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The Ultimate Casino Bonus Guide for iGaming Operators
A comprehensive online casino bonus guide for operators on ways to leverage bonuses to attract new players, retain existing ones and prevent bonus abuse.
Are you striving to leverage online casino bonuses to engage loyal players who genuinely love the game? Casino marketing experts focus on engaging qualified leads because they know that non-targeted traffic is unlikely to bring the expected outcome. If you target a generic audience of players, chances are you’ll stumble upon bonus seekers. Having a solid online casino bonus strategy in place will help you bring such cases to a minimum. To explore popular bonuses, plus useful tips that’ll help you to engage the right audience, let’s dive deeper into this insightful online casino bonus guide.
What are Online Casino Bonuses?
Bonuses are benefits operators offer to players in order to attract them and drive engagement. Generous perks like welcome, loyalty, and achievement bonuses, among many others, engage both low-budget punters and those who play with big money. Casino bonus systems usually reward players with either free credits, free spins, or cashback deals, all of which give players an enhanced value for their money, attracting them to enjoy the gambling pastime for longer.
Free credits are pretty self-explanatory, rewarding players with credits to place wagers on their favorite games. Free spins are also quite simple, although these types of casino bonuses can be accomplished by either rewarding a set number of regular slot game rounds or special bonus rounds. Lastly, cashback deals just refund customers a certain amount of money when they deposit, although we will explore this and many other bonus types in detail a bit later. If you’re an operator looking to expand your business, you should definitely consider applying a tailored bonus strategy to bolster loyal customer engagement.
Additionally, online casino bonuses can also be implemented through casino loyalty programs, rewarding a gambling operator’s most loyal players with special deals to both maintain their engagement levels and ensure they feel appreciated for their support for the casino. This can also help gambling companies enhance their profits. Let’s briefly explore the relationship between casino bonuses and loyalty programs next.
Online Casino Bonuses and Loyalty Programs
Online Casino Bonuses and Loyalty Programs are often quite inter-connected, as both are excellent player engagement boosting strategies used by lots of gambling firms around the world. The main difference between loyalty programs and online casino bonuses is that the former is better suited as a long-term player retention strategy, while the latter is predominantly used to provide players with an enhanced value when completing a set action, most commonly depositing. Moreover, bonuses provide better results for operators looking to boost their conversion rates, as the benefits of most loyalty programs will be too time-consuming to acquire for gambling enthusiasts who have not yet had the chance to register a playing account on the operator’s website.
While some operators utilize one or the other, the vast majority of industry companies make use of both to deliver their players a set of leading offerings. Many operators offer their bonuses as part of their loyalty programs, which gives them better yields and can provide players with enhanced experiences. Check out our guide on casino loyalty programs to learn more about how they help operators drive engagement.
How to Use Bonuses to Engage and Retain Players
Personalized offers like loyalty or achievement bonuses, as well as birthday offers are tried-and-true ways to engage punters and keep them in play. Once punters are in, you can track their online activity and come up with attractive bonuses such as free spins, cashback at the right moment. Just be sure to make data-driven decisions based on the records of each step taken. Then, wind up the journey by offering the treasured bonus.
Of course, having a solid bonus system is the cornerstone to success but advertising your offerings is as much important. In this regard, make sure to apply effective online casino marketing techniques to promote the bonuses and other benefits your company has to offer.
How to prevent abuse of bonuses & commissions?
Engaging players should not be an end in itself. As an operator, you should aim for attracting an audience that enjoys the thrill of online gaming. First and foremost, try to bypass bonus hunters – players whose primary purpose is to sign up, grab a bonus and leave without further ado. Do you want to learn exactly how casino bonuses work and get to know some tricks that’ll help you avoid bonus seekers? Let’s elaborate on four major steps.
Define minimum betting requirements
Wager requirements define how many times players must bet before they’re allowed to withdraw their winnings. Suppose a player gets a $100 welcome bonus upon signup, they must play x times before they’ll reserve the right to withdraw the money. This threshold varies per online casino and per game. Due to setting out minimal betting requirements, your players will already have engagement with your online casino before they can withdraw the available amount.
Set withdrawal minimums and limits
Implementing cashout minimums, especially throughout an initial period after a user’s signup, is another strategy that can help online casinos avoid bonus abusers and potential money laundering or terrorist financing risks. These minimums will ensure that players will have to play for a little while before being able to withdraw their money and leave the casino, which will encourage them to try your business’s bonus offers for an enhanced gambling experience instead of a quick financial gain. Integrating withdrawal limits throughout this period could also work, as limits can also encourage players to use the bonus funds for gambling. However, having artificial limitations for new users may dissuade some gamblers from registering at your casino.
Identify multi-accounts
Multi-accounting is a problem for many different industries and iGaming is no exception. Creating multiple accounts is one of the most widespread tactics used by online casino bonus hunters to manipulate the systems of their targeted online casinos for bonus abuse. Specifically, players create multiple accounts to constantly avail of various perks, take tournaments with beginners while being an advanced player, bet on different outcomes in bookies, as well as circumvent account bans.
Operators that carry out detailed identity checks before accepting players will be less likely to face such issues, however, many advanced online casino bonus hunting techniques may go a step further and utilize stolen or fake information to accomplish their goals. This can include stolen financial assets, which can lead to even greater losses for operators targeted by casino bonus abuse through chargebacks. Moreover, stolen information and financial assets are often utilized in various financial crimes such as money laundering, further expanding the potential consequences of being targeted by casino bonus abusers.
Gambling firms that offer a more anonymous experience as part of their casino bonus strategy, on the other hand, are likely to be targeted by multi-account bonus abusers more frequently. Fortunately, identifying such users shouldn’t be too challenging if the operator has incorporated appropriate fraud prevention methods. Many points of data such as a user’s IP address, browser and device fingerprints, and payment addresses can be used to identify new duplicate accounts.
Prevent malicious affiliation
Players are not the only ones who employ unfair practices towards operators. There are common patterns of affiliates’ cheating, so it’s imperative to know how to prevent iGaming affiliate fraud as an operator. Basically, affiliates can apply tricks towards the affiliate programs they’re involved in, especially when they partner according to the cost-per-acquisition – CPA commission model. For more details on commissions, take a look at our iGaming affiliates commission guide.
To get high commissions, fraudulent affiliates often create multiple fake accounts by registering with stolen IDs, delivering low-quality traffic to their operator partners and artificially inflating their performance metrics as a result. This is one of the most widespread forms of affiliate fraud, however, malicious companies can take their efforts one step further by taking advantage of various casino welcome offers, which have even more direct negative effects for operators.
Affiliate fraud is a major concern for affiliate programs, which is growing ever more prevalent every year. One of the most effective workarounds to this problem is partnering with only top-tier affiliates who strive to form long-term collaborations and make a name for themselves in the industry. If you’re interested to learn more about the topic, check out our dedicated article on how operators can avoid iGaming affiliate fraud.
To identify potential affiliate partners, you can visit AffPapa – the ultimate iGaming directory which offers a large catalog of the best iGaming affiliates and operators with advanced filters at your disposal.
Popular types of casino bonuses
Operators offer multiple types of online casino bonuses to engage players and retain the existing ones. Players, in turn, love attractive perks so the bonus system is one of the main points they consider when looking for entertaining casinos.
Welcome Bonuses
Welcome bonuses are among the most used bonus types. Otherwise called online casino sign-up bonus, the mentioned bonus type is especially useful for low-budget players. It grants them the opportunity to wager at higher stakes with a lower initial investment. Because virtually all casinos leverage welcome bonuses, the ones who can’t afford them risk falling behind the competition.
No Deposit casino bonus
As the name itself suggests, no deposit bonus is a casino welcome offer players can avail of without making any deposits. This is a brilliant opportunity for players to start betting with zero initial investment and for casinos which need to stand out in a highly competitive market.
Achievement Bonuses
Achievement bonuses are rewards granted to players after they pass certain milestones by completing specific tasks. These are among the best online casino bonuses that enhance the thrill of online gambling and allow casinos not only to attract players but also to retain them. The drive for consecutive achievements pushes players to continue their exciting in-play experiences.
Loyalty Bonuses
Loyalty bonuses are an effective player retention strategy aimed at rewarding loyal players. These bonuses usually involve loyalty points that users can accumulate over time and then use for various rewards, such as free spins, additional multipliers, or playing credits. Casinos can also offer loyalty gift cards or vouchers, which can be a great way of attracting new players without much effort.
Special Bonuses
Some of the industry’s leading operators offer their players a selection of special bonuses. This includes everything like bonuses on popular holidays like New Year’s Eve and bonuses for special occasions like the signup anniversary of a player. Moreover, gambling operators that carry out thorough identity verification can also offer their users customized bonuses on their birthdays, which can greatly help enhance their loyalty rates.
Cashback
Casino cashback bonuses are refunds intended to reward players a certain percentage of the lost amount for a specified period. Cashback rates differ from operator to operator typically ranging from 15 to 25%. Rates also vary per game so if you wish to provide this bonus, be sure to set out the details clearly in your terms.
Additionally, cashback bonuses can also be implemented by refunding players a certain percentage of their deposits each time they fill their balances on the operator’s website. These types of bonuses are another excellent strategy for attracting gambling enthusiasts, especially those who do not wish to spend much on the pastime. Cashback bonuses accomplish the main goal of online casino bonuses, providing players with an enhanced value, quite well.
Free Spins
Free spins are among the best casino bonuses online gamblers love. This bonus type gives a brilliant chance to win without the risk of losing just like in the case of no deposit free spins. The amount of free trials is usually case-specific, meaning it can differ per casino, per game and other circumstances. That’s why if you’re planning to offer your players free spins, you should define the terms transparently on your website.
Multiplier Bonuses
Multiplier Bonuses are pretty self-explanatory, as operators can give their players a boost in their games. This can be done either throughout the casino’s entire catalog of games or on a select few titles, which gives these types of bonuses a good degree of flexibility.
Transparency of bonus terms
Players should be well-versed in all the benefits they can claim for so transparency is key. Setting terms transparently also helps bypass bonus abusers because once they get to know your robust system, they’ll realize there’s no point in even trying to manipulate it.
Set out minimum betting requirements
It’s essential to state the minimum wager amount on your website so that players get an idea of how much they should invest for a start. Suppose a player receives a welcome bonus upon signup, he/she should know how the betting requirement is compared against the welcome bonus amount. In order to prevent bonus abuse, some casinos set a benchmark of x times or x amount to wager before players can claim the right to withdraw.
Define cashout limits
Casinos set withdrawal limits for a specified period in order to have better control over their finances, circumvent bonus hunters and contribute to fighting money laundering. As an operator, make sure to be transparent stating the cashout limits so that players have a better insight into what they should expect. Bonus abusers, in their turn, will not count on your casino as a good target for manipulations.
Set payment method limitations
Players should also have an understanding of payment method restrictions. Some payment methods are limited in terms of bonus availability. For instance, operators don’t usually provide bonuses to players that use electronic wallets for deposits and withdrawals.
Define the timeframe
Last but not least, make sure to define the timeframe during which the provided bonus is effective. If bonuses are effective for a week, for example, make sure to state it clearly in your terms.
Bonuses are perks promoted to engage players and retain the ones that are already in play. As an operator, you should leverage bonuses and affiliate commissions wisely so that abusers have no idea of how to manipulate your system. You should state your bonus terms clearly which will ensure a better introduction of players to your service, and help keep bonus abusers away from your casino. When it comes to affiliates, leveraging robust casino affiliate management software and finding a professional affiliate manager will lay the foundation for starting off successfully.
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