag, and the list reads like a night in front of the TV. In November 2018, BTG launched Who Wants To Be A Millionaire under licence from Sony Pictures Television after presenting it at the G2E show in Las Vegas. Within two weeks the game joined the networks of Microgaming and of the American group that long distributed the studio's games. Monopoly followed in December 2019, then Survivor and Wheel of Fortune in 2020, before a burst of four Monopoly games between January and March 2026.
Music has a special place. Danger High Voltage uses the Electric Six hit, Holy Diver was built around the Dio track under licence from Carlin Music and Sony ATV, and Rasputin Megaways dances to an in-house Boney M. remix. British band The Cult even got its own four-game series, with Lil Devil in 2019, Wild Flower in 2021, Outlaw in 2022 and Sanctuary in 2023, the last of which can spin four machines at once during free spins.
Return rates and win caps
The official game pages show return to player rates between 91.97% for Lucky Streak, the oldest title, and 96.90% for Queen of Riches. The median stands at 96.45% when you take the highest value on each page, and only three titles fall below 96%, namely Lucky Streak, Dragon Born at 95.00% and Danger High Voltage at 95.67%. Many recent games display a range rather than a single rate, such as Monster Quest between 96.49% and 96.58%.
These figures do not tell the whole story. For TapCards, BTG offers operators three settings, 86.46%, 94.46% or 96.45%, and the Monopoly version goes down to 86.50%. The rate you actually get therefore depends on the casino, and the only way to find out is to open the game's help screen at the operator before betting. Make a habit of checking that line before any other.
| Game | Official page | Main mechanic | Stated RTP | Advertised max win |
|---|
| Panda Money | 30/01/2024 | Prize Builder and Win Exchange | 96.10 to 96.15% | 67,330x |
| Fireworks Megaways | 26/03/2024 | Megaways and Win Exchange | 96.44% | 150,335x |
| Trigger Happy | 21/05/2024 | Clusters and Bonus Panels | 96.58% | 50,000x |
| Boo | 24/09/2024 | Reactions and bonus buy | 96.54% | 200,000x with the bonus bought at 500x the stake |
| Burgers | 10/12/2024 | Bonus Reel and Win Exchange | 96.41 to 96.42% | 102,840x |
| Max Megaways 3 | 18/02/2025 | Megaways and Megadozer | 96.35 to 96.36% | 101,830x |
| Crystal Towers | 27/05/2025 | 3D clusters | 96.36 to 96.37% | 90,050x |
| White Rabbit 2 | 24/11/2025 | Megapots and Hold and Spin | 96.36 to 96.37% | 133,100x |
| Warlocks | 07/12/2025 | Stash and Spin plus Power Play | 96.50 to 96.58% | 24,100x |
| Millionaire Megapots | 03/03/2026 | Megapots, Megaways and Power Play | 96.50 to 96.58% | 91,000x |
| Monster Quest | 23/06/2026 | Megaways, Hold and Spin plus Power Play | 96.49 to 96.58% | 99,900x |
| Extra Chilli More Chilli | 15/09/2026 | Megaways and Power Play | 96.39 to 96.45% | 30,000x |
Up to 36 languages on recent game pages
Recent game pages list up to 39 language codes, which adds up to 36 distinct languages. French (France and Canada), Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal) and Chinese (simplified and traditional) each come in two variants. Georgian, Macedonian, Bengali and Malay are on the list too. French appears on 90 of the 91 pages, and only Lucky Streak, the oldest game in the range, is still limited to English.
Blind spots on the official site
A developer's website often says more than it means to. BTG's stands out for its detailed game pages, downloadable marketing packs and 92 press releases archived since 2012. It also reveals some questionable choices and a series of inaccuracies that I prefer to flag in black and white.
A Casinos page that looks like an affiliate site
Every game page offers a “Play for real money” button. It does not lead to an operator but to the studio's own Casinos page, which listed exactly 100 offers on 12 October 2026. They were spread across seven tabs. The worldwide tab held 52 of them, followed by the United Kingdom with 18, crypto casinos with 12, Ontario with 10, Latin America with 5, the United States with 2 and Italy with 1. Most links go through affiliate tracking domains, and a general note claims that players should take advantage of bonuses “whenever possible” to increase their chances of winning. For a provider that promotes very high volatility games, the wording jars.
The Ontario block raises another problem. Its footnote recalls that advertising bonuses is prohibited there and states that the offers target players located outside the province, yet the same block displays bonuses in Canadian dollars, up to CAD 10,800. A Toronto player funding an account by Interac e-Transfer would struggle to work out who these amounts are meant for. I leave it to the AGCO to judge compliance, but the contradiction is hard to miss.
I have worked in affiliate marketing since 2011, the very year Nik Robinson's company was registered in Sydney, and I have nothing against a model that pays for introductions. What bothers me here is the mix of roles. A studio that supplies operators, collects licence fees on its mechanic and also steers players towards a hundred casinos through tracked links is no longer quite a simple game maker. Its homepage also promotes an online casino entirely devoted to Megaways, relaunched in March 2026 by an operator with Nik Robinson's stated support.
A €100K anniversary contest left on hold
In August 2021, BTG launched a €100,000 contest to mark its tenth anniversary. It promised €10,000 a month for ten months to the best cumulative multiplier on a selection of games. Four winners were named for August, September, October and November 2021. A note dated 1 December then announced a short break over the holidays and a return the following year. On 12 October 2026, no page had announced a restart, which limits the publicly awarded prize money to €40,000 out of the €100,000 promised.
Inconsistencies found on 12 October 2026
None of these inaccuracies affects the fairness of the games, but they all make verification harder.
| Topic | What the site shows | What other sources say |
|---|
| Dragon Born release | “late 2015” in the April 2018 licensing press release | Launch on 21/01/2016 according to the press release of the time, game page dated 01/02/2016 |
| Gold date | Game page dated 15/07/2014 | Game mentioned at operators in two press releases from August and December 2013 |
| Lucky Streak date | Game page dated 01/04/2014 | Game already mentioned in the CORE Gaming press release of 04/12/2013 |
| Burgers ways | 256 ways on the game page | 246 ways in the press release of 10/12/2024 |
| Monster Quest max win | 99,990x in the press release standfirst | 99,900x in the body of the same press release |
| Rasputin Megaways ways | “1,000,00” in the base game on the game page | 1,000,000 in the press release of 12/12/2022 |
| Internal press release dates | “24 November 2020” for Diamond Fruits and “19 May 2019” for King of Cats | Published in November 2021 and May 2021 |
| Address | Suite 203, 50 Holt Street, Surry Hills | 250/50 Holt Street at the USPTO, Surrey Hills at Spelinspektionen |
| Terms of Service page | Generic privacy policy from bigtimevegas.com | No terms of use specific to bigtimegaming.com |
| Shipping page | “[insert your support email here]” left as is | [email protected] quoted further down the same page |
Big Time Gaming timeline from 2011 to 2026
The dates below come from the studio's press releases, from the Evolution group and from the registers consulted on 12 October 2026.
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|
| 19/05/2011 | Bigtime Gaming Pty Limited obtains its ABN in Sydney | ABN Lookup |
| 27/09/2012 | Distribution deal with the Quickfire platform | BTG press release |
| 12/2012 | Essential services licence from the AGCC in Alderney | BTG press release |
| 29/01/2013 | OpenBet partnership for twelve exclusive games over three years | BTG press release |
| 04/12/2013 | Deal with CORE Gaming for mobile versions of Lucky Streak and Gold | BTG press release |
| 21/01/2016 | Dragon Born, the first Megaways game | BTG press release |
| 07/12/2016 | Bonanza launches | BTG press release |
| 25/10/2017 | White Rabbit and the Feature Drop | BTG press release |
| 25/04/2018 | First Megaways licence, granted to Blueprint Gaming | BTG press release |
| 14/11/2018 | Who Wants To Be A Millionaire under licence from Sony Pictures Television | BTG press release |
| 10/06/2020 | Star Clusters introduces Megaclusters | Official game page |
| 05/01/2021 | MEGAWAYS trademark registered in the United States | USPTO |
| 12/04/2021 | Evolution agrees to buy BTG for up to €450M | Evolution press release |
| 06/06/2021 | Bonanza Megapays introduces Megapays | Official game page |
| 30/06/2021 | 1,105,032 Evolution shares issued, deal completed | Intergame |
| 01/12/2021 | Tenth anniversary contest paused after four winners | Official site |
| 01/07/2023 | Swedish game provider licence takes effect | Spelinspektionen |
| 04/12/2023 | Bonanza Falls introduces Megadozer | BTG press release |
| 23/04/2025 | Big Bucks Deluxe introduces Megapots | BTG press release |
| 25/06/2025 | TapCards launch | BTG press release |
| 10/12/2025 | Warlocks introduces Power Play | BTG press release |
| 16/09/2026 | Extra Chilli More Chilli exclusive with a Spanish operator | BTG press release |
FAQ: Big Time Gaming
What is Big Time Gaming?
Big Time Gaming, or BTG, is an Australian studio that designs online slots and supplies them to operators without running a real-money casino of its own. Founded in 2011 by Nik Robinson, it is based in Surry Hills, Sydney. It created the Megaways mechanic and has belonged to Swedish group Evolution since 2021.
Who owns Big Time Gaming?
Big Time Gaming belongs to Swedish group Evolution, which also owns NetEnt and Red Tiger. Announced on 12 April 2021 and completed on 30 June that year, the takeover was worth up to €450 million, earn-out included. The studio kept its name, its website and its founder Nik Robinson, who still runs it in 2026.
Who invented Megaways?
Big Time Gaming, Nik Robinson's Australian studio, invented Megaways and owns the trademark. It launched the mechanic with Dragon Born on 21 January 2016, and Bonanza made it popular in December 2016. Since April 2018, BTG has licensed it to other developers, starting with Blueprint Gaming, and more than 200 Megaways games already existed in 2021.
How does a Megaways slot work?
A Megaways slot changes the height of its six reels on every spin, from two to seven symbols each. The number of ways to win is the product of those six heights, so it reaches 117,649 when every reel is full. Some games push past that ceiling, such as Rasputin Megaways with its 2,985,984 ways.
How many games has Big Time Gaming made?
The official Big Time Gaming website listed 91 games on 12 October 2026, 49 of them tagged Megaways. A few titles from 2013 and 2014, such as Feathered Frenzy, are not included. Between 2021 and 2026, the studio released eight to twelve new games a year and happily built on its hits. Bonanza alone now comes in five versions.
What is the RTP of Big Time Gaming games?
The return to player (RTP) of Big Time Gaming games ranges from 91.97% to 96.90% on the official game pages, with a median of 96.45%. Some titles can be set lower, though. TapCards, a range of reveal-style cards, go down to 86.46% depending on the casino's choice. Check the RTP in the game's help screen before you bet.
What licences does Big Time Gaming hold?
Big Time Gaming holds a Swedish game provider licence issued by Spelinspektionen and valid from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2028. In 2012, the studio also announced a licence from the AGCC, the Alderney regulator. These supplier licences do not replace the licence each casino must obtain in the markets where it accepts players.
Where can you play Big Time Gaming for real money?
You can play Big Time Gaming for real money at regulated online casinos authorised in your country. The CASINO button at the top of this page selects these operators according to the country you connect from, and I check each one's licence with its regulator. If the list stays empty, no casino offering BTG is currently available to you.
Can you play Big Time Gaming in every country?
No, Big Time Gaming titles can only be played for real money where a licensed online casino is allowed to offer them. Some countries ban online slots outright and others keep them under a state monopoly, which BTG's own supplier licence cannot change. Where no licensed casino offers its games, the CASINO button shows no operator.
Can you play Big Time Gaming for free?
Yes, but the free-play mode offered by Big Time Gaming requires you to sign in with a Google or Facebook account. On bigtimegaming.com, the “Play for fun” link opens Big Time Vegas, the studio's free-play platform. I do not want to force my readers through a social network for a simple test, so this page features no BTG demo.
Sources:
- Big Time Gaming, About page
- Big Time Gaming, Games section
- Dragon Born Megaways press release, 21 January 2016
- Bonanza Megaways press release, November 2016
- Megaways licensing press release, 25 April 2018
- Nik Robinson's post on the Evolution takeover
- Danger High Voltage Megapays press release, 27 July 2022
- Big Bucks Deluxe press release, 23 April 2025
- TapCards press release, 25 June 2025
- Spin Gifts page
- Tenth anniversary contest hiatus announcement
- Evolution press release, 12 April 2021
- Takeover completed, Intergame, 30 June 2021
- Bonanza arrives in New Jersey, Intergame, 22 August 2019
- ABN Lookup record for Bigtime Gaming Pty Limited
- MEGAWAYS trademark on the USPTO register
- TERAWAYS trademark on the USPTO register
- Spelinspektionen licence register
- Gambling Commission public register
