Hacksaw Gaming

Published: May 27, 2026 · Last verified: May 27, 2026

18+ only. Online gambling is restricted to adults. If gambling stops being fun, talk to BeGambleAware or GamCare.

The verdict in 75 words

Hacksaw Gaming is a Sliema, Malta-headquartered B2B slot studio, founded 2018, originally a scratchcard specialist that pivoted to slots around 2020 and produced the extreme-volatility viral-pattern category that now defines the modern slot market. Best known for Wanted Dead or a Wild — February 2022 release with 12,500× max win. Roughly 80 active slots in 2026, plus a residual scratchcard catalog. Licensed under MGA, UKGC, SRIJ, ADM, Spelinspektionen, NJ DGE.

Hacksaw is one of the two or three most commercially influential slot studios to emerge in the post-2020 period. Founded as a small Maltese scratchcard developer, the studio rebuilt itself as a slot specialist with a deliberately extreme house style — maximum-volatility designs, high max-win caps (12,500× to 100,000×), prominent Feature Buy options, and visual identities that travel through streaming and social-media culture. This review covers the studio, the catalog, the regulatory footprint, and the editorial place of the headline title.

Corporate structure and ownership

Hacksaw Gaming Limited is registered and operates from Sliema, Malta. The company was founded in 2018 by Matthew Ferran (current CEO) and several engineering co-founders, with backing from private investors. The studio is privately held; specific ownership details are not publicly disclosed in regulator filings.

Operating footprint: Sliema, Malta (HQ and primary engineering), with smaller offices in Stockholm and a US-market presence in Las Vegas. Staff count in 2026 is in the 200-300 range — small relative to NetEnt or Play'n GO but proportional to the focused catalog cadence.

The leadership remains stable since founding. Ferran's public profile through industry conferences (SBC Summits, ICE London, iGB) emphasises three points consistently: the studio's commitment to mathematical extremity, the importance of "slot culture" outside the regulated-casino lobby (Twitch streamers, casino-watcher communities), and the deliberate choice to remain independent through the consolidation wave that swept the sector in 2020-2023.

Hacksaw has resisted reported acquisition approaches from at least two major industry buyers (Evolution, Aristocrat). The independent ownership has translated into an unusual willingness to ship slots that would never clear the design committees of larger publicly-listed suppliers — the studio's high-variance, max-win-cap-extreme catalog is structurally a product of independent ownership.

Founding history and the slot pivot

Hacksaw was founded as a scratchcard developer. The early catalog (2018-2020) was primarily HTML5 scratchcards and instant-win games — a small niche product category in the broader iGaming market, with a few hundred operators carrying scratchcard content but limited mainstream visibility.

The slot pivot began in 2020 with the release of Stick 'em — a 7×7 cluster-pays slot with a "sticky symbols" mechanic that produced unusually high max-win potential. Stick 'em was the studio's first slot to break into operator top-50 filters in regulated markets.

The breakthrough was Wanted Dead or a Wild (February 2022). The 5×5 grid slot with sticky multipliers, three-stage free-spin bonus, and 12,500× max win became one of the most-streamed slots in the 2022-2024 Twitch/Kick casino-watcher subculture. The slot's design vocabulary — Wild West theme, named-character free-spin variants, gradual feature unlocks — became the template for several Hacksaw releases over the following years.

Subsequent releases that achieved similar viral patterns:

• Hand of Anubis (May 2022) — Egyptian-theme 5×5 with collect-all mechanic
• Le Bandit (2022) — French heist theme, multi-stage free-spin progression
• Toshi Video Club (2023) — '80s arcade aesthetic, retro-themed sticky mechanic
• Carnival Cash (2023) — Carnival theme with prize-grid bonus
• Beast Mode (2023) — Monster theme, high-volatility multiplier mechanic
• Stack 'em (2024) — Hacksaw catalog mainstay
• Itero Bones (2024-2025), Skeleton/desert theme, extreme volatility
• Big Bucks Bandits Megaways (2025), Megaways licensed extension

The cadence in 2023-2026 settled at roughly 25-35 new slots per year, with 2-4 of those reaching streaming-viral visibility in any given year. The base catalog has grown to approximately 80 active titles.

Certifications and regulatory licensing

Hacksaw operates a focused tier-one supplier-licence portfolio. Verified from the official supplier documentation and regulator registers:

The portfolio is narrower than NetEnt or Play'n GO (no NJ-DGE-only US position; no major regulator gaps), reflecting the focused operating model. Hacksaw entered the US states later than the older European suppliers, New Jersey first in 2022, Pennsylvania and Ontario in 2024.

Independent testing labs: GLI, BMM Testlabs. Test certificates referenced in the in-game info card per jurisdiction.

The UK Gambling Commission supplier licence is particularly meaningful for player-side trust given the UKGC's strict treatment of bonus-buy features. The UKGC banned bonus-buy mechanics in slot games available to UK players in late 2022; Hacksaw releases for the UK market consequently ship without the Bonus Buy feature that defines the same games in other jurisdictions. The base game and free-spin mechanics remain intact, but UK players cannot pay 75-100× their stake to skip into the bonus directly. This is a regulator-side rule that applies to all suppliers, not a Hacksaw-specific limitation.

Product portfolio: focused, extreme-volatility, design-led

Hacksaw's catalog organises into a tight set of categories. Roughly 80 active titles in 2026:

• High-volatility headline slots, Wanted Dead or a Wild, Hand of Anubis, Le Bandit, Toshi Video Club, Beast Mode, Itero Bones, Big Bucks Bandits.
• Cluster-pays and grid mechanics, Stick 'em, Stack 'em, and a handful of grid-format releases that share design vocabulary with Sweet Bonanza but at higher variance.
• Scratchcards and instant-win games: the legacy catalog from the studio's founding era; modest current focus but retained for operator-portfolio completeness.
• Branded-IP and licence collaborations: limited; Hacksaw is structurally less focused on IP licensing than Play'n GO or NetEnt.
• Megaways adaptations: late entrant to Megaways; Big Bucks Bandits Megaways (2025) is the studio's first major Megaways release.

One Hacksaw slot has a dedicated review on this site:

Wanted Dead or a Wild is the studio's canonical commercial release and the reference for Hacksaw's design language: cinematic Wild West theme, three-stage free-spin bonus with character-specific variants (Wild Outlaws / Wanted / Duel at Sundown), sticky multiplier mechanics, prominent Feature Buy option (where available), and a 12,500× max win that has anchored streaming-viral attention since launch.

The viral-pattern slot category

Hacksaw's commercial positioning is in what the trade press and casino-watcher community now call the "viral-pattern" or "streamer-bait" slot category. The defining features:

• Maximum-volatility mathematics: long droughts in base game, occasional explosive free-spin rounds, max-win probability that is mathematically negligible (often 1-in-10-million range) but visible enough to drive streaming attention.
• Cinematic theme and narrative beats: free-spin features have distinct visual phases, character animations, and pacing that translate well to streaming/recording: unlike classic slot mechanics that play out invisibly in the math.
• Prominent Feature Buy options: 75-100× stake to skip into the bonus directly. Heavily used in non-UK markets; absent in UK Hacksaw releases due to UKGC ban.
• Max-win caps in the 12,500× to 100,000× range: substantially higher than the 5,000-10,000× range that defined the 2015-2020 mainstream slot category.

Hacksaw did not invent this category, Nolimit City, Push Gaming, and ELK Studios were all working in adjacent territory by 2020: but Hacksaw's 2022 breakthrough with Wanted Dead or a Wild crystallised the format and produced the closest the modern slot market has to a commercial template that other studios now imitate.

The broader market effect: Pragmatic Play, Play'n GO, BTG, and most legacy suppliers have all shipped higher-variance releases in 2023-2026 partly in response to the demand pattern Hacksaw demonstrated. The slot industry's mathematical centre of gravity moved upward in volatility between 2020 and 2026, and Hacksaw is one of the studios most responsible for that shift.

RTP versions and operator deployment

Hacksaw licenses slots at multiple RTP versions, but with a tighter range than older suppliers. Verified through in-game info-card inspection across multiple operators:

• Wanted Dead or a Wild: published 96.38% (the canonical and most-deployed version), with 94.20% and 92.10% variants available to operators.
• Hand of Anubis: published 96.30%, with 94.30% and 92.30% variants.
• Le Bandit: published 96.34%, with 94.20% and 92.10% variants.

The 4-point gap between Wanted Dead or a Wild's published default (96.38%) and lowest variant (92.10%) is meaningful but narrower than Play'n GO's Book of Dead (96.21% / 91.00%). The narrower range partly reflects Hacksaw's commitment to the streaming-visible identity: a 92% RTP version would visibly underperform in player session reports, which is bad for the brand's positioning.

For the player, the standard imperative applies: open the in-game info card before depositing real money. Operators in different markets deploy different RTP variants of the same game.

Where to play Hacksaw games

Hacksaw content has reached universal regulated-market distribution. Operators with Hacksaw in their lobbies include MGA brands (Betsson, LeoVegas, Mr Green, Casumo, PlayOJO), UKGC brands (bet365, 888, Sky Vegas, William Hill, BetMGM UK), Portuguese SRIJ (Solverde, Casino Portugal), and Brazilian SPA brands (Betano).

Distribution model is direct supplier-to-operator with aggregator support through SoftSwiss, EveryMatrix, Pariplay, and Pragmatic Play's aggregator division. The studio's commercial team has aggressively pursued integration with every major operator in regulated markets, and by 2026 Hacksaw is essentially universal across tier-one regulated lobbies.

UK availability is meaningful: the UKGC's strict bonus-buy ban does not exclude Hacksaw from the UK market, but it does mean UK players play the no-bonus-buy version of every Hacksaw title. The math is otherwise identical.

Mobile architecture and HTML5 strategy

Hacksaw slots are HTML5-only and mobile-first by default. The studio committed to mobile-primary design from founding (2018); every Hacksaw slot is engineered for portrait-mode mobile play first, with desktop versions derived from the mobile build.

The studio does not ship native iOS or Android apps. Delivery is via operator casino interfaces.

Technical engineering is consistently strong. Hacksaw slots have particularly good art-direction-to-engineering balance: the cinematic free-spin sequences in Wanted Dead or a Wild, Hand of Anubis, and Beast Mode play at 60fps on mid-range Android hardware without compromising the visual fidelity that makes them streamable.

Regulatory reputation and enforcement record

Hacksaw's regulator-side record is clean:

• No UKGC supplier-side enforcement findings in 2020-2026.
• No MGA supplier-side material fines.
• No Spelinspektionen enforcement findings.
• No NJ DGE supplier-side enforcement on the published register.
• No Casinomeister Warnings forum entry for Hacksaw; no PAB cases against Hacksaw.

The UKGC bonus-buy ban (late 2022) was a regulator-side rule that applied to all suppliers, not a Hacksaw-specific enforcement action. Hacksaw complied promptly by shipping UK-specific game versions without Bonus Buy.

Player-side disputes around Hacksaw games are operator-side in essentially all cases. The studio's extreme-volatility design produces session outcomes that some players interpret as "bad luck" or worse, but the math is third-party-certified and the regulator audit cycle has not produced any integrity findings.

What works and what does not

Pros

• Defines the modern viral-pattern category: streaming-visible slot design that the broader industry now imitates.
• Cinematic art direction: free-spin sequences in headline titles are among the best-produced visual sequences in slot gaming.
• Tier-one regulator coverage: MGA, UKGC, ADM, SRIJ, Spelinspektionen, NJ DGE, Ontario iGO: covers every regulated market a typical player accesses.
• Independent ownership: design freedom that publicly-listed suppliers like Evolution-owned NetEnt or BTG cannot match.
• Mobile-first since founding: the catalog is engineered for the small-screen-first reality of contemporary slot consumption.

Cons

• Extreme volatility is exhausting for typical players: long base-game droughts are mathematically normal; players without strong bankroll discipline can deplete deposits quickly.
• Max-win probability is mathematically negligible: Wanted Dead or a Wild's 12,500× max win triggers at probabilities in the 1-in-10-million range; the headline outcome is essentially unreachable for most players.
• Feature Buy options are absent in UK releases: UKGC ban prevents the bonus-skip mechanic in UK Hacksaw deployments; UK players play the no-Bonus-Buy version of every title.
• Catalog identity is narrow: classic low-volatility slots, jackpot progressives, and table games are not in scope. Players wanting variety beyond high-variance slots look elsewhere.
• No live casino: operators wanting one-stop slots-plus-live must pair Hacksaw with Evolution or another live-dealer studio.

Verdict: who Hacksaw games are for

For: players who specifically want the extreme-volatility viral-pattern slot category, players who follow streaming/casino-watcher culture and want the slots that drive that ecosystem, players who value design freshness over the conservative releases from older suppliers.

Against: players who want low-volatility classic slots (NetEnt's Starburst, Play'n GO's classics), players who chase progressive jackpots (Games Global is stronger), players who specifically want bonus-buy access in UK markets (UKGC bans the feature for all suppliers, including Hacksaw), and players sensitive to long base-game losing streaks.

A reasonable framing: Hacksaw is the supplier you check first if you want the modern slot identity. The studio's catalog defines what 2022-2026 slot culture looks like, and Wanted Dead or a Wild is the most-discussed mainstream slot release of the post-pandemic era.

Editorial pool of Hacksaw slot reviews on this site: Wanted Dead or a Wild.

FAQ

When was Hacksaw Gaming founded? 2018 in Sliema, Malta, by Matthew Ferran (CEO) and engineering co-founders. The studio was originally a scratchcard developer; the slot pivot began with Stick 'em (2020) and crystallised commercially with Wanted Dead or a Wild (February 2022).

Who owns Hacksaw? Privately held; specific ownership is not publicly disclosed. The studio has resisted reported acquisition approaches from major industry buyers and remains independent.

What is Hacksaw best known for? Wanted Dead or a Wild (February 2022): a 5×5 sticky-multipliers Wild West-themed slot with 12,500× max win that became one of the most-streamed slots in casino-watcher subculture. Subsequent extreme-volatility releases (Hand of Anubis, Le Bandit, Toshi Video Club) extended the brand identity.

Are Hacksaw games available in the UK? Yes, but UKGC banned slot Bonus Buy features in late 2022; UK Hacksaw releases ship without the Bonus Buy feature. The base game and free-spin math are identical to non-UK versions.

Does Hacksaw license multiple RTP versions? Yes. Wanted Dead or a Wild publishes at 96.38% with 94.20% and 92.10% variants available to operators. Open the in-game info card before depositing to confirm which version your operator runs.

Are Hacksaw games provably fair? No. Hacksaw slots use standard certified RNG, not the cryptographic provably-fair model that Spribe uses for crash games.

Is Hacksaw licensed in the United States? Yes, New Jersey DGE (since 2022), Pennsylvania PGCB (since 2024). Limited US-state coverage compared to older suppliers, but expanding.

What does "viral-pattern slot" mean? A modern slot category defined by extreme volatility, cinematic free-spin sequences, high max-win caps (12,500× to 100,000×), and design that translates well to streaming and social-media culture. Hacksaw's Wanted Dead or a Wild is the canonical example.

Play responsibly

Hacksaw slots are exceptionally high-variance products. Long base-game losing streaks are mathematically normal, and the headline max-win outcomes are statistically extreme: the 12,500× max win in Wanted Dead or a Wild is essentially unreachable in any normal session length. Players choosing high-volatility slots should size stakes for sustained drought tolerance rather than chase-the-multiplier expectations. If gambling stops being fun, contact these free, confidential services:

• BeGambleAware, 0808 8020 133 (UK)
• GamCare, UK-based, confidential helpline and chat
• Gambling Therapy: international, multilingual support