Who said you can only be festive in December? In today’s Christmas Prize Pooch slot review, we discover how Inspired Gaming's sequel to Perfect Prize Pooch, mixes dog show excitement with holiday charm. The 5x3 slot has 10 paylines, medium volatility, and a 94.5% default RTP. Players collect canine symbols to earn multipliers in the Best of Breed Rosette Trail system. Santa Claus is wild and acts as a collector during extra features, and there is also a free spins bonus round with multipliers of up to 10x.
Like many contemporary video slots, the game has a conventional 5×3 reel configuration. This simple style helps players to get right in and enjoy the game. Similarly, winning combinations are achieved in a typical way with three or more identical symbols on one of the ten paylines required. Speaking of the paylines; all are fixed.
The Christmas Prize Pooch slot has a more conservative betting range with accepted bets starting at 10p (1p per payline) and extending up to £30 (£3 per payline) per spin. The game has a below-average RTP of 94.5% and there is even an alternative math model that goes even lower, offering just 92%. The volatility and variance of the slot game are medium.
In regards to the top payout, little detail has yet been provided of the top prize; represented in coins or as a multiplier. Instead, a rather stratospheric top prize of £250,000 has been stated. While impressive, it is important to note that no hit rate, feature trigger rate, or max win rate has been stated.
The following top-tier online casinos all feature the Christmas Prize Pooch slot. Check more of our best UK slot sites here:
Inspired Gaming's Christmas Prize Pooch slot blends two much-loved ideas: Christmas and dogs. A mainstay of Christmas-themed slots, snow is also seen in Christmas Prize Pooch. Snow-covered woods and snowflakes falling from the sky define the cool blue and white background of the game. More snow falls on the card symbols, which even have little tooth marks for a whimsical touch, while the reels are framed in cheerful red and green.
The tooth marks probably belong to the cute dogs that abound on the reels. From pugs to St. Bernards, every dog is outfitted for the season with Santa Claus caps and reindeer antlers. Even the non-dog symbols, such as a dish of kibble, follow the canine motif.
Interestingly, the paytable for the Christmas Prize Pooch has a second part which features all the pooches. Alongside paying out traditionally with 3, 4, or 5 of any dog symbol landed across a payline awarding 1, 5, and 20x the total stake, respectively they act as multipliers to increase wins as part of the Rosette Trail feature (more on this later). Landing 8 dog symbols will award the ‘Best of Breed’ bonus. Here is a rundown of the pretty pooches:
The full paytable for the Christmas Prize Pooch slot is as follows:
Jack
3 = 0.5x stake / 4 = 2.5x stake / 5 = 10x stake
Ace
3 = 0.5x stake / 4 = 2.5x stake / 5 = 10x stake
Christmas Cracker
3 = 2x stake / 4 = 50x stake / 5 = 50x stake
Tennis Ball
3 = 2x stake / 4 = 50x stake / 5 = 50x stake
Bowl of Kibble (dog food)
3 = 3x stake / 4 = 15x stake / 5 = 100x stake
Trophy
2 = 0.5x stake / 3 = 5x stake / 4 = 20x stake / 5 = 200x stake
Santa
This is the wild symbol and can stand in for all non-special symbols to form a winning combination.
Bone-us Symbol
This is the bonus symbol and looks like a dog bone with a gold frame. This symbol acts like a scatter and three or more Bobe-us symbols landed on the reels within a single spin will activate the free spins bonus.
The Christmas Prize Pooch slot was released just before Christmas of 2024 so you will be able to play it on the latest devices without any compatibility issues. This is pretty handy if you unwrapped a new smartphone or tablet for Christmas!
Christmas Prize Pooch offers a selection of bonus features including classic elements like a wild symbol and free spins bonus, as well as more unique features such as the Rosette Trail Feature.
The main character of Christmas acts as the wild symbol, in the base game he players the typical role of the wild; substituting for non-special symbols to form winning combinations, but during the bonus rounds and Fortune Spins he acts as a collector and gathers the exhibited values of pooch symbols, which may vary from 2x to an amazing 50x the stake.
Set off by three or more ‘Bone-us’ (bonus) symbols, players are awarded 10-20 spins. The Rosette Trail becomes a modified Santa trail with nine segments, split into three levels wherein multipliers rise from x2 to x3, finally to x10, throughout these spins. Every level grants an extra ten spins, thereby allowing for up to 50 free spins.
During the base game, the Rosette Trail is located just above the reels. The Rosette Trail progresses each time a pooch symbol lands on the reels; regardless of whether or not they form a winning combination. The Rosette Trail has 10 stages and awards 2-10x when certain ‘Best of Breed’ canines appear.
As a type of bonus buy feature both Fortune Spins and the Fortune Bet feature are not available to UK players. The Fortune Spins option eliminates common symbols to concentrate only on dogs, bone-us, and Santa symbols, thus increasing the chance of triggering the bonus feature or achieving a more valuable payout.
Comprising 1.5 times the normal bet, the Fortune Bet feature includes supersized bone-us symbols that more than quadruple the bonus trigger likelihood. With the possibility to offer up to 50 initial free spins, a single completely visible supersized bone-us symbol activates the bonus round.
While there is nothing to stop you from playing Christmas Prize Pooch all year round, as it is pretty much a reskin of Perfect Prize Pooch, I do not think many players will be spinning the reels of this slot year-round, and, if I am honest, at all.
There is very little about this slot I like, the Christmas re-skin feels arbitrary and is not even applied well, as symbols lazily have Santa hats and holly wreaths, plus the addition of red and green and some snow. Overall it is pretty uninspiring, and its 94.5% RTP (plus alternate 92% version) does not motivate me to spin the reels. While the top payout of £250,000 is fantastic, nowhere is how this figure can be achieved, or in fact, the hit rate/max hit rate stated, so I pay little heed to this figure.
When it comes to the positives of this slot, I guess the symbols pay out pretty well, with even the low-paying symbols awarding up to 2.5x, and the medium volatility is a welcome change to the high volatility trend seen as of late; but as you can tell I am scraping the barrel.
Therefore, I rate the Christmas Prize Pooch at 4.5/10; making it more of a stray dog than anything of pedigree.
Rating: 4.5
Here are some of the most common questions we get asked about Prize Christmas Pooch.