“If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.”
These are usually words of wisdom, but when it comes to Betfair’s Prize Pinball Jackpot, it’s absolutely false.
This is a free game that anyone with a Betfair account can play every single day, for a chance to win real cash prizes that can climb into the thousands.
Other prizes are available too, although it also perfectly possible to win nothing, but since the Prize Pinball Jackpot costs nothing to play, there is absolutely no reason not to give it a go each day.
The Prize Pinball Jackpot game was launched by Betfair with a bit of a fun publicity stunt in the middle of Selfridges in Manchester, when their ‘Geezer’ mascot fella rocked up with a pinball machine inside a big yellow shipping container, looking as dodgy as you like, and offering people a free chance to win some cash.
Most people believe the motto at the top of this introduction and simply passed him by, but a few investigated further and found themselves winning any thing from a tenner up to £1,000 for one lucky chap.
You won’t have to go to Manchester for that same chance though, because the Prize Pinball Jackpot is available online.
How to Play Betfair Prize Pinball Jackpot
There is really nothing to it.
From the home screen there will usually be a tab to re-direct you to the Prize Pinball Jackpot page, but if you can’t see it you will be able to find an alternative route via the ‘Promotions’ page.
Once you hit the link you will be taken to a loading screen that looks like this:
This shouldn’t take long, although it sometimes gets stuck at 99% for a while, but just wait a few seconds and the game will display.
This is your starting screen:
Just hit ‘Launch Ball’, and your game will start.
You will notice the ball shoot into the machine and start pinging around, just like it would in a regular pinball machine from back in the day.
Two things can happen at this point:
- Ball enters the Jackpot Round hole in the middle of the game
- Ball drops down to the bottom and lands in a prize jar
We have marked all the important bits on the image below:
The prize jars are moving targets, going horizontally from right to left, so the one you land on (if you land on one at all) will depend on where the ball drops and which jars are in view at the time.
Each jar holds a different prize (prizes will be covered shortly) and the symbol on the jar denotes the prize you will get.
Don’t worry if you can’t understand what you have won at this point though, if you do win something, the next screen will tell you what it is along with any instructions on how to use the prize if it is free spins on a slot or something similar.
If it is a cash prize, that goes straight into you betting account.
Prizes
Assuming you don’t get the ball in the Jackpot Round hole in the middle of the game, but you do win a prize by landing the ball in one of the prize jars, then one of the following will be heading your way:
| Prize | Expiry | Wagering |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Free Spins | 2h | N/A |
| Free Spins until you win | 24h | N/A |
| Slingo Bonus | 24h | 1x |
| £100 Cash | N/A | N/A |
| Bonus Round entry | N/A | N/A |
These prizes are all nice to get, and some could even prove more valuable than some of the prizes in the Prize Pinball bonus round, if you win a few quid on the slots with your free spins, for example.
The table above shows any specific limitations of the prizes, so make sure you pay attention to them; in general it’s best to just use anything you win right away, then you don’t run the risk of forgetting about them and losing out.
As you can see, one of the prizes here is actually entry into the bonus round too, so it is still possible to win the Prize Pinball Jackpot even if you miss the Jackpot Round hole.
Bonus Round
The bonus round has its own set of prizes, all of them cash prizes and with no wagering requirements.
It is the jackpot you will be crossing your fingers for though, because it seeds at £1,000 so that is the minimum it will be worth.
The bonus round runs like another version of the Prize Pinball game but with a slightly different layout:
The prize jars work in exactly the same way as before, but now there is a double sized Jackpot jar in there as well.
The ball launches, the prize jars move along the bottom of the screen, and the ball will ultimately land in one of them.
Whatever you win, in will be displayed on a final screen with a timer while the prize is delivered to your account.
The Prize Pinball Jackpot is triggered randomly and can only trigger once per day, but it doesn’t have to trigger every day. This means that some days, nobody wins the jackpot, and the good thing about this is that if it is not won on one day then it rolls over to the next.
Therefore, the jackpot can end up being worth quite a lot of money to the eventual winner.
If you don’t win the jackpot, you will get one of the following cash prizes:
- 20p
- 50p
- £1
- £5
- £10
- £25
- £50
There is nothing you can do to increase your chances of winning the jackpot, it is simply a case of playing the game and hoping for the best, but it’s a lot more fun when that jackpot is worth several thousand pounds and hasn’t dropped for a few days.
Once the jackpot is won, the game reverts to the non-jackpot version for the rest of the day, so the same game and prizes but minus the possibility of a jackpot. For this reason, it’s best not to leave it too late in the day to take your shot.
Whatever happens, once you have played your game for the day you cannot play it again until the clock ticks past midnight, and if you try, you will see this:
See that little sash in the top left hand corner?
That lets you know that you have had your turn for the day, and it will be removed once a new day starts.
This does mean you could technically play twice in 5 minutes, if you have a go at 11:59 and then wait until 00:01, so you won’t always need to wait 24 hours to try again, but you will only ever get 1 chance in any 24 hour period.
