The Bought Round / overview

desk 85 / the price of a round

The round you pay more for

A slot usually takes one stake per spin. Then comes a control that changes that: a feature buy that charges a hundred times the stake for a single round, an ante bet that adds a quarter to every spin, a super stake that doubles the price, and a gamble that takes a win you already have and offers to double it. They look like four different features. They are the same thing - a control that changes what a round costs and what it can return - and this desk prices each one.

Open the partner account How a buy is priced

Desk spec

desk: 85
extra-stake rounds sampled: 1,200
a feature buy: 480
mean buy price: 101.0x
return on a buy: 96.5%
maximum win: 5,000x

The control platesample A / 1,200 extra-stake rounds, four controls

feature buy100x stakeBuys one whole round at a fixed price. The stake moves from 1x to 100x in a single decision; the return is the bought round's, not the base game's.

ante bet+25% per spinRaises the price of every spin a little and the stated chance of reaching the feature a lot. It makes a non-triggering spin dearer and can make the route to the feature cheaper.

super stake2x per spinDoubles the stake for roughly double the quoted chance. It changes the size of the bet and the variance, not the expected cost of reaching the feature.

gamble0 until a winCosts nothing to be offered, then stakes a win on a double-or-nothing. It is the only control here that can take money already won and put it back at risk.

four controls, one thing in common: each changes what a round costs, and none changes what it can return beyond the game's own mathematics.

Direct answer

An extra-stake control changes what one round costs without changing the return built into it. A feature buy charges a fixed multiple of the stake - 100 times in the sampled games - for a single round, and that buy returns about 96.5% of its own price on average. Of 1,200 invented extra-stake rounds, 480 used a buy, 300 an ante, 240 a super stake and 180 a gamble; each changes the size of the decision rather than the edge on it.

The price laddersample C / the four figures that price a bought round, on one scale

the base stake1.00

the buy price100.00

the average return96.50

the maximum win50x the price

the price is 100.00 and the average return is 96.50, so the difference the game keeps is 3.50 on every buy; the maximum win is 5,000.00, which is fifty times the price and off the top of this scale.

sample A / the controls

1,200 rounds played on games that offer an extra-stake control, sorted by which control was used: a feature buy on 480 (40.0%), an ante bet on 300 (25.0%), a super stake on 240 (20.0%) and a gamble on 180 (15.0%). The whole desk is about what each of the four does to the price of a round.

rounds sampled: 1,200
a feature buy: 480
an ante bet: 300
a super stake: 240
a gamble: 180
controls: 4

sample B / the buy price

The 480 feature buys were priced by the game, never chosen by the player: 96 at 80 times the base stake, 264 at 100 times and 120 at 120 times - a mean price of 101.0 times the stake, fixed for the round the moment the buy is pressed.

buys sampled: 480
a price of 80x: 96
a price of 100x: 264
a price of 120x: 120
mean price: 101.0x
price chosen by the player: 0

sample C / the return

A 100.00 buy on a game whose base return is 96.0% and whose published buy return is 96.5% comes back at 96.50 on average - a 3.50 edge on the purchase. The buy is priced to be near the base game, not to beat it, so what changes is the size of the decision rather than the edge.

the buy price: 100.00
base return: 96.0%
buy return: 96.5%
average return on a buy: 96.50
the edge on the buy: 3.50
edge share: 3.5%

sample D / the ante

300 ante bets at a mean uplift of 25.0% per spin against a stated improvement of up to twice the chance of reaching the feature: at a 1 in 100 base chance the route costs 100.00 in stakes, and at 1 in 50 with a 1.25x price it costs 62.50 - cheaper, but every spin that does not trigger is dearer by a quarter.

antes sampled: 300
mean uplift per spin: +25.0%
stated chance improvement: up to 2x
base route to a feature: 100.00
ante route to a feature: 62.50
break-even improvement: more than 25%

sample E / the super stake

A super stake doubles the price of a spin for roughly double the quoted chance, so the expected cost of reaching a feature does not move: 100 spins at 1.00 against 50 spins at 2.00 both cost 100.00. What changes is the size of every bet and the size of the swings, not the expected price of the feature.

super-stake rounds: 240
stake multiplier: 2x
quoted chance multiplier: 2x
cost to a feature at 2x: 100.00
cost to a feature at 1x: 100.00
what changes: the bet size

sample F / the gamble

A gamble costs nothing to be offered and then stakes a win on a double-or-nothing. Of 180 gambles on a 100.00 win, 84 doubled it and 96 lost it, a mean outcome of 93.33 - so the gamble carried an edge of 6.67 against simply keeping the win.

gambles sampled: 180
a 100.00 win gambled: 100.00
doubled the win: 84
lost the win: 96
mean outcome: 93.33
edge against keeping: 6.67

sample G / the cap

The maximum win on the sampled games is 5,000 times the base stake, and 12 of the 480 buys reached it (2.5%). Because a buy costs 100 times the stake, the cap converts into a ceiling of 50 times the price - so the most a bought round can return is fifty times what it cost.

maximum win: 5,000x stake
buys that reached it: 12
reached share: 2.5%
cap in base stakes: 5,000.00
cap as a multiple of the price: 50.0x
the buy price: 100x stake

sample H / the rules

Of the 480 buys, the stake counted toward a bonus wagering requirement in 96 cases (20.0%) and counted for nothing in 384 (80.0%); 60 of the buys were ineligible altogether because they were made from bonus funds or on an excluded game. A bought round is often play, but it is not always qualifying play.

buys sampled: 480
counted toward wagering: 96
counted share: 20.0%
counted for nothing: 384
ineligible altogether: 60
reason: bonus funds or excluded game

sample I / one round

One bought round carried through: a base stake of 1.00, a buy price of 100.00, and a round that returned 240.00 - a 2.40 times return on the price, against an average return of 96.50 and a maximum win of 5,000.00. The stake counted toward no wagering requirement, and the return was 140.00 above the price.

base stake: 1.00
the buy price: 100.00
this round returned: 240.00
return on the price: 2.40x
average return: 96.50
counted toward wagering: no

sample J / the ledger

A month of buying the round: 480 buys at a 100.00 price is 48,000.00 spent; at a 96.5% buy return the expected return is 46,320.00, an expected cost of 1,680.00 - and 384 of those 480 buys counted nothing toward any wagering requirement.

buys in a month: 480
the price: 100.00
spent: 48,000.00
expected return: 46,320.00
expected cost: 1,680.00
counted nothing: 384

The two components below are the whole desk at a glance: the control plate prices each of the four controls and says the one thing it actually changes, and the price ladder puts the base stake, the buy price, the average return and the maximum win on a single scale. Everything under them is one control at a time.

Four controls, one mechanism

Every one of the four does the same job from a different angle: it moves the price of a round away from the base stake. A feature buy moves it once, hard, to a fixed multiple. An ante bet moves it a little on every spin and claims to move the chance of the feature a lot. A super stake moves it by a round multiple and claims the same multiple of chance. A gamble does not move the price of a spin at all - it moves the price of a win, offering to stake it on a double-or-nothing. Read together, the four are a small price list, and the price list is the subject.

Where this desk stops

Four neighbouring questions belong to other desks. What a return figure means - RTP, variance and the arithmetic of a session - is its own desk; here the return is only ever a price on a control. What a screen says and permits - the win message, the speed control, what a bet button does - is another; here a control is a product with a price rather than a piece of interface. Who builds a title and which approval it holds is the supply chain. And the conditions on money an operator gave you is the bonus desk; this one touches wagering only where a bought round is counted or not counted toward it.

One buy, priced

A 100.00 feature buy on a 1.00 base stake base stake 1.00 the price the game sets for one round 100.00 = 100 times the stake, fixed by the game the base return of the game 96.0% the published return of the buy 96.5% average return on the buy 96.50 the edge the game keeps 3.50 (3.5%) maximum win 5,000.00 = 50.0 times the price what the buy changed: the size of the decision 1.00 -> 100.00 the return on it 96.0% -> 96.5% the expected edge ~the same the buy does not make a round better; it makes one round larger

What to hold in mind

An extra-stake control changes the price of a round, not the mathematics inside it.
A feature buy is priced at a fixed multiple of the stake, chosen by the game.
The buy price is not the average return - the return is the price times the buy return.
An ante and a super stake change the route to a feature, not the feature value.
A gamble stakes money already won, which is the only control here that can take it back.
The maximum win sets a ceiling on what the price can buy.

Nothing on this desk is financial, legal or tax advice, and no figure is observed from a live game or account. It names no real game, studio, operator or person, prices no real product and recommends no control: it explains what an extra-stake control does to the cost and the shape of a round. Every number derives from ten invented samples stated on this page and restated on the pages that use them.

The feature buyone round bought at a fixed price The pricethe buy price against the average return The checkwhat to look at before paying for a feature The maximum winhow a ceiling reprices the buy