The Angler is Betsoft’s fishing slot, a 2017 Slots3 release that sits burly fisherman Otis on a calm lake in pursuit of the perfect catch. It plays across five reels, three rows and 20 fixed paylines, with a clingy octopus wild, Oyster Free Spins and an interactive Time to Fish bonus carrying most of the entertainment.
We played The Angler slot in demo mode to see how often it pays, how its three features behave, and who its medium-variance maths actually suits. This review covers the mechanics, the numbers and the free demo.
How The Angler plays
The base game runs on a 5×3 grid with 20 fixed paylines, and stakes scale from a few cents up to $100 a spin. The cast is led by Otis himself, who returns up to 17.5 times your line bet for five, backed by a shark, a puffer fish and a tortoise sitting above the usual card suits.
It is one of Betsoft’s Slots3 range, and presentation is the draw. The reels are wrapped in cinematic 3D, with rippling water, an unhurried afternoon palette and ambient lakeside audio that swells whenever a win lands.
An autoplay option handles longer sessions, and the layout stays readable on smaller screens — which matters, given how much of The Angler’s character lives in its animations rather than its paytable.
The clingy octopus wild
The wild is a small octopus, and Betsoft’s own description sets out its job plainly: it substitutes for all symbols except the Free Spins and Bonus Round icons. In the base game that is the full extent of it — a clean substitute that completes paylines.
Its second life arrives in the free spins. Any wild that lands there clings in place and stays for the rest of the round, so a single octopus keeps working across every remaining spin instead of disappearing after one.
Timing is everything with a clinging wild. One that sticks early in the bonus compounds across far more spins than one that turns up on the last, so the round’s value is front-loaded — a nuance worth watching as you play.
Oyster Free Spins
Three Pearl symbols landing on reels three, four and five trigger the Oyster Free Spins. The screen shifts underwater and awards a set of spins, with the clingy wilds described above now in full effect.
The round can retrigger for more spins, though that retrigger is tied to the same three middle-and-right reels. That makes extensions rarer than on slots where scatters land anywhere, and it is a real limit on how long a hot run can stretch.
This is where The Angler’s bigger wins realistically come from. Sticky octopuses stacking up across a run of free spins do far more for the bottom line than anything the base game offers on its own.
The Time to Fish bonus game
The third feature is the Time to Fish bonus, triggered by three Bonus symbols on reels one, two and three. Betsoft frames it as a test of skill — you help Otis catch the biggest fish — and it is the most hands-on moment in the game.
In practice you work through a sequence of catches, each adding to a running prize, with the bigger fish worth more. The outcomes are random rather than genuinely skill-based, but the interactivity gives the bonus a sense of agency that pure pick rounds often lack.
A separate Double-Up gamble sits beside it: after a win you can risk the amount on a coin flip for the chance to double it. It is optional and best treated as a bit of fun. The Angler sits comfortably among feature-led bonus-round slots.
RTP, hit rate and volatility
Betsoft publishes The Angler’s return-to-player at 97.10%, which is generous for a 2017 title and places it among the genuinely high-RTP slots in the studio’s catalogue. As with most Slots3 games, operators can deploy alternative RTP builds, so it is worth checking the figure at your chosen casino.
The number we find more telling is the hit rate. Betsoft lists it at 21.15%, meaning a little over one spin in five returns something — frequent enough to keep a session ticking over without promising much per hit.
Volatility is rated medium, and the two figures fit together: regular small returns, occasional bigger ones from the sticky-wild free spins, and no headline jackpot. It is a slot built for steady play rather than life-changing swings.
Playing The Angler in demo mode
The Angler runs on HTML5, so its free demo loads straight in a browser on desktop, tablet or mobile with no download or sign-up. Practice credits behave exactly like real stakes, which makes the demo a fair preview of the maths.
We would use a demo session to watch two things: how often the Pearl scatters line up on reels three to five, and how the clingy wilds behave once the free spins begin. Both tell you more about the game’s rhythm than the paytable does.
It is also the low-pressure way to decide whether Otis and his lake hold your attention, since the 3D presentation is as much the point here as the wins themselves.
The Angler FAQs
What is the RTP of The Angler slot?
How do you trigger The Angler’s bonuses?
Can you play The Angler free on mobile?
Our verdict on The Angler
The Angler has aged well for a 2017 slot. The 3D presentation still charms, the 97.10% RTP is competitive, and the clingy-wild free spins give it a clear route to its better wins.
Its honest limits are the modest ceiling and the absence of modern extras — no multiplier ladder, no Megaways, no buy feature. This is a steady, medium-variance fishing trip rather than a volatility monster.
We would point it at players who value frequent action and presentation over big-jackpot chasing. If you prefer more volatility from a Betsoft sea theme, the underwater Rise of Triton swings harder; for a calm, feature-led session, Otis is good company.
