Bac Bo: dice baccarat explained

What Bac Bo is and who makes it

Bac Bo is a live casino game from Evolution, the Swedish studio behind many of the biggest live game shows. Evolution describes it as dice baccarat: it keeps the betting layout of baccarat, with Player, Banker and Tie, but replaces the cards and third-card rules with dice. According to Evolution’s games site (opens in a new tab), the dice are shaken automatically in four individual shakers, two for each side, and the highest two-dice total wins.

The result is a game you can follow in seconds. Card baccarat has drawing rules that many players never fully learn; Bac Bo has none. You choose a side, two dice per side are revealed, and the bigger number wins. Evolution also runs Lightning Bac Bo, which adds random multipliers, and an RNG version called First Person Bac Bo that you play without a live presenter.

It’s worth placing Bac Bo in its wider family. Like Dragon Tiger and Sic Bo, it is a pure chance game with no strategic decisions after you bet, which makes the house edge on each bet the only number that really matters.

How to play Bac Bo step by step

1. Open Bac Bo in a UK-licensed casino’s live lobby and check the table limits in the corner of the screen.
2. During the betting window, place chips on Player, Banker or Tie, or on more than one.
3. When betting closes, the shakers roll two dice for the Player side and two for the Banker side.
4. The dice are revealed and each side’s total, from 2 to 12, is added up.
5. The side with the higher total wins. Equal totals are a Tie.
6. Winning bets are paid automatically and the next betting window opens.

A worked example: you place £5 on Banker. The Player dice show 4 and 3, a total of 7. The Banker dice show 6 and 5, a total of 11. Banker wins, so you receive £5 in winnings plus your £5 stake. If Player had rolled 6 and 6, Player would have won and your £5 would be lost.

Bac Bo odds: how often each total and tie appears

With two fair dice per side, every total from 2 to 12 has a fixed probability. That gives Bac Bo a simple maths profile that you can check yourself. Player and Banker are symmetrical: each wins about 44.4% of rounds, and the remaining 11.3% are ties.

Compare the right-hand column with the published maximum Tie payout of 88:1. A tie on 2 or on 12 would need to pay 1,295:1 to be a fair bet, so even the top payout leaves a large margin for the house. That pattern holds across the whole Tie section, and it’s why Tie bets in any baccarat game sit among the more expensive bets on a live casino table.

Bac Bo payouts and house edge

Player and Banker bets pay evens on a win. Unlike card baccarat, Banker wins don’t usually carry a commission, because the dice give neither side an advantage. The house edge on these two bets comes entirely from how they are settled on a tie.

The maths is straightforward. If a tie returned your full stake, Player and Banker would be break-even bets. Each 10% of your stake that the game keeps on a tie adds about 1.1 percentage points to the house edge, because ties occur on 11.27% of rounds. So a table that kept 10% on ties would have an edge of about 1.1%, and one that kept half would sit near 5.6%. That is why the tie rule deserves a look before anything else: the live help screen shows the exact settlement and the RTP for the table you join.

The card baccarat figures are the standard ones published by Wizard of Odds (opens in a new tab) for an eight-deck shoe. Our page on baccarat rules explains where the 5% Banker commission comes from, and why Bac Bo doesn’t need it.

Bac Bo variants: Lightning Bac Bo and First Person

Multiplier versions follow the same trade-off as Lightning Baccarat: occasional large boosted payouts are paid for by smaller standard ones or a fee on each bet. The overall return may be similar, but your results swing more, so a session budget runs out faster or lasts longer depending on luck.

Live Bac Bo vs RNG Bac Bo

In the live game, physical dice are shaken in a studio and filmed. In First Person Bac Bo, a random number generator produces the dice values. Both should follow the same probabilities, and both are tested before release for UK-licensed casinos. The practical differences are pace, presentation and minimum stakes; our live vs RNG comparison goes through them in detail.

UK rules for playing Bac Bo

Bac Bo sits under the Gambling Commission’s rules for online casino games. Since 17 January 2025, the remote technical standards (opens in a new tab) have required non-slot RNG games, including First Person Bac Bo, to take at least 5 seconds per game cycle, with no autoplay and a running display of your net position and time played. A live Bac Bo round already takes longer than that, but the no-autoplay rule still means every bet is placed by you; see our page on the autoplay ban.

• Age checks first: you must be verified as 18 or over before playing, including demo versions.
• No credit cards: gambling on credit cards has been banned in Great Britain since 14 April 2020; see our credit card ban page.
• Stake limits: the £2 and £5 per spin caps cover online slots only, so a live table’s own maximum applies to Bac Bo.
• Financial limits: since 31 October 2025, casinos must prompt you to set a limit before your first deposit.

Bac Bo myths and betting systems

• “Follow the trend board.” The roadmaps on screen show past results, but dice have no memory. A run of six Banker wins doesn’t change the odds on the seventh.
• “Bet Tie after a long gap.” Each round has the same 11.27% chance of a tie, however long it has been since the last one.
• “Cover Player and Banker together.” You would win one and lose the other on most rounds, and lose on both whenever the tie rule applies, so the combined bet only adds cost.
• “A staking plan beats the edge.” Systems such as the Martingale change the shape of results, not the price; our betting systems guide explains why.

Bac Bo bankroll maths in pounds

Take a £5 Player bet on 60 rounds. That is £300 staked. If the table’s tie rule produces an edge of about 1.1%, the expected cost is around £3.30, which is low compared with many live bets. The spread of outcomes is wide, though: after 60 even-money bets you could easily be £25 up or £25 down.

Now move £1 of each bet to the Tie. Tie bets are rare winners with a much higher edge, so over the same 60 rounds you would expect to hit about six to seven ties, spread over different totals, and the expected cost of that £60 rises steeply compared with the same money on Player or Banker. Our bankroll basics guide shows how to set a session limit that fits your budget.

Where to play Bac Bo in the UK

Bac Bo is supplied by Evolution, which holds a UK licence through Evolution Malta Holding Limited. In July 2026 the Gambling Commission announced that Evolution Malta Holding would pay £4.75 million (opens in a new tab) after its games reached British players through unlicensed sites, which is one more reason to play only at a casino on the Commission’s register. Our guide to checking a casino licence shows how.

Our partners below are licensed in Great Britain; check each casino’s live lobby, such as Casumo’s live casino, to see whether Bac Bo is currently listed. Casumo’s welcome offer is a 50% bonus up to £100 on a first deposit of at least £20 (18+, opt-in, 10x wagering within 7 days, £5 maximum bet, game restrictions apply), so read the game weighting rules before using it on live games. If gambling is causing problems, GamCare (opens in a new tab) offers free, confidential help on 0808 8020 133.

18+. Gambling should be entertainment that costs money, not a way to make it. Set a deposit limit before you play: how to set deposit limits. Free, confidential help: National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133.