Fluffy Favourites – A Slots Phenomenon
There really can’t be any UK online bingo players who aren’t aware of Fluffy Favourites, the wildly popular online slot, its sequels Fluffy Too, Fluffy Fairground, Fluffy In Space and Fluffy Megaways, and various spin-off games including Slingo Fluffy Favourites and two versions of Fluffy Favourites Bingo. Unlike Rainbow Riches, the other ubiquitous slot at UK bingo sites, Fluffy Favourites is not based on a physical slot machine but has always been online only.
Fluffy Favourites is the brainchild of Eyecon Pty, a software development company based in Brisbane, Australia that has been around since 1997 and became a Playtech subsidiary in 2017. Fluffy Favourites was one of their earlier releases (later releases include Shaman’s Dream and Sugar Train) and it has been available to play at online bingo sites for what seems like forever. Its journey to world domination really got under way in Summer 2013 when the tablet and mobile version was released.
For many years prior to that the Eyecon slots were only found at 888 managed online bingo sites but these days it is very rare (and some would say foolhardy) for a bingo site to launch without at least having Fluffy Favourites itself and preferably all of its sequels.
So what is all the fuss about? Well, the main thing that people absolutely love about Fluffy Favourites seems to be that it is all about cuddly toys, and has a fun bonus round where you get to choose cuddly toys via an amusement arcade style crane game. Compared to blockbuster slots like Microgaming’s Jurassic Park, it is very simple – but that can actually be a plus point if you want something to play on a phone or tablet while waiting for a bingo game to start! It might also be something to do with the soundtrack; there is no background music, just the oddly compelling sound of the reels clicking to a stop – but a bass note plays when either of the two bonus symbols comes up and a musical flourish plays for a winning line.
The slot has 25 paylines (and you can select as many or as few as you like) and a line bet size of 1p – 50p – so any amount from 1p – £12.50 a spin can be played making it suitable for most pockets.
The symbol everyone wants to find on a payline is the pink elephant. It is wild, and substitutes for every other symbol apart from the claw (more about that later). When it forms part of a winning line, not only is the win doubled but a rainbow appears behind the elephant and it starts to dance to its own special music in a particularly cute way.
Three or more pink elephants anywhere on screen trigger the free spins bonus round which is 15 free spins for 3 elephants, 20 for 4 and 25 for 5 elephants. All wins are tripled, and if you are lucky enough to get three or more elephants again during the free spins, more free spins are added. The free spins play through automatically, but even if you aren’t watching the spin that triggers them you can’t possibly miss them (unless the sound is turned off on your device) due to the very jaunty fairground music that plays while they are going on! The background also changes from day to night to add to the party atmosphere.
The other bonus round, the toybox, is triggered by the appearance of 3 or more claw symbols anywhere on screen. More special fairground music starts to play and the crane game starts. Here, you get to pick one toy for each claw symbol in the triggering spin. Each toy awards a prize of up to 100x the triggering bet and this can result in some large wins.
Fluffy Favourites has an auto-play facility for 10, 20, 30 or 100 spins and there’s also a gamble facility which can be used after any win (up to the maximum prize).
Fluffy Favourites can be played as a regular slot or as a mini game inside a bingo room. The mini game version retains all the special effects such as the dancing elephants.
There are actually two versions of Fluffy Favourites – the regular version and the progressive jackpot version – and although everyone and their dog now has the regular version available, the progressive jackpot version less common. Usually with a progressive jackpot such as Playtech’s Jackpot Giant, Microgaming’s Mega Moolah and Net Ent’s Mega Fortune every instance of the slot at every casino is linked to all the others, with every single spin contributing to one central pot regardless of which site it is played at. With this arrangement the progressive jackpot can climb into the millions until one lucky player somewhere scoops the lot. The progressive jackpot version of Fluffy Favourites is NOT like this (and if you want that type of experience at an 888 site you’ll need to play the 888 house slot Millionaire Genie instead) as there are several distinct jackpot servers, some serving single sites and some serving groups of sites (such as the Ignite bingo sites).
The Fluffy Favourites progressive jackpot consists of 3 jackpots – mini, maxi and mega and these all drop randomly during play. Each jackpot has a preset maximum and must drop before it exceeds this amount. Not only does each jackpot server have its own pots, but the preset maximums vary from server to server. The seed amounts (the amount to which the jackpot is reset immediately after dropping) also vary and while there is no information available about exactly what the probability of each jackpot dropping on any given spin is, it is presumably set to a value which makes the chance of it NOT dropping in N spins, where N is the number of spins required for the jackpot to approach its preset maximum, infinitesimally small. The seed amounts and the progressive contribution all come out of player stakes and that contribution remains the same whichever server you are on; it is the balance between the three jackpots that is different.
Here’s what the balance between them looked like at various Dragonfish sites back in 2015:
Version 1 was found at sites on the main Dragonfish network
Version 2 was found at Costa Bingo and sister sites.
The rather less exciting looking Version 3 was found at Gossip Bingo (and other sites on the Netboost network).
Version 4 had a MUCH bigger upper limit for the mega jackpot and was found at Joy of Bingo sites such as Wink Bingo.
Version 5, the Fluffy Mega Jackpot, was introduced at the end of 2016 and is attached to yet another version of Fluffy and its sequel Fluffy Too. It is basically a separate jackpot server and the top jackpot is set to a massive half a million pounds maximum. The midi jackpot limit is £2500 and the mini jackpot limit just £50.
In 2022, the situation with the different jackpots is even more confusing. In fact, it’s so confusing that the operators themselves also seem to be confused! The Mega Jackpot that goes up to half a million pounds is still on the scene (at 888Ladies, for example) but in lots of cases, the game tile says Mega Jackpot but the actual game turns out to be a version with a £50K limit (we believe the correct official name for this is Super Jackpot). It’s even the case that different Fluffy games at the same site are connected to different versions of the jackpot.
The RTP (the percentage of total stakes returned to the players averaged over tens or hundreds of thousands of spins) of all these instances of the Fluffy Favourites jackpot version is the same – 90% for the base game and 3% for the jackpot – and if it were not the game would not have regulatory approval – but what these differences do mean is that it potentially makes a difference where and when you play the slot which is not the case with the normal type of progressive jackpot slots. The preset maximums affect the amount you could win and the closeness of the amounts in the pots to the preset maximums sets an upper limit to the number of spins that can take place without the jackpot dropping (although the chance of the jackpot dropping on any particular spin remains the same apart from the last spin before it would exceed the maximum, in the extremely unlikely event of it not having dropped previously) . The preset maximums also affect how frequently the jackpots drop – the mini jackpot is clearly going to have more frequent but smaller drops if it has to drop before it reaches £70 rather than being able to go up to £750, whereas the Fluffy Mega Jackpot is going to drop very infrequently indeed. So while the probability that a jackpot will drop on your next spin stays constant and so does the long term payout percentage of the slot, the expected return on your next spin varies depending on what the current progressive jackpot amount is. In other words, if you want to play a Fluffy jackpot game and have a choice of several sites to play at all of which have a version with the £50K maximum, go for the one where the mega jackpot is closest to the maximum as in the extremely unlikely event that you do win, you’ll win a larger amount.
Enticing as the jackpots may be, it is NOT necessary to play the progressive version in order to have a chance at a big win; in the regular game, spin 5 hippos (including at least one pink elephant wild) to win 10,000 x line bet (which would be tripled if it happened in the bonus round). The regular game has RTP 95.39%.
At the end of 2015, the first sequel to Fluffy Favourites was rolled out to the market, starting with 888 bingo sites. Fluffy Too is very similar to the original and although the claw bonus round is replaced by a coin pusher bonus round, it is still a pick me type bonus with each pick awarding up to 100 x bet. The main difference between the two games occurs in the base game and is visual – this time round, the elephant turns its back and shakes its booty.
In summer 2016 the progressive version of Fluffy Too was rolled out and at sites where this is offered, original and sequel share the same jackpot allowing players to choose whether they like to see the elephant doing its original dance or prefer to see it twerking.
Two further sequels followed, Fluffy Favourites Fairground and Fluffy In Space. Both are similar to the original and include the twerking pink elephant but Fluffy In Space introduced a new bonus feature; when you spin three or more pink elephants, you are awarded three respins in which to try and collect more pink elephants. Each time you collect one the number of remaining respins gets reset to three; when you’ve either run out of respins or filled the reels with Nellies, they turn around and twerk one a time to reveal a stake multiplier. Fluffy In Space also has a slightly higher RTP than the other Fluffy games; it’s 96.3% for the regular version and 90.1% for the jackpot version.
It was only a matter of time until such a popular series of games was given the Megaways treatment, and Fluffy Favourites Megaways duly made its appearance in March 2021. It’s quite different to the other games in the series as the Megaways characteristics (exploding wins and increasing muliplier) outweigh the Fluffy characteristics (the elephant isn’t even wild) and has a rather underwhelming RTP of 94.99% for the regular version and 89.986% for the jackpot version.
The Fluffy Favourites games and bingo go together like fish and chips, and it is at UK bingo sites that Fluffy’s popularity remains truly phenomenal. Virtue Fusion bingo sites and Entain bingo sites even have Fluffy Favourites bingo games with feature games resembling bonus rounds from the slot games and there’s also a Fluffy Favourites Slingo game.
The Fluffy games are less ubiquitous at slot sites but have been gradually increasing their market penetration over the last few years – if you are interested in playing any of the Fluffy games at a slot or casino (non bingo) site we have a section for slot and casino sites with Eyecon slots.
The only snag with playing Fluffy Favourites at a bingo site is that in many cases you won’t be able to play with bonus funds as they are for bingo only. If you are looking for a site where you can play Fluffy Favourites with bonus you could choose a bingo site that offers a slots bonus as well as or instead of a bingo bonus (but do check the terms and conditions to ensure Fluffy Favourites is included in the promotion).
FAQ's
Fluffy Favourites can be played at almost all UK bingo sites but due to advertising restrictions you may not be able to see it until after login. Our listings focus on bingo sites whose welcome offer includes Fluffy spins and/or a bonus that can be used on Fluffy games.
There are more than 10 Fluffy Favourites games, comprising regular and progressive jackpot versions of the 5 slot games Fluffy Favourites, Fluffy Too, Fluffy Favourites Fairground, Fluffy In Space and Fluffy Megaways, plus two versions of Fluffy Favourites Bingo, two Fluffy scratchcards and Slingo Fluffy Favourites.
The Fluffy Favourites slot games have RTP of 95.3% for the regular versions and 89.9% + 3% jackpot contribution for the progressive jackpot versions, apart from Fluffy In Space which has a slightly better RTP of 96.3% for the regular version and 90.1% + 3% for the progressive jackpot version and Fluffy Megaways which has 94.99% for the regular version and 89.986% +3% for the progressive jackpot version. Slingo Fluffy Favourites also has RTP of 95.3%. Fluffy Favourites Instant has RTP of 89.89% and Fluffy Favourites Bonus has RTP of 90.63%. As is usual with bingo games the RTP of the two Fluffy bingo games is not specified.
