Canadians love basketball and both men and women play this ball and basket game with full enthusiasm. In Canada, in the early 21st century the sport saw a rise in popularity, partly due to the Toronto Raptors, an expansion National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise established in 1995.
The National Basketball League was played for one and a half seasons in 1993 and 1994. In 2011, a new domestic league was formed, the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL Canada), with the London Lightning won its first two national titles. NBL Canada presently operates 10 franchises throughout Canada. The league was the first fully domestic professional basketball league to operate in Canada since the National Basketball League, which operated from 1993 to 1994.
The Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) is a professional tier 1 basketball league which began play in 2019 season. The Toronto Raptors won their first NBA championship in 2019, the first champion outside of the United States.
Also, students in Canada have their own varsity basketball teams in colleges and universities throughout Canada. U Sports is the national sports governing body for university sports in Canada, whereas the Canadian Colleges Athletic Association is the national governing body for colleges.
Currently, only one team in the NBA is based in Canada, the Toronto Raptors. The Raptors also operate a minor league professional team, the Raptors 905 of the NBA G League. Both Raptors franchises are based in the Greater Toronto Area. In addition to the NBA, there are three other professional basketball leagues which have a team based in Canada, the National Basketball League of Canada, Canadian Elite Basketball League, and the American Basketball Association.
Canada has competed in a number of international competitions contested by national teams, most notably the Summer Olympics, and tournaments organized by FIBA, including the Basketball World Cup, and the Women’s Basketball World Cup.
When slot game developers saw the craze for basketball in Canada they thought to develop slot games based on these wonderful game. So for those who don’t know how to play basketball there are awesome slots themed on this game at online casinos to play for free or to play with real money.
1. Money Shot Slots
Money Shot Slots is developed by WGS Technology and is 5 reels and 3-row video slot game with 20 pay lines. It consists of five lower paying symbols which are; fans in makeup and wigs, pair of kicks, a rack of basketballs, the playing court, and a whistle. The higher paying symbol includes a mascot, an all-star jersey, and the cheerleaders. The Scatter symbol is represented by the scoreboard; the Wild takes on the form of three players watching the ball go through the net, while the bonus is a single basketball.
Jumpshot wild cards double the prize when used in a winning combination. Get 5 wild cards to win the big jackpot. Scoreboards are scatter symbols. Get 3 or more to get 15 free spins. Prizes are tripled during free spins, and you can also win more free spins. The single basketball is the bonus symbol, get one on reel 2 and 4 to trigger the bonus round. Choose your basket and make your shot 3 times to win your bonuses.
You can play this game with a minimum bet of $0.20, as the maximum bet is as high as $200 and get a chance of winning a 10,000 coin jackpot available in the game.
2. Basketball Star
Basketball Star is basketball themed slot from Microgaming and is available at online casinos in Canada to play for free or with real money. Basketball Star was created to give almost the same feeling when you enter a basketball court thanks to the graphics. In this game, which is a 3 row and 5 reel video slot that has 243 pay lines, symbols take the form of medals, tactics board, running shoes, water bottle caddy, and so on.
There are wilds on the third up to the fourth wheels and it always extends and disappears to deliver more wilds to the game. There are up to 25 free spins available to the gamers, and the minimum bet is $0.50 as the maximum bet stops at the 50 dollar mark. It features a crowd of spectators, which scream in excitement as you play the game.
These are the “always-active” features, but there is also a bonus round that needs to be launched. You can do this by landing a minimum of three scatter symbols anywhere on the reels. Three to five scatters award 15, 20, and 25 free spins, respectively. When the round starts, you will see a “multiplier bar” at the top of the screen, containing figures between 2x and 10x. The “Rolling Reels” feature is active during the free spin round too, and every time it triggers, the multiplier increases (up to 10x). Due to this feature, it is possible to win up to 120,000 credits during the bonus round.
3. Slot Dunk
Slot Dunk by Pragmatic Play is a 3 row, 5 reel video slot game with 20 pay lines that deploys zebra and rhino fans as the scatter symbol, as the hippo cheerleaders were given the position of the wild symbol. Hitting up three or more scatter will see the player earn up to 13 free spins and to start a bonus round, the player will need to hit at least three bonus symbols. In this game, the symbols you were able to hit determine your earnings. This game takes up the basketball court as the background, coupled with the cheers coming from the spectators. The minimum bet is $0.20 while the maximum rests at $200.
The rhino and zebra basketball fans symbol is the scatter – land 3 or more of these anywhere on the reels on the same spin and you’ll trigger the Free Spins Bonus feature where up to 13 free spins are on offer.
To trigger the Glorious Rebound Bonus feature, you’ll need to land 3 or more of the bonus symbol (the paws and basketball) on a single payline, starting from reel 1. Here, you have to try and sink a free throw and try and save the cheerleaders.
The precise rewards on offer depend on how many bonus symbols triggered the feature. 3 bonuses and you’ll be shooting for between 25 and 600 coins. 4 and it’s anything from 125 to 3,000 coins. Trigger with 5 bonuses and potential riches of 375 to 9,000 coins are on offer. You can trigger the Glorious Rebound Bonus feature from the base game and the Free Spins Bonus feature.
It comes with a free spins round as well as a pick ’em feature where prizes of up to 17,400 coins can be won.
4. Basketball
Basketball by Evo play is another awesome Basketball themed slot to play at online casinos in Canada. It is a 5 reel video slot with 20 pay lines. The game features music along with the excited cheers of the crowds as you play.
When you press the play button for this game, the first that greets you is the basketball court, which is used as the background for this slot game. It comes with 9-A symbols, which are seen on the different colored jerseys. The higher paying symbols come in form of animals, which represent and differentiate the teams such as Bats, Wolves, Rockets, Crazy Heads and Red Bulls. The highest paying among them are logos of Crazy Heads and Red Bulls with the reward of 888 coins for landing 5 of them in the winning combo.
The coin value starts at 0.01 $ and goes up to 1 $. You can also set the number of coins you want to play per line and the possible options are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 and 20.
The maximum bet per spin is 400 $, which will make this title appealing to the high rollers but with the minimum bet of 0.20 $, those of you on the budget won’t feel left out.
The Wild, represented as the basketball hoop, substitutes all symbols bar scatter. Also, if you land a Wild and it doesn’t take part in creating a winning combo, you’ll be rewarded with one re-spin and a sticky Wild.
The Scatter, is the flaming ball and is responsible for triggering the bonus rounds. Besides the sticky Wild and re-spin during the main game, there is one more special feature.
The additional feature in the title is the bonus spins, which gets activated when players land 3 or more Scatters. You get 8 rounds, and every Wild that lands during these rounds are a sticky Wild, helping to create even more winning combinations.
Where to play these slots in Canada?
You can play these slots in Canada at online casinos easily for free if you want even with your cell phone. You can switch to real money play whenever you feel comfortable after having played the game for free. Play Now Casino Canada, Jackpot City Casino Canada, Bitstarz and others are popular casinos to play these basketball-themed slot games.
