The online gaming giants NetEnt are expanding their live table games offer with another classic option – Baccarat. This will not be their first foray into this casino classic. However, the so-called speed variant is optimized for online play and allows for quicker games. NetEnt is bringing out the big guns with three live baccarat tables right out the gate. That said, it shouldn’t really matter – the Speed Baccarat casino game can support an unlimited number of players per table.
Of course, the tables do offer different limits. Jade and Silver are essentially the same and accept wagers between €1 and €5,000. Gold is an outlier intended as a high-roller baccarat table, with increased limits between €5 and €15,000.
Besides that, the only difference is the colour of the table. While we’re on the topic, Live Speed Baccarat by NetEnt took an interesting approach to studio design. The pastel white and gold background definitely makes it stand out from the crowd. It’s not trying to emulate a traditional casino like most such sets – at least not any casino we’ve seen. The overall impression ends up looking rather futuristic, but the dealers give it all the welcoming warmth you’ll need. Also, NetEnt Speed Baccarat Jade is kind of an outlier with a red-green backdrop.
As far as the software itself goes NetEnt covered all their bases. You’ll find your classic live baccarat bets at the bottom of the screen, surrounded by side bets. The sides of the UI contain records for the past 200 games or so.
You’ll find all the classic features of live online casino games at the top of the screen. These include live chat and some settings – namely audio and quality options.
In almost all aspects, the NetEnt Speed Baccarat live casino game follows the classic baccarat ruleset. The main perk of the speed variant is that you don’t have to worry about limited table space. Additionally, betting time is only 10 seconds, so you’ll have to be quick on your feet.
AS always, you’ll be predicting which of the two sides gets closer to a value of 9. Your regular betting options include the Player, Banker, or Tie bet. The former two pay out the standard 1:1 with an RTP rate of 98.94%. However, the Tie bet pays out at sub-standard odds of 8:1. This translates into 85.64% RTP, which means you might want to stay away from tie bets.
Also, banker bets carry the usual commission rate. This decreases the RTP for these bets to 98.76%
Lastly, you have 6 side bets to broaden your options. These will be familiar to seasoned baccarat players.
- Player/Banker Pair – predicts that either the player or banker will form a pair with their first 2 cards. 89.64% RTP rate.
- Big – wagers that the total sum of both hands will be 5 or 6 in value. Pays at odds of 1:2 for a 93.17% RTP rate.
- Small - similar to Big, but the sum has to be 4. Pays out at odds of 3:2 for 94.72% RTP.
- Player/Banker Bonus – This side bet wins if the player/banker wins with a combination that totals 8 or 9 in value. Alternatively, it also wins if the player/banker wins with a 4-point difference. The Player side boasts an RTP of 35%, while Banker Bonus is considerably worse at 90.63%.
As you can see, if you’re worried about RTP, you might just want to stick to regular player/banker bets. We tried out all the side bets for this NetEnt Speed Baccarat review, of course. In the long haul, though, the most boring options tend to be the best ones.
Baccarat is a somewhat limiting game when it comes to innovation. That’s why you can’t expect too many novelties when it comes to new live baccarat games. Instead, we try to focus on the quality of the core product. In those terms, NetEnt knocked it out of the park with this release.
That said, we’d stay away from the side and tie bets if you want to play NetEnt Speed Baccarat for real money.
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