7 December 2016 
Upd: 21 March 2024 
4 min 
355 views Nothing proves the usefulness of being generous as much as the online gaming business. Give your players a bonus or a payback – and you’ll be rewarded with skyrocketing deposits and loyalty.
Of course, that works to some limit and needs acquiring players’ traffic all the time; but to make the new players stay and pay nothing works better. Not if have a 50 million users database (but in that case a bonus still may be very useful).
Which rewards type should you always consider?
1. First deposit bonus
Why. Evergreen classics that helps both to get new players and to give them a reason for the first payment. It fits best for good enough traffic but the low conversion from visitors to paying users. This program also works in long-term perspective. While a player clears his bonus he gets used to playing in the casino and will stay. In addition, having a first deposit bonus is very good for an advertising since the chance to receive money free always gets attention.
How it works. When a new user makes the first deposit or several deposits limited to some sum, say $500, he gets a chance to receive an equivalent sum to his account as a bonus. At most cases, he doesn’t get this money automatically. Every dollar of the bonus is equal to a number of points received in the cash games or/and tournaments. If $1 = 1 point, and he has earned 25 points in the games, he’ll get only $25 even if your deposit was $1000. Therefore, the bonus depends on the rake that a casino gets from the games a player participated in.
Notes. No one pays the moment he enters the casino or the poker room. Make sure that your gaming offer and online casino software is as good as the bonus program and you have enough active players at any moment to make your project attractive for a newbie.
2. Rake back
Why. The same classics meant to increase players’ loyalty and retention; the great solution for casinos with outflow problems and lots of non-active players.
How it works. As a casino, you receive a rake from each pot. You may return a part of their share of the pot to the players the same way you get cashback for your credit card. The rake back per cent may vary from 2% to 60%; this option is almost always offered by casino software providers. Some rooms setup a user activity or level threshold.
Notes. The rake back per cent should be attractive to the players to become an important loyalty factor, and you should make the calculation of it as clear as possible.
3. Balance auto-refill
Why. To make users come back to you if they are temporarily short on money or haven’t decided to pay yet. That will make them stay with your casino when they are ready for deposits.
How it works. Most casinos with real money and bitcoin casino software offer play money balance auto-refill to make people spend more time playing just for fun. When a user account balance reaches some limit (say $0.20) he receives a small sum enough to play a few games more and to have a winning chance.
Notes. Offering the real money balance refill is extremely dangerous and may lead to many fraud occasions that will ruin the casino reputation. The casino will have to deal with regular chips’ dumping and negotiated gaming episodes.
4. Freerolls
Why. To make users play with excitement and love your poker room more. The freeroll often becomes the ultimate reason to start playing real money games in a given poker room especially when complemented by the first deposit bonus program.
How it works. You regularly run tournaments with free entry and the prize pool. The registration is massive and limited. The freerolls scheme and dates should be obvious for all the players.
Notes. You cannot run freerolls too often unless you don’t want players to stay in the non-paying league forever. You should have at least one perfectly working marketing channel to notify all the existing users about the upcoming event.
