Hockey League free play: a slot on the ice

Ice hockey gets surprisingly little attention from slot makers, which makes Pragmatic Play's Hockey League a bit of a curiosity. The reels sit in front of a packed arena, the symbols are players, goalies, helmets, pucks and trophies, and the sound effects borrow from a real match night: the crowd, the horn, the crack of a slapshot. You can play Hockey League free here with 1,000 virtual credits, without registering or downloading anything.

The basics

Hockey League uses a traditional reel layout with fixed lines. The players and the trophy sit at the top of the paytable, and lower card-style symbols supply the routine wins. There is a wild, and a scatter that opens the bonus round. It is not one of the studio's widely discussed titles, so the precise details, such as how many lines are in play and what changes during the free spins, are best read straight from the in-game rules before you start.

Hockey League demo: what to watch

Give it a proper period of play, so to speak. Run 150 spins at a fixed stake of about £0.20 and keep an eye on:

• the share of spins that return anything at all;
• how often the wild helps complete a line;
• the gap between bonus rounds, and what each one pays.

If you only get one bonus in that sample, play another block before forming a view. Reloading the page resets your balance to 1,000 credits.

A slot for sports fans

The appeal here is mostly the theme. Fans of the sport will enjoy the arena atmosphere, and the pace is easy to follow on mobile. If you prefer cascades or multipliers that build up, look elsewhere in the catalogue. For a relaxed themed session between matches, though, it does the job nicely, and the same game is available for real money at the casinos below.