Snakes and Ladders Live

Snakes and Ladders Live by Pragmatic Play Review

The Game in Short

Snakes and Ladders Live is a dice game that offers players the following seven ways to place a bet:

• Star
• Diamond
• Star & Diamond
• Snake Totem (ST)
• Snake Ladder 2 (SL Bronze)
• Snake Ladder 3 (SL Silver)
• Snake Ladder 5 (SL Gold)

The first three are normal bet positions that can award an instant cash prize. Snake Totem and Snake Ladder are bonus games. The latter can either be played with 2, 3, or 5 dice rolls; each type having its own bet position.

To determine the results of a game round, four dice are rolled. As an example, if two stars show up, this would award a cash prize if you have bet on the star position. Similarly, if all four dice show the star, the cash prize would be bigger. 

The highlight of Snakes and Ladders Live is its two bonus games. The Snake Totem bonus is triggered by three dice showing the ST symbol while the Snake Ladder bonus is triggered by two of them showing the SL symbol. When the Snake Ladder bonus is triggered, a fifth die is rolled to determine if it will be played as the bronze, silver or gold game which starts the bonus with 2, 3, or 5 dice rolls.  

• Snake Ladder Bonus: This is an 8×8 board with 64 tiles that contain various cash prizes. You start at the bottom left tile and make your way through the board via dice rolls. Prizes for each tile become bigger the further you advance on the board.
  
  On the board are also ladders, snakes, safe tiles and power-ups that can be landed on. The ladders will boost your progress while the snakes will set you back. The power-ups will increase all cash prizes on the board. They can occur a maximum of three times in each bonus. A safe tile will guarantee that you receive the prize of that tile even if you’re set back by a snake. 
• Snake Totem Bonus: This is a big totem tower consisting of three levels that have six vertical tiles each. Each tile either represents a cash prize, a multiplier, or a Snake Ladder Bonus position with 2, 3, or 5 dice rolls. The cash prizes become bigger the further up they are on the totem.

A die is rolled once to advance on the totem. If a six is rolled, a multiplier may or may not boost all cash prizes. Another die roll is also rewarded. If the Snake Ladder Bonus is triggered through the totem, this can either start with 0, 1, or 2 power-ups, effectively increasing the payout of the Snake Ladder Bonus. 

Payouts 

The maximum win in Snake and Ladders Live is 10,000 times the amount you bet. Thus, if you bet R2, you could potentially win R20 000 and if you bet R20, you could win up to R200 000. 

In summary, each bet position in the game can award you the following payout which is listed as a multiplier to the amount of money you stake:

• Diamonds: 1x, 2x, or 5x (by rolling 2, 3 or 5 diamonds)
• Stars: 2x, 5x, or 20x (by rolling 2, 3 or 5 stars)
• Stars & Diamonds: 5x, 8x, or 20x (by rolling a 2/2, 1/3 or 3/1 combination of stars and diamonds)
• Snake Totem: 2x – 10,000x (by rolling ST x3)
• Snakes Ladder Bronze: 2x – 10,000x (by rolling SL x2) 
• Snakes Ladder Silver: 2x – 10,000x (by rolling SL x2)
• Snakes Ladder Gold: 2x – 10,000x (by rolling SL x2)

Regardless of the number of dice rolls rewarded in the Snake Ladder Bonus, the payout potential is the same. However, bigger wins are much more likely to occur the more rolls that you get. 

As the payout table clearly shows, Snakes and Ladders Live is all about its bonus games as the normal bet positions can’t pay out very much. Thankfully, these bonuses are very easy to trigger with about 1 in 5 game rounds generating one. 

RTP (Return to Player)

Snakes and Ladders Live has a fairly high RTP of about 96%. This coincides with what I would expect live dealer games to have these days even if it isn’t always the case. While similar, you must know that each bet position in the game has its own RTP. The breakdown is as follows:

• Diamonds: 96.30%
• Stars: 96.30%
• Stars & Diamonds: 96.30%
• Snake Totem: 95.09% – 96.26%
• Snake Ladder Bronze: 95.57% – 96.26%
• Snake Ladder Silver: 95.18% – 96.31%
• Snake Ladder Gold: 95.71% – 96.42%

The RTP in the Snake Ladder bonus varies depending on the number of power-up tiles it is played with. This can be either 2, 4, or 6. Similarly, the RTP of the Snake Totem bonus is determined by the prize and multiplier values on it as these are randomly decided. 

All in all, I’m very happy with the way Pragmatic Play has designed this game as I feel like all bet positions are worth staking money on. There are not some singled out with a substantially lower RTP, which is the case in many casino games. 

Fun Factor 

Where do I begin? There’s so much to love about Snakes and Ladders Live! I feel like it’s perfectly executed and I highly recommend trying it out on one of the many gambling sites that have it available. 

First of all, the game is a breath of fresh air. There’s not much like it around even though I’m sure that other game providers will copy it once they notice its success. However, right now, it offers quite unique gameplay. 

Secondly, the interior design of the studio Snakes and Ladders Live takes place and the props that are used are just wonderful. The game offers such a playful and innocent atmosphere that really awakens the child within me. I absolutely love it. 

Thirdly, bonuses are constantly triggered which makes Snakes and Ladders Live so much more action-packed than many other games. On about 1 in 5 game rounds, a bonus is triggered and a bonus is always exciting as it has the potential to pay a lot of money. 

While the bonuses may be quite simple, they are still fun due to their lovely graphics and unpredictable nature. Especially the Snakes Ladder Bonus where a snake can reduce your winnings. Normally, I would probably find this frustrating, but since the bonus is triggered all the time, it just adds to the fun. 

On top of this, we have two more things that I appreciate. Game rounds are very fast as normal ones that only reward a cash prize from the star, diamond, or star/diamond combination only takes about 25 seconds. There’s no unnecessary waiting but gameplay is fast and fluid. 

Lastly, we have the host of the game which you may love or not like at all. I appreciate them for the most part. They are very well-trained and do a great job communicating with players, presenting winning results and putting on a show for you. 

Strategies

While there are many strategies in Snakes and Ladders Live, there is not really a particular one that would earn you more money as the bet positions in the game more or less have the same RTP.

Thus, the strategy to use comes down to personal preference. It’s all about which bet positions you decide to include and how much you bet on each. There is no right or wrong. 

If you want to win as often as possible, you would include all bet positions. However, only betting on the bonus games is just as valid of a strategy since they’re triggered so frequently. 

You may want to avoid betting on the diamond position as its payouts of 1x – 5x are very low, but again, this comes down to personal preference. After all, diamond wins are the most likely ones to occur. 

Some players may only want to bet on the Snake Ladder Gold position and leave out the Bronze and Silver ones. Simply because the Gold Bonus is the one with the biggest payout potential. This I would not recommend. Only one in six Snake Ladder bonuses will result in the Gold bonus and to me, watching 5 out of 6 bonus games go down with no shot of winning would be very boring.

But as I mentioned, there is no particular right or wrong strategy in Snakes and Ladders Live. Just have fun and play the game the way that makes most sense to you. However you play, let’s pray for a big win!