The Lion's Share is a pricing game sponsored by BetMGM, the online sportsbook and casino. Contestants can win up to $500,000.
Gameplay[]
The game features 40 numbered balls, each representing a prize or action. Among them are:
- 5 balls labeled “$100,000”
- 5 “Lose It All” balls
- 30 balls with other prizes, ranging from cash and vacations to high-value items like a car or a boat.
The contestant starts with one choice of numbered balls, and can win up to four more by correctly pricing small prizes presented by the model. Each small prize has two balls in a mini-hopper, each with a digit in its price. The balls will land to form a price (e.g. $AB or $BA), and the contestant must decide if it is true or false (similar to Joker but with a different presentation, with the "true-false" guessing taken from Five Price Tags).
After the pricing portion, the contestant has 30 seconds to grab the number of balls they have won and place them in a chute inside the hopper. The contestant will then choose which of the five balls to reveal in any order they desire. The contestant wears special goggles to prevent the balls from hitting from the face. The contents are then revealed -- if it is a prize, it is added to the contestants' bank, and if it is a "lose it all", the contestants' bank is reset to $0 (but similar to Pass the Buck, they can continue to rebuild it with other balls). Otherwise, if that last ball says "lose it all", the game ends. The contestant can stop at any time to take the contents of their bank.
Trivia[]
- Like games such as 3 Strikes, Hole in One (or Two), Pathfinder, Pass the Buck, Pocket ¢hange, Balance Game, Stack the Deck, Rat Race, Double Cross, Time is Money, Hot Seat, Gridlock!, Back to '75, or To The Penny, The Lion's Share has never been the first or second pricing game to start any show because it needs time to start up and the game can be played no earlier than third on the show.
- This is the first pricing game to:
- Have a third-party sponsor (BetMGM)
- Debut at Haven Studios
- Debut on an episode with a production code ending in L.
- Debut following the death of Bob Barker in 2023.
- Possibly due to the time constraints involved, this is the only game where large prizes (e.g. cars and trips) are not presented by the model and described in detail by the announcer. Only the total value of each prize is revealed.
- The music cues for the small prizes are jungle-themed remixes of existing small prize cues.
- This and Triple Play are the only games in the current rotation to not have been played more than 10 times in a given season.
- Due to its higher payout and longer playtime, The Lion's Share has been played less than 10 times per season.
- This, Plinko, ½ Off, and Pay the Rent are the only games in which the announcer gives the name of the game.
- The game has a similar premise to another game show, namely the 2002 version of Beat the Clock, as it involves going into a wind chamber and picking out numbered balls representing cash and prizes (instead of cash and prize slips), and 30 seconds to make your selections (instead of 60). In addition, you have a finite amount of selections instead of an infinite amount as in the "Swirling Whirlwind of Cash & Prizes" (in other words, in the Swirling Whirlwind, you keep picking up cash and prizes until the clock hits zero, whereas in the Lion's Share, once your amount of selections has been made, the clock stops right then and there).
- The game has also has a somewhat similar premise to the game show Press Your Luck, as it involves a contestant playing for multiple chances to win both prizes and cash amounts, with the balls being equivalent of spins, the "Lose it All" balls being equivalent of Whammies, and the $100,000 balls being equivalent of Big Bucks squares.
Gallery[]
To view the gallery, click here.
Videos[]
Premiere Playing (September 22, 2025, #1101L) Part 1, Part 2
First $100,000+ Win (November 12, 2025, #1173L) Part 1, Part 2
| 2020s Pricing Games |
|---|
| Back to '75 | To The Penny | The Lion's Share |