Book Of Champions Slot Review
Floodlights burn at either edge of the screen, blue and orange light trails sweep behind the reels, and a marked green pitch stretches away beneath them. Book Of Champions is that rare football slot that puts almost its entire rulebook inside a single symbol: the Book pays, substitutes, and opens the only bonus round the game has.
Spinomenal built it on a 5×3 grid with 10 fixed paylines, running at 95.9% RTP with high volatility. It sits in the studio’s football-flavoured Book family alongside Book Of Champions Reloaded and Book Of Champions World Glory. One book, one bonus round, and a long wait between them.
The Base Game and Paytable
Wins run left to right from the leftmost reel, and only the highest combination on each line is paid. Wins are multiplied by the bet per line, and every qualifying line win in a round adds into the total for that spin.
The Book symbol does double duty as wild and scatter, substituting for any symbol and paying wherever it lands. It’s the only special symbol in the base game, and it carries the whole feature set on its own. Its scatter prizes, in multiples of the bet per line:
- Three scattered Books: 2x
- Four scattered Books: 25x
- Five scattered Books: 250x
Scatter prizes are paid on top of regular line wins, and three or more Books also trigger the free spins round. The rest of the paytable, per bet per line:
- Red/Yellow Card: 10 for two, 100 for three, 1,000 for four, 5,000 for five
- Soccer Ball: 5, 40, 400, 2,000
- Boot or Whistle: 5, 30, 100, 750
- A or K: 5, 40, 150
- Q, J or 10: 5, 25, 100
The shape of that ladder is worth a look. The Red/Yellow Card pays from two of a kind, which softens the wait a little during the game’s quiet spells. Nobody else on the grid pays for a pair.
The gap between the top symbol and the royals is wide, too. Five Cards pay fifty times what five tens pay, so symbol identity matters more here than in most ten-line games. When a high symbol stacks across the first few reels, the difference shows quickly.
Controls are standard for the format. Spins go with the button or the space bar, and the bet per line is set with the plus and minus buttons, which lock during free spins.
- Autoplay opens a configuration screen where the number of spins is chosen, and stops on pause
- Turbo mode shortens each round to its quickest possible length, toggled from the reel frame or the settings menu
- Turbo can also be switched on from the autoplay configuration screen
- All wins in a round display in the win field as they land
Free Spins and the Expanding Symbol
The bonus round is a single feature with three moving parts, and every one of them is fixed by the game rather than left to choice. The flow runs like this:
- Land three or more scattered Books anywhere on the reels
- A wheel of every symbol except the Book spins to select the expanding symbol
- 10 free spins play out at the bet per line of the triggering round
- Landing three or more Books again retriggers the round with 10 more spins
The bet per line carries over from the triggering spin, so the round plays at exactly the stakes it was earned at. There’s no separate bonus bet and no multiplier applied on entry.
The expansion is where the money lives. After each spin’s result is settled, the expanding symbol grows to fill its reels and forms new paylines on top of the existing ones. It only expands when doing so creates a win.
Its payout rule is unusually generous. The expanding symbol pays across all active lines regardless of whether the winning symbols sit on consecutive reels, and expanded wins count separately from the original result, so a single free spin can pay twice.
Which symbol the wheel lands on matters a great deal. A Red/Yellow Card in the expanding role can cover the reels in the game’s richest payer, while a low royal in the same role makes for a much thinner round.
The retrigger is what keeps a good round alive. Ten more spins at the same expanding symbol means a strong draw gets longer to work with, and a weak one gets a second chance to amount to nothing. Both outcomes are on the table.
Buy Feature
A BUY FEATURE button skips the wait and purchases a free spins round outright. Clicking it opens a window where the bet for the round can be adjusted, and the buy price is set according to that bet.
Pay the price and the free spins round begins immediately, wheel and all. It’s the same round the scatters trigger, with the same expanding symbol draw and the same retrigger chance, so the only thing being bought is time.
The bought round runs on the same rules as a triggered one. The bet set in the buy window is the bet the ten spins play at, and the wheel still decides the expanding symbol after purchase.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 6.4/10
Playing this is mostly waiting under floodlights, and the waiting is the point: the one reason to choose it over any other ten-line Book slot is that the stadium is genuinely lovely to sit in. Between Books, ten quiet lines and one pair-paying symbol are all the company you get.
The bonus round rewards the patience, because the expanding symbol pays across every line with no consecutiveness requirement and stacks on the base result, so one spin can settle twice. What lets it down is the wheel: a random draw decides the round’s quality before a single free spin lands, and a royal in the expanding seat makes the whole wait feel misspent.
It’s a good home fixture for Book-slot regulars who like the formula in football colours and don’t mind a quiet first half. Players who want something happening on every spin will be watching the floodlights, not the reels.
Book Of Champions FAQs
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What is the RTP of Book Of Champions?
Book Of Champions runs at an RTP of 95.9%. -
Is Book Of Champions high volatility?
Yes, Book Of Champions is a high volatility slot, so wins tend to be larger but less frequent. -
How many paylines does Book Of Champions have?
There are 10 paylines in total, every one of them fixed and always active. -
How do you trigger free spins in Book Of Champions?
Landing three or more scattered Book symbols anywhere on the reels triggers 10 free spins. The scatters also pay 2x, 25x or 250x the bet per line for three, four or five respectively. -
How does the expanding symbol work in Book Of Champions?
When free spins begin, a wheel picks one symbol as the expanding symbol. After each spin’s result is settled, that symbol expands to form new paylines if the expansion creates a win, paying across all active lines whether or not the winning symbols are consecutive. Expanded wins count separately from the base result. -
Can free spins retrigger in Book Of Champions?
Yes, the free spins round can retrigger and award an additional 10 free spins. -
Can you buy the bonus on Book Of Champions?
Yes, the game has a Buy Feature. Clicking the buy button lets you set the bet for the round, with the buy price set according to that bet, and the free spins round triggers immediately. -
When was Book Of Champions released?
Book Of Champions’ release date is 19 April 2021.
