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Casino
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> Betfair
Casino Review Betfair
Casino
Review Welcome
Bonus: Our
Rating: Introduction Betfair
is the world's biggest online
betting community and pioneered
the first successful betting
exchange back in 2000. Best known
for their mostly sport-related
betting exchange service, Betfair
already have more than three
million customers and their
Online
Casino
has recently been given a fresh
look with new games software and
a new website. Everything
has had a complete overhaul -
read on to discover how they've
done. Getting
Started Once
you've visited the
Betfair
Casino
Website,
you'll notice that there are two
different ways to play at Betfair
Casino - you can either download
the casino's software to your PC
or you can play the 'Instant
Play' version where there's no
software download required and
you play the games in your
browser. Most
players will opt for the download
version as it comes with several
advantages over its no-download
counterpart. First, there are
considerably more games to enjoy
if you choose to download the
casino. The download version has
more than 150 Casino
Games
compared to just 40-odd in the
Instant Play version. Most
online casinos offer both
'download' and 'no download'
versions of their casino and for
the most part, they're pretty
similar. However, in the case of
Betfair, it's definitely
recommended to choose the
download casino to get the most
out the experience. Free
Money Welcome
Bonus Betfair
offer a Free
Money Welcome
Bonus
to new players - your first three
deposits will be increased with a
free money bonus which can get
you up to a total of £200
free. These bonuses work as
follows: You'll
need to deposit a minimum amount
of £25 to get each of the
above three bonuses. For
the high rollers out there,
Betfair have a 'VIP bonus'
available where you can deposit
£1000 (or more) and get a
whopping £500 free to hit
the games with The
welcome bonus can be a great way
to boost your initial bankroll,
extend your gaming session and
increase your chances of hitting
a big win but as with all online
casinos, it does come with some
restrictions and conditions that
you need to be aware of.
Fortunately, Betfair have made
things quite simple and their
bonus terms and conditions are
some of the best we've come
across an an online
casino. In
order for your bonus funds to
become withdrawable to cashout,
you need to wager 20 times your
total bonus and first deposit
amount. For example, if your
first deposit is £50 it will
be matched with a £50 free
money bonus, giving you a total
starting balance of £100 and
it is this amount (£100)
that must be wagered 20 times
before you can cashout the bonus.
With our example of depositing
£50 to get a £50 bonus
(giving you a total starting
balance of £100), you will
need to wager your £100
balance 20 times (£2000)
before you can
withdraw. Not
all games contribute 100% towards
the 20x playthrough requirements
- the table below explains which
games count towards the
playthrough
requirement. It's
all done to protect the casino
from a player depositing,
grabbing the free money bonus and
then immediately cashing out the
lot. It's all pretty standard and
Betfair's terms are far from
unreasonable compared to some of
their competitors. Betfair
Casino also offer regular 'reload
bonuses'. These bonuses are based
on your spending levels and will
come as a very welcome addition
to your Betfair wallet whenever
they're available. Your
welcome bonus should be credited
pretty much instantly once you've
deposited and requested the
bonus. It's very pleasing to note
that Betfair have listened to our
earlier criticisms about being
forced to accept bonuses because
now there's no requirement to
take them if you'd rather play
without bonus money. It's
quite common for players not to
bother with bonuses - this way,
you don't have to worry about any
playthrough requirements or
restricted games. Casino
Games We've
kept a watchful eye on Betfair
Casino and they've continued to
make big changes to their online
casino and to say it's improved
things would be something of an
understatement. Betfair now uses
games provided by casino software
developer Playtech and they're up
there with the best. One
excellent feature at Betfair
Casino is the ability to play
either for real money or just for
fun. Select fun mode and you're
presented with a £2,000
starting balance to mess around
with. You can do this everytime
you login to the casino - just
select 'play for real money' or
'play for fun' and you're good to
go. Playing
for fun rather than real money
might sound pointless but it's
actually really good fun and
becomes a great way to pass a bit
of time without risking the rent
money. It's also an ideal
opportunity to check out new
games that you're not familiar
with or brush up on your
techniques - at zero risk to your
bank balance. When
playing in fun mode, you can
switch over to real money play at
any time. You'll
find all of the classic
favourites at Betfair Casino,
including roulette, blackjack,
video poker, slots, baccarat and
loads more. There are also many
variations of these games to
play, including multi-hand
blackjack, 3D roulette, 21 Duel
Blackjack, Pontoon, 50 Line Joker
Poker and literally hundreds of
others. Don't worry if some or
all of these games are unfamiliar
to you. If you want to have a
play then try them first in 'fun
money' mode and you'll soon get
the hang of things. It's
worth taking a look at Betfair's
Progressive
Jackpot
games which offer life-changing
wins. These casino games - and we
counted 20 of them - have monster
jackpots. If
you fancy something a bit
different then you'll enjoy
Betfair Casino's Arcade Games
section which includes Keno,
Jackpot Darts, Pop Bingo and
Heads or Tails. They're good fun
and a welcome distraction if you
need a break from the usual
casino games. You'll
probably notice that some of the
games haven't been automatically
downloaded when you first
downloaded the casino. You'll see
a 'Click To Download' button next
to these games. As Betfair Casino
contains so many games, only a
core few are downloaded when you
first install the casino software
to your PC. It means you get a
quicker initial download and you
can download any additional games
you want to check out when you're
ready for them. New
games are added frequently to
Betfair Casino and these became
available to download from the
casino lobby in the software. Do
take the time to look at the
Marvel-branded games such as The
Incredible Hulk slot game -
they're quite
brilliant. Zero
Lounge It's
no secret that there's been much
work going on behind the scenes
at Betfair putting together this
online casino before it was
launched - and it shows. It
became known that Betfair were
going to do something a bit
different to offer a unique
feature for players. In other
words, they've tried to stand out
from the crowd - something they
admit isn't easy with so many
other online casinos to compete
with. Betfair's
idea was to offer casino
customers the most popular games
but without a house edge, giving
players better odds of winning
and this has arrived in the form
of the Betfair Zero Lounge -
something quite unique in the
online casino scene. Betfair's
Zero Lounge games provides its
players with theoretical 100%
return-to-player percentages
across the four most popular
casino games - roulette,
blackjack, baccarat and jacks or
better video poker. At
the time of writing (12 June
2011), Betfair remains the only
casino offering these casino
games at 0% house margin. Here's
how they work: Betfair's
Zero Lounge is a welcome breath
of fresh air and we can only
applaud Betfair for coming up
with a brand new twist and one
that is definitely good for their
players. It's
only natural to question why
Betfair would offer casino games
with no house edge. A Betfair
representative said: "We
revolutionised the sport betting
industry with our exchange and
just launching a generic casino
with the same margins as everyone
else just wouldn't be Betfair. We
have always looked to provide the
best possible value for our
customers." Real
Deal Games - Virtual
Dealers Betfair
have added a new category of
games called Read Deal to their
online casino. Found under the
'Arcade' section of their
website, Real Deal introduces six
new exclusive casino games that
Betfair claim will "revolutionise
the industry." Real
Deal has been two years in
development at Betfair's gaming
labs and they believe that the
games demonstrate the future of
online casinos. The
six new Real Deal games are
European Blackjack, Vegas
Blackjack, Pontoon, European
Roulette, Baccarat and Money
Wheel. Real Deal is all about
virtual dealers. We tried to play
all six Real Deal games and
results were mixed. The laptop we
were using isn't exactly brand
new but it's not creaking at the
edges either and some of the
games were quite slow. Even
worse, a couple of them wouldn't
work at all. So
is Real Deal any good? We'd like
to say it WILL be good but
perhaps there are a few teething
problems to work out first. It's
probably advisable to try these
games only on a hi-spec PC or
laptop as the games clearly don't
perform well on anything less.
We'll be checking in with the
Real Deal games again in the near
future to see how they're
performing. We
reported in detail on the Real
Deal games in August 2010 -
Click
Here To Read Our
Review
(will open in a new window for
you). Loyalty
Rewards Most
online casinos offer their
players some kind of loyalty
bonus and Betfair is no
different. All
of your gambling on the download
version of Betfair's online
casino will earn you 'comp
points' which can be exchanged
for cash. Both
download and instant game play
customers are supported by a
personalised VIP program. Betfair
spend plenty of money on
sponsorship and other advertising
and they've used these
industry-connections to provide
'money can't buy' hospitality
rewards at Ascot Racecourse,
Manchester United and
Barcelona. You
can see your comp points balance
and exchange them for real money
at any time via the casino's
'cashier' section. Tweaks
And Preferences No
two online casinos are exactly
the same and this goes equally
for players - we all have our own
preferences and Betfair does
allow for this by letting you
change various
settings. Changes
you can make when you click
'Options' include enabling
full-screen mode, using large
cards in card games, close-up
slot games, fast-play (without
animation), hide double-up
options in video poker and
more. You
can also change or remove various
audio settings (eg. dealer's
voice). Support Clicking
'Help' from the casino will open
up a new window with wealth of
information. This comes in the
form of various guides on how to
deposit or withdraw funds and
'how to' guides for all of
Betfair's casino games. It's all
very straightforward and you
shouldn't have any
problems. In
the event that you can't find
what you need or if you just need
a quick word with Betfair's
customer support team then help
is easily at hand. Click on
'Contact Us' and you'll be given
information to contact them via
telephone, e-mail or post. They
can be reached 24/7, 365 days a
year. Summary Betfair
Casino have made gigantic strides
forward with their relaunched
online casino. The games are
better, the website is easier to
understand and the new Zero
Lounge is just brilliant. They
have themselves admitted that
they needed to do something
'different' to stand out from the
crowd in the "highly saturated
world of online casinos" and in
our opinion, they've nailed
it. Well
done, Betfair - you've earned
your five stars. |
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