Branded Slots

What are Branded Slots?

A branded slot is an official game inspired by movies, television series/shows, music, musicians, board games, superheroes and even cartoons. The theme, unlike ancient Egypt or Norse mythology, are instantly recognisable and carry a certain power.

Brands are part of popular culture as we spend more and more time watching screens and online. Slot providers offer branded casino slots as they have great source material to work from which leads to graphically superb slots we can instantly relate to.

First Branded Slot

The first ever branded slot was produced by Microgaming. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was released way back in October 2004. Due to it’s popularity, they have released a few more Lara Croft inspired games including Lara Croft: Temples and Tombs.

NetEnt’s first branded game was Frankenstein in June 2011. Since then, they have gone on to release slots based on Gordon Ramsay, the Vikings and Narcos TV series and famous bands like Guns ‘n Roses.

With an explosion of branded casino slots, Big Time Gaming released Who Wants to be a Millionaire Megaways in late 2018.

Playtech are well known for their branded slots too and released Marvel slots back in the day. Since Marvel was acquired by Disney, the Marvel slot games no longer exist unfortunately. They do offer DC Comics slots including Suicide Squad and The Dark Knight Rises.

Why are Branded Slots so popular?

Branded slots are very popular as players have a loyalty towards a certain brand. This is because they come with familiar themes and storylines and well as relatable graphics and popular soundtracks or songs.

Branded slot games are instantly recognisable so they are a great acquisition tool for online casinos and the slot providers. A branded casino slot will stand out against generically themed slots and create an affinity with the audience.

If you take Game of Thrones for example, it’s the most popular television series of all time. As a result, Microgaming have released an official Game of Thrones online slot. If you love the series and are looking for a slot game to play, you are more likely to choose the Game of Thrones slot than another game that offers the same mechanics but with a different theme.

Should I Avoid Branded Slots?

There are advantages and disadvantages of playing branded slots online. Branded games come with image rights and licensing fees which must be paid to the owners of the brands by the slot providers. To use the DC Comics rights for example, Playtech will need to pay a certain % of profits to Warner Bros. This can have an impact in a slot’s RTP (return to player %) which in turn will lower the payback for players.

Some branded slots, like Microgaming’s Lord of the Rings, have ceased to exist as the fees paid were too expensive to justify offering the slot. However, in an increasingly competitive market, slot providers absorb these licensing fees as they want to offer an online slot that is appealing in terms of win potential and brand. Games like Jurassic Park (Microgaming) have an RTP % of 96.67% meaning they are the same if not better than normal unbranded slot games.

Slot Providers

Many of the big slot providers now offer branded slots. The ones best known for their branded casino slots include:

Other providers like iSoftBet, Big Time Gaming, WMS, Bally, Barcrest, Blueprint Gaming, NextGen Gaming, Play ‘n GO, Novomatic and Yggdrasil Gaming offer branded online slots with dozens of titles available.

Movie Slots

Movie slots are branded slots with a movie or film theme. These are most popular types of branded casino slots and cover a whole range of popular movies. These film slots feature characters from the movies themselves as well as official soundtracks, graphics and even movie clips.

The trend is sure to continue with slot providers determined to create slots that stand out from the crowd. This can only be a good thing. Here are some of the better movie themed slots you can play online in the UK:

NetEnt	Jumanji, The Invisible Man + Dracula
Microgaming	Jurassic World, Jurassic Park + Terminator 2
Playtech	Gladiator: Road to Rome, Suicide Squad + The Dark Knight Rises
Blueprint Gaming	The Goonies, The Goonies Return + Mars Attacks
WMS	Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers + Bruce Lee Dragon’s Tale
NextGen Gaming	Judge Dredd, King Kong Fury + The Mask
IGT	Bridesmaids, Ghostbusters + Ghostbusters Triple Slime
iSoftBet	Basic Instinct, Rambo + Paranormal Activity
Bally	Anchor The Legend of Ron Burgundy + Titanic

TV Slots

In recent years, there’s been an increase of the number of TV slots. These are branded games that are themed on a TV show or television series. With the popularity of services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, TV series are now more commonly watched than movies.

They have made the transition into modern culture due to longform storytelling, the bond created with characters and bigger budgets from production companies. Typically, a movie will last 90 to 120 minutes. TV series can run for years and create a long-standing relationship with viewers.

Shows like Game of Thrones, Vikings and Narcos have enjoyed unprecedented success and slot providers have cashed in on this creating dedicated branded slots which are popular with the shows’ viewers. There’s quite the selection of TV slots available including:

Superhero Slots

Superhero themed slots are extremely popular as superheroes have featured in comic books, books, movies and television series for decades.

Playtech used to offer the Marvel slots series including games like Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Avengers, Wolverine, Captain America, Thor The Mighty Avenger and Fantastic Four amongst others. Marvel was acquired by Disney and the Marvel slots were removed in March 2017.

Since then, Playtech has released DC Comics slots with games based on characters like Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Batman. They are based on the blockbuster films like Suicide Squad, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League and Man of Steel.

Music Slots

Music slots or music themed slots are casino games based on songs, musicians, rock bands or musicals. Whilst not as common as movie or TV show slots, you can play online slots based on Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Guns ‘N Roses, Motörhead and the Village People.

Slot providers like Big Time Gaming have used popular songs like Danger! High Voltage by Electric Six and Lil’ Devil by The Cult in slots. The Gold Megaways slot is based on Spandau Ballet’s ‘Gold’ song.

NetEnt have a NetEnt Rocks series with 4 music slots available: Jimi Hendrix, Guns ‘N Roses, Motörhead and Ozzy Osbourne.

Play ‘n GO also have a good selection of branded music slot games. ZZ Top Roadside Riches, Hammerfall, House of Doom 2: The Crypt, Saxon, Annihilator and Twisted Sister are all based on popular bands.

Other Branded Slots

You will also find other branded slot games based on board games, popular sports stars and sporting events for example. Monopoly themed slots are extremely popular with Monopoly Megaways by Big Time Gaming the pick of the bunch.

Play ‘n GO have a slot dedicated to a pro skateboarder (Nyjah Huston: Skate for Gold). Yggdrasil Gaming have one based on an action sport event in Nitro Circus. There are even slots based on board game Subbuteo (NextGen Gaming), the Rubik’s Cube (Playtech) and Las Vegas show Cirque du Soleil (Bally).

My pick would be Street Fighter II: The World Warrior by NetEnt which is based on the iconic video game by Capcom. It comes with all the characters, lots of bonus features (13) and 7,142 x stake max wins.

Free Branded Slots

Branded slots, like ordinary online slot games,  can be played for free at Online-Slot.co.uk and at online casinos. If you’re from the UK for example, you will need to verify your age before you play any slots, whether for free or real money.

You can play slots demos right here and see all the features and gameplay for yourself before you go on to play for real money. Some slot sites will allow you play in demo mode before you play for real.