Book Of Dead at 1xBet
1xBet carries Book of Dead in its games lobby — the Play’n GO slot that’s been a reference point in the “book” genre since its 2016 release. The game follows adventurer Rich Wilde on his search for the Egyptian book of the dead, and builds its entire identity around one moment: the random selection of a symbol that will expand during the free spins round and can decide the outcome of an entire session. Beyond the mechanics, this guide also does the part most reviews skip — turning the RTP figure into real Rand numbers, so you know roughly what a session costs before the reels start spinning.
Book of Dead Key Specifications
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Provider | Play'n GO |
| Release year | 2016 |
| Grid | 5 reels x 3 rows |
| Paylines | 1 to 10, adjustable |
| Theme | Ancient Egypt |
| RTP | 96.21% (configuration can vary by operator) |
| Volatility | High |
| Bonus round frequency | Roughly once every 190–195 spins on average |
| Special symbol | The Book — acts as both wild and scatter |
| Free spins | 10 spins with 3+ book symbols |
| Retrigger | Yes, with no fixed cap on the number of times |
| Maximum win | Up to x5,000 the total stake |
| Maximum exposure | 250,000 coins |
| Gamble feature | Yes — guess card colour (x2) or suit (x4) |
| Mobile compatibility | Yes, HTML5 |
Some operators run reduced RTP configurations compared with the 96.21% reference figure, so checking the information panel inside the game itself before getting started is always worth doing.
Book of Dead Gameplay
Look and Feel
The game plays out inside a golden tomb decorated with hieroglyphics, where the symbols represent figures drawn straight from Egyptian mythology — Anubis and the falcon of Horus alongside the pharaoh and Rich Wilde himself, who sits at the top of the paytable. The music and sound effects reinforce the archaeological adventure tone without ever crowding the screen, and the interface stays simple enough that attention falls directly on the reels and the special symbols.
The Book Symbol: A Double Function in One Element
The entire mechanic of the game revolves around the book symbol, which carries out two completely independent roles:
As a wild — it substitutes for any other standard symbol on active paylines to complete winning combinations.
As a scatter — it pays in any position on the grid regardless of lines: two symbols pay nothing, but three pay x2 the stake, four pay x20, and five pay x200. Landing 3 or more books also triggers the free spins round immediately.
Symbol Payout Table
Values below are shown in the game’s internal currency (coins), and depend on the line configuration and coin value chosen by the player:
| Symbol | 2 symbols | 3 symbols | 4 symbols | 5 symbols |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book (wild/scatter) | — | 2 | 20 | 200 |
| Rich Wilde | 10 | 100 | 1,000 | 5,000 |
| Pharaoh | 5 | 40 | 400 | 2,000 |
| Anubis | 5 | 30 | 100 | 750 |
| Falcon of Horus | 5 | 30 | 100 | 750 |
| A / K | — | 5 | 40 | 150 |
| Q / J / 10 | — | 5 | 25 | 100 |
The gap between Rich Wilde and the rest of the premium symbols is considerable, and it’s exactly this gap that makes the choice of expanding symbol the single most decisive factor in every bonus round.
The Free Spins Round and the Random Expanding Symbol
Landing 3 or more books anywhere on the grid triggers 10 free spins. Before the first one begins, the game randomly selects one standard symbol (never the book) to act as the “special expanding symbol” for the duration of the round.
Expansion mechanic. If the chosen symbol can form a payline win, it expands to cover its entire reel. The important detail here is that expanded symbols don’t need to sit adjacent to each other — they just need to land on the correct reels to satisfy a line’s requirements.
The selection decides the round’s outcome. If the system selects Rich Wilde, the chance of a high payout increases noticeably even with just two expanded reels. If it instead picks a mid-value symbol like Anubis or the falcon, wins tend to be steadier and more frequent, since these symbols appear with greater density across the reels.
Retrigger. If 3 or more books land during the free spins round itself, 10 additional spins are awarded with the same previously chosen expanding symbol, with no fixed cap on how many times this can repeat.
A pattern that comes up regularly across longer sessions: hundreds of spins can pass without a single retrigger, only for two retriggers to land back-to-back in the same round shortly after. This irregularity in retrigger timing is part of the game’s inherently high-volatility nature.
Book of Dead Win
Gamble Feature with Two Options
After any win in the base game, the player can enter an optional risk round with two different choices:
Guessing the colour — correctly guessing the colour of the hidden card (red or black) doubles the current win.
Guessing the suit — correctly guessing the exact suit of the card (♠♥♦♣) quadruples the win, though with a lower chance of success.
A wrong guess in either option loses the entire amount being risked. Mathematically, neither option changes the game’s long-run RTP — the colour guess is close to a 50/50 proposition before the house’s structural edge, and the suit guess pays 4x for a roughly 1-in-4 chance, meaning both sit at essentially the same expected value as not gambling at all, just with more variance packed into a single decision. This feature is completely separate from the free spins round and has no influence on it whatsoever.
The Real Math: House Edge and What It Means in Rand
An RTP of 96.21% means the house edge is 3.79% — for every R100 wagered over a very large number of spins, the game is designed to return R96.21 and keep R3.79. Some operators run reduced RTP configurations, which pushes this edge higher, so it’s worth checking the in-game paytable before playing.
Expected loss per spin scales directly with bet size:
| Bet size | Expected loss per spin (at 96.21% RTP) |
|---|---|
| R2 | R0.08 |
| R10 | R0.38 |
| R50 | R1.90 |
| R200 | R7.58 |
| R1,800 | R68.22 |
This is a theoretical average, not a guarantee — with high volatility, individual sessions swing well above or below this line. What it gives you is a realistic planning baseline rather than an estimate pulled from nowhere.
Bankroll Planning by Bet Level
Using the expected loss figures above, here’s what a 100-spin and 500-spin session costs in theory at different stakes:
| Bet size | Expected cost per 100 spins | Expected cost per 500 spins |
|---|---|---|
| R2 (minimum, conservative sites) | R7.58 | R37.90 |
| R10 | R37.90 | R189.50 |
| R50 | R189.50 | R947.50 |
| R200 | R758.00 | R3,790.00 |
| R1,800 (maximum) | R6,822.00 | R34,110.00 |
Since the bonus round triggers naturally only around once every 190–195 spins on average, a session budgeted for well under 200 spins has a real statistical chance of never reaching the free spins feature that carries almost all of the game’s meaningful upside — which is exactly what the next section quantifies.
Honest Session Expectations
Play’n GO doesn’t publish a full outcome-probability distribution for Book of Dead, so the figures below are estimated from the independently tracked bonus-trigger frequency (roughly 1 in 192 spins) rather than official session data, and should be read as a reasonable approximation, not a guarantee.
Using that trigger rate, the probability of a session passing without hitting a single natural free spins round works out to roughly:
- 100-spin session: around 59% chance of zero bonus rounds
- 192-spin session (the statistical average): around 37% chance of zero bonus rounds
- 300-spin session: around 21% chance of zero bonus rounds
- 500-spin session: around 7% chance of zero bonus rounds
Because the base game itself is thin — reviewers consistently describe it as producing mostly small, unremarkable combinations — a session that never reaches the bonus round is, realistically, a session that mostly just tracks the expected loss table above with little upside. The RTP is heavily weighted toward the free spins round, so short sessions under roughly 150–200 spins carry a materially higher-than-average chance of feeling flat or negative regardless of bet size, simply because they’re statistically less likely to reach the feature that produces the game’s real payouts.
A Strategic Approach to Playing Book of Dead
The game runs on certified random generation, so there’s no technique that predicts which symbol will be chosen as the expanding one or when a retrigger will land. The strategy here is organisational, grounded in the numbers above:
Budget for at least 200–300 spins if the goal is to see the feature. Given the roughly 1-in-192 average trigger rate, a shorter session has a meaningfully higher chance of finishing without ever reaching the free spins round.
Keep all ten lines active at all times. The paytable is calculated assuming all ten lines are running, and reducing them saves on stake but weakens the small combinations that keep the balance afloat between bonus rounds.
Set the stake as a stable percentage of session budget rather than a fixed number. Keeping each spin under roughly 0.5% of the total balance set aside for the session helps absorb the stretches between bonus rounds implied by the trigger-frequency math above.
Break the session into blocks of 100 spins and check against the cost table. Since even a full 100-spin block carries close to a 60% chance of no bonus round at all, this is normal variance rather than a sign the session has gone wrong — the cost table gives a concrete benchmark instead of a gut feeling.
Treat the gamble feature as a variance tool, not a value tool. As shown above, both gamble options sit at roughly the same expected value as collecting the win outright — using them changes the shape of the outcome, not the long-run average.
1xBet Bonuses for Book of Dead Players
1xBet offers a welcome package spread across four deposits for anyone opening a new account, usable across the casino library including Book of Dead. The first deposit adds a 100% match up to R6,000 plus 30 free spins on Reliquary of Ra, the second brings a 50% match up to R7,000 plus 35 free spins on the same title, the third adds a 25% match up to R8,000 plus 40 free spins on Juicy Fruits 27 Ways, and the fourth deposit rounds off the package with another 25% match up to R9,000 plus 45 free spins on Rich of the Mermaid Hold and Spin. Worth being clear about: this is a general casino welcome package rather than a Book of Dead-exclusive offer, and none of the included free spins run on this specific title. The bonus comes with wagering conditions that need to be completed within a set time window, along with a capped maximum stake while clearing it — worth reviewing in full before opting in, especially given Book of Dead’s high-volatility swings.
Registration and Getting Started
Registration on 1xBet takes just a few minutes via email, a phone number with an SMS verification code, or direct authorisation through a social media account. Once the account is set up, it’s worth completing identity verification early to avoid any delays when requesting a withdrawal later on. After that, finding Book of Dead is straightforward — head to the casino section and search under Play’n GO slots.
Book of Dead AutoPlay
Playing Book of Dead on Mobile
Book of Dead runs entirely on HTML5 technology, with no download required, showing every control clearly on smaller screens — line adjustment, stake, autoplay, and the gamble feature included. The Android app or iOS app can also be installed for quicker access without going through the browser every time, with balance and history syncing automatically across devices.
Book of Dead Compared to Similar Egyptian Slots
Book of Dead vs Book of Ra Classic. Both follow the classic “book” formula with a double wild/scatter symbol and a single expanding symbol per round, but the expansion threshold works differently. In Book of Ra, the explorer expands with just 2 appearances while everything else needs 3; in Book of Dead, the criteria depends purely on whether the chosen symbol can form a payline win, without a fixed threshold tied to a specific symbol. Anyone familiar with one of the two titles will find switching to the other almost seamless.
Book of Dead vs Gates of Olympus. The difference here runs well beyond theme. Book of Dead relies entirely on a single expanding symbol within a straightforward free spins round with no additional layers, while Gates of Olympus uses a no-paylines system with random multipliers that accumulate across the entire bonus round. Anyone after direct simplicity will find Book of Dead the more comfortable option; anyone after a mechanic with more layers and progressive multipliers will feel more at home with Gates of Olympus.
Thabo Mthembu
