- BetMGM launched SideBet Jackpots on Aug. 19, a fixed 10-cent optional wager across more than 200 Michigan online casino games.
- Four progressive tiers seed at $100, $6,000, $30,000 and $500,000, and the Mega pool has already passed $618,000.
- The eligible list is mainly slots plus some arcade-style games; blackjack and other table games are excluded at launch.
- BetMGM plans to add New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia through the fall, pending regulatory approval.
DETROIT – BetMGM launched SideBet Jackpots in Michigan on Aug. 19, a fixed 10-cent optional wager that attaches four progressive jackpot tiers to more than 200 online casino games, with the top prize seeded at $500,000 and blackjack tables left off the eligible list at launch.
A Fixed Dime With Four Tiers And No Published Return
Every opted-in player pays the same $0.10 per qualifying wager, and each dime buys one chance at four tiers, Mini through Mega, seeded at $100, $6,000, $30,000 and $500,000, according to BetMGM’s launch release. The operator says a random number generator decides every hit and that all opted-in players hold an equal chance at each tier, but it publishes no odds or return figure for the side bet itself.
Without a disclosed return, the only measurable fact about the dime is what it is not: it is not part of the base game’s advertised RTP. A player tracking the math of a session is adding a wager whose cost is known and whose payback is not.
The Mega tier has climbed past $618,000, which means the pool is already $118,000 above its seed and rising with every opted-in wager across the eligible games.
Why The Tables Are Not In The Pool
The eligible list is mainly slots with some arcade-style games, and BetMGM’s materials do not list blackjack or any other table game. For players comparing Michigan blackjack sites, the exclusion tracks the underlying economics: slots carry house edges of roughly 2 to 10 percent, while basic-strategy blackjack at good rules runs about half a percent, so a jackpot pool funded from play skims far more comfortably off slot volume than off a game that returns more than 99 cents on the dollar.
A progressive layer bolted onto BetMGM Casino’s blackjack tables would either need its own funding or a thinner prize pool, and the launch list shows the operator chose neither. For Michigan blackjack players the practical effect is simple: the feature changes nothing at their tables, and the jackpot marketing surrounding it applies to a different set of games with a materially worse base price.
Fall Expansion Awaits Three More State Regulators
“iGaming continues to be the growth engine of our business, fueled by product innovation and differentiated player experiences,” Oliver Bartlett, BetMGM’s vice president of gaming, said in the launch announcement.
BetMGM plans to bring SideBet Jackpots to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia through the fall, subject to approval by each state’s regulator, and says more Michigan games will join the eligible list on a rolling basis. Whether table games ever enter the pool is the open question online blackjack sites for USA players will be watching when the next state goes live.
