Game file
5 Lions Megaways slot: ways to win, free spins choice and spec card
Pragmatic Play's Megaways title: reels of two to seven symbols, tumbles and a free spins round where you choose the risk.
The legal status of casino-style games offered by bookmakers is disputed in South Africa and depends on the province that licenses the bookmaker.
Try the 5 Lions Megaways demo
The official 5 Lions Megaways demo from Pragmatic Play loads in the window above when you press play. Watch how the number of ways changes from spin to spin and how often a lion lands with a multiplier, and use the eight rules pages behind the i button to compare the seven free spins options. The panel beside the reels shows the buy price and a "double chance to win" switch, the ante bet, which lifts the bet shown by a quarter. It uses play credits, cannot pay out and predicts nothing about a real-money session; more on that on the demo modes page.
Where to play 5 Lions Megaways for real money
Provincially licensed South African bookmakers whose published game lobbies list 5 Lions Megaways, ordered by our score. Check that the game is in the lobby of your account before you deposit.
| # | Bookmaker | Score | Welcome offer | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  BetsheziWestern Cape licenceRead review | Up to R10,000 in match bonuses over first four deposits, plus R50... | Play now | |
| 2 |  ScorebetNorthern Cape licenceRead review | First Deposit 100% Match (up to R5,000) plus up to 150 Free Spins on... | Play now | |
| 3 |  SportingbetWestern Cape licenceRead review | Triple Welcome Bonus: up to R3,000 in bonus funds spread across first... | Play now | |
| 4 |  World Sports BettingWestern Cape licenceRead review | None on file | Play now | |
| 5 |  GbetsWestern Cape licenceRead review | 50 Free Spins and a R50 Free Bet for new customers | Play now | |
| 6 |  PlayBetMpumalanga licenceRead review | 100% first deposit match up to R20,000, split between Casino and... | Play now | |
| 7 |  BetfredMpumalanga licenceRead review | Up to R21,000 plus 750 free spins for new customers | Play now | |
| 8 |  TopbetWestern Cape licenceRead review | Welcome Bonus: R30 sports/horses & R15 Casino for new sign-ups | Play now | |
| 9 |  Vegas BetsWestern Cape licenceRead review | Up to R20,000 deposit match across first three deposits on Pragmatic | Play now | |
| 10 |  YesPlayWestern Cape licenceRead review | 100% deposit bonus up to R3,000, minimum deposit R20, valid 7 days | Play now |
18+ Casino-style games at bookmakers are offered under provincial licences, and their legal status is disputed nationally since a 2025 appeal court ruling on Gauteng bookmakers. Welcome offers have terms; read them first. Set a limit and never play to win back losses. Help: National Responsible Gambling Programme, 0800 006 008, responsible gambling.
5 Lions Megaways at a glance
5 Lions Megaways is a Pragmatic Play slot released on 24 June 2021. It has six reels that show between two and seven symbols each on every spin, so the number of ways to win changes from spin to spin, up to 117,649 according to one source. Wins tumble away for new ones. Three or more scatters open free spins with a choice of seven set-ups, from a few spins with big wild multipliers to many spins with small ones. RTP 96.50%, high volatility, top win 5,000x.
Megaways is a reel mechanic licensed to many studios, and 5 Lions Megaways is the Megaways title in this guide. Its two talking points are the ways count, which can look enormous, and the free spins choice, which lets you pick the shape of your risk. This file explains both, with a ways counter you can play with, and sets out what the spec card's figures mean in rand.
The spec card's figures come from two slot reference sources, which disagree on the maximum ways (117,649 against 200,704). For this page we also read the eight rules pages inside Pragmatic Play's official demo and the game's page on Pragmatic Play's own site. The rules settle both open questions: the maximum is 117,649 ways, and the top win is a 5,000x cap. The paytable, the wild multipliers, the full list of free spins options and the ante and buy rules below all come from the demo's rules.
How the Megaways grid works
On every spin each of the six reels shows a random number of symbols between two and seven. A win needs matching symbols on adjacent reels from the left, and any position on a reel counts. The number of ways to win is simply the number of symbols on each reel multiplied together. The rules put it in one line: reels 1 to 6 can have up to 7 symbols, and the maximum number of possible ways to win is 117,649. Only the highest win is paid per combination on the same way, and wins on several ways are added together.
Try it yourself. Set the number of symbols on each reel and the counter multiplies them out:
Tool
Megaways ways counter
- Ways to win this spin
- -
- Sum
- -
Arithmetic only. More ways do not mean a higher RTP: the paytable is set so the game returns its published RTP whatever the number of ways on a spin.
Two things stand out. The maximum of 117,649 needs all six reels at seven symbols, which is rare; most spins show fewer symbols on at least some reels. And more ways do not mean better odds: the paytable is set so the game returns its RTP whatever the ways count of a given spin.
The 5 Lions Megaways paytable
The demo's paytable lists wins at a fixed stake for 3, 4, 5 and 6 of a kind. Converted into multiples of the total bet:
| Symbol | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon | 1x | 2x | 4x | 25x |
| Phoenix | 0.75x | 1.25x | 2.5x | 5x |
| Toad | 0.5x | 0.75x | 1.5x | 5x |
| Koi | 0.3x | 0.5x | 1.25x | 2.5x |
| Turtle | 0.3x | 0.5x | 1x | 2.5x |
| A, K | 0.2x | 0.3x | 0.5x | 1.25x |
| Q, J, 10 | 0.1x | 0.2x | 0.4x | 1x |
These are pays per way. On a R10 spin, six dragons across the reels pay R250 on one way, but because every combination of positions is a separate way, two dragons on reel 1 double that. The lion is the wild: it appears only on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5 and substitutes for every symbol except the yin-yang bonus symbol.
Wild multipliers in the base game
Unusually, the lion carries a multiplier in the base game too. Whenever at least one wild lands and is part of a winning combination, a random multiplier is applied to all winning combinations that use a wild, in base spins and tumbles. The possible values are 1x, 2x, 3x, 5x, 8x, 10x, 15x, 30x and 40x. Pragmatic Play's game page describes the same 1x-40x range. A win without a wild is paid at face value.
Tumbling reels
Winning symbols are removed after a win and new ones fall into place. The rules add that new symbols are the same size as the initial spin result, so the ways count holds through the tumbles, and that a base spin's wins are credited only after its last tumble.
A single paid spin can therefore produce a chain of wins. In 5 Lions Megaways the tumble mostly keeps small wins coming between free spins; the large results depend on wild multipliers in the bonus.
Free spins: choose your risk
The yin-yang bonus symbol appears on all reels and does not explode during tumbles. Three or more anywhere trigger free spins and pay on their own: 3x the base bet for three, 5x for four, 25x for five and 100x for six. Before the round starts, you pick one of seven options. The rules list them all:
| Option | Free spins | Wild multipliers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 | 2x, 3x, 5x |
| 2 | 20 | 3x, 5x, 8x |
| 3 | 15 | 5x, 8x, 10x |
| 4 | 13 | 8x, 10x, 15x |
| 5 | 10 | 10x, 15x, 30x |
| 6 | 6 | 15x, 30x, 40x |
| Mystery | One of the counts above | One of the ranges above |
During the round, whenever a wild lands as part of a win, a random multiplier from your chosen range applies to all winning combinations using the wild. Three or more bonus symbols during the round add the same number of free spins as the option you chose, and special reels are in play throughout.
- Few spins, big multipliers Six spins with 15x to 40x wilds. Few chances for a wild to meet a win, but large boosts when it does. The volatile choice.
- Many spins, small multipliers 25 spins with 2x to 5x wilds. More chances for wins, smaller boosts. The steadier choice, with a lower ceiling.
The choice changes the shape of the bonus, not its average value in any way the sources show. Free spins can also be retriggered, and a retrigger repeats your option's spin count, so the 25-spin choice also retriggers for 25.
Ante bet and buying the 5 Lions bonus
- Ante bet The rules call 20x the normal bet multiplier and 25x the ante setting, a quarter more per spin. At 25x the chance of winning free spins naturally is doubled because more bonus symbols are on the reels, but the paytable is not affected: symbols still pay as for the 20x bet.
- Buy feature Free spins, with the choice of options, can be bought from the base game for 100x the current base bet. It is switched off when the 25x ante is on, and some lobbies leave it out.
RTP 96.50% in rand
The spec card lists 96.50%. The rules page of the official demo build gives a theoretical RTP of 96.50%, with the same 96.50% when the ante bet is used and when free spins are bought, and Pragmatic Play's game page also lists 96.50%. No source lists a lower version, but the game's info screen shows the version a lobby runs.
Tool
5 Lions Megaways RTP explainer
- Total staked
- R1,000.00
- Average returned
- -
- Average cost
- -
- Per R100 staked
- -
An average over a very large number of spins, not a prediction. A real session can end far above or far below it, and the more volatile the game, the wider that spread.
High volatility and the top win
The spec card rates the game high volatility, and the rules page in the official demo carries the same "high volatility" label, explained as paying out less often on average with a higher chance of big wins in a short time. The free spins choice lets you tilt it further either way.
The top win is 5,000x the stake, and the rules make it a hard cap: the maximum win is limited to 5,000x the bet, and if a free spins round reaches 5,000x it ends at once, the win is paid and the remaining spins are forfeited. That settles what the reference sources gave only as a currency cap.
More about Megaways
The Megaways page explains the mechanic in more depth, including how the ways count spreads at different reel heights. For other Pragmatic Play titles, see the Pragmatic Play page; for a very different grid with similar volatility, see Sugar Rush.
Where 5 Lions Megaways is listed
Licensed bookmakers that name Pragmatic Play as a provider on their published pages are listed at the foot of this page. Whether this game is live in a particular lobby is shown on the bookmaker's site. The legal status of casino-style games at bookmakers is disputed and depends on the province: a 2025 Supreme Court of Appeal ruling bars Gauteng bookmakers from casino games, while the Western Cape board says its licensees are not affected.
Spin budget
What helps
- Remembering that ways are not odds
- Choosing a free spins option you are comfortable with before the round
- A stake sized for a high-volatility game
- A stop-loss set before the first spin
What does not
- Waiting for a 117,649-ways spin
- Always picking the 40x option to recover losses
- Raising the stake during dry spells
Responsible gambling
5 Lions Megaways spin budget
- Spins if nothing comes back
- -
- Staked per hour
- -
- Average cost per hour
- -
- Stop-loss to set
- -
- Set the deposit limit in your bookmaker account before you start, not during a session.
- Use a timer: the clock runs faster than it feels when rounds take seconds.
- Never raise the stake to win back a loss.
Averages only: a single session can lose the whole budget much faster. Free, confidential help: National Responsible Gambling Programme, 0800 006 008. 18+ only.
Slots are for adults aged 18 and over. For limits, self-exclusion and free counselling, see responsible gambling.
5 Lions Megaways screenshots
Game images: Pragmatic Play, from the official demo. Screenshots show demo mode with play credits, not real-money play.
Listed in the game lobbies of
Names only, from the bookmakers' published game lobbies. Not a recommendation to play.
Questions and answers
Who makes 5 Lions Megaways?
Pragmatic Play. The game was released on 24 June 2021.
How many ways to win does 5 Lions Megaways have?
Up to 117,649, according to the game's own rules: six reels of up to seven symbols. The count changes every spin.
What is the RTP of 5 Lions Megaways?
96.50%, according to the rules page in the official demo and Pragmatic Play's game page, also with the ante bet and when free spins are bought. The info screen shows the version a lobby runs.
How do free spins work in 5 Lions Megaways?
Three or more yin-yang bonus symbols trigger free spins and you choose one of seven options, from 25 spins with 2x-5x wild multipliers to 6 spins with 15x-40x, plus a mystery option. Retriggers repeat your option's spin count.
Which free spins option is best?
None in the long run. Fewer spins with bigger multipliers is more volatile; more spins with smaller multipliers is steadier with a lower ceiling.
What is the maximum win in 5 Lions Megaways?
5,000x the bet. The rules make it a cap: a free spins round that reaches 5,000x ends at once and the remaining spins are forfeited.
Do more ways mean better odds?
No. The paytable is set so the game returns its RTP whatever the number of ways on a spin.
Do wilds have multipliers in the 5 Lions base game?
Yes. When a lion wild is part of a win, a random multiplier of 1x to 40x applies to all winning combinations using it, according to the rules.
What do the bonus symbols pay in 5 Lions Megaways?
Three pay 3x the base bet, four 5x, five 25x and six 100x, and three or more also trigger free spins.