Deal or No Deal
A quarter of a million pounds...22 identical sealed boxes...no questions, expect one: Deal or No Deal?
Deal or No Deal has become one of the most popular games in the World, since it's launch in Holland in 2001, and since then it's long-running schedule in both England and the United States.
Rules of Deal or No Deal
The game starts with a contestant, a host/presenter, a banker, and a certain number of boxes or briefcases (normally 22) - each of which has a different value. The game starts when the contestant picks a random box, which then belongs to them for the duration of the game. For the rest of the game, the contestant opens the other boxes, one at a time. After a certain number of boxes are opened, the banker makes an offer to the contestant to end the game. If the contestant takes the offer, the game ends and they win that cash, otherwise the contestant wins the amount of cash in their box.
The original version of the show was in Holland, called "Miljoenenjacht". The game has attracted attention from many different fields including economists, mathematicians and statisticians - all interested in the process of decision making under stress.
Deal or No Deal Strategy
Before the game starts, the expected value of each case (in the US version) is $131,477.54 - that's the average of all the 26 cases. Having said that, only 6 of the 26 cases actually have this value or higher, and the median of all case values is just $875.
Before the first offer from the banker, the contestant must select six cases, which means the first offer could range from as low as $13,420.80 to as high as $170,916.25 (based purely on box averages)- so there is considerable variability in even the first offer.
Playing Deal or No Deal Online
There are loads of places you can play Deal or No Deal online, all with massive jackpots to be had. Some contestants have even earned in excess of £500,000 on the game!
Places to play Deal or No Deal: