What are Megaways slots? Reel arithmetic and the licence
What are Megaways slots? Big Time Gaming's reel mechanic, read from its own pages: ways as reel heights multiplied, the licence, and the GB rules on top.
Megaways slots are games built on Big Time Gaming’s reel-modifier mechanic: each of six reels shows a different number of symbols on every spin, and the ways to win are those counts multiplied together. Big Time Gaming (BTG) states the maximum as 117,649 ways, which is seven symbols on all six reels.
That is the whole mechanic, and it fits on a museum placard. What the top-ranked UK pages for “what are Megaways slots” mostly do next is list casinos. This one does the arithmetic instead, then files the specimen properly: who owns the name, what else is sold alongside it, and what a GB build has to leave out. It is an evergreen explainer, not news; nothing in it depends on this month’s release slate.
What does Megaways mean in slots?
Megaways is a brand name for a counting rule, which is an unusual thing to trademark and a very usual thing for a marketing department to do. BTG’s own pages print it as Megaways™ throughout, and BTG describes it on its 24 March 2026 news page as a “dynamic reel-modifier system offering up to 117,649 ways to win on every spin”. The same page says the mechanic debuted in 2016 and calls it one of the most widely licensed mechanics in the industry.
The mechanic sits in the “ways” family of slot design, the genus that stopped drawing paylines and started counting paths. A classic ways game has a fixed grid, so its ways figure is a constant printed on the paytable. Megaways is the variant in which the grid itself changes height reel by reel on every spin, so the ways figure becomes a variable.
The 2016 announcement on BTG’s site, for Dragon Born, puts it plainly: each of the six reels is dynamic, a different number of symbols lands on each reel every spin, and “the symbols are multiplied across the reels” to produce the ways. Matching runs left to right across adjacent reels. That page also says that, until then, slots online and land-based had only released games with 4,096 ways, which is BTG’s claim about the market of the day rather than a fact this desk checked.
How do Megaways slots work?
Picture six reels standing side by side, each a column of symbols. On a fixed grid every column is the same height. On a Megaways spin, the heights are dealt fresh: one reel might show three symbols, the next seven, the next two.
A way is a path. Take one symbol position from the first reel, one from the second, and so on across all six, and you have traced one way. The number of distinct paths is the number of choices on reel one, times the number on reel two, times the rest. That is the multiplication BTG describes, and it is why a reel that grows by a single symbol can move the total by thousands.
A win is the same symbol appearing on adjacent reels from the left. Three matching symbols on reels one to three pay; a gap on reel two ends the run. If reel one shows two of that symbol and reel two shows three, the win is counted across every path that connects them, which is where the large figures on Megaways paytables come from.
BTG’s own Bonanza page adds a second layer that many Megaways games share: a cascading system, in which winning symbols are removed and new ones drop in, so one paid spin can run on through several tumbles. BTG’s 2016 page also describes Dragon Born’s bonus round locking every reel to seven symbols, which is the maximum-ways state held for the length of a feature.
How many ways to win are there on Megaways?
The count is the product of the six reel heights for that spin. The table works it through for a set of sample spins. The 117,649 ceiling is BTG’s stated figure; the 64 row is the arithmetic of two symbols on every reel, set out as arithmetic, not as a minimum BTG states on the pages this desk read.
| Reel heights, reels 1 to 6 | Worked | Ways |
|---|---|---|
| 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 | 2 to the sixth | 64 |
| 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 | 3 to the sixth | 729 |
| 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 | 4 to the sixth | 4,096 |
| 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 | 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 | 5,040 |
| 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 | same heights, reversed | 5,040 |
| 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 | 5 to the sixth | 15,625 |
| 4, 7, 3, 6, 5, 7 | 4 x 7 x 3 x 6 x 5 x 7 | 17,640 |
| 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 | 6 to the sixth | 46,656 |
| 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6 | 7 to the fifth, x 6 | 100,842 |
| 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7 | 7 to the sixth | 117,649 |
Three things fall out of the table. Order does not matter: the two 5,040 rows are the same heights read in opposite directions. A grid of four symbols on every reel gives 4,096, the very figure BTG says was the ceiling before Megaways. And the step from 100,842 to 117,649 is one extra symbol on one reel, which is the multiplication doing its work.
The table also corrects two of the pages ranking for this query. The Jackpotjoy blog post read on 15 October 2026 says the figure is found by multiplying the number of symbols per reel by the number of reels; seven symbols times six reels is 42, and its own worked example, seven multiplied by itself six times, is the right method. The mybettingsites page read the same day gives 243 as the lowest figure. On six reels each showing at least two symbols, 243 cannot occur: it is three to the fifth, a five-reel number, and the smallest all-threes product on six reels is 729.
One caution: 117,649 is BTG’s figure for its six-reel system. A licensed game can print its own maximum, and that game’s paytable is the authority for it.
Who owns Megaways, and what is the licence programme?
BTG does. Its pages call Megaways a mechanic “created by Big Time Gaming”, and both the Bonanza page and the 2016 Dragon Born page describe it as patented. That is BTG’s own claim on its own site, reported here as such; this desk did not read a patent register.
What turns the mechanic into a family rather than a single game is licensing. BTG’s homepage, read on 15 October 2026, says casino partners and slot developers can join its licence programme, lists Megaways, Megaclusters and Megapays together with the note “available to all Relax partners”, and tells existing Megaways licensees they can add Megapays and Megaclusters through BTG’s licensing desk. So the name on the reels of a third-party Megaways game is a licensed mark, and the studio behind it is a licensee, not the inventor. Blueprint Gaming’s Eye of Horus Gold Spins Megaways, reviewed here, is one such specimen.
None of the three competitor pages this desk read for the query mentions the licence programme, Megaclusters or Megapays. “Megaways” on a game title names a reel rule bought in, the way “Dolby” on a cinema poster names a sound system, and says nothing about the game’s return or volatility.
Which game was the first Megaways slot?
BTG’s own pages disagree, and this desk reports both rather than picking one. The 2016 announcement on BTG’s site calls Dragon Born “the world’s first MEGAWAYS slot”. The 24 March 2026 news page, written for SkillOnNet’s relaunch of a Megaways-branded casino, calls Bonanza “the original game that introduced Megaways”. Both pages were read on 15 October 2026.
Bonanza’s own page prints a published RTP of 96.00% and 117,649 ways. That is the studio’s headline figure. GB operators can run builds at a different setting, as our read of operator-selectable RTP sets out, so the number in the game’s help screen at a given casino is the one that applies there.
What does a Megaways game look like on a GB build?
The mechanic arrives in Great Britain with several of its natural habits trimmed. This desk read the Gambling Commission’s RTS 14 page on 15 October 2026. Three requirements touch a cascading Megaways game directly.
RTS 14D sets a minimum of 2.5 seconds from the start of one slots game until the next game cycle can begin. A Megaways spin that runs through five tumbles is still one spin, and the next one waits for the clock.
RTS 14E says the system must not let a customer reduce the time until the result is presented. The guidance names turbo, quick spin and slam stop as features that are not permitted and says this applies to all remote games regardless of game cycle speed. A long cascade chain cannot be hurried along, a point covered in our RTS 14E read.
RTS 14F says the system must not celebrate a return that is less than or equal to the total stake. The rule is about the return against the stake, not the number of tumbles that produced it: a chain of small wins totalling 80p on a £1 spin is, by the text, a return below the stake, and the win lights and sounds stay off.
Then the stake. The Commission’s stake-limit guidance, read the same day, sets a maximum stake per game cycle on online slots of £5 for adults aged 25 and over, live from 9 April 2025, and £2 for adults aged 18 to 24, live from 21 May 2025.
FAQ
What does Megaways mean in slots?
Megaways is the name Big Time Gaming gives to its reel-modifier mechanic, and its pages carry it with a trademark mark. On a Megaways game each of six reels shows a different number of symbols on every spin, and the ways to win are those symbol counts multiplied together. It describes how a game counts wins, not who made the game.
How do Megaways slots work?
Every spin, each reel lands at a new height, so the grid changes shape each time. A win is a symbol appearing on adjacent reels from the left, one position per reel, and every distinct path through the grid counts as a separate way. Multiply the symbols showing on each reel and you have the number of ways for that spin.
How many ways to win are there on Megaways?
It changes every spin. Big Time Gaming states a maximum of 117,649, which is seven symbols on each of six reels, or seven to the sixth power. Below that the count is whatever the six reel heights multiply to. If every reel showed two symbols the product would be 64, though that floor is arithmetic rather than a figure stated on the BTG pages read here.
Who invented Megaways?
Big Time Gaming, which describes Megaways as its own creation and, on two of its pages, as patented. Its 2016 announcement calls Dragon Born the world’s first Megaways slot. Its March 2026 news page calls Bonanza the original game that introduced Megaways. Both are BTG’s words, on BTG’s site, and they do not agree.
More ways is a description of the grid, not a better chance on any given spin; the return a game pays over time lives in its RTP, and the ways count says nothing about it. This is a reading of the mechanic and the rulebook, not advice to play. 18+, UK stake limits apply to online slots, and if play stops feeling like a choice, talk to GambleAware.