Apricot (Microgaming)

1994 is the number that matters. That is the year Microgaming wrote what is widely credited as the first real online casino software, and the brand spent the next 28 years building a back catalogue north of 800 titles. The signature asset is Mega Moolah — the progressive jackpot network behind that record £13.2m payout from a small base spin — plus crowd-pullers like Immortal Romance, Thunderstruck II and Break da Bank. The mechanic that defines them is the four-tier progressive jackpot wheel: a small slice of every bet feeds a shared pool, and the headline prize is genuinely life-changing.

Playing them is a high-variance exercise. The jackpot titles run hot and cold by design — Immortal Romance Mega Moolah carries a reasonable hit frequency but a base RTP near 93%, well under the 96% you would expect from a standard pokie. That gap is the price of the jackpot seed. Non-jackpot Microgaming titles sit closer to the 96% norm, though RTP is operator-configurable and scans have shown the same game running anywhere from the mid-80s to mid-90s percent range depending on the casino.

Now the part that complicates the verdict. In 2022 the company sold its entire games portfolio to Games Global and has since rebranded to Apricot, pivoting to platform and software. So the slots you load today are distributed and largely run by Games Global; the studio behind the logo is no longer the one developing them. You will still find these games across the big offshore lobbies Australians use — but check the operator's RTP setting before you commit, because the spread is real.