Do you play with Signup Bonuses? (2015)

[mcgameboy]

Thanks Simmo for the great poll.

This is something I question EVERY single day. I look at our promotions and ask why players are not claiming them? What is the perfect balance? Is it a 100% Match up to $100 with 25x Playthrough (Slots only) with a Max Cashout of 20 times the deposit? Or 300% Match up to $600 with 35x Playthrough (Slots only) with a $7500 Max Cashout, are the bonuses redeemable once or multiple times...etc?

At a previous brand where I worked, we never had a bonus to purchase ratio higher than 25% and bonuses were automatically added to the account after a successful deposit. Players were happy and didn't mind the wagering as it was only 30x the BONUS. In the event of a player wanting to cashout, the bonus element would be removed automatically and the player allowed to complete the cashout process. Having said this, it was a totally different market.

Now it's a whole different sorry. Bonus to purchase ratios are insane and we hardly ever see a bonus offer less than 100%.

I thought about cashback bonuses to players who don't claim match offers, but once again what is the magic balance when it comes to wagering and max cashouts off free money?

We don't limit max bets at any of our brands but do have max cashouts on 99% of the offers.

Most of the players which I manage, I advise to rather NOT play off bonus money due to limitations, but how else do you reward your regular players?

Regards
Jason

That's probably one reason why. In my humble opinion, max cashouts should only be enforcable on free chips.
The max cashout really undermines the part of your promo which is actually very good and highly competitive...the 25x bonus playthrough.

You'd be better served removing the max cashout and upping the playthrough requirements to 30 x Bonus. It's not done 32Red any harm has it?

And there are ways to reward regular players. Free spins with no (like GUTS) or low (like BETAT) wagering requirements.

I think BETAT especially have an excellent range of promotions and offers that caters to a wide range of players, covering everybody from the lowest of rollers to the highest.

 

[redseven]

Sign Up Bonuses

I HATE play through amounts. Hey sucker entertain yourself with $25 and run it up to $3,000!!

 

[nepatsfan01]

the only time I EVER use a bonus is at 3Dice and that's because it's an extremely reasonable 5x wager. Other places with their 30x wager and max cash out and can't bet over $6.25 can take their bonuses and shove it quite frankly. I'd much rather bet what I want and withdraw when I want. Why go through the hassle with all the fine print that you never end up seeing making it all that much harder to cash out? I used to use bonuses all the time way back when but now? Heck no, no and no.

 

[pianoman]

casino bonus shmonus

Reckon I have enough supporting evidence; In this year's figures as a low rollin' daily slots player!
32RED CLUB ROUGE member and one time VIP at Spin Palace, me.

Pretty near uninstalled ALL the others now...

God almighty - so easy to be UP yourself when online casinos start making you feel "special"!
This year's been sobering.
After a decade of pursuing the impossible, sorta coming back to reality (relative reality that is)

Still hooked on the bloody things, real pleased though that my family's not financially compromised.
Fact is, I won some thousands in a 2011 tourney.
32Red and SPIN both promptly accorded me special privileges;
"Your very own personal account manager", regular 100% (just for you) bonuses, hampers, birthday pressies... stuff like that.
Four years and many thousands of hours later, I'm still a bit ahead.
But that's all... Just A BIT!
You put in your 25, 30 bucks a day and they double it - Marvellous!
(like, who's gonna knock back 100% extra from the good guys looking after your account?)

All too often it's 7 hours later and you're wasted: "OH WELL, NEXT TIME(?) MAYBE ...

But really, WHY BOTHER - when say, a mere $25 invested can alone produce an outrageous profit ???
Online, plenty of evidence of others' good fortune; My own collection's over 900 such screenshots
Of course, Cold Slots are always waiting to take your money quick smart.
Yep, that hurts!
And yet, lose your $25 in 10 mins - you do feel like a Gambler, rather than a "sucker".
You played like a PRO, were on a mission; You played the game, you had some control!

But 7 hours of GRINDING away, hoping to outlast THEIR $750 worth of required wagering ???
That, my friend, is about the closest thing to insanity that any of us can display.

And Chuck Me Farley, this lil black duck's just gone and done it AGAIN.
Me again at Nedplay: monthly visitor(once at least) for years.
In goes my $25, $50 to play with - AND nothing outa here in a long, long time.

To Bryan; Thanks for the WAKE UP CALL.
Just what I needed to shake myself out of it and make a stand.
SO HERE GOES ... (sob)

To 32Red
Please alter my status from CLUB ROUGE to ordinary!
SEND NO MORE BONUS OFFERS.
Forget about the perks; Cancel the Birthday stuff even. Nuff of the promo emails hey!?!
Your CS is great 'n your feet don't smell - but your payment processing sure does (Ask Anyone).

And compared to Spin Palace (where I have taken not even One single bonus since rejoining a few months ago) you're
lagging way behind; Truly positive deposit/withdrawals ratio there!
Even their software seems to work better...

Spin P?
I'll visit you daily - BUT well, you too can take me off your totally irritating nag list.
PLEEEASE!???
No more texts, no more emails; WHAT's THE POINT?

I'm forever done with the bonuses nonsense !!!!

 

[byhc]

Depends on the size of the bonus, if too low, it's extremely hard to use that amount to get through wagering requirements, especially with all the restrictions/rules.

 

[Frenzal]

Depends on the size of the bonus, if too low, it's extremely hard to use that amount to get through wagering requirements, especially with all the restrictions/rules.

But the larger the bonus the more you must wager to meet the bonus requirements.

 

[byhc]

But the larger the bonus the more you must wager to meet the bonus requirements.

That's fine, once I reach a threshold I don't lose! But only for live roulettes, slots is all RNG

 

[Frenzal]

That's fine, once I reach a threshold I don't lose! But only for live roulettes, slots is all RNG

Well you shouldn't need a real job then... Sweet

 

[byhc]

Well you shouldn't need a real job then... Sweet

I actually don't, I play roulette full time. Just because I don't lose doesn't mean I always go positive. Very much ends up neutral day in and day in all the time.

 

[JasonFTA]

Hi Guys,

Great to hear everyone's feedback and thoughts on bonuses.

I guess it depends on what you want to achieve, I have seen players that love deposit match bonuses as it affords them more play time. A lot of gamblers know that in the long run the house always wins, thus they don't gamble thinking that they are going to make a killing. If they win a nice jackpot, it just ads to their player experience. Some players meet the wager, then continue playing and playing and playing. Sometimes playing the balance back down to zero. Once again, they playing for the entertainment aspect.

Then you have players that take match offers and try to smash the living daylights out of the casino. They will take the max bonus and place max bets. In the event of them winning, they will visit a high frequency slot, choose a min bet and just wager just enough to meet wager and cash in.

I agree that some bonuses have ridiculous wagering terms. But I do think it depends on the offering. If a player is willing to accept a 300% or 400% match bonus, they need to understand that the casino is giving the player between 3 or 4 times the deposit, so the casino is risking more than the player. So there has to be some kind of terms in place to protect the casino (within reason).

At the end of the day, it all boils down to building relationships with your players. We have many cases where we waver terms/bend the rules for our loyal players.

Bottom line, own deposit = no restrictions )

Regards
Jason

 

[Loop Nelson]

Sign Up vs. Deposit Bonuses?

Reading through the responses it looks like were talking both. I have only one casino that I do deposit bonuses at, mainly due to the play through being 10X. I have done the 30X, 40X, etc., and in all cases in my little pea brain decided that by the time I had met the play through requirements I had wasted a lot of time regardless of whether I was up or down at that time. I took a deposit bonus not too long ago, had one of those lucky days and at the time of meeting play through requirements was up about $6000. I played a while longer and decided to make a withdrawal for $5000. Shortly after making my request, I received an e-mail stating that I had made a $20 bet and the maximum allowed by the bonus requirements was $10 so my withdrawal was not allowed and my account was zeroed. After going to the deposit bonuses requirements and spending an hour or two reading them, I found the restriction. After getting sick to my stomach, I made myself a promise to not use any bonuses offered except the one casino mentioned above. My memory is not photographic by any means and I always read the requirements prior to using a bonus but being able to remember all of them is just not a possibility. I guess what gets to me the most is that any and every casino could build their software to not allow a move that is not allowed by the bonus requirements, or at least alert you prior to the move being made, but they don't. I understand to the tune of $5000 plus why they don't do this. Soooooooo, I do not take part in the casino's offering of "free" money to play their games. My gaming activity is basically an entertainment based activity with the sidebar of the possibility of the entertainment being free "break-even days" and occasionally a rare "paid" activity and I definitely realize that most of the time you pay for the entertainment enjoyed. Playing with "my" money pretty much assures that I am able to make the decision when I am offered that rare opportunity to get paid for my entertainment whether or not I want to take advantage of it without having to worry about missing something in the "fine print" (it's all fine print for me). I would just like to finish with this -- Casinos, if you really want to offer "bonus" money for me to play at your business, fix your software so that you are helping me to not make a stupid mistake by not having a photographic memory! Thinking about it, perhaps this is the players way of giving you bonus money!

Thanks for the opportunity to express! Loop Nelson

 

[SpinUk]

With respect to all the reps on here, how much of your day - on average - is dealt with dealing with an issue that is in some way related to a bonus issue? I can safely say here that 95% of the handful of times I have had to contact a rep it has been in some regard to related to a bonus?

I say this as sure as hell if I was running a large online casino I would be pretty happy about the death of the bonus - bar payment issues what other main issue are my clients going to be utilising my Customer Service for if not for bonus questions/issues? Thats one big resource that could be reduced straight away. Player disputes are going to be limited to rare technical glitches and not much else. Cashout resources are also reduced as you can afford to automate these as there is no bonus abuse to worry about/investigate.

So it works very well from the business side.

From the players side? Less play time, fewer casinos as the smaller ones that stay afloat by offering more generous bonuses - why would you want to use these anymore? At the moment new casinos have a fighting chance by offering generous SUBs and regular reload offers. But with more/totally automated cashouts and limited interaction needed with CS there would be little incentives to try new brands.

The likes of competitions for holidays or other non cash incentives are a poor substitute. Without falling into cliches, the rich casinos would get richer and the poorer casinos would get poorer.

 

[ProbabilityZero]

For many reasons stated I am getting bored with bonuses. The grind stops being fun.

However much I love slots the problem with bonuses is I start enjoying the play less as I'm too focussed on the WR rather than simply having fun.

I'd like to see far more casinos offering slots tournaments like 32 Red.

But I'd also like companies like 32 Red to be more innovative with these tournaments. Take their daily Avalon freeroll.... It's been several years why not mix it up with some other slots.

More interesting tournaments are a better incentive than bonus play. Be creative. Also why not have attached chat rooms like bingo sites do?

 

[Simmo!]

I guess what gets to me the most is that any and every casino could build their software to not allow a move that is not allowed by the bonus requirements, or at least alert you prior to the move being made, but they don't

This would seem like a sensible investment....

...how much of your day - on average - is dealt with dealing with an issue that is in some way related to a bonus issue.

...which would easily be paid for by this IMO. And some.

 

[SpinUk]

This would seem like a sensible investment....



...which would easily be paid for by this IMO. And some.

The proofs in the pudding I think - if its more profitable to disallow a conservative 10-15% of cashouts where the the player has "fallen foul" of bonus terms than to pay some reps the time to do it, it aint gonna happen. From an integration point of view I would say its a piece of cake but i'm not a developer.

 

[Simmo!]

The proof in the pudding I think - if its more profitable to disallow a conservative 10-15% of cashouts where the the player has "fallen foul" of bonus terms than to pay some reps the time to do it, it aint gonna happen. From an integration point of view I would say its a piece of cake but i'm not a developer.

The bottom line is that keeping an existing customer is 5-7 times (some years ago when I researched it for another business) more cost effective than finding a new one so it is the best interests of a casino not to leave a player with a negative feeling. Bonuses and withdrawals I would say are the two areas that are most likely to piss of a customer.

Transparency is a key issue because it is effective in managing a player's expectations and to keep a customer you have to at least meet, preferably exceed, their expectations. If a player falls at the first hurdle then no-one wins.

 

[pinsnpies]

I do play with bonuses. I made a mistake at moneygaming.com of depositing via Neteller. As you know for some bizarre reason, some casinos do NOT allow you to claim the welcome bonus if you deposit via an eWallet. Why? I'll never know. I made the deposit but the £600 withdrawal was confiscated even though the bonus was added automatically when I deposited via Neteller. Bizarre.

 

[knowyourbets]

I used to spend time searching through the Casino's for best deposit match bonuses and try to hammer them looking for the big win. However, although I may have succeeded in meeting the t&c's and claiming the bonus, once this was achieved that was "free play" time over and done with and I would start searching for a new casino to start again.

I soon got sick of this and now restrict myself to just a couple of big name casino's who offer a wider range of games and a general better casino experience. The big guys don't necessarily offer the biggest deposit matches but they do offer re-load bonuses and great regular promotions that are another great way to take advantage.

 

[crikeym8]

Most times

What I’ve seen lately with signup bonus at some casinos is this ridiculous concept of buy whatever and receive whatever but you only gain the bonus in increments after you play a determined amount. So basically receive 100%, but receive it in 10% lots once you have met play through requirements. Deceptive is an understatement. Considering the casino web page has the promo in BOLD, "Buy 100 Get 100". Can end up costing 1000s more in deposits just to meet play through

Casinos can stick their signups, I look for casinos that compensate you when you have bad play through sessions and endless depositing. Any casino that fails that task instantly sees my ass leaving. Take LEOVEGAS, after heavy session of deposits im given the finger and told come back tomorrow as there are no bonuses to be had today. Yea right, back tomorrow I won’t be. There are many casinos willing to throw you a bonus without restrictions after a bad day. Of course freebies are dependent on individuals gaming habits. Casinos that take notice of their players don't need signup bonuses in my book. Eventually you stick with the set few that look after you, those casinos that don't, well, they are their own worst enemy.

 

[irishgilly]

sign up bonus any one?

Recently, I have run into play thrus that actually expect you to win 100x depo as well as bonus. Really? No progressive play with bonuses, no this, no that, but we want you to bet 100x your depo and bonus and then take home the big cash win? Really? What a crock! Suitable for dreamers, schemers, screamers, and fools! However, if I am just looking to check out a new playground, I might take the bonus IF they have reasonable terms, which are getting harder and harder to find. However you play it, here's hoping we are soon looking at a screen shot of your big win!

 

[Geddes333]

So true, thanks!!

With respect to all the reps on here, how much of your day - on average - is dealt with dealing with an issue that is in some way related to a bonus issue? I can safely say here that 95% of the handful of times I have had to contact a rep it has been in some regard to related to a bonus?

I say this as sure as hell if I was running a large online casino I would be pretty happy about the death of the bonus - bar payment issues what other main issue are my clients going to be utilising my Customer Service for if not for bonus questions/issues? Thats one big resource that could be reduced straight away. Player disputes are going to be limited to rare technical glitches and not much else. Cashout resources are also reduced as you can afford to automate these as there is no bonus abuse to worry about/investigate.

So it works very well from the business side.

From the players side? Less play time, fewer casinos as the smaller ones that stay afloat by offering more generous bonuses - why would you want to use these anymore? At the moment new casinos have a fighting chance by offering generous SUBs and regular reload offers. But with more/totally automated cashouts and limited interaction needed with CS there would be little incentives to try new brands.

The likes of competitions for holidays or other non cash incentives are a poor substitute. Without falling into cliches, the rich casinos would get richer and the poorer casinos would get poorer.

So true!! thanks

 

[brianmon]

I always take the SUB.
Otherwise, what's the point in trying a new casino, when they probably don't offer anything different from the casinos I'm already a member at.
If I'm going to make a straight cash deposit, I might as well do it at a site I know and trust, where I'm an existing member, and where that deposit may add to my loyalty points or whatever.
I see the SUB as a sort of reward for taking the chance on trying a new casino.

 

[babyjoker]

I always take the SUB.
Otherwise, what's the point in trying a new casino, when they probably don't offer anything different from the casinos I'm already a member at.
If I'm going to make a straight cash deposit, I might as well do it at a site I know and trust, where I'm an existing member, and where that deposit may add to my loyalty points or whatever.
I see the SUB as a sort of reward for taking the chance on trying a new casino.

I agree, thats my feeling towards the subject too

 

[Kasino]

Occasionally in cases of bonuses on deposits, and only if those bonuses have a Low Wagering Requirements and have no restrictions on Max Cashout, and all of this in cases of Reputable Online Casinos only . No deposit free chips - almost always.

 

[imteaz]

I mostly play with bonus but sometimes it's very hard to clear the bonus though