Like a frog in boiling water, sometimes you write about mobile casino promotions for so long that you expect everyone to know the jargon and what everything means.
And many times, we write about new casino tournaments and offers, tell you they are network casino promotions, and expect you to know what that means.
So here is where we clear up a common term and misconception and give you the odds of winning.
Exclusive Promotions Vs Network Casino Promotion
Most casino promotions we write about are specific to the online casino we’re talking about.
Think of the two-week Summer 2021 Vera and John slot tournament or the BGO Euro 2020 Free Spin Goal promo.
These are only available at the specific casino and are exclusive to them for a certain period of time. They cover about 80% of the promotions out there.
And then you get casino network promotions that tend to be set over multiple gambling sites and have big prizes up for grabs.
Think the £€$80,000 Yggdrasil Summer of Love promotion, for example, or the Pragmatic Play £€$62,500 Weekly Prize Drops.
What is a software provider?
You first need to understand the difference between a software provider and a casino operator.
Don’t those terms sound boring and business-like?
A software provider is an official term for what we like to call a game studio. These are the people who create the beautiful games in their office.
They have animators, graphic designers, mathematicians, and developers all coming together month to month to create your favourite mobile slots online.
Examples of software providers include Microgaming, NetEnt, Yggdrasil, Play’n GO, Quickspin, etc…
What is a casino operator?
A casino operator is a business renting those games and placing them on its website for you to play. So Leo Vegas casino, Hyper Casino, BGO Casino… all operators.
Think of the operator as the brick and mortar house, and the software provider as the actual slot machines being rolled onto the casino floor.
The operator has to pay a fee to have the games on their website. This fee is usually paid via a license, where they pay per the number of players who spin or as a monthly fee. Think of it like leasing a car.
Operators process the payments, combine games from different software providers, and provide front-of-house customer service, helping you every step of the way.
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So what’s a Network Casino Promotion?
An exclusive casino promotion is a promotion that you’ll only find at that one casino. When a prize is won, the casino operators only pay the winnings to the players playing at that casino.
A network casino promotion is run by the software provider and available to all of the casinos on their ‘network’. So, any casino can put the promotion on its site, and all players from multiple casinos can win the prizes.
That’s why it’s called a network promotion. It’s available to a network of casinos that license out the games from the software providers, and the prize is paid by the game studio rather than the casino.
You still get the money the same way, of course.
Are network casino promotions worth your while?
At first glance, you may wonder why you’d want to share in a competition where potentially hundreds of thousands of gamblers participate versus a promotion that is limited to only the players at a specific casino.
And you’re not wrong. Network promotions lower your odds of winning big because more players are chasing the prizes.
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But there also tend to be more prizes on offer, and they tend to be bigger, so in another way, those odds can cancel each other out.
Let’s have a quick look at the pros and cons.
The cons of network promotions:
- Long-drawn out dates – usually lasting weeks to a month
- More players competing means lower odds of winning
- The network promotion could be in 2 casinos or 50. You just don’t know how many when you get playing.
- It Can take 24/72 hours for winning to get in your account once the promotion is finished
The pros of network promotions:
- Bigger prizes split over lots of players
- Longer time to get involved
- The focus is on playing specific slot games rather than spending money
- You can find the promotion in multiple casinos so you can pick your favourite
- Cash prizes will be real cash – no wagering requirements, straight in your bank account
At the end of the day, whether you decide to take part in a network promotion will depend on the promotion itself, whether it’s at a casino you’re already playing at or a new casino you might want to try.
We love playing on a network promotion that gives us a chance to win either on our favourite slots that we’d play anyway (so it’s no extra effort) or allows us to explore unusual and new slot games.
