One minute, you’re placing $200 bets on a slot. The next, you’re pocketing $6.5 million.
That was the reality for one BetMGM Casino player this week. The operator announced on Tuesday that a player in New Jersey won The Big One progressive jackpot for $6,450,023. The customer won the grand prize with a $200 bet on a five-reel Fruit Blaster slot, where wins are based on a combination of various fruit symbols.
BetMGM said in a release that it has been confirmed as the largest jackpot in the regulated online casino history in the U.S. “The Big One,” indeed
The Big One is BetMGM’s progressive jackpot pool of in-house-produced games by Entain. The jackpot resets at $1 million and had been building for months. It surpassed a BetMGM record of $4 million in late February and kept growing through the spring. Players were able to win by playing online in New Jersey through any of the BetMGM, Borgata, Wheel of Fortune Casino or Party Casino online casino platforms.
BetMGM offers a jackpot program that includes a trip to an MGM Resorts International property in Las Vegas or the nearest location to the winner’s home for anyone who wins a jackpot exceeding $500,000.
BetMGM says its casino platforms awarded more than $138 million in progressive jackpot payouts in 2023, a 32% year-over-year increase. Exclusive titles created by Entain for BetMGM, such as MGM Grand Million Megaways, provided more than half of the prize total.
iGaming critical for BetMGM
On MGM Resorts’ Q2 earnings call on July 31, CEO Bill Hornbuckle hailed BetMGM’s iGaming operations in the U.S. and stressed it is vital that the operator doesn’t lose its “precious” American online casino market share.
“We have stated that 2024 would be an investment year, recognizing that we’ve lost shares in sports and that it was impacting our leading market position in iGaming, we righteously decided to invest heavily into our sports product and continue to invest in customer acquisitions for iGaming, so long as we saw both market growth and overall market share growth,” Hornbuckle said.
Last month, Eilers & Krejcik Gaming’s latest U.S. online game performance report suggested that BetMGM has closed ground on FanDuel and DraftKings in the online casino sector over the last 12 months.
