Live Blackjack Features

Live Blackjack by BetConstruct is a seven-seat variant with six decks. One big attraction it offers players, is the option to ‘surrender’ their hand. This means you can forfeit your cards and receive half your stake back, should the hand should you are dealt be a poor one. This ups the Return to Player of the game by at least a few percentage points, which can only be good for most interested parties.

Side Bets

As well as this helpful feature, BetConstruct blackjack also offers three different side bets – including one unique one that we haven’t seen anywhere else. These side bets are:

• Perfect Pairs
• Honey Bonus
• Lucky 7s

Perfect pairs is available at most live casino blackjack tables, regardless of the developer. This bet involves betting that you or the dealer will get some kind of pair – either coloured, mixed or perfect. Perfect pairs, i.e. a pair of the same suit, will pay out 25:1. Coloured pairs pay out 12:1, and a mix pair pays out 5:1.

The Honey Bonus is quite similar to the 21+3 bonus that you will find at many live blackjack tables, but with a unique twist. Here you bet on yours and the dealer’s hands to make a poker style hand. These include a three-of-a-kind (20:1), a straight (10:1) and a flush (5:1). Exclusively added here is the suited blackjack bet, which pays out 3:1 on top of your normal pay-out for a blackjack.

Thirdly, we have another exclusive side bet for BetConstruct players – Lucky 7s. The payout table for this bet is as follows:

• One seven pays out 3:1
• Pair of sevens (different suits) pays 25:1
• Pair of suited sevens – 50:1
• Three unsuited sevens – 100:1
• Three suited sevens 500:1

Although side bets are generally not used by top-tier blackjack players, as they do not represent a good overall RTP, many players might see a massive 500:1 windfall on three sevens as just too attractive to not occasionally take a chance on.

One extra bet also offered is insurance. This allows you to forfeit half your stake if the dealer draws an ace as their first card, in return for a guaranteed win should the dealer then draw a blackjack. Insurance bets pay out at 2:1. If the dealer doesn’t draw a blackjack, the hand is played normally and you can still win. However, you will have lost half your stake.

Lastly, BetConstruct offers neither the ability to bet-behind nor unlimited tables. This means that should your preferred table be full, you have no choice but to head elsewhere to a different one – which is a little disappointing, but not unforgivable.

One more negative that we had to mention, was the fact that BetConstruct blackjack tables will often update the electronic score of your hand before the live dealer has finished dealing your card. This eliminates some tension and adds and avoidable feeling of minor inauthenticity to proceedings.

House Rules

In general, the house rules at BetConstruct blackjack tables are:

• Players can double on any two cards.
• Players may split on a 10 or pair draw.
• When splitting aces, each can only get one extra card.
• Any 21 on split aces does not count as blackjack.
• Dealer must hit up to 16.
• Dealer must stand on a 17, including soft 17.
• Players can surrender if the dealer does not have an ace.

Mobile

A lot of the mobile experience depends on the casino side of the operation and not the developer. However, live casino providers must do everything they can to ensure their part of the deal runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

With BetConstruct, we must say we were positively surprised. The streams were top quality, even on small-screen devices, and the user interface was laid out in a simple but effective manner.

No fiddly operations, crashes or complex menu systems here! Side bets, splits and general mechanics were all easy to access and everything else was presented in a clear and concise manner, for the most streamlined user experience. BetConstruct really does have a better overall experience, especially on mobile, than some bigger name developers we could mention.

Native & Private Tables

BetConstruct offers live blackjack with dealers speaking the following languages:

• English
• Armenian
• Farsi
• Russian
• Ukrainian
• Turkish
• Arabic

We are yet to find any European focused live casino developers offering Farsi speaking live dealers, and not many offering Arabic or Armenian either. This was quite clever of BetConstruct – instead of competing with the big boys in the market for Spanish speaking or Italian speaking live dealer blackjack, they went after an under-represented section of the market. A unique angle from BetConstruct then, and one that might be fully appreciated by Iranian or Armenian players.

In Comparison

BetConstruct actually surprised us with the quality of its live blackjack offering. The ability to surrender is a nice touch that favours players, as are some of the unique side bets. Most importantly however, they got the fundamentals down perfectly – the stream and studio quality are up there with Evolution’s as some of the best in the industry. The only thing really holding them back right now is the lack of enthusiasm on the part of some of their live dealers and the lack of a bet behind option.

However, if they improve on that while keeping their level of service as it is in other aspects, you may see BetConstruct’s live blackjack tables at many more live online casinos in the future.