‘Tis the season of promos, and it’s time to conclude our online casino XMAS campaigns trilogy (yes Thomas, you already told us you took Trilogy at school). This is the current ranking, as appears on Part 1 and Part 2 of this year’s Christmas Promothon (along with scores): bwin (80), 888 (81; 2012 winner), Casino Club (70), William Hill (50), Europa (55), Mansion (65), Party (45), PAF (79; 2011 winner), Bet365 (65), Intertops (disqualified), Everest (70), and All Slots (58).

In this final part, the Hybrid Interaction Retention Experts will review a few additional leading brands that didn’t appear in the 2011 review: Betsson, 32Red, Virgin, GGN and InterCasino. Therefore, different metering parameters will have to be adopted, so this time, 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 (25 possible points).
• Creativity: Another advent calendar? No? GOOD! Yes? Well, then the opposite of GOOD (hey Thomas, DOOG is exactly your type of working!), but if you do it nicely enough and manage to innovate, it goes back to become the opposite of GOOD’s opposite term (25 possible points).
• General: Various parameters such as coolness and the potential to increase the operator revenues will be taken into consideration here (30 possible points).

As this ranking mechanism has never been previously applies, we can safely say that, scientifically speaking, it’s the best one of its kind, and as such, if you don’t like it, you can either find someone who really cares about your opinions or simply go and … watch this clip:

• PLEASE NOTE: You can’t compare results from this post with the previous ones, as the reviewing method has been changed. Following Promothons will be (try to be) more consistent.

BETSSON

• Fun: Damn … a special, beautifully crafted landing page, with no need to opt in. Nothing short of best of breed. 20 points. You know what? 21 points.
• Rewards: 42 days of various rewards including free spins (even on Roulette!), deposit bonus and all sorts of vertical-specific items (bingo, scratch, etc.). Yes, not too much per day, but there are enough options to keep everybody happy … 18 points.
• Creativity: No one can say that a nearly-a-month-and-half of a promo is your regular advent, even if it runs in December. The way it’s being presented and the entire approach is unique and refreshing, so 20 points.
• General: Bottom line – we liked it. That said, and considering their magnitude, there is a certain risk that these general perks might be very costly. We can only assume that their CRMers have thoroughly calculated even extreme scenarios, and eventually decided to go with this campaign. Therefore, we think that there is a chance that either the offers are not that attractive (only their players can answer on that), or indeed there is some sort of a risk here. So we will go with no more than 25 points.
• OVERALL: Excellent promo with an impressive84 point ranking. Fantastic display of superb capabilities.

32Red

• Fun: Cute and practical. One internal pager, with a single image and a rotating “Wheel of Prizes.” 14 points, as there are no opt-in requirements.
• Rewards: Each day in December, you are eligible for prizes like50%-100% deposit bonuses, raffles of either fine electronics or with cash prize pools of up to £10,000, free spins, and £250 Amazon vouchers. Very solid, yet nothing out of this world. 14 points.
• Creativity: It’s definitely a result of a process, and although it’s not earth-shattering, you can see that. 14 points.
• General: A very well-calculated campaign, with fun bonuses like 32 chips. A nice 24 points would do.
• OVERALL: Above average score of 66 point ranking. Bring us more like these.

VIRGIN

• Fun: Not really, but practical, and no opt-in. 10 points.
• Rewards: Reload code protected deposit bonus (up to £200, DEC 9-31), daily offer up to £2375 in cash (Dec.12-18), £20K raffle (Dec. 19-22). Not a generous 10 points.
• Creativity: Some. But not a lot of it. 15 points.
• General: A very well-calculated campaign, with fun bonuses like 32 chips. Passable at 15 points would do.
• OVERALL: Below par, but it seems they thought about it and launched it this because they probably thought that it’s a good fit to the players. Well, we think it is worth only 50 points, yet we would like to see more of the same models 32Red already got:

GGN

• Fun: Oh yes, with colorful creatures and obviously without an opt-in. 17 points.
• Rewards: Mini game in which you collect presents and win all sorts of pre-defined small prizes or free raffle tickets (Dec. 12-23), skype Santa for bonuses (Dec. 23-25), an open “wishes” forum (Dec, 12-25). Not much at all, so 8 points.
• Creativity: Unique, for sure, but it’s NOT roaring with action like some of the others. 18 points.
• General: You don’t want to be a CS agent during the Santa promo on while “End of the World” fever is at its peak. More content would have nailed it, so only 15 points.
• OVERALL: They have 58 points, as they got the entire setting placed well, yet the outcome is the opposite of how it should have been.

INTERCASINO

• Fun: Very very well-displayed calendar, and some stunning graphics on the supporting pages. Clear and fair T&C, and all players are auto-enrolled. 19 points.
• Rewards: “Holiday packages, cutting edge electronics, a state of the art Rolex watch, free cash and all sorts of amazing bonuses”. There are also some happy hours and free spins, and the campaign runs between Dec.1-25. 19 points.
• Creativity: Oozing – very talented CRM work. 19 points.
• General: Appealing promo, and the luxurious items are being given away as raffle rewards (so the cost was already calculated before approval). 25 points.
• OVERALL: 82 points can only be celebrated in the one way we have learned to appreciate – another clip of the dancing models!! Feel free to thank us later.

*********************************

Why only Casinos? Because they rock, and you don’t. Also, we can’t really rank other games the same way as casinos. But if you come across cool promos from other verticals, such as this one by ScratchGames.com, let us know (comment, call, email, telepathy) and we might find the power to do a quick cross-industry post even before the year (and the world, if you are a Mayan CRMer) ends:

*********************************

Done, and done. We welcome you to meet us this coming February in London either during iCE (Feb. 4-6) or LAC (Feb. 7-10). In any case, as this is the time in which most of you are leaving for the annual vacation in order to spend some time with your loved ones (or in your case, webcam pay sites), we wish you all to as few as possible minutes of being sober until 2013 kicks in.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

PS: Your iGamingCRM blog will return on Jan. 7, 2013, fully energized, and hopefully, with no recollection of the forthcoming two weeks. Collectively, we plea “NOT GUILTY”, your honor.