Wildhound Derby slot review (Play’n GO)

Wildhound Derby takes you to the dog track, where greyhounds have to hunt for the big payouts – up to 15.000 x the total bet!

Dog racing is, in many countries, purely an amateur thing. In countries like Australia, Mexico, Ireland, Spain and the UK, greyhound racing is part of the gambling industry, according to Wikipedia.

We do have to say that Play’n GO’s Wildhound Derby is probably the most animal-friendly way to bet on (virtual) dogs. Although the way you gamble is, of course, totally different from the dog races in real life.

In real life, though, you shouldn’t overthink this genre of gambling. Dog races often attract a somewhat shady crowd, there’s not much money involved, and the dog tracks are often poorly maintained. Not really a night out for a first date. Let’s keep it at that.

Apparently, Play’n GO thought it was commercially viable to develop this theme and has released a pleasant but none too surprising online slot.

It seems like Play’n GO is releasing more higher variance slots than ever before. For example, Wildhound Derby can payout up to 15,000 x the total bet, in contrast to all older Play’n GO slots where the maximum win is capped at 5,000 x the stake.

If you wager the maximum bet of $€ 100, you can win a staggering $€ 1,500,000.

A note of caution: the odds are tiny to land this whopper. Play’n GO needed 100 million spins to hit the highest possible payout.

Wildhound Derby gameplay & features

Wildhound Derby has 30 fixed paylines, divided over 5 reels with 4 rows of symbols.

You can already play for $€ 0.10 per spin, which runs up to a maximum of $€  100 per spin.

The theoretical payout percentage is outstanding: 96.93%. Beware: some online casinos offer versions of Play’n GO slots with significantly lower Return to Player percentages. This difference can run up to more than 2%.

Symbols & payouts

The symbols are all related to the theme: the trophy is wild, and there are greyhounds, banknotes, bet forms and program booklets.

Spin 5 wilds on an active payline for a prize of 100 x the total bet.

The medium paying symbols yield between 5 x and 20 x the bet for five the same. The low symbols (J, Q, K and A) earn you between 1 x and 2 x the wager.

Free spins bonus Wildhound Derby

If the entire fifth reel consists of the 4 four racing dogs, you win the free spins bonus.

Now it’s time to start racing for real, which means you can try to pick a winner.

Choose your favourite greyhound, and if you have correctly predicted the winner, you will win a spin on the wheel that allows you to multiply your winnings up to x 15.

Will it be Daring Dex, Beadles Teabag, or will you go for Braveheart anyway? Unfortunately, you don’t get any information about the odds of winning per dog, so you’ll have to go purely on intuition.

At the beginning of the free spins, all dogs start on the right side of the screen, and every time a hare appears on a roll, the dog moves a bit closer to the finish.

Once a dog crosses the finish line, the free spins bonus ends.

So your dog must win, but preferably in as many spins as possible.

Our verdict on Wildhound Derby?

Despite the high variance, Wildhound Derby is a bit of a tame slot.

Especially during the base game, we almost fell asleep, despite the exaggerated cheering and applause with every winning combination.

Things turned for the better during the free spins bonus and got a lot more interesting, especially if you are lucky enough to choose the dog that wins the race and grab a nice multiplier.

On the whole, it is an entertaining slot that is worth a try, but it won’t make our top 10 list of best Play’n GO slots.

3.7 out of 5 stars

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