Nadia Adelstein, Head of Branding, Ganapati PLC.

At 40 years old, Manny Pacquaio became the oldest ever fighter to claim the welterweight title when he defeated Keith Thurman in July. The contest affirmed his status as an icon of the sport.

The brand-new slot game is based on boxing legend, Manny Pacquiao, featuring imagery inspired by his infamous fighting talent. At Ganapati we aim to bring Japanese culture to global gaming, thus the game highlights the longstanding, mutually supportive relations between Japan and the Philippines, as well as giving back to the local Filipino community.

The game’s focus on boxing is representative of the local communities’ ‘fight for a brighter future’, something that Pacquiao strives for in his role as a senator of the Philippines. Some of the revenue from the game will be given to Manny’s foundation, the Manny Pacquiao Foundation, to help fund local childrens’ charities. The thinking behind this, is that a game based on the idea of fighting can actually help children of the Philippines continue to persevere in their own battles and help the growth of the youth across the country, especially in education.

The Pac Man himself came from humble beginnings in the rural village of Tango – sharing a one-bedroom shack with his parents and three siblings. Son of a coconut collector, Manny’s family lived in abject poverty with some days being so poor they could not even afford rice. Until the age of ten, he had never even been to another town or city – that’s until he moved in with his uncle where his love of boxing began. A scrawny teenage Manny would watch Mike Tyson fights with his uncle, who trained him to become the best junior boxer in Southern Philippines within a three-year period. From then, at the young age of 15, Manny went to the big city of Manila to chase his dream.

Pacquiao’s story really is one of rags to riches. From a village shack to a mansion in Beverly Hills, that was once owned by rapper, Puff Daddy – the Pac Man’s boxing skills have made him a multi-millionaire, but he certainly has not forgotten the people from his childhood.

Manny has built a village for the people of Tango, with a large settlement of 200 houses being fully funded by the star. This is just one example of the projects Pacquiao has supported across the region, proving he’s a genuine real-life hero for the country of the Philippines and a worthy face of Ganapati’s next game.

Players will soon be able to punch their way to fortune with a living boxing legend in the official Manny Pacquiao slot game. The first and only boxer in history to win world titles in eight different weight divisions, Pacquiao is now taking on the gaming world with this fast-paced, high-impact slot.

The game has many features and symbols ensuring the most immersive gamer experience possible. The base game is set in a boxing ring located on a rooftop in the bustling city of Tokyo. Whenever players hit a winning combination, the symbols forming that combination disappear and new symbols continue to drop down, filling the empty slots until the reels are full again. In case of another winning combination, the cascade repeats. Each cascading win increases the base game Multiplier up to 6x. Once there are no more winnings the Multiplier is reset back to one.

The 8 symbol represents Pacquiao’s name, Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao, a name with three sets of eight characters. The number 8 also symbolises his Octuple Championship title.

The meaning behind the meteor symbol is to represent Pacquiao’s most lethal weapon – his left arm. Strategically tattooed on the inner side of his left forearm the image of a meteor landing from out of space is to represent the destruction that follows the left hook of the Pac Man.

Another feature of the game is the exciting round of Free Spins. When you enter the Free Spins round, the game begins to intensify with a change in colour and hyped music. The Multipliers are increased by 2, which means there is a chance to get up to 8x Multipliers with cascading wins.

Then there is the Octuple Champion Bonus round, further knocking-out expectations; ten Free Spins are triggered by three or more bonus symbols anywhere on the reels and can be re-triggered in the Free Spins round.

We envisage the Pacquiao One Punch KO slot game as a catalyst for the iGaming world to be seen by millions of sports fans around the globe. As iGaming’s popularity continues to grow, having icons such as Manny Pacquiao connected with the industry will only help to speed up the widespread adoption of iGaming, and at Ganapati that’s what we are committed to.