Wild Hearts

How to play Wild Hearts

Spectrum Gaming Group’s 2022 report, which sits at the heart of the long-running dispute between the major games suppliers, has been unsealed as part of Evolution’s legal case against Black Cube.

Black Cube, an intelligence firm hired by Playtech in 2020 to look into alleged illegal behaviour at its rival Evolution, released a divisive report into Evolution’s actions. Evolution denied and refuted much of its findings.

Evolution then commissioned Spectrum Gaming Group to produce a report on its actions and the validity of the Black Cube report. Produced in 2022, the report has long been subject to confidentiality despite Evolution claiming the report exonerated the company.

What is Wild Hearts?

Eilers & Krejcik Gaming (EKG) estimates that bettors will plunk down $40.5 billion on the NFL this season through regulated channels. Traditional sportsbooks are projected to capture $31.7 billion of that total, compared to a handle analog of $8.4 billion for prediction markets—a 79% to 21% split in favor of legacy operators.

Handle analog is a metric used as a cleaner comparison between sportsbooks and prediction markets because the latter’s volume doesn’t compare evenly with sportsbook handle.

Based on its projections, EKG sees the overall sports wagering industry growing 8% year-over-year, outpacing the current baseline growth rate of 5% (a figure that strips out temporary boosts from the 2026 World Cup).

How to play Wild Hearts

Humor works here as a differentiator in a category crowded with interchangeable Hold & Win releases. By giving the Coin mechanic a clear narrative wrapper, a besieged gnome plus flames and flying objects, Play’n GO gives operators a title with an on-screen hook that needs little explanation.

The commercial argument is straightforward. The commercial hook sells itself on screen: Frank, the gnome gang over the fence, and a suburban garden turned battlefield.

Taken together, the release signals a provider comfortable iterating on both a familiar mechanical family and a familiar creative template. The single-Coin structure keeps a multi-feature game legible; GO Ultra supplies the higher-variance ceiling that engaged players look for; and Frank extends a character-first approach that Play’n GO has increasingly used to distinguish its output from the wider Hold & Win field.