Ever since video slots were introduced at online casinos they have captured the interest of players. Today video slots are the main offering in the portfolio of any software provider. Software providers have kept the interest alive in video slots through continuous innovation. One of the most unusual and the most exciting of the innovations has been that of the split symbol. This article discusses the video slots of two software providers that have used split symbols in different manners.

Video slots have five reels. Usually payouts are defined for at most five like symbols appearing aligned left to right in an active payline. Split symbols allow for payouts for more than five symbols in an active payline without increasing the number of reels. Some time ago the software provider Playtech entered into an agreement with Marvel Movies to create video slots based on their super heroes. The popularity and stature of these super heroes was such that it called for innovation in the video slot games. The concept of the split symbol was introduced in a slot game titled Blade. This video slot has a special symbol called the Blade Split symbol. It appears only on Reel 5. The symbol becomes active when there is a winning combination on a payline that ends with the Blade Split symbol. In this event the last symbol in that winning combination will be split in two and will count as two symbols. If the symbol 10 appears on the first three reels in an active payline and the Blade Split symbol appears on Reel 5 in the same payline, then the symbol 10 in Reel 3 will split in two and the payout will correspond to four 10 symbols. The payout table defines payouts for up to six symbols per payline. Blade can be played in all Playtech powered online casinos like Omni Casino, Casino Tropez and Casino Del Rio.

In the Playtech Blade video slot only the last symbol in the payline was split. The software provider WagerWorks has slot games in which each symbol in the payline can be split. This gives rise to a possibility of up to 10 symbols per payline. The most popular WagerWorks video slot with this feature is Noah’s Ark. Almost all the symbols on the reels are the animals that went into the Noah’s Ark in the Biblical tale. The same animal appears in two symbols. In one it appears singly and in the other it appears in a pair. When it appears in a pair it counts as two symbols for the purposes of the payout and is called a split symbol. If in an active payline Reel 1 shows a single Lion, Reel 2 shows a pair of Lions and Reel 3 shows a pair of Lions it counts for five symbols in the winning combination. If all five symbols in an active payline contain pairs of the same animal then the payout is for 10 symbols. In this slot game the wild and scatter symbols also count for two symbols if they depict a pair. Cats, featuring the wild cats, is another WagerWorks video slot with split symbols. Noah’s Ark and Cats can be played in all WagerWorks powered online casinos like Virgin Casino.