Red Tiger

A studio known for what surrounds its games

Most studios are judged on their reels. Red Tiger is best known for a layer that sits on top of them. Its Daily Drop Jackpots network attaches timed jackpots to the slots that take part, and that network is the studio’s main calling card with operators and players alike. Underneath, the games are varied, arrive at a steady rate and mostly run on one of Red Tiger’s own trademarked reel systems.

SlotSpecs has no Red Tiger games listed yet. Our demo network holds 370 of the studio’s titles.

Jackpots with a deadline

Evolution credits Red Tiger with building the Daily Drop Jackpots Network, which hands out hourly and daily jackpots across the games connected to it. The pool is shared between many operators, so a small operator can carry the same network-wide jackpots as a large one.

What makes it different is the clock. An ordinary progressive can keep climbing for a long time before anyone wins it. A timed drop is built to pay out within a fixed window, so every jackpot has an end point. That alters the role the jackpot plays in a session. It does not alter the underlying maths of the slot it is attached to.

Evolution lists two operator tools next to the network: Smart Spins for managing bonuses and Tournaments for running competitions.

Power Reels, ClusterBuster and Everyway

Three Red Tiger mechanics are named by Evolution:

• Power Reels. A trademarked reel layout that appears in a number of titles.
• ClusterBuster. Seen in Dragons ClusterBuster, launched in April 2022. A 3×3 dragon egg occupies the centre of the grid. Cluster wins beside the egg crack pieces of it away, and destroying it completely unlocks features on the following spin, the last being a Fire Egg that awards 10 free spins. The top award in that game is 5,250x the stake.
• Everyway. The third trademarked format on Evolution’s list.

ClusterBuster sums up the studio’s thinking. There is a clear target in the middle of the screen, and each cluster win brings you closer to it.

Borrowed franchises and Megaways

Megaways games are part of the range as well. Evolution’s title list includes Gonzo’s Quest Megaways and Piggy Riches 2 Megaways. Gonzo’s Quest began life as a NetEnt game, so a Red Tiger edition is a good illustration of franchises moving between brands inside the Evolution group. Bounty Raid and 777 Strike are among the other games Evolution singles out.

From Cayetano alumni to Evolution

As reported by iGaming Business, the people behind Cayetano Gaming set up Red Tiger in 2014. By 2019 the company employed around 170 people in Malta, Bulgaria and the Isle of Man. In September of that year NetEnt agreed to acquire all of it, and Gavin Hamilton, then chief executive, said the move would open up NetEnt’s distribution network to the studio.

Evolution’s completion of the NetEnt takeover in 2020 brought Red Tiger into Evolution as well. It is now presented as a brand in its own right, known in Evolution’s words for "a steady stream of high-quality slot releases".

What we know about its RTP

We have not found any Red Tiger or Evolution document explaining how many RTP versions the studio provides, or how the jackpot network feeds into each game’s published RTP. We therefore make no general claims on either point. Once Red Tiger titles are on SlotSpecs, every game page will display that game’s own verified numbers.

The middle ground in the Evolution group

Inside Evolution, NetEnt plays the classic designer and Nolimit City produces the most extreme games. Red Tiger lands between the two. It puts out games more frequently than Nolimit City, its mechanics range wider than NetEnt’s classics, and its jackpot network gives it something neither sibling is known for.

Who will enjoy Red Tiger

Red Tiger works for players who like a jackpot on a timer running alongside the base game, and for those who want to sample several reel formats from one studio. It works less well for anyone looking for a single, sharp design identity, since the catalogue spreads wide.

Strong points and weak points

Strong points

• A timed jackpot layer through Daily Drop Jackpots on many titles.
• A set of trademarked reel formats, ClusterBuster among them.
• A dependable, regular flow of new games.

Weak points

• The wide catalogue gives it a less distinctive identity than some rivals.
• No Red Tiger titles appear on SlotSpecs yet.

Red Tiger questions