*** UPDATE: Click here to read Part 3 of the 2012 XMAS Promothon

Back for more, eh? Part 1 of the 2012 Christmas Promothon included reviews of the recent promotional campaigns from some of the leading online casinos: bwin, 888, Casino Club, William Hill, Europa Casino and the Mansion Group. In this second part, we examine the campaigns of Party Casino, PAF, Bet365, Intertops, Everest, and All-Slots.

A quick reminder on how we’re scoring the promos. Points are allocated on the basis of:

• Fun: Design, theme, and how easy is it for a player to opt in (20 possible points)
• Rewards: Offering and prize generosity levels (30 possible points)
• Creativity: Is it different from last year’s promo? And here is the twist – same s**t, different year? 10 points will be deducted from your 2011 score, you lazy bastards. However, a new factor can give you an automatic 10 points. And that is if it’s truly innovative and not just another advent calendar, extra bonus points can be added to the overall result .(Unlike your yearly bonus, surpassing a total score of 100 is a possibility.)
• General: Various parameters such as coolness and the potential to increase the operator revenues will be taken into consideration here (40 possible points).

This is an excellent metering system, as a) we said so,  b) otherwise we wouldn’t have used it … like da? and c) we said so. Now that we’re all in agreement, let’s start shaking that tail feather:

PARTY CASINO

• Fun: One simple image in a plain internal page, and players must opt in. 5 points. Might have been slightly higher, but “Stacks of prezzies”? At least we are happy for them being so sure about their sexuality.
• Rewards: They promise “over 100,000 guaranteed prizes across this 10-day seasonal blowout!” But there are no further details whatsoever, and these rewards are supposed to be credited at random. Also, the text is not that great – hey, if we had pictures of sexy dancers we would have had something else to do other than focus on your content, right? 15 points.
• Creativity: This we can assert without question (we’ll leave the matter of pride to them and their prezzies) – last year was even worse! 10 points.
• General: Simple and not bright. 15 points.
• OVERALL: The Undefeated Worst Promo Of The Year for the second time in a row, going from a previous total of a humiliating 30 points to still-embarrassing 45 point ranking. Yes, it is an improvement, and maybe they really do want to get in the ring and compete with the other big boys, but as it seems, all they do is pull a fight.

PS: we were asked to remove all links to Party Casino. Hmmm….

PAF

• OVERALL: Very disappointing from last year’s winner. Indeed it was an excellent offering, and it still is a very good promo, yet we like innovation. They did change the graphics a bit, so 2 points are knocked off of their automatic 10 points removal penalty. So all told, they have a very worthy campaign ranking of 79 points. As much as the view is nice, we hate watching them go by.

BET365

• OVERALL: Again, exactly the same event as last year, which was very good and scored quite high with 72 points. They did include two add-ons: a $16K raffle spread across various days and a 25% deposit bonus up to $500 (Dec. 8, 20 and 25). But all of these require the players to opt in. So only 7 points are deducted and for their three promos they end up with a total of 65 points (get it? Three, 65? Hilarious). It seems that beneath that HUGE operator suit, there is nothing but an amateur dancer.

• OVERALL: Unrankable, as they have NO Christmas promo. So be it. They do have a very nice Hobbit promo you should check out, but as far as our Promothon goes, they are eliminated. Pass on, will you?

EVEREST

• Fun: Not so bright, yet satisfactory. There is a need for to opt-in, so only 12 points.
• Rewards: Each week through December there is a new offering, ranging from match bonuses ($100 – $200), a raffle for electronics and bonuses, and the highlight of the event – a leaderboard with a prize pool of $30,000. The top 3 winners will also each win a 1 oz gold bar (worth about $1,750; sweet!). Mostly dull, yet definitely not bad and a unique top prize – 20 points.
• Creativity: For sure! 10 points.
• General: We kind of liked it here, even if it’s not a groundbreaking campaign, and surely, they don’t lose money on such a simple approach. 25 points.
• OVERALL: What a comeback from last year’s 57-point DeLorean ride! We chipped in an extra point for every gold bar they have promised to give away, so the total is now at 70 points. Well done, Major Tom.

ALL SLOTS

• Fun: Superb design, without any opt-in requirement. A clear 20 Points case.
• Rewards: Not too many details, but it seems occasionally there are going to be some sort of “Santa Parties” announced in which lots of free bonuses (up to 300 credits) will be distributed to logged players. They say tomato, we say 10 points.
• Creativity: Indeed, but nothing on top of the automatic 10 points.
• General: Apart from the cool design, there is not much to it. So yeah, they will only hand out prizes to players they like (AKA – the larger VIPs and the active NGR generators), but while they were looking for Santa, they forgot to also look for some interest to add to the contest – 18 points.
• OVERALL: Unlike last XMAS Promothon’s solid 65 points, this time the good All Slots slipped to only 58 points. Bummer, as there is so much appeal in their graphics, you are already having fun before betting the first chip.

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UPDATE: The fine CRMers of Europa Casino (feliz cumpleaños, mi hermano!) have already commented on their not-so-flattering score of 55 points, saying that within the gaming lobby, players can log into a specially launched Christmas area, filled with cool animations and access tailor-made promos for featured games. Being objective (don’t just roll your eyes – BRIBE US ALREADY!!), we assess all promos according to public data found on the brands’ websites. Apart from giving them the opportunity to show off with some fantastic screen shots – we can’t really do anything else. Unless you already know our IBAN, that is…

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Are we there yet? Nearly. Part 3 will include reviews of Betsson, Virgin, 32Red, GGN and InterCasino. If you have additional brands you believe we should review simply contact us with the promo’s details. And until next time, here is a clip that doesn’t even require any smart comments:

PS: Meet us during the London events – iCE (Feb. 4-6) and LAC (Feb. 7-10) 2013. You could win free access to our website! (Well, not you Thomas. You have to keep paying.)

*** UPDATE: Click here to read Part 3 of the 2012 XMAS Promothon