With online casinos consistently delivering regular bonus offers, players can choose from a lobby, most casino platforms feel more like a library of games and bonuses.
To remain competitive, today’s modern online casinos looking to stay ahead of the competition are finding new ways to engage players. Rather than offering the same bonus deals in their promotional section day in and day out, we are now seeing more bonuses handed out using gamification tools.
Bonus wheels
OK, so the bonus wheel isn’t exactly a new concept in iGaming. It is essentially a Wheel of Fortune filled with bonus money and free spins prizes. Occasionally, some online casinos will also offer cash prizes with no wagering or a huge cash jackpot on just one of the segments.
Overall, the bonus wheel predominantly attracts online slot players. Firstly, because of the free spins prizes. Secondly, if you win a bonus money prize, the casino’s bonus policy usually excludes live casino and table games. In both cases, you’ll earn a bonus money balance either from free spins winnings or directly from the bonus wheel spin.
To play through the bonus money, you’ll need to play through the casino’s wagering requirement policy.
Missions
This is where online casino bonuses start to become more engaging, or should we say gamified. For most casino players, missions played out on a bonus map are the most engaging. They give the player a clear set of steps, or missions, to complete to build up bonus rewards or VIP points that lead to higher bonus rewards and other perks.
Players will need to complete specific missions to progress to the next level. This could be something as simple as spinning 150 times on a designated online slot. Players can collect the bonus when they reach a certain level or continue to the next mission to obtain a higher bonus deal.
One-time interactive bonus maps
Isn’t this the same as the bonus maps just mentioned in the missions section above? Well, yes and no. Yes, because online casinos use bonus maps or missions; however, we added one-time to make a clear definition between the two.
A one-time bonus map is similar to the bonus wheel but more engaging. Instead of spinning a wheel and landing on a segment to win a prize, a one-time interactive bonus map may spin a wheel and then move you to a set number of positions on a map. Alternatively, casinos may use dice rolls to determine where you land on the map.
Think of it like a game of Monopoly where you roll and progress on the board, pick a chance or community chest card to win rewards or move forward on the map. Better still rolling doubles for a free go. Naturally, the further you progress on this bonus map, the higher the bonus rewards.
Challenges
Newbie online slot players generally need clarification on the difference between challenges and missions. A mission means progressing through a set number of tasks, which, in a way, are challenges. On the other hand, the challenges we are referring to in this section are a lot more straightforward.
It is as simple as this. Play 50 spins on Beheaded by Nolimit City and earn 10 free spins at 0.20 per spin. If you play 100 spins in Beheaded, you’ll receive 25 free spins at 0.20 per spin. There is usually a minimum bet stipulation on top of this, which is a minimum spin bet. It could be 0.20, 0.30 or 0.40 per spin, so you would need to make sure you read the T&Cs before playing.
If you prefer to try the slot games in the challenges section to see if they are worthy of your money, then you would need to play demo slots first. This is advisable, as you can test the game out before deciding whether to participate in the challenge and play the game for real money. It also means you are avoiding playing slots that are not popular with other players, and casinos are trying to get more players to spin on what could be a losing slot.
Bonus shops
Are bonus shops interactive bonuses? There are certainly arguments for and against, but we’ll include this topic in this guide anyway.
A bonus shop is, as you have probably already guessed, a place where you buy bonuses. However, you don’t make deposits to claim them. Instead, you swap loyalty points or unique reward coins earned while playing real money games at your online casino. You can use 30 loyalty points to buy 10 free spins on Big Bad Wolf by Quickspin, for example.
Alternatively, you can go straight for real money balances. For instance, you can buy a €/$/£10.00 bonus for 30 points. Now, you have to bear in mind some of the best real money bet conversions to loyalty points are around €/$/£25.00 in real money bets = 1 point.
If the above two examples we used require 30 points to claim 10 free spins or a €/$/£10.00 bonus, to get there, you would need to bet 30 x €/$/£25.00 = €/$/£750.00. While this may sound a little high, in the meantime, you will still have access to the regular bonus offers in the casino’s promotion section so that you can consider bonus shops as an addition to the platform for entertainment purposes.
Bonus crabs
You have probably seen the games in arcades where you insert a coin and control the grabbing mechanism in an attempt to accurately manoeuvre it over an item in the machine and grab it. Online casinos have taken that concept and gamified it.
With casinos that use the bonus crab, you usually earn a shot at grabbing a bonus such as free spins, cash with no wagering, increased loyalty level boosts, or bonus money. The bonus crab activates after you deposit, and you then use your mouse to try to select a bonus, or the casino’s RNG randomly picks a prize using the crab.
Disclaimer: Play responsibly. Players must be over 18. For help visit https://www.rgf.org.mt/