Good articles and an interesting subject although the evidence suggests the sign up bonus has not even been given the last rights yet, let alone gone to see its maker.
There is nothing wrong with the premise that there will come a tipping point but apparently we have not reached that yet and when we do how will the cycle actually be broken anyway?
The only incentive for casinos to come up with a better alternative is when they are losing players to their competition who have, erm well, come up with a better alternative because they are losing players...
The player already has the choice to not take the bonus and so for players who do not enjoy the sign up bonus it will not have impact upon where they play.
Without playing the blame game, corrupt punters/corrupt casinos (both are bad for business and the genuine player) the onus is absolutely on Casinos to change things for the better and not the player.
Firstly because of the reasons above the casino offers are driven by the industry and not the player as we might imagine with other industries that offer goods and secondly because the bonus offer is driven from a profitability POV by the casinos because they are a business that is driven by profit while the genuine punter is driven by different criteria - sure they want free stuff and benefits but ultimately they not driven by profit incentive but entertainment value.
Yes there are advantage players, fraudsters and the delusional players who believe they have a system but the vast majority play for entertainment and the "hope" of winning and the way you lose them is by pissing them off.
Simmo outlined his preferences and the things that annoy him and I think most players would be in general agreement but I would also add low returns because without bringing any conspiracy theory into this some casinos seem to truly have the games set to lower RTP than others and we might genuinely ask how some Casinos can consistently offer 100% bonuses or better with reasonable WR and yet still be profitable while others cannot.
(Now this is my experience only - casinos that offer very regular match deposit bonuses play much worse than those that don't. Is it possible that the software can be set to a different RTP on bonus play to regular play? Well of course it is possible but does it actually happen? Either way knocking match bonuses on the head would do away with any suspicions.)
The most obvious alternative for casinos is to offer a cashback bonus for a busted deposit but if that became so popular it was replacing the sign up/match bonus we would soon be in the same cycle, casinos would start placing restrictions on the cashback such as, cannot be cashed out before being turned over 5 times and so the cycle begins again...
So having concluded that any change will need to be driven by the casinos and that a cashback alternative will likely suffer the same fate what are we left with?
Much, much better loyalty programs.
This benefits both the casino (those that are prepared to go that extra mile for their customers at least) and the player.
The current loyalty point schemes that exist offer no incentive for loyalty at all - they are mostly irrelevant for the casino and player. Granted they are just a convoluted cashback scheme but they would have the advantage of any wagering being taken account of in the points award system so we wouldn't get the attached T&C arms race. (hopefully)
As things stand though they are generally the equivalent of a 0.01% cashback offer which isn't that enticing and certainly doesn't generate loyalty.
If they were improved dramatically and replaced the disingenuous match bonuses that might change and casinos should be aware that even though points are awarded for all wagering and not just losses, a very good reward system will encourage a player to continue playing even while winning.
Otherwise it could be tweaked to offer loyalty rewards only on losing bets.
The main problem is marketing it in a way that makes it obvious to players, new players especially, that a casino which offers a genuinely rewarding loyalty program is better than one that offers a flashy headline grabbing, "Double your money!" match bonus and craptacular loyalty program.
That is what marketing departments are for though right? Yeah you guys should actually earn your money by being, wait for it, original!
I can think of a few ways off the bat but it's not my line of expertise.
I can think of a couple of genuinely original replacements for match bonuses as well that would seem to fulfill the criteria of promoting the better customer oriented casinos to players which would also help the responsible affiliates market the best casinos for their players too. win, win, win.
In that regard I think an initiative between top brands and top affiliates (and by top I mean those who want to earn a good living but not screw the pooch) would be the best way to get the ball rolling.
It takes balls to throw out something that has become industry standard and is tried and tested though, so we may have to sink a little further into mire before people realise they are wading through s**t.
say now that i never made it to a withdrawal, not once!!!! Only after busting out with the bonuses and depositing straight without any extras i started cashing in regularly.
Played for some 4 hours and busted out with bets from 0.90-4.50, mostly on DOA.
I only take them because 32RED does not have any BS rules, just straight 30xWR and no restrictions on withdrawals.
. Just my 2 cents anyway.
