“Say the three magic words”. Depending on who you ask, you will probably receive a fair few different answers. For most people, it will likely be relating to love. For pokie lovers in New Zealand, however, it will undoubtedly be ‘online casino bonus’. To a casino fan, it’s simply the most beautiful 3-word combination in the English language.
Most online casinos are judged on their bonus offering, and if you can’t offer competitive and plentiful online casino bonuses, players in New Zealand are quick to move on. This is a buyer’s market, and the casinos know it. These bonuses are their biggest advertisement, and it’s what gets people talking. We will take a quick look at some of the most popular online casino bonuses in the following.
Reload Bonuses
One of the most common bonus types, the reload bonus, is a staple at most casinos online. In short, this is a deposit bonus that gives you extra monetary value. A prime example is the Welcome Bonus you will find at most casinos. While these offers often are two-parted, we will here focus on the reload aspect of it. A typical welcome offer will look like this: Get 100% extra on your deposit up to $500. This means that the casino will double your money up to a certain amount ($500).
The max amount and the percentage might vary from time to time, but the principle remains the same: the casino will give you a certain amount of money on top of your standard deposit. Extra money? No wonder these promotions are so popular. While these bonuses sometimes might come without strings attached, it is common to see them paid out as Bonus Money that carries wagering requirements. But that’s only fair, seeing as they are handing out free money.
Free Spins
Another popular casino bonus, and another staple in most welcome offers, are casino free spins. This is a bonus that lets you play a selected online pokie without using your own money. The other half of the aforementioned welcome bonus would look something like this: Get 100% extra up to $500 plus 200 free spins. In other words, this bonus will give you two hundred chances to play online pokies, free of charge. No wonder they are so popular.
Free Spins offers are common at most casinos in New Zealand, and they are typically found marking the release of a new casino game. Other times, the casino might be feeling generous and handing out spins to some old-school favourites as well. Any casino with any self-respect will dish out Free Spins on a regular basis.
Another term often used to describe both the reload and the free spins bonus is a deposit bonus. The name is pretty self-explanatory: make a deposit and get a bonus.
Cashback
An increasingly popular and common form of casino bonus is Cashback. There is no ‘one size fits all’ Cashback bonus, but a typical offer would look something like this: “Get 20% Cashback on all your losses over 2 hours”. So 20% of any net losses you might incur in those 2 hours will be paid back by the casino, which is a great consolation if you’re experiencing a losing streak.
These bonuses are typically popular among VIP players that generally play for significant sums over short time periods. They are not just for the high-rollers, however, and all types of budget players will be eligible to receive such offers from time to time. While they for “standard” players are rare, these offers are usually a standard pack of the package in any respectable VIP program. VIP players might also get the Cashback paid out as Real Money, while standard players might get it as Bonus Money carrying wagering requirements.
Level Up games
Gamification has been among the main trends in the online casino industry over the past five years. It is common for most casino sites to offer some sort of Progress Bar and Level Up rewards system. The idea is that playing pokies online moves you towards the next “level”, where you are rewarded with casino bonuses such as Free Spins. These spins are often won from a custom-built bonus game. This gamification is a great way to keep players engaged and entertained. At the same time, it offers extra value to the promotional bonuses that are offered on a semi-regular basis.
Related to these Level Up games, we find a couple of innovative bonuses: one is the “Automatic Level Up”, which automatically propels you to the next level where you can get your Level Up reward. Another one is “Double Speed”, which essentially fills your Progress Bar twice as fast as normal. This means you Level Up twice as quickly and get to enjoy twice as many bonus rewards. These features add a whole new dimension to online casinos.