Hippo Splash

What is Hippo Splash?

It was an encounter with that disconnect during the 2022 FIFA World Cup that ultimately set entrepreneur George Yashin on the path to founding Swipe Games.

Yashin had spent around 15 years building businesses across industries ranging from fashion technology and retail hardware to sneaker cleaning, as well as investing in early-stage technology companies. Yet when he attempted to place a football bet, he found the interface so impenetrable that he eventually headed to a betting shop to ask how to do it.

When he subsequently looked at casino games, something else struck him – the experience did not seem dramatically different from the slot machines he remembered seeing years earlier.

How to play Hippo Splash

The release leans on a mechanic BGaming has run before rather than a new core engine. The Duel feature triggers when a VS symbol lands on the game’s 5×5 grid along with a win. At that point the symbol expands as a whole-reel Wild, and an animated showdown plays out, with the winner showing a multiplier of up to ×100.

That familiarity is the point. BGaming explained that the game has been inspired by the success of other games featuring the Duel mechanic. In other words, the studio is iterating on a framework it already trusts and attaching its most recognizable characters to it.

The commercial profile stays within conventional bounds. The game serves up a maximum win of ×5,000, with a 97% RTP and medium-high volatility. A layered Buy Bonus menu sits on top of the base engine, offering variations of the Free Spins round rather than a separate headline mechanic.

What is Hippo Splash?

The Netherlands online gambling market has been the subject of many column inches and much speculation thanks to regulation that has been largely described as heavy-handed and perhaps a little short-sighted – even by the country’s own regulator.

The triumvirate of Netherlands, Germany and Sweden is often held up as an example of how not to regulate, with all three countries haemorrhaging players to waiting illegal operators. So what is public sentiment like towards operators? “My feeling is that if you look at public sentiment, they don’t see really the difference between online and land-based,” says Petra. “If you look into what they’re saying, they’re primarily talking online. But for the general public, there is no difference [between the channels] in that respect.”

She believes the sentiment towards gambling among the Dutch public is comparable to the UK, Finland, Germany, France. “So, very tense,” she says.