Bonus Buy Explained

A bonus buy, or feature buy, lets you pay a fixed multiple of your stake to start the free spins round immediately instead of waiting for scatters. The standard price on this hub's Pragmatic slots is 100x the bet, with premium buys up to 2,500x for enhanced rounds.

PaylinePilot editorial team · Updated September 2026

What a bonus buy is

On most modern Pragmatic Play slots a button next to the spin control offers to start the free spins round right now for a fixed price. The price is quoted as a multiple of your current bet. At a 1.00 bet, a 100x buy costs 100.00; at 0.20 it costs 20.00. You skip the base game completely and go straight to the part of the slot where most of its return lives.

The buy is only available where the operator enables it. Where it does not, the button is simply missing, and on Sweet Bonanza it is disabled while the double chance option is on.

Prices across the hub

The Big Bass price was confirmed in the demo itself: the button showed 200 at a 2.00 bet, and the 1000 edition's super buy showed 900 at the same bet. Where we have no confirmed price, as on Sugar Rush Super Scatter, check the button inside the game.

What the premium buys change

Premium buys do not just start the round; they upgrade it. A Super Free Spins buy on Sweet Bonanza 1000 guarantees every bomb is at least x20. Gates of Olympus Super Scatter's 500x option sets every orb to at least x10. Sweet Bonanza 2500's Super Free Spins 2 at 1,000x uses bombs of at least x10 that build a total multiplier applying to every later win in the round. The Dog House Royal Hunt's Royal Free Spins, with x10 or x20 wilds, can only be bought and never trigger naturally.

Some features are also excluded from buys. On Sweet Bonanza Super Scatter, super scatters appear only in the base game and never in bought bonuses, so the instant 100x to 50,000x super scatter payouts cannot come from a purchase. See the super scatter guide for how that works.

RTP when buying

A buy usually runs on its own RTP line, printed in the game rules. Sometimes it matches the base game, sometimes it is slightly lower. Gates of Olympus 1000 lists 96.49% for the buy against 96.50% standard. The Dog House Royal Hunt lists 95.51% when buying against 96.53% standard, a full point more expensive. Read the rules before you assume a buy is the same deal as natural play. Our RTP guide explains why a point matters.

Worked example of the risk

Suppose you have 200.00 and a 0.50 stake. A 100x buy costs 50.00, so the balance covers four buys. Each round's result is highly uneven:

• Buy 1 returns 18x, or 9.00. Balance: 159.00.
• Buy 2 returns 42x, or 21.00. Balance: 130.00.
• Buy 3 returns 260x, or 130.00. Balance: 210.00.
• Buy 4 returns 30x, or 15.00. Balance: 175.00.

These figures are an illustration, not a forecast. The point is that most bought rounds return less than their price, and the results that pay for the rest are rare. The same 200.00 in base spins at 0.50 covers 400 spins, which is a far slower way to spend the same money.

Premium buys stretch the gap further. A 2,500x Super Free Spins 2 on The Dog House Megaways 1000 costs 500.00 at a 0.20 bet, the minimum stake. One purchase can be larger than a whole session budget.

Buy versus ante versus natural play

There are three ways to reach the bonus on many of these games, and they spread the same cost differently. Natural play pays the base stake on every spin and waits for scatters. An ante bet raises each spin's cost, for example by 25% on Gates of Olympus for twice the trigger chance, and still waits. A buy pays the whole wait up front in one lump.

A quick comparison at a 1.00 stake on Gates of Olympus: a buy costs 100.00 and starts the round at once. Natural play spends 1.00 per spin with the trigger arriving at random. With the ante on, each spin costs 1.25 but the trigger arrives about twice as often. None of these routes changes what the round itself is worth on average, and none beats the game. They differ in how many decisions your money is split into, and therefore in how hard the balance swings.

Reading the buy screen

When you press the button, the game shows the price in currency at your current stake before you confirm. Check that number, not the multiple, because stake changes carry straight through: moving from 0.20 to 2.00 turns a 100x buy from 20.00 into 200.00.

Common misconceptions

• "Buying is a shortcut to profit." It is a shortcut to the bonus, priced to keep the same house edge or a slightly larger one.
• "A 500x buy should return more than 500x." On average it returns less than its price, like every bet in the game.
• "The buy has better odds of the top win." Not always. Super scatter payouts, for example, are excluded from bought rounds on Sweet Bonanza Super Scatter.

Practical takeaways

1. Check the buy's own RTP line in the rules.
2. Price buys against your balance: a 100x buy should be a small fraction of it.
3. Try buys in a free demo first to see how widely round results vary.
4. Remember that some features only exist in natural triggers, and some only in buys.

Frequently asked questions

Slots where you can see it

Gates of OlympusPragmatic PlayMax 5,000xRTP 96.50%The Dog House MegawaysPragmatic PlayMax 12,305xRTP 96.55%Sweet BonanzaPragmatic PlayMax 21,100xSugar RushPragmatic PlayMax 5,000xRTP 96.50%