Why We’re Digging DraftKings’ New Symbol Boost Feature in Sauce Boss BBQ
At first glance, jumping into DraftKings Casino’s in-house developed Sauce Boss BBQ slots game might make you think it’s merely a nicely animated, colorful and fun slots game to add to the DK mix of casino titles. But give this game more than a spin or two and you’ll start to understand some unique gameplay elements that offer casino players something new… and reveal yet again that DraftKings Casino is one of the leaders in game development in today’s world of online casino.
What is Sauce Boss BBQ?
Sauce Boss BBQ is a 5-reel, 3-row online slots game exclusive to the DraftKings platform, developed by DraftKings’ in-house game development studio, Black Throne Studios. In this game, users go for a ride with chef Buck and his food truck. Players win by hitting multiple food symbols along the paylines. These symbols include mac and cheese, ribs, corn, brisket and wings. Different symbols have different payouts and values.
Other symbols include various reviews such as 1-star reviews all the up to 5-star reviews. 1-star reviews are counted as “Bad Reviews” and getting three of these will reset your work in selling out featured menu items (more on this in a bit). 5-star reviews can turn into wilds which help you land winning paylines.
Symbol Boost
While the symbols, theming and animation of Sauce Boss BBQ are interesting and fun, the real reason we’re discussing this game is because of the innovative gameplay elements that DraftKings has introduced in this game.
Our HMP team noticed in DraftKings’ 2024 Q2 presentation that the DK team referenced introducing “new game mechanics including persistent player collections” with its Sauce Boss game. “Persistent player collections” is a bit too mechanical for user-facing description, so the user-facing term is Symbol Boost. Indeed, DraftKings has actually filed a trademark to own the term Symbol Boost.
So what is it? Sauce Boss BBQ players will notice adjacent to the standard 5×3 slots grid, there is a menu of “Specials Remaining” which shows the five main food items along with a counter for each, which starts at 15. As users line up symbols along winning paylines, the symbols are then deducted from that symbol’s counter on the specials menu. For example, if the user wins with three wings symbols, the wings counter will go from 15 down to 12.
When a featured item counter gets to zero, that item is sold out, and that symbol upgrades to the next more valuable item which increases odds of each subsequent spin.
If the user gets three bad reviews via the 1-star review symbol, the menu will reset back to 15 for each of the featured items.
The state of the counters is saved spin after spin which refers back to the mechanical “persistent player collections” phrase mentioned above.
While this might not sound like a significant gameplay element, it’s worth noting that the vast majority of slots games have gameplay where each spin is completely independent from the next spin. No “state” is carried across spin-after-spin. Hence the innovative element of Symbol Boost.
The fact that DraftKings not only introduced this new gameplay element but wrapped it in such a fun and imaginative theme such as food items on a food truck shows impressive execution by the DraftKings custom game development teams.
A Replacement For Typical Bonus Rounds
While most slots titles allow players win small amounts with adjacent symbols across the predetermined paylines, the real objective is to get into the bonus round of the game where users can cash out at larger amounts. In most slots gameplay, getting into the bonus rounds and winning funds is usually how you maintain a bank roll or achieve a positive return on slots.
Sauce Boss BBQ doesn’t have a bonus round, but if you can “sell out” most of the featured items, the symbol boosting element discussed above really starts to kick in. So much so that regular gameplay effectively turns into a bonus round. During one of my early tests of the game, I expired all of the remaining featured items and each spin was winning $20+ off a $1.50 wager. This continued until I hit a third 1-star review and the counters reset.
Sell out 2 or 3 of the items and everything starts to accelerate. Because you’re upgrading symbols, you’re also expiring more symbols and ratcheting up the action. The acceleration of the symbol boost can match the excitement of a bonus round you might encounter in your typical slots game.
DraftKings Exclusive Game Development
Symbol Boost isn’t the first innovative gameplay element that DraftKings has introduced into online casino play. In recent years, DraftKings introduced its ExitBet (also trademarked by DraftKings) technology with its uber popular Rocket title (and subsequent sequel, Rocket 2). ExitBet refers to the secondary action that players take during Rocket gameplay where the user doesn’t merely place the wager and then passively watch for the results. Instead, the user places a wager and then has the secondary action of determining when to bail out (before the rocket explodes).
The importance of the development of both ExitBet and Symbol Boost goes beyond the simple games of Rocket and Sauce Boss BBQ. DraftKings is telling the market that they are going to continue to push the envelope in casino game innovation and that they’re not content to simply license the same hundreds of titles that can be played across most casino apps. We love playing Cleopatra slots as much as the next person, but DraftKings is pushing to differentiate with creativity and innovative gameplay. While likely helps DraftKings in the long run as it relates to online casino market share, we’re more interested in the fact that consumers win when operators innovate.
Patrick Cwiklinski
Following a lengthy sports journalism career primarily covering MMA, hockey, and college sports for publications like theScore, The Province, and VICE Sports, Patrick transitioned into the world of content marketing. His goal was to bridge the gap between great writing and SEO success, and he’s brought that same mindset to Honey Monkey Pineapple.
