Be careful what form of online casino bonus you accept

There are many ways for any business to attract new customers, or indeed retain the loyalty of existing customers, which is of course why so many of the big marketing consultancies are so successful. The first step in any marketing strategy is clearly to establish a brand name which everybody recognises and ideally associates that brand with a positive reputation. One of the most obvious historical success stories for that form of marketing is the name Hoover, which although it clearly referred to one manufacturer it became the generally recognised word for any vacuum cleaner whoever actually made it. When it comes to online casinos and online gambling in general it is Ireland’s favourite bookmaker Paddy Power who tend to make the greatest effort to establish public awareness of the brand, and they do this by using a variety of unusual and often controversial advertising ploys. In the modern era of internet shopping and competition from major specialist online companies competitive pricing is perhaps the next most important marketing strategy, and there are many companies for whom discounts and sales events often appear to be their only approach to doing business. When it comes to operating an online casino however there is no way to use a pricing strategy to compete with online rivals, although of course the opportunity they have to allow very low minimum stakes on their casino games does give them an advantage over their land based competitors. The online casino operators needed to find another way to attract new customers, and the most common approach is the online casino bonus. Almost every online casino now offers new customers some form of online casino bonus, usually in the guise of what is generally called a welcome bonus. The objective of any online casino bonus is clearly to persuade potential new casino games players to register with that particular online casino site, but unfortunately almost all the welcome bonus offers currently available at most online casinos follow a very similar if not identical format, which surely raises the question as to just how effective they are as a marketing tool. Most of these online casino welcome bonuses take the form of a promise to match a new customer’s first deposit with a 100% bonus, so that they have twice the stake money with which to play the casino games. Many online casinos also offer a reduced bonus on the second and even third deposits made by a new player, but they all come with a list of important terms and conditions which any new player must understand before deciding to accept this sort of bonus. Here at onlinecasino.ie we are unfortunately aware of a number of instances where misunderstanding or even being unaware of these terms and conditions has led to problems for some new online casino customers.

The most important of these conditions is what is generally known as the play through requirement, which defines how much money the player must stake on playing casino games before being able to withdraw any potential winnings from their account. This sum of money is usually defined as a multiple of the sum of the deposit plus the matching bonus, and is normally at least a factor of twenty. If we put that in plain language, a deposit of 20 euros would attract a bonus of a further 20 euros providing a total available stake of 40 euros. If we multiply this sum by a factor of twenty, the amount of money the player needs to stake on playing casino games in order to qualify for the bonus becomes at least 800 euros. This sort of figure may be well in excess of the sort of budget many potential casino games players initially intended to invest, and may therefore lead to unnecessary financial worries. An online casino bonus of this sort can be a very attractive proposition for some people, but the play through requirement in particular can cause considerable problems for others. New online casino games players who are considering accepting a welcome bonus of this sort should also be aware that some online casinos also apply a time limit on the play through requirements as well as restricting which casino games qualify 100% towards those play through terms. There is nothing wrong with online casino bonus offers of this sort and we understand completely why the online casino operators need to apply these terms and conditions if they are letting customers play casino games effectively free of charge. Nevertheless we also believe that it is essential that we highlight the potential downside of the terms and conditions associated with online casino bonus deals of this sort.

As many of our readers will know the online casino sector has expanded rapidly over the last few years and there are now a number of new specialist online casinos available to Irish casino games players. It is also worth noting that some of these new online casinos have decided not to use this form of welcome bonus to attract new customers. The aptly named Free Spins casino for example have decided that the best idea for attracting new casino games players to their site is to offer them free spins on many of their large range of slots games rather than complicated online casino bonuses. The No Bonus casino has also decided that the standard forms of online casino bonus deals are not the best way to attract new customers. In this case they have come up with a totally new idea entailing an innovative cash back offer which is available to any of their players, both new and existing customers. Any player making a deposit today for example and then enduring a run of bad luck which costs them the whole of that deposit the same day, will receive a 10% cash repayment into their account the following morning. There are no conditions attached and the money can even be withdrawn with no penalty whatsoever. Perhaps many people will find this sort of deal more attractive than the standard welcome bonus.