Sherlock & Moriarty Wowpot!: Slot Overview

Sherlock & Moriarty is the fifth release to join Microgaming’s Wowpot! progressive jackpot series. With each title in the collection created by a different partner studio, this entry comes from Swedish developer Just For The Win. Alongside the opportunity to land enormous jackpot prizes, the game also brings several proprietary mechanics, including mystery symbols, mystery respins, and free spins.

Just For The Win keeps the theme fairly restrained, presenting players with an attractive cobblestoned slice of old London as the backdrop. A moody, suspenseful soundtrack runs throughout, while a semi-transparent 5-reel, 20-payline grid sits in the middle of a street lined with charming shops and gas lamps, with Big Ben visible in the distance. Still, the real focus is the jackpot bar above the reels, where the four jackpot totals can be viewed as they steadily climb until they’re won. The Mini and Minor generally match their modest labels, the Major is the one most players will covet, and the Wowpot! can reach the sort of 8 figure amounts that fuel daydreams. The kind of win that has you politely declining work the next morning.

As with many jackpot-led slots, wagering here involves a bit more thought than usual. That’s because your likelihood of activating the jackpot wheel increases in line with your bet size. Put simply: the higher the stake, the better the chance of triggering the wheel. Even so, the Wowpot! can still be won from the minimum bet of 10 p/c, while high rollers can stake up to $/€100 per spin. For those interested in the standard math, the RTP is 92.1% and volatility is officially listed as medium. The non-jackpot upside isn’t as strong as in some other Wowpot! titles, but with a hit frequency of 27% and frequent features, there’s typically something going on—or about to—during play in Sherlock & Moriarty.

In the paytable, Just For The Win uses ornate J-A royals for the lower-value symbols, supported by four character icons as the premium pays. These are a bobby, a lady (Mrs Hudson?), Watson, and Holmes, paying 6 to 10 times the stake for five of a kind. The wild is similarly decorative and matches the value of the ruffle haired Holmes symbol, while also substituting for regular symbols to form winning combinations. Moriarty himself appears as the scatter, joined by two additional special symbols explained below.

Sherlock & Moriarty Wowpot!: Slot Features

Unsurprisingly, Wowpot! is the main attraction drawing most players into the world of Holmes and Watson, but once you’re in, there are plenty of extra mechanics to keep things lively, including mystery symbols, mystery respins, and free spins.

Starting with the jackpot, entry is earned by collecting magnifying glass progressive tokens. These tokens can appear on high-value symbols on reels 2, 3, or 4 in the base game, and they do not appear during free spins or respins. When collected, tokens lift off the reels and add to the meter at the top of the screen. With a bit of luck, you’ll activate a spin of the jackpot wheel. The wheel then awards the Mini, Minor, Major, or Wowpot!, each with minimum values of 10, 100, 50,000 or 2,000,000 $/€. Naturally, as a progressive system, the real totals can climb far beyond those starting amounts.

Large golden question marks represent the mystery symbol. In the base game, if 4 or fewer mystery symbols land, they all transform into the same randomly selected regular pay symbol. These symbols cannot reveal progressive tokens. If 5 or more mystery symbols land, they activate Mystery Respins.

During Mystery Respins, any triggering mystery symbols and wilds become locked in position while every other spot is respun. Each time additional mystery symbols or wilds land, they also stick and another respin is awarded. When no new qualifying symbols appear, one final respin is granted; after that, all mystery symbols convert into a single random pay symbol.

Moriarty shows up on the scatter symbol, and landing 3 scatters in the base game awards 10 free spins. Landing more than three adds 2 extra free spins per additional scatter. In this mode, a new triple question marked feature symbol joins the action. Whenever it lands, it randomly reveals one of three features:

• Sticky Wild – this wild stays in place for the rest of the free spins.
• +1 Multiplier – the total win multiplier increases by 1 each time one of these symbols lands.
• +Spins – 1, 2, or 3 free spins are awarded.

Sherlock & Moriarty Wowpot!: Slot Verdict

Sometimes, when developers bolt a truly massive jackpot onto a slot, it can feel like everything else is an afterthought. That isn’t really the case with Sherlock & Moriarty. The smaller features appear regularly, and while free spins are less common, they come loaded with modifiers that make the bonus round genuinely entertaining. At higher stakes, the Wowpot! wheel can also trigger quite often. Of course, most players will end up landing Mini or Minor prizes, and at big bet sizes those smaller jackpots can still drain a bankroll quickly. Still, unpredictability is the point, and as the Wowpot! network continues to expand, the prize pools should grow right along with it.

That said, as a standalone slot, Sherlock & Moriarty has tough rivals—such as iSoftBet’s Moriarty Megaways—which offers a more polished overall presentation. Then again, they’re operating in very different categories, so comparisons mostly come down to how each handles the theme. Here, the deciding factor is the huge progressive jackpot, and it’s unlikely many players will be weighing fine graphical details or debating which game captures 19th century London more convincingly. The typical jackpot hunter is more likely to appreciate the solid spread of features while chasing a potentially enormous payout.

Yes, the non-jackpot returns in Sherlock & Moriarty aren’t particularly impressive—a full screen of Sherlocks pays only 200x—but few people load up a Wowpot! title for standard win potential. What they’re really after is that life-changing prize, the 2 million or more f-you money. With that in mind, Sherlock & Moriarty stands as good as, and arguably better than, other entries in the Wowpot! range.