Book Of Ra Slot Review: The Egyptian Adventure That Started a Genre
Published: October 2020 | Reviewed by the SlotsLike editorial team
Book Of Ra is a Novomatic (Greentube) slot built around one defining trick: during free spins a single special symbol is chosen at random and expands to cover whole reels, paying on every line at once. It runs a classic 92.13% RTP across 5 reels, 3 rows and 9 paylines, with high volatility and a 5,000x stake max win — available to play free or for real money at UK casinos.
Released by Novomatic in 2005, Book Of Ra is the game that turned the dusty tomb of an Egyptian explorer into a genre. The Book acting as both wild and scatter, the random expanding symbol in the bonus, the Indiana-Jones-style adventurer hunting a golden book — these ideas were copied so widely that an entire “Book of” category now exists because of it. Play’n GO’s Book Of Dead is its most famous descendant. Two decades on, the original feels dated next to its imitators, but if you want to understand why slots like Book Of Ra dominate the Egyptian-adventure shelf, this is where the story begins.
Book Of Ra casinos
Play Book Of Ra slot game at these top casinos. A quick honesty note: the classic Book Of Ra has limited availability at UKGC-licensed sites, so several operators below are non-UKGC brands — that means no UK regulatory protection and no GAMSTOP self-exclusion. Always check a casino’s licence first. 18+ only. Please gamble responsibly — see BeGambleAware.org.
+ 100 Free Spins
Bonus TermsT&C's apply. 18+.
up to £10,000
Bonus TermsT&C's apply. 18+.
+ 200 Free Spins
Bonus TermsT&C's apply. 18+.
+ 200 Free Spins
Bonus TermsT&C's apply. 18+.
Book Of Ra Pros and Cons
Reviewed by Brian TaylorPublished: May 2019
Where the 2005 original earns its keep — and where it shows its age.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| The single random expanding symbol can blanket all five reels in one go — landing the explorer as your chosen symbol during the bonus is the moment every Book Of Ra session is chasing. | The classic build’s 92.13% RTP is among the lowest you will meet in regular play — the house edge is roughly double that of a modern 96% slot. |
| The Book pulls double duty as wild and scatter, so three of them anywhere both pays and triggers the 10 free spins — there is no separate scatter to wait on. | A 5,000x stake ceiling is modest by today’s standards, where descendants like Book Of Dead and 243-way reworks reach far higher. |
| The stripped-back 9-line, 5×3 layout has no cascades or side mechanics, so you always know exactly why a spin paid — a clarity that is rare now. | One bonus and nothing else: no base-game features, no bonus buy, no second mode. After an hour you have seen everything the game does. |
| The free-spins retrigger means a strong expanding symbol can run far longer than its 10 spins, which is where the genuine big hits live. | If your expanding symbol is a low card (10, J, Q, K, A), the whole bonus can fizzle — the gap between a great symbol and a weak one is brutal. |
| The optional gamble lets you double a win on a coin-flip card guess — small, but it adds a decision the modern clones often drop. | It is hard to find at UKGC-licensed casinos, so UK players are often pushed toward offshore sites with weaker protections. |
How Book Of Ra Works
Book Of Ra is a five-reel, three-row slot with nine adjustable paylines that pay left to right from reel one. You set how many of the nine lines are active and your stake per line, so the total bet is lines × line bet — keep all nine on if you want every win the maths allows. There are no ways-to-win, no cascades and no cluster pays here; it is deliberately a straight-line classic, which is exactly why it reads as the template the genre copied.
The whole game is engineered around the Book. Three or more Books anywhere on the reels do two jobs at once — they pay as a scatter and they launch the free spins round. Outside the bonus the Book also substitutes for every regular symbol as a wild. That dual role is the mechanic slots like Book Of Ra borrowed wholesale.
Symbols and Paytable
The premium symbols are the golden Book Of Ra and the explorer, who carries the top line pay. Below him sit the themed icons — the pharaoh’s golden mask, the scarab and the stone statue — followed by the playing-card values 10, J, Q, K and A as the low-pay fillers. Because wins are line-based, the explorer landing across an active payline is your headline base-game result; everything else is groundwork toward triggering three Books.
The Free Spins and Expanding Symbol
Land three or more Books and you are awarded 10 free spins — but first the game picks one symbol at random and promotes it to the “special expanding symbol” for the whole round. From then on, whenever that symbol appears it stretches to fill its entire reel and pays across every active line as though it were in every position, even on non-adjacent reels. This single idea is Book Of Ra’s whole identity. Draw the explorer as your special symbol and a single spin can pay like a jackpot; draw a card royal and you will likely grind through ten flat spins. The round can also retrigger if more Books land during it, and that is where the rare 5,000x-stake territory opens up. The anticipation is entirely front-loaded into that one reveal at the start — no other slot’s bonus feels quite like waiting to see which symbol the book hands you.
The Gamble Feature
After any winning spin you can take the optional gamble: guess whether a face-down card will land red or black to double your win, or step up the ladder for more. Guess wrong and the win is gone. It is a small, old-school risk toggle, and on a high-variance game returning 92.13% it is best treated as a bit of fun on small wins rather than a strategy — the maths does not move in your favour.
Our Verdict
Book Of Ra is a heritage slot, and we rate it as one. The expanding-symbol bonus still produces a genuine jolt the moment a strong symbol is revealed, and the pared-down layout is honest in a way modern feature-stuffed releases rarely are. But the 92.13% classic RTP and the 5,000x ceiling are hard to defend in 2026 when its own descendant, Book Of Dead, plays almost identically at a friendlier return, and the Deluxe edition adds a tenth payline and better maths. We would point most players toward those first. Book Of Ra is for the curious and the nostalgic — the player who wants to spin the original that every Egyptian book-slot is measured against — not for anyone optimising for value. If you enjoy it, slots like Book Of Ra worth lining up next are Book Of Dead, Book Of Ra Deluxe and Book Of Atem.
SlotsLike rating: 6/10
Book Of Ra Demo Play
Slots like Book Of Ra
If you are hunting for slots like Book Of Ra, the closest matches share its expanding-symbol bonus and Egyptian-adventure theme. The strongest are its own sequels and Play’n GO’s Book Of Dead, all listed below.
- BOOK OF DEAD
Book Of Dead slot is a Books themed game with 3 rows and 5 reels with a 96.21% RTP. - BOOK OF RA DELUXE
Book Of Ra Deluxe has a main theme of Books with free spins with expanding symbols, risk (double or nothing) and wilds features. - BOOK OF RA DELUXE 10
Book Of Ra Deluxe 10 comes with 100 pay lines with 5 reels and 4 rows and a 95.02% RTP which is Medium. Book Of Ra Deluxe 10 is developed by Novomatic and has Low volatility. - BOOK OF RA TEMPLE OF GOLD
Book Of Ra Temple Of Gold is ranked 62 out of 83 Novomatic games and number 2376 of all slots on Slotslike.co.uk.
More slots along the lines of Book Of Ra
Book Of Ra is largely an Books themed slot with related themes of God and Ancient Egypt themes.
Popular Books themed slots
Book Of Ra is a Book themed slot game. Other Book themed slots are Book Of Gold Classic, Book Of Christmas, Book Of Ra Temple Of Gold Extra and Book Of Oz.
Book Of Atem
Book Of Atem slot has free spins, wild scatters, expanding symbol feature features and is developed by All41 Studios. Book Of Atem is ranked 383 on Slots Like.
Book Of Gods slot
Book Of Gods is placed 9 in all 35 Big Time Gaming slots and has ancient egypt theme, expanding symbols stacking on reels, and free spin re triggers with additional cloning symbols. but, btg have given their own twist by creating book of gods as a 243 ways to win slot and putting their feature drop™ buy in onto the game. features.
Book Of Tut slot
Book Of Tut is placed 91 in all 110 Pragmatic slots and has scatter and wild symbols subsititute, 10 free spins bonus feature features.
Book Of The Ages slot
Book Of The Ages is placed 1 in all 1 Bally Wulff slots and has wild substitute, book is scatter, 10 free games plus bonus symbols features.
Developed by Novomatic
Novomatic is an Austrian gaming group founded in 1980 and one of the largest land-based gaming companies in the world; its digital titles are published online through its subsidiary Greentube, which holds a UK Gambling Commission licence. Book Of Ra is the studio’s signature creation and the cornerstone of its catalogue. Other Novomatic slots worth a look are Wizard, Totally Wild, Sizzling Hot Deluxe and Sea Sirens.
- Wizard game
Wizard comes with 20 pay lines with 5 reels and 3 rows and a 93.30% RTP which is Low. Wizard is developed by Novomatic and has Low volatility. - Totally Wild slot
Totally Wild is placed 43 in all 83 Novomatic slots and has bonus symbol, substitution free spins, gamble, wild features. - Sizzling Hot Deluxe game
Sizzling Hot Deluxe comes with 5 pay lines with 5 reels and 3 rows and a 95.66% RTP which is Medium. Sizzling Hot Deluxe is developed by Novomatic and has Medium-low volatility. - Sea Sirens slot game
Sea Sirens is ranked 76 out of 83 Novomatic games and number 3311 of all slots on Slotslike.co.uk.
Book Of Ra: Key Stats
The verified specifications for the classic Book Of Ra slot.
| Book Of Ra — Key Stats | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Book Of Ra |
| Provider: | Novomatic (Greentube) |
| Developer Rank: | 5 out of 83 Novomatic games |
| RTP: | 92.13% (classic build) — variable configs exist at some operators, check before playing |
| RTP Category: | Medium |
| RTP Rank: | 2995 out of all games |
| Feature Description: | Free Spins, X2 Multipliers, Bonus Games |
| Feature Categories: | Free Spins, Increasing Multipliers |
| Reels: | 5 |
| Rows: | 3 |
| Paylines: | 9 |
| Volatility: | High Volatility |
| Volatility Rank: | 136 out of all games |
| Min Bet: | £0.02 (varies by operator) |
| Max Bet: | £50 (varies by operator) |
| Max Win: | 5,000x stake |
| Released: | 2005 |
| Slotslike Rank: | 413 out of 4,200+ games View Top 100 |
Book Of Ra slot information last reviewed: May 2026
Book Of Ra screenshot
Clones and Copies with the same features as Book Of Ra
Book Of Ra has similar slots with the bonus features: Free Spins and Increasing Multipliers.
Slot games with Free Spins
Other matching slots with Free Spins are Buffalo Rising Megaways, Jumanji, Magic Mushrooms and Showdown Saloon.
Other slots with Increasing Multipliers
The top matching slots with Increasing Multipliers are Temple Of Ausar and Whos The Bride.
Book Of Ra Slot FAQs
What is the RTP of Book Of Ra?
The classic Book Of Ra returns 92.13%, which is low by modern standards — a current slot typically sits near 96%. Novomatic also ships variable RTP versions, and the Deluxe edition runs higher at around 95.1%, so always check the paytable at your chosen casino before playing.
What is the difference between Book Of Ra and Book Of Ra Deluxe?
Deluxe is the 2008 upgrade most people now play online: it adds a tenth payline, sharper graphics and a higher RTP (around 95.1%) while keeping the same expanding-symbol bonus. The original 2005 Book Of Ra has nine paylines and the lower 92.13% return. If you have a choice, Deluxe is the better-value version.
How do you trigger the Book Of Ra free spins?
Land three or more Book symbols anywhere on the reels. You receive 10 free spins, and before they begin the game randomly selects one special symbol that expands to fill whole reels for the round. Landing more Books during the feature retriggers it.
What is the maximum win on Book Of Ra?
The classic Book Of Ra is capped at 5,000x your stake. In practice the big results come from drawing a high-value special expanding symbol — ideally the explorer — and retriggering the free spins so it lands repeatedly.
Can I play Book Of Ra for free?
Yes. You can spin the Book Of Ra demo on this page with play-money credits to learn the bonus before staking real money. Demo winnings cannot be withdrawn.
Is Book Of Ra available at UK-licensed casinos?
The classic Book Of Ra has limited availability at UKGC-licensed sites, and several casinos that carry it are non-UKGC brands — which means no UK regulatory protection and no GAMSTOP coverage. Greentube, Novomatic’s online arm, does hold a UKGC licence, so check the specific site’s licensing and look for the Deluxe version at regulated UK casinos.
What are the best slots like Book Of Ra?
The closest matches are its own family — Book Of Ra Deluxe and Book Of Atem — plus Play’n GO’s Book Of Dead, which refined the same expanding-symbol formula and is widely available at UK casinos. You will find all of them linked above.
Is Book Of Ra worth playing in 2026?
As a piece of slots history, yes — it is the original that defined the book genre. As a value proposition, less so: the 92.13% RTP and 5,000x cap are beaten by newer alternatives. We rate it 6/10 and suggest it mainly for players curious about the game everything else copied.