Provider Profile
iSoftBet, the Studio Behind Hot Shots
Who made Hot Shots, and what that tells you about the game.
Open partner offer- Number of reels
- 5x3
- Theoretical RTP
- 97.15%
- Variance
- medium-high
- Lines
- 243 ways to win
- Maximum win
- 2500x
Who is iSoftBet
iSoftBet is a Luxembourg-headquartered B2B casino games supplier founded in 2010, acquired by International Game Technology (IGT) in 2022 for roughly €160 million. It built Hot Shots as part of an in-house catalogue of over 150 titles and also runs a separate aggregation platform distributing more than 8,000 third-party games to operators.
- The studio, not just this one game, is now part of IGT's PlayDigital division.
- Hot Shots sits inside a wider football-themed mini-series with two follow-ups.
- No confirmed record of a UK Gambling Commission licence was found for iSoftBet.
iSoftBet's Portfolio and Where Hot Shots Fits
iSoftBet describes its output around a “Serious Fun” brand identity, and its business is really two things stitched together: an in-house content team producing slots and table games, and the Game Aggregation Platform (GAP), a single-integration API that hands operators access to thousands of titles from other studios such as Pragmatic Play, EGT, and Playson. That combination is why an operator running iSoftBet content might be showing anywhere from a handful of iSoftBet-branded slots to a full lobby sourced through GAP.
Hot Shots, released around the 2018 FIFA World Cup, is not the studio's flagship, but it did well enough to spawn a small franchise. Hot Shots 2 followed in 2020 with an added Ultra Bet mode and star-collection mechanic, and Hot Shots Megaways later reworked the same football-and-animals theme around a Megaways engine with up to 117,649 ways to win. Seeing a studio revisit a theme twice, rather than abandon it after one release, is a reasonable signal that the original performed adequately for operators.
Across all three games, iSoftBet reuses a recognizable toolkit: 243-ways-to-win structures instead of fixed paylines, expanding football Wilds that spread across multiple reel positions, and free spins with stacked multipliers. That consistency across a mini-series says more about the studio's engineering habits than any single review of Hot Shots on its own.
In 2022, IGT completed its acquisition of iSoftBet, folding the studio's catalogue and its GAP platform into IGT's PlayDigital ecosystem. Practically, this means Hot Shots and similar titles are now distributed through IGT's broader commercial channels as well as iSoftBet's original operator relationships, though the day-to-day content itself hasn't been reworked as a result.
Detailed, current information about iSoftBet's leadership team since the acquisition is thin in public sources. That's not unusual for a studio absorbed into a larger group, where corporate visibility often shifts toward the parent company rather than the original brand.
Provider Terms Worth Knowing
GAP (Game Aggregation Platform)
iSoftBet's single-API content hub that gives operators access to thousands of games from iSoftBet and third-party studios through one integration.
243 ways to win
A win structure where matching symbols on adjacent reels, left to right starting on reel 1, pay regardless of fixed line position; used across the whole Hot Shots series.
PlayDigital
IGT's digital gaming division, into which iSoftBet's catalogue and platform were folded following the 2022 acquisition.
Expanding Wild
A wild symbol that grows to cover extra positions on the reel it lands on, a mechanic iSoftBet reuses across Hot Shots and its sequels.
Hot Shots RTP
97.15%
Third-party sources place Hot Shots at 97.15%, an above-average return figure for a video slot in this category. iSoftBet has not published this figure on its own site, so it comes strictly from independent slot databases and RTP registers rather than official studio material.
Hot Shots at a Glance
| Provider | iSoftBet |
|---|---|
| Reels | 5 |
| Paylines | 243 ways to win |
| Volatility | medium-high |
| RTP | 97.15% |
| Max win | 2500x |
| Bet range | 0.25 – 125 |
| Released | 2018-04-20 |
Questions About iSoftBet and Hot Shots
Is iSoftBet still an independent studio, or does IGT own the games now?
IGT completed its acquisition of iSoftBet in 2022, so Hot Shots and the rest of the catalogue are now distributed under IGT's PlayDigital division rather than as a standalone independent studio.
Why does iSoftBet's catalogue include far more than 150 slots if that's the size of its own portfolio?
The larger figure comes from GAP, iSoftBet's aggregation platform, which layers in over 8,000 third-party titles from studios like Pragmatic Play and Playson through a single API; the 150-plus in-house games are a separate, smaller number.
Are Hot Shots and Hot Shots Megaways the same game with different names?
No. Hot Shots is a 243-ways 5x3 slot, while Hot Shots Megaways rebuilds the same football-and-animals theme around a Megaways engine with cascading reels and up to 117,649 ways, plus its own side bets.
Does iSoftBet hold a UK licence for Hot Shots?
Available material indicates iSoftBet does not hold a UK Gambling Commission licence, which is why the game isn't offered through UK-licensed casinos; its footprint runs through other jurisdictions instead.
Should the Studio Behind It Change How You See Hot Shots
iSoftBet is a mid-sized, now IGT-owned supplier with a real production history rather than a shell brand renting out someone else's content. Hot Shots reflects that: a repeated, reused mechanic set (243 ways, expanding Wilds, tripled free-spin wins) refined across three related releases rather than a one-off experiment. That consistency is a reasonable, if modest, mark of stability, even where some technical details about the studio's current structure remain undocumented.
Right for Players who like knowing a slot sits inside a studio's established franchise rather than being an isolated release.
Wrong fit for Players who need a confirmed local regulator listing before they'll consider a provider trustworthy.