Novomatic is a betting firm based out of Austria that was founded by Johann Graf and has become one of Europe’s largest betting firms. The company currently employs more than 20,000 people throughout the world. The company has a presence in more than 80 countries, and has also built a strong online gambling presence, in which they port over many of their land casino games to the cyber world.
The graphics and game play of Novomatic's video poker is pretty good. Here are the pros and cons as I see them:
Pros
Auto-hold feature: At first I questioned if it was correct. For example, in jacks or better I had 6-J-A suited with two junk cards. It suggested I hold all three. Pause. Normally in jacks or better you would hold the two to a royal in this situation. However, the advice given was actually correct because a royal pays 400 only, depressing the incentive to go for one.
Win probabilities: For any given hold, the game shows the probability of each possible win.
Progressive jackpot for dealt royal: On three of the four games there is a progressive jackpot for a deal royal, which they refer to as a "direct royal flush." They nicely size the jackpot in proportion to the amount bet.
Cons
Unconventional pay tables: I don't know why Internet casinos so often have odd-ball pay tables in video poker. In this case, three of the four pay 400 for a natural royal. What is wrong with the conventional 800?
Double-up Feature: There is a double and half double option, which is fine. However, if you don't want it there is no way to say "always says no." You have to specifically reject it every hand.
The house edge figures in the table don't factor in the additional value for a dealt royal. For that, you should add 0.1539% for each 1,000 coins above the normal 400 win for a royal flush. Following are the break-even points on the three games with the jackpot:
Jacks or Better: 14961.97
Joker Poker: 15965.17
Deuces Wild: 15890.45
The following table shows the Video Poker games available in alphabetical order.
Novomatic Video Poker Alphabetic Order
Game
Power Poker
Pay Table
Return
Live Game
Deuces Wild
No
1-2-3-4-4-10-15-25-150-400
97.62%
No
Jacks or Better #1
No
1-2-3-4-6-8-26-50-400
97.76%
No
Jacks or Better #2
No
1-2-3-4-5-9-25-50-800
98.45%
No
Joker Poker (kings or better)
No
1-1-2-4-5-7-15-50-100-200-400
97.60%
No
Here is the same list in returns range, choose your game wisely.
Novomatic Video Poker Return Order
Game
Power Poker
Pay Table
Return
Live Game
Jacks or Better #2
No
1-2-3-4-5-9-25-50-800
98.45%
No
Jacks or Better #1
No
1-2-3-4-6-8-26-50-400
97.76%
No
Deuces Wild
No
1-2-3-4-4-10-15-25-150-400
97.62%
No
Joker Poker (kings or better)
No
1-1-2-4-5-7-15-50-100-200-400
97.60%
No
Roulette
Roulette
Vegas Roulette
European Roulette
Globe Roulette
Novomatic has seven games listed under "table games" and four of them are roulette. Why they need so many, I have no clue. They all are single-zero and I don't think any of them offer the French rule of losing half on even money bets if the ball lands in zero. Thus, the house edge on every bet in every roulette game is 1/37, or 2.70%. The differences between the games seem to be cosmetic in nature only.
Sic Bo
Sic Bo
The odds in Novomatic's sic bo game are better than average. The following table shows what each bet pays, the probability of winning, and house edge.
Sic Bo
Bet
Pays
Combinations
Probability
House Edge
Small, Big
1
105
0.486111
0.027778
4, 17
69
3
0.013889
0.027778
5, 16
34
6
0.027778
0.027778
6, 15
20
10
0.046296
0.027778
7, 14
13
15
0.069444
0.027778
8, 13
9
21
0.097222
0.027778
9, 12
7
25
0.115741
0.074074
10, 11
6
27
0.125000
0.125000
Triple
207
1
0.00463
0.037037
Any triple
34
6
0.027778
0.027778
Double
12
16
0.074074
0.037037
Domino
6
30
0.138889
0.027778
Any number
1,2,15
75,15,1
0.421296
0.023148
Baccarat
Baccarat
Standard baccarat rules are followed. The rules don't state the number of decks used. I always like to see Internet casinos paying 9 to 1 on a tie. Alas, that is not the case with Novomatic and they pay the stingy 8 to 1.
Blackjack
Blackjack
The blackjack rules are as follows:
Unknown number of decks.
Dealer stands on soft 17.
Dealer peeks for blackjack.
No surrender.
Double after split allowed.
Player may split once only.
Cards shuffled after every hand.
Not only don't the help files not state the number of decks, but the help file at Quasar Gaming was completely blank.
The house edge is as follows, based on total-dependent strategy, according to the number of decks:
1 deck: -0.26%.
2 decks: 0.24%.
4 decks: 0.40%.
5 decks: 0.44%.
6 decks: 0.46%.
8 decks: 0.49%.
Following is a basic strategy that is correct for four to eight decks. Click on the image for a larger version.
I'd also like to say that I hate the playing cards used. Every non-face card looks like a four.
Slot machines
Book of Ra
Lucky Lady's Charm
Novomatic has about 50 slot machines to choose from. Most of them are standard 5-reel video slots.
The only source we have on the return percentage of Novomatic slots is our friends at Slot Tracker. They have crowd sourced their users to get an overall average of Novomatic slots. Over 1,101,495 reported Novomaic spins, as of the time of this writing (Sept. 26, 2017) they report an overall return of 95.66%.
Conclusion
While the number of online casinos using Novomatic titles isn’t as large as some other gaming firms, the company still finds its games available at some of the top betting sites in the world. Players familiar with Novomatic’s land casino games will instantly recognize them when they find them at an online betting site, as the video poker and slots closely mimic what is seen at brick and mortar establishments.
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