The Champions Demo: Play the Free Slot & Read Our 2026 Review

Provider

Pragmatic Play

Max Win

125x

RTP

96.51

Volatility

Medium

Reels

5

Rows

3

Paylines

25

Release Date

May 16, 2018

What is the The Champions Demo?

Football slots typically default to one of two modes: passive theme decoration with soccer imagery pasted over standard mechanics, or some version of interactive goal-scoring that tries to put the result partially in a player's hands. Pragmatic Play's The Champions, released in 2018 around the FIFA World Cup, goes further into the interactive direction than most, offering a base game Momentum Progressive where targeted spot selections on the reels contribute to a levelling system, alongside a Penalty Shots Bonus where multipliers are assigned to kick positions before each attempt.

The demo is free to play here, no account or deposit needed. The Momentum Progressive's targeting mechanic and how team levelling affects multipliers is worth exploring across a few sessions of free demo slots before committing real stakes, since the base game interaction layer operates differently from the passive base games most slot players are accustomed to.

The Champions Base Game

The Champions Slot Review: Our Expert Verdict

Theme, Graphics, and Sound

The presentation commits to the World Cup angle with a team selection screen covering all 32 nations from the 2018 tournament. The team choice changes the colour palette of the symbols throughout the session, which is a cosmetic personalisation that is more meaningful than it sounds: playing a session where your selected country's colours are on the reels creates a mild investment that a generic football theme does not produce. Whether that feeling survives past the first few spins depends entirely on how invested you are in the team you picked.

The stadium backdrop and crowd audio are competent execution of the football setting. The real question is whether the visual presentation ages well given the 2018 tournament's specific team roster. From a 2026 perspective, the team list is historical, which either adds a specific nostalgic appeal or simply feels dated depending on when you came to the game. The sound design responds to goal-scoring moments in the bonus appropriately, ramping the crowd noise in a way that does its job during the Penalty Shots feature.

Base Game and Key Features

The 5x3 grid operates on 25 paylines. Standard wild, scatter, and pay symbol combinations function as the base layer. The Momentum Progressive is the key base game differentiation: rather than a passive spin experience, a targeting mechanic allows selection of spots on the reels to score goals, with successful connections levelling up the selected team and adding multipliers. The mechanic is more involved than standard slot base play without requiring the kind of commitment that would make the session feel like work. For anyone clearing a wagering bonus, The Champions' medium volatility and interactive base game structure produce a different session character than a passive high-volatility slot.

• Momentum Progressive: An interactive base game feature allowing targeted spot selection on the reels. Successful connections score goals and level up the chosen team, with each level adding available multipliers to the session up to 20x. The mechanic runs alongside standard payline wins rather than replacing them.
• Penalty Shots Bonus: The primary bonus round, triggered by scatter symbols. Five penalty kicks are awarded. Before each kick, multiplier values are assigned to positions across the goal. Each successful kick awards the multiplier for the selected position, up to 100x the bet per kick. The total from all five kicks forms the bonus payout.
• Increasing Multiplier: A win multiplier that builds across consecutive winning spins in the base game, adding an escalating element to longer winning streaks.

The Champions Bonus

Verdict

The Champions sits in an unusual position in the slot catalogue. Its interactive elements, the Momentum Progressive targeting and the Penalty Shots Bonus with pre-assigned multiplier positions, create genuine engagement points that passive theme slots do not. The result is a slot that feels more like a game in the casual gaming sense than most slot releases allow themselves to become. That is either the appeal or the problem, depending on what you want from a session.

The max win of 1,364x reflects the medium volatility and the structured rather than random nature of the bonus payouts. Penalty Shots with a maximum of 100x per kick across five attempts produces a defined ceiling rather than the open-ended potential of sticky wild or multiplier accumulation features. For anyone who wants unpredictable high-end volatility, The Champions is the wrong game. For anyone who likes the football premise and prefers a session with defined interactive moments over passive spinning, it delivers those moments consistently. The team selection adds genuine personality. The 2018 lineup has its own nostalgic weight now.

Max Win and RTP Explained

What does the RTP mean for you?

The Champions carries a 96.51% RTP at medium volatility. The return distributes more evenly than a high-volatility equivalent, with the Penalty Shots Bonus and Momentum Progressive both contributing meaningfully to the session total rather than concentrating everything into rare high-variance events. Medium volatility at this RTP level means the bankroll drains more gradually than most bonus-hunting slots allow. Sites on the casinos to avoid list rarely disclose their specific RTP configuration, and Pragmatic Play titles can operate at multiple tiers depending on the operator's settings.

How hard is it to hit the max win?

The 1,364x maximum reflects the structured ceiling of the Penalty Shots Bonus: five kicks at multipliers up to 100x per kick, combined with base game wins, produces a defined upper range rather than the theoretical extremes of multiplier-stacking or expanding reel mechanics. Reaching the 1,364x figure requires the best available multiplier positions to be awarded on each kick, which the game's pre-assignment mechanic puts partially within the structure of the round. The slot is available through new casino sites carrying Pragmatic Play's back catalogue alongside more recent releases from the studio.

Conclusion

The Champions is a medium-volatility football slot that distinguishes itself through interactive base game mechanics and a Penalty Shots Bonus with pre-positioned multipliers rather than random spin outcomes. The team selection from 32 World Cup 2018 nations adds cosmetic personalisation that the theme earns rather than just claims. The 1,364x max win and medium volatility position it away from the high-end potential chasing end of the market, which is the right fit for its interactive, structured bonus format. Anyone looking for passive high-variance football action should look elsewhere. Anyone who wants a session with genuine engagement points, a team to root for, and a bonus round that feels like it's doing something, will find The Champions earns its place in the squad.

Frequently Asked Questions About the The Champions Demo

Is the The Champions demo the same as the real money version?

Yes. The demo runs the same math model, paytable, and features as the real money game. Virtual credits replace real funds and no account is required.

Can I win real money playing the The Champions demo?

No. Demo play uses virtual credits only. A funded account at a licensed casino is required for real money outcomes.

What is the volatility of The Champions?

Medium. The combination of a base game Momentum Progressive that contributes regular smaller multipliers and a Penalty Shots Bonus with five structured kick awards at defined multipliers produces a more even distribution of outcomes than a high-volatility slot. Sessions will encounter fewer extended dry patches than high-variance alternatives, and the interactive base game mechanic gives each spin a defined engagement point rather than purely passive waiting. Someone who finds high volatility difficult to sustain will find the medium variance of The Champions a more manageable session experience.

Who makes The Champions?

Pragmatic Play. The studio released The Champions in May 2018 around the FIFA World Cup in Russia. The slot includes team selection from all 32 tournament participants, with symbols changing colour based on the chosen team. NetEnt's Football Champions Cup, also released around major football tournaments, covers similar thematic territory in a different bonus structure, though The Champions' Momentum Progressive targeting mechanic is specific to this release and not a feature Football Champions Cup shares.

How does the Penalty Shots Bonus work in The Champions?

The Penalty Shots Bonus is triggered by landing scatter symbols on the reels. Five penalty kicks are awarded. Before each kick attempt, the game assigns different multiplier values to various positions across the goal. The player selects a position for each kick, and a successful conversion awards the multiplier assigned to that spot for that specific attempt. Multipliers reach up to 100x the bet per kick. The total payout from all five kicks is added to any base game wins from the triggering spin.