Novomatic Review

Novomatic vs Greentube vs Admiral: Who Does What

Most confusion comes from three names. NOVOMATIC AG is the holding company and land-based manufacturer in Gumpoldskirchen, south of Vienna. Greentube is what Greentube itself calls the group’s “Digital Gaming and Entertainment division”: it makes and distributes the online versions of the games to licensed casinos. ADMIRAL is a family of venue, casino and sports-betting brands the group runs in several countries.

There is also a separate consumer business in the UK. Admiral Casino’s own website says its licence is held by Greentube Alderney Limited, UKGC account 39050. That company runs an online casino for players; Greentube GmbH in Vienna only supplies games to operators. Keep the two apart when you read news about fines (see the reputation section below).

Novomatic Gaming Group: Who It Is and Its History

When people search for “Novomatic gaming”, they usually mean the whole group. Its history page says Prof. Johann F. Graf founded it in 1980 and produced the first ADMIRAL gaming machines that year. The legal predecessor of today’s AG was founded in 1990, and ADMIRAL Sportwetten followed in 1991.

The online story starts elsewhere. Greentube began in 1998 as Dürrschmid&Reisinger OEG, whose first game was the 3D sports game Ski Challenge, and joined the group in 2010, which the group’s history page calls its entry into the online market. Greentube lists 12 locations today, from Vienna and Graz to Las Vegas, Nottingham and Vancouver.

The group calls its strategy vertical integration: it makes gaming equipment and also operates venues. It describes itself as “one of the largest gaming technology companies in the world”, which is its own description rather than an independent ranking.

Who Owns Novomatic?

NOVOMATIC AG is privately held and has no stock-market listing. Its last full annual financial report (FY2022) names Novo Invest GmbH as the ultimate parent company. According to an APA report of January 2021, Novo Invest held 90% of the AG and the Swiss company NOVO SWISS AG the other 10%.

Until January 2021 founder Johann F. Graf owned Novo Invest outright. On 28 January 2021 he gave 20% of Novo Invest to his son Thomas Graf and to long-serving managers Birgit Wimmer and Ryszard Presch, as APA reported at the time. How the 20% was split was not disclosed. In 2025, trend reported, citing the company register, that the group is still majority owned by its founder.

Birgit Wimmer became chair of the Supervisory Board from 1 January 2026, the first woman in that role, and the company’s announcement describes her as a co-shareholder. The group is run by a three-member Executive Board: Ryszard Presch, Johannes Gratzl and Stefan Krenn. Its management page gives no one the title of CEO.

Thomas Graf Novomatic: The Founder's Son and Greentube CEO

Thomas Graf is the founder’s son and the chief executive of Greentube, per Greentube’s management page. A September 2019 trade report on a company announcement said he was moving from chief technology officer at the group to lead the Greentube division. He is not on the group’s Executive Board, so pages that call him “CEO of Novomatic” are wrong or out of date. He was also one of the three people who received part of the 20% stake in Novo Invest in 2021.

Novomatic Niki Lauda: Brand Ambassador and the Red Cap

The Formula 1 champion Niki Lauda was the group’s international brand ambassador from the beginning of 2014, according to the company. Dutch broadcaster Omroep Brabant reported in 2015 that his famous red cap carried the words “Novomatic, winning technology”, and that he opened the Dutch head office of a group company in Waalwijk that April. Trade press says he held the role until his death, which ORF reported as 20 May 2019. He was an ambassador, not an owner, and we found no published contract terms.

Revenue, Ainsworth and Casinos Austria

For FY2025 the company’s own financial overview reports revenue of €3,616.8m, an operating result of €451.2m and a profit for the year of €289.6m. NÖN and APA reported EBITDA of €893.5m, up 12.4%. The company says revenue dipped slightly on the year because of disposals such as ADMIRAL Austria.

Ainsworth: the group has held a majority of the Australian machine maker since 2018. In 2025 it offered A$1.00 a share for the rest, first through a scheme of arrangement and then through an off-market takeover offer. Ainsworth’s annual report says Novomatic cancelled the scheme on 26 August 2025; acceptances of the takeover offer lifted its stake from 52.9% to 67.39% (as at 20 March 2026), short of full ownership, and Ainsworth remains listed on the ASX.

Casinos Austria: a plan to take a stake of roughly 40% was blocked by the cartel court, a ruling that became final at the Supreme Court in January 2017, as APA reported. The group held about 17.2% at the time and still appears in Casinos Austria’s January 2025 ownership chart; we could not confirm the current percentage.

Novomatic Games: What the Online Catalogue Includes

Novomatic games online are mostly slots. Greentube’s site groups them into series such as Diamond Link and Diamond Mystery, plus its own Win Ways mechanic, and it also runs the Cash Connection jackpot series alongside the classic “deluxe” titles. Beyond slots, its product pages list table games (roulette, blackjack, poker and baccarat, in “multiple variations”), video poker and video bingo, so Novomatic casino games are broader than the famous reels.

How many Novomatic online games are there? Greentube does not publish a current total. Its last official figure we found, in a January 2020 release, said the portfolio had grown to “over 500 slots, table games and bingo titles” the previous year. Other sites give figures from 300+ to about 500, and the number of Novomatic slot games varies between casinos because each operator picks which titles to add.

• Progressive jackpots: yes. Greentube’s game page for Cash Connection – Charming Lady’s Boom Coins says its feature offers a chance at “progressive jackpots”, and a 2020 Greentube release called Cash Connection a linked progressive jackpot series.
• Megaways: we found no Megaways titles from Greentube in the sources we checked; it uses its own Win Ways mechanic instead.
• Newest release on its homepage when we checked: Highway to Bell Stack & Collect, a 5×4, 20-line slot with a Stack & Collect bonus and optional Bonus Bet and Inferno Bet stakes.

Novomatic Software, Mobile Play and Platforms

Novomatic software for online casinos runs on novoSDK, Greentube’s HTML5 framework, and the game pages we opened list both desktop and mobile. That matters if you search for Novomatic mobile casinos: you do not need to download anything from the studio to play for real money, because the games run in the browser or app of whichever casino you use. Greentube’s pages also list store apps for a few classics, which we have not tested.

We have not run our own device tests. How a classic like Sizzling Hot deluxe feels on a small screen also depends on the casino’s site, so try the demo on your phone before you stake anything.

Novomatic Slot Machines: The Land-Based Side

Before any of these games went online, the company was a slot machine maker, and it still is. Its slot machines page lists cabinet families including V.I.P. X, DIAMOND X, BLACK EDITION II, MASTER SL, PANTHER, FUNMASTER and PANTHERA, with options such as curved HD screens, 4K-ready displays and toppers. A Novomatic slot machine runs game mixes from platforms such as Novo Line, Coolfire and Impera Line.

The group also sells linked and standalone progressive jackpot systems for casino floors and the NOVOVISION casino management system. The company’s history page dates the launch of Dolphin’s Pearl to 2001, Lucky Lady’s Charm and Sizzling Hot to 2003 and Book of Ra to 2005, as part of “The Winner”, years before the online deluxe versions. The same page says its German subsidiary LÖWEN ENTERTAINMENT launched the NOVOLINE multigame concept in 2006.

Best Novomatic Slots: The Classics Players Still Search For

These are the popular Novomatic slots that Greentube’s own pages, trade press and slot databases name again and again. Reels, lines, features and the volatility rating (on Greentube’s own 1–5 scale) come from greentube.com. Greentube does not publish RTP, release dates or max wins on the game pages we opened; its pages offer more data only behind a “client login”, so those columns come from slot databases, named where only one gives a figure. For more titles, see our slots section.

Book of Ra Novomatic: The Whole Family

Book of Ra is the game most people mean when they search for the best Novomatic games. In Book of Ra deluxe, Greentube’s page says, three or more Book symbols award 10 free games, and one randomly chosen symbol becomes an expanding symbol that fills its reels. The Book is also the wild. Greentube rates its volatility 5 out of 5, and slot databases list it as high or very high volatility, with a 95.10% RTP and a 5,000x max win.

Many versions now exist, so check which one you are opening. Book of Ra deluxe came before Play’n GO’s Book of Dead (2016), which uses the same expanding-symbol idea; read our Play’n GO review for that side of the story.

Sizzling Hot Deluxe Novomatic

Novomatic Sizzling Hot deluxe is the group’s fruit-machine classic: five reels, five fixed lines and a STAR scatter that pays in any position, per Greentube’s page, which rates it 3 out of 5 for volatility. German site Sport1 lists a 95.66% RTP, medium volatility, a top win of 5,000x the line bet for five red sevens, a red/black gamble option and no free spins.

Sport1 and OLBG both put its hit frequency at about 12% (Sport1 says with five lines played), roughly one winning spin in eight. Sport1 also notes that RTP configurations differ between versions and names other variants, such as Sizzling Hot deluxe 10 Win Ways, so check which one you open. If you want sizzling hot Novomatic slots with no bonus round to learn, this is the one.

Cash Connection Sizzling Hot Novomatic and the Cash Connection Series

Cash Connection – Sizzling Hot (launched 25 May 2021, per trade press) keeps the 5×3 fruit look but adds four jackpots: Grand, Major, Minor and Mini. Collecting six golden disc symbols starts a lock & spin feature with three respins; discs stay in place and each new one resets the count to three. Filling every position wins the Grand jackpot.

Greentube’s page says five sevens on a line pay 1,000x the total bet and rates the game 5 for volatility, against 3 for the classic. On our own arithmetic, the classic’s 5,000x line bet with all five fixed lines in play is also 1,000x the total bet, so the top line prize is similar; the jackpots and the lock & spin feature are what change the ride.

Greentube describes Cash Connection as a linked progressive jackpot series, but the 2021 launch article does not say which of this game’s four jackpots are progressive, and casinos can set jackpots up differently. Check the game’s rules for the jackpot values your casino shows. We found no RTP for it from Greentube.

Lucky Lady's Charm Deluxe

Lucky Lady’s Charm deluxe uses five reels and ten lines. The Lucky Lady is a wild that doubles wins it completes, and three or more scatters award 15 free games with a x3 multiplier, which can be retriggered, according to Greentube. It carries the top volatility rating of 5. Slot database OLBG lists a 95.13% RTP, says no other RTP version exists, and gives a 27,000x max win; Corriere dello Sport, reading one casino’s paytable, lists 95.10% and 9,000x.

More Novomatic Slots Worth Knowing

Five more classics from the comparison table turn up in slot-database top lists of popular Novomatic slots. Greentube’s pages list all of them for desktop and mobile, and rate all but Reel King 5 for volatility.

• Dolphin’s Pearl deluxe: five reels and ten lines. Greentube says four or more Pearl symbols trigger 15 free games with all wins tripled, and the Dolphin wild doubles the wins it completes.
• Lord of the Ocean: five reels and ten lines. Three or more Gate symbols trigger 10 free games, which can be retriggered, with a special symbol that takes over every position on its reel.
• Captain Venture: up to ten lines. Three or more scatters award 10 to 20 free games in which prizes are multiplied by four, and wins with the Captain are doubled again, for x8 in total.
• Fairy Queen: ten lines. Three or more Mystic Gates trigger 10 free games, which can be retriggered, in which one random symbol turns gold and expands, and every free game wins.
• Reel King: up to 20 paylines on a 5×3 grid. After each spin up to five Reel Kings can appear at random, and Greentube lists a gamble feature. It is the calmer game here, rated 3.

Novomatic Slot Features Explained

The classics reuse a small set of features. Knowing them makes a demo far more useful.

Novomatic Slots RTP: What Greentube Publishes and What It Does Not

RTP (return to player) is the share of all stakes a slot is designed to pay back over millions of spins. Greentube’s game pages show reels, lines, features and a volatility number, but no RTP. Every RTP in this review therefore comes from slot databases and review sites, and we say which.

• The classics sit around 95%. The figures commonly listed for Book of Ra deluxe (95.10%), Sizzling Hot deluxe (95.66%) and Lucky Lady’s Charm deluxe (95.13%) are below the roughly 96% that OLBG calls the online average.
• Several RTP versions are not confirmed. We could not confirm whether Greentube offers casinos lower RTP settings. One database mentions a 94.26% version of Book of Ra deluxe; if casinos can choose, the same game could return less at one site than another.
• The volatility scale is a plus. Greentube rates every game we checked from 1 to 5, though it does not explain the scale.

What does a point of RTP mean in money? On £1,000 of total stakes, a 95.10% setting is designed to return about £951 on average and a 94.26% version about £943. A 96% game would return about £960. These are long-run averages; any session can land far above or below them, and the house keeps an edge on every version.

Volatility and Your Bankroll

RTP decides how much you lose on average; volatility decides how bumpy the ride is. At £1 a spin, 100 spins means £100 staked. On Book of Ra deluxe at the commonly listed 95.10%, the theoretical loss is about £4.90, but as a game rated 5 of 5, many spins return nothing and the big wins come from rare free games.

Every spin is independent, so a slot is never “due” a win after a dry spell. If Book of Ra deluxe feels too swingy, Sizzling Hot deluxe (rated 3) pays smaller amounts more often. Set a session budget and a deposit limit before you start.

Novomatic Free Slots and Demo Play: What to Know

You can try Novomatic free slots in demo mode in our game reviews: every game review on FAQsino includes a free demo where the studio allows it. A Novomatic slots demo uses play money. Nothing you win has any cash value, nothing can be withdrawn, and a demo jackpot is not a real jackpot.

• Adults only. Demos are for players aged 18 and over, and UK-licensed casinos must verify your age before they let you use free play.
• The RTP may differ. A demo may not run the same version as your casino, so check the real game’s rules as shown above.
• Demos do not predict results. A lucky streak in Novomatic slots free play says nothing about the next real-money spin.
• Availability varies. Novomatic online slots free play is not offered for every game in every country.

Whether you search for free Novomatic slots online, Novomatic slots free games or simply Novomatic free slots games, the answer is the same: play-money versions that are good for learning how the Book of Ra expanding symbol or the Cash Connection collect feature works. If free play starts to make you want to chase real wins, our Responsible Gambling page lists tools and free support.

Licences and Regulators: UKGC, MGA and Other Markets

The online games are covered by Greentube licences, while NOVOMATIC AG holds its own UK licences for machines and software. We checked the entries directly on the regulators’ registers:

Is Novomatic Safe? Regulatory Record and Legal Cases

For the games themselves, the picture is clean on the records we checked: the UKGC register lists no regulatory action against NOVOMATIC AG’s account, and we found no fine against Greentube GmbH as a game supplier in the sources we checked. The group’s record is more mixed, and the details matter.

UK online casino operator. On 9 January 2025 the UKGC published a statement on Greentube Alderney Limited, which runs Admiral Casino according to the casino’s website. After a regulatory review, the operator agreed to pay £1,000,000 in lieu of a financial penalty (including a £22,113 divestment) for anti-money laundering failings between September 2022 and June 2023 and social responsibility failings between December 2022 and June 2023.

The Commission said its review of the specific customers identified in its compliance assessment found “no evidence of money laundering or criminal spend” with the operator. It also noted an earlier 2021 settlement for similar failings, which trade press put at £685,000. Read the UKGC statement. This concerns a casino operator, not the games other casinos license from Greentube.

The Casinos Austria Case in Austria

The company has been part of a long-running Austrian investigation linked to a 2019 Casinos Austria board appointment. Parts of it have ended: the WKStA (Austria’s anti-corruption prosecutors) discontinued the strand about the group’s sponsorship of events of the Institut für Sicherheitspolitik in July 2024, ORF and APA reported, and several individual investigations were discontinued in January 2025, according to APA.

On 27 February 2026, ORF and APA reported, the WKStA filed an indictment against former vice-chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache and two persons responsible at Novomatic. The WKStA’s own press release adds that it applied for a corporate fine against Novomatic AG under Austria’s corporate liability law. The company rejects the allegation and says it welcomes clarification by an independent court, in its company statement.

The trial is pending and we found no verdict; ORF reported in July 2026 that it was expected at the Vienna Regional Court in autumn 2026. All the accused, and the company, are presumed innocent unless a court finds otherwise.

Awards and Certifications

These are company announcements, which we could not check against the awarding bodies:

• European Casino Awards (January 2026): four wins, including Best Slot Machine (DIAMOND X Quattro 1.55J) and Best CMS/Software (NOVOVISION).
• ISO 20671 (June 2026): the company says it was the first gaming technology company to be certified as a “Certified Brand”.

Novomatic Casinos: How to Choose One

There is no single “Novomatic online casino”. The group runs a few consumer brands through separate licensed companies, such as Admiral Casino in the UK, but most Novomatic casinos are independent operators that license games from Greentube. The operator holds your money, chooses which games and versions to offer and handles withdrawals. So the best casino is not simply the one with the longest list of the best Novomatic online slots. Check these first:

1. A licence where you live. In the UK that means the UKGC. UK players are better protected on UKGC-licensed sites.
2. The RTP shown in the game. Open Book of Ra deluxe or Sizzling Hot deluxe and compare the figure with the commonly listed one.
3. Payout terms. Look for clear withdrawal limits, timescales and verification rules.
4. Safer-gambling tools. Deposit limits, time-outs, reality checks and self-exclusion should be easy to find.
5. The game library itself. A welcome offer does not prove that the titles you want are in the lobby, so search for them before you sign up.

Our Novomatic Casino List and Top Novomatic Slot Sites

Rather than hand-pick names, we list every casino we have reviewed that carries the games in the “Casinos with Novomatic Games” section at the bottom of this page. That list is ranked by FAQsino Trust Score and geo-targeted, so you only see casinos relevant to where you are. Use it as a shortlist, then run the checks above before you play Novomatic slots online for real money.

How to Recognise a Novomatic Slot

Casino lobbies do not always show the developer, but these clues help you spot one:

• The “deluxe” suffix: Book of Ra deluxe, Sizzling Hot deluxe and Lucky Lady’s Charm deluxe are the updated versions of older titles.
• Few paylines: 5 or 10 paylines on a 5×3 grid are typical of the classics.
• Familiar themes: Egyptian books, fruits and sevens, and characters like the Lucky Lady recur across sequels.
• Series names: Cash Connection, Diamond Link and Win Ways in the title point to Greentube.

Novomatic vs Play'n GO, Playtech and Pragmatic Play

How it compares with other developers we have reviewed, using only what each company publishes:

How We Researched This Page

We read novomatic.com, greentube.com, the UK Gambling Commission and Malta Gaming Authority registers, the company’s published reports, Ainsworth’s annual report and the named news sources on 18 October 2026. Where a figure comes only from a slot database or a review site, we name it. Slot figures are not our own testing: we have not run RTP or hit-rate tests.

What We Could Not Verify

Being clear about gaps is part of a fair review. As of 18 October 2026 we could not confirm:

• Official RTPs, release dates and max wins. Greentube’s game pages offer more data only behind a client login, so all such figures here are from slot databases.
• Whether casinos can choose lower RTP versions of Greentube games.
• A current game count. The last official figure we found is “over 500” titles in 2019.
• Test laboratories that certify Greentube’s online games.
• The split of the 2021 share transfer, and any ownership changes since then.
• Licences beyond the UKGC and MGA, such as Germany and Ontario, which we know only from trade press.
• 2024 revenue, because the company’s 2024 and 2025 reports give different figures for that year.
• The group’s current stake in Casinos Austria.

Our Verdict on Novomatic

Novomatic gave online slots some of their most familiar names, and Book of Ra deluxe, Sizzling Hot deluxe and Lucky Lady’s Charm deluxe still draw players years later. Greentube holds UKGC and MGA licences, the parent company’s UKGC register entry lists no regulatory actions, and the group publishes its results. Those are real strengths for a supplier.

Against that, the classics are commonly listed at around 95% RTP, Greentube does not publish RTP at all, and the group’s UK casino operator and an open Austrian court case weigh on its wider record. Learn the games in demo mode, check the RTP in the game rules before you stake real money, and set a deposit limit first.