| Rank | Casino | Bonus | Rating | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | 10bet | 100% up to R5000 BonusT & C Apply | VisitReview |
5 Lions Reborn Review and Demo
The lion has been Pragmatic Play’s lucky charm for years, and 5 Lions Reborn is only the latest cub in a litter that already runs to five games. Released on 17 April 2025, it drops the Megaways engine for a tighter 243-ways cabinet and pins everything on one idea: a wild multiplier that climbs while you spin.
You can try the free demo above before you risk a cent. Doing that first is worth your time here, because 5 Lions Reborn is a high-volatility game that shows you very little until the bonus arrives.
What follows is the honest version. There is a genuinely clever free spins menu buried in here, but there is also a 5,000x ceiling that feels shy for the risk you take on, and a base game that can go quiet for long stretches. Let us get into how it actually plays.
How to Play 5 Lions Reborn
The grid is a classic 5×3 with 243 ways, so wins land left to right on adjacent reels rather than on fixed lines. There is nothing to configure beyond your stake. Set the bet, spin, and matching symbols from the leftmost reel pay out however many ways they form.
The lion is your wild, and the twist is that it only appears on the middle three reels. Every wild in a winning combo bumps a multiplier, and that multiplier is the whole point of the game, so a spin without a middle-reel lion is usually a flat one.
Here is roughly how the paytable stacks up, from the documented sources. Check these against the paytable image before you publish:
- Card royals 9 through Ace: the low tier, paying around 1.33x to 5.33x for five of a kind.
- Themed premiums, the turtle, fish, frog, phoenix and dragon: paying from about 8.67x up to 26.6x for five of the dragon.
- The lion wild: middle reels only, and it carries the running multiplier that powers the bonus.
- The scatter: land three or more to open the free spins pick screen.
Where to Spin 5 Lions Reborn for Real Money
Because the base game leans so hard on the bonus, the operator you choose matters more than usual. You want either a very low minimum stake, so you can ladder up to the feature buys without emptying the tank, or a high ceiling if you plan to chase the 5,000x on full bets.
Lucky Fish fits both ends. A R0.20 minimum lets you feel the game out cheaply and build toward the pricey Super buy, while its R2,000 top stake keeps high-volatility chasers happy. For those who want the full 150-credit stake in play, 10bet stretches to a R2,500 maximum. If the feature buys are your plan, Goldrush and its low minimums soften the sting of the 80x and 500x buttons.
All three are provincially licensed South African operators, so your deposits and any winnings sit inside the local regulatory net. New here? Our South African casino reviews hub lays out the licensed field.
| Rank | Casino | Bonus | Rating | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Betshezi | Up to R10 000 Bonus + R50 Free BetT & C Apply | VisitReview |
Inside the 5 Lions Reborn Features
Three scatters trigger the free spins, and this is where 5 Lions Reborn earns its keep. Instead of one fixed bonus, you pick from seven options that trade spins against a starting wild multiplier. The generous end gives 20 spins on a modest x2; the aggressive end, 6 spins on a hefty x15; a mystery pick hides the trade entirely.
During the bonus, every wild win nudges the multiplier higher, and the game can randomly toss in one to three extra spins. Get a middle reel stacking lions while the multiplier is already tall and this is where the real money lives.
The headline extra is Super Free Spins: 20 spins that start on a x15 multiplier. It is the best round in the game and, naturally, the hardest to land on your own.
If you would rather not wait, both bonuses are buyable. The standard free spins cost 80x your stake, and the Super version costs a steep 500x. At a R4.90 minimum spin that is roughly R390 for the standard buy and about R2,450 for the Super, and both climb fast as you raise the stake. Our guide to Pragmatic Play slots covers how these buy buttons behave across the studio’s catalogue.
RTP, Volatility and Max Win
Pragmatic ships 5 Lions Reborn in three RTP flavours: 96.50%, 95.50% and 94.50%. The top figure is a touch above average, but the operator picks which version to run, so confirm the number in the game’s info panel rather than assuming you got the best one.
Volatility is high, and the maths reflect it. The base game lands a win roughly one spin in three, but the free spins are far rarer, around one trigger every 107 spins. A couple of sources quote the base hit rate as “3.2%”, which looks like a mislabel of that one-in-three figure.
The bet range runs from the game’s 0.30 minimum to 150 maximum, which converts to roughly R5 up to about R2,450 per spin at current rates. One note of caution: a couple of databases list the top stake as 240 rather than 150, so check the cap inside your chosen casino before you commit.
- Provider: Pragmatic Play
- Release date: 17 April 2025
- Grid and ways: 5×3, 243 ways
- RTP: 96.50% / 95.50% / 94.50% (operator sets the version)
- Volatility: High
- Max win: 5,000x your stake
- Bet range: about R5 to R2,450 per spin (0.30 to 150)
- Feature buy: 80x standard, 500x Super free spins
About that ceiling. A 5,000x cap is modest for a game asking you to weather this much variance, and it looks especially thin next to Pragmatic stablemates. The Gates of Olympus 1000 tops out at 15,000x, and Great Rhino Megaways reaches 20,000x. If you are hunting a life-changing multiplier, this is not the lion to back.
| Rank | Casino | Bonus | Rating | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | 10bet | 100% up to R5000 BonusT & C Apply | VisitReview |
Theme, Graphics and Audio
The look is comfortable oriental Pragmatic: golds and reds, silk-lantern trimmings, a dragon and phoenix on the premiums and the lion presiding over the reels. It is polished and it is exactly what you expect, which is both the compliment and the criticism.
The soundtrack does its job with drums and strings that lift when the multiplier climbs, though it never quite escapes the sense that you have heard it in the other four 5 Lions games. Compared with a stripped-back classic like Book of Ra Deluxe, Reborn is far busier on the eye, but that polish papers over how familiar the whole package feels.
Final Verdict
5 Lions Reborn is a competent, familiar high-volatility slot that lives or dies on one very good idea.
That idea is the free spins menu. Choosing between many-spins-low-multiplier and few-spins-high-multiplier gives the bonus a real texture that a lot of Pragmatic releases lack, and the escalating wild multiplier can genuinely run.
The trouble starts in the base game. With wilds locked to the middle reels and no meaningful side action, the spins between bonuses can be a grind, and high volatility means those stretches get long.
Then there is the ceiling. 5,000x is simply not much reward for this level of risk, and the games it borrows its theme from now reach three and four times higher.
The Super Free Spins are the secondary catch: brilliant when they hit, but rare to trigger and expensive to buy at 500x, so most players will only meet them through a hefty purchase.
It does click in one place. When the multiplier is already tall and a wall of middle-reel lions lands, 5 Lions Reborn delivers the surge the whole design is built around, and for a few seconds it earns the hype.
Who is it for? Series loyalists and anyone who enjoys steering their own bonus will get the most out of it. If you want a fresh mechanic or a serious top prize, look elsewhere first, and if you do play, set a firm budget before you start given how bonus-dependent this one is. Our responsible gambling notes and current no-deposit free spins are both worth a look before you load up the reels.
And if the chase ever stops being fun, help is free and confidential. The South African Responsible Gambling Foundation runs a 24/7 counselling line on 0800 006 008, and you can reach a counsellor by WhatsApp or SMS on 076 675 0710.
