Pragmatic Play Shrinks Zeus for New POP Format Gates of Olympus
Zeus has had a makeover, and this time he’s come out smaller. Pragmatic Play has taken its enormously popular Gates of Olympus and squeezed it into a new vertical, mobile-friendly format called Gates of Olympus POP, the opening title in a project to rework the studio’s biggest names for a more casual audience.
What’s been released
Pragmatic Play has adapted one of its best-known slots for a newly created casual-player label, with the Gates of Olympus name serving as the opening move in a wider portfolio strategy rather than a standalone release.
Gates of Olympus POP is the first established franchise title adapted for Pragmatic Play POP, a casual-player sub-brand that replaced the Fat Panda studio launched on 31 July 2026, itself retiring a label first introduced in March 2025.
Gates of Olympus, launched in February 2021, is among the most widely distributed slots in the online market, and Pragmatic Play has signalled that other heavily played franchises including Sweet Bonanza and Starlight Princess are lined up for the same condensed-format treatment, with this title simply the first to go live.
The new title reintroduces players to Zeus and although this time the Greek god is smaller, he remains just as mighty.
How it plays
Featuring a miniature yet mighty Zeus, the 3×5 release brings the mechanics of the award-winning Gates of Olympus to a new-look, portrait grid, equipped with tumbling reels and multiplier symbols carrying values of up to 1,000x.
The vertical orientation makes Gates of Olympus POP suited to handheld devices, letting players work through their spins with mini-Zeus on the go.
Landing three or more scatter symbols triggers the bonus game with 15 free spins, where landing two or more additional scatters awards five extra spins, and during the feature winning multipliers contribute to a progressive total that is applied at the end of each tumbling sequence.
There’s also a separate route to a payout:
if the bonus game is triggered with one, two or three POP symbols alongside scatters, an additional 50x, 500x or 25,000x instant prize is also awarded, respectively.
Standing next to the reels, Zeus follows every move as tumbles trigger multiple wins per spin,
keeping the visual identity of the original game intact even as the grid and pacing change underneath it.
Where it fits
For UK players who already know the original Gates of Olympus from its long run on operator lobbies, the POP version sits as a lighter, quicker sibling rather than a replacement.
The reworked title keeps the recognisable furniture of the original, with the Greek mythology setting and Zeus character intact, but the layout and underlying maths are rebuilt for a different audience.
The move also says something about Pragmatic Play’s broader direction.
The significance lies less in the game itself than in what it signals: the studio is now attaching its most recognisable intellectual property directly to a simplified format aimed at casual and beginner players.
With Sweet Bonanza and Starlight Princess reportedly earmarked for similar treatment, this looks like the first step in a wider reshaping of how the studio’s flagship names appear on mobile screens, alongside the steady run of standalone releases such as Venus and Eastern Fury that have kept Pragmatic Play’s UK output busy this year.
