Sports and sports betting is incredibly popular worldwide. Combined the two sectors make hundreds of billions of dollars a year globally and have billions of passionate fans. So it’s no surprise that casino slot developers have, over the decades, looked to combine slots action with sports themes and gameplay. But given that it is a popular choice, there’s a lot of competition. So which are the best games?
Well, for many years – mostly due to online gambling being illegal and frowned upon in much of the US – global sports and casino fans mostly only had generic, unlicensed titles with sports themes to play. But as legal sports betting and casino spread across the home of many of the world’s biggest leagues, licensed slot games soon followed. Today fans of NHL and the NFL can play fully licensed slot games with their teams’ logos, and other official branding.
NHL Gold Blitz is the First League Licensed Online Slot
This six by four reel slot game was the first US sports league online slot tie-in. Developed by Digital Gaming Corporation it uses official NHL branding, team logos and authentic stadium backgrounds for a truly immersive ice-hockey slot experience.
The puck symbol acts as the free spins scatter symbol here, and players can hit up to 5 of them for 20 free spins. Special gold Stanley Cup symbols can add multipliers to any win, and there’s a higher chance for these to appear in the bonus rounds. All 32 teams are present and the game has a 5000x maximum payout on a single spin.
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World Darts Championship is a more Obscure but Fully Licensed Game
American readers might not be so familiar with darts as a sport, but across the Atlantic in Europe it’s a big deal. Usually seen as more of a bar game, in the UK and Europe darts players can make headlines and win hundreds of thousands of dollars.
So, of course it has a slot game. World Darts Championship by Blueprint Gaming is officially licensed by the Pro Darts Corporation. This five by three reel slot has 10 fixed paylines, which delivers low volatility payouts without being too complicated.
The game runs similarly to some of the old school Fishin’ Frenzy titles, with some new additions and obviously a completely new theme. The game features pro darts players who probably haven’t heard of like:
- Michael Van Gerwen
- Peter ‘Snakebite’ Wright
- Gerwyn Price
- Phil “The Power” Taylor
Sadly not featured is the recent sensation and teenage dart prodigy Luke Littler. The Brit made headlines by becoming the youngest player ever to win a Darts World Championship in 2025. However, this game came out in 2021 – two years before Littler broke onto the scene. Nevertheless if you know darts this game packs in star power, and real PDC tour atmosphere such as announcer calls and crowd reactions.
Slots wise it stands out by offering a cool 100 free spins for hitting all five scatters, although most of the time you’ll be landing 10 and 15. But still, the potential is nice. There’s also an option to choose a specific pro player symbol to be the multiplier symbol in the bonus rounds.
Official NFL Licensed Slot Games Now at US Casinos
For a long-time the biggest US sports league shunned gambling. Now, sports betting ads are everywhere at games and the Super Bowl was held in Las Vegas. Oh, and there’s official NFL slot games too. Several of them in fact. You can find:
NFL Super Bowl Slots on mobile. NFL Super Bowl Jackpots, Winning Drive, NFL Touchdown Link, NFL Triple Score are all variants of a new Aristocrat machine that are available at physical casinos across the US.
These games let players pick their team at the start, and the game reskins to reflect their choice. Featuring real stadium backgrounds, crowd sounds, announcer voice lines and even big-game clips in some models – when it comes to sports and slot crossovers you don’t get much better.
The Touchdown Link and Super Bowl Jackpot versions also have a linked progressive jackpot system with a top prize that has gone as high as $1.7 million.
Frankie Dettori’s Magic Sevens is Great for Horse Racing Fans
Before any of these licensed slot games, one man was a pioneer in the space – legendary Italian horse racing jockey Frankie Dettori. Although showing its age now, this mid 2000s slot was a novel experience at the time and still holds up gameplay wise today.
The game was debuted in 2006 to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Dettori’s historic 1996 day at Ascot Racecourse in England where he rode the winner in all seven of the day’s main races. Hence the Magic Sevens part of the name.
This fairly simple low variance slot has another unique aspect – its horse racing bonus round. Once you pull three or more scatters, you pick a horse with a number of free spins attached and if that horse wins the virtual race you’ll get that many spins. Pick a loser and you get the base number. The top potential here is 35 free spins with an added multiplier – which has some hefty win potential.
