How Players Choose Online Casinos Today: Reviews, Ratings and Reputation
In the modern online casino market, reputation is key. Customers are now digitally savvy, and know where to look to find out if a company is treating its customers right – and this is extra important for gambling operators. Customer testimonials and reviews, expert opinions, experiences and ratings aggregators have all been a thing for years, but have recently exploded in popularity. So what do players consider when looking at casino reviews and ratings?
According to some industry data sets, up to 90% of players consult some form of review platform before signing up to a new online casino. And some 80% use multiple review sites in order to compare data. That’s because customer experience matters. Players don’t like to get burnt, and online gamblers can be fickle with their time, attention and money, so they aren’t afraid of doing the research before committing.
Third Party Review Sites are Increasingly Important
Over the years, many of the common marketing tricks of the trade for online casinos have come back to bite them. Customers no longer trust brand messaging as much as they did in the early days of the internet. So, they turn to expert reviewers or other players for their opinions on a casino.
A platform like Casino.org and its dedicated Irish market page is a good example. It compares the various different casino options for Irish players by looking at bonuses, payouts banking options and more. Each operator gets a box in a scrollable grid, so players can identify key features of each at a glance, while also offering a wider guide that looks deeper into all aspects of identifying a reputable site.
Modern casino comparison sites use standardised metrics to evaluate casinos on their services, rather than marketing claims. When every casino says they have “expansive selections” of games, sometimes players just want to know X casino has 1000 slots while Y casino has 3000 slots and table games.
Some customers even use more than one reviewer or comparison site for validation. They trust a combination of expert reviewers and real players to give the feedback that will help them find the most reputable operations.
Casinos that aren’t showcasing their offerings to third-party reviewers will be behind in the race for customers. It is as simple as that.
What Players Look for in Casinos and How Platforms Compare Them
Players don’t look for a simple score out of five and that’s that. Sometimes an overall score, especially on a customer review aggregator, is a useful tool. However, surveys show players like to know more detail than that.
For example, time and time again in surveys, online casino fans say that fast withdrawals are the biggest decision factor in picking an operator. However, that doesn’t simply mean customers automatically flock to the casino with the fastest withdrawal system.
Fast withdrawals are just as much about the process around the withdrawal and the casino’s reputation for reliable and consistent service. It doesn’t matter if a casino pays some people out in five minutes, if a significant number of winners see delays or errors.
Casino reviewers often list the exact promised timeframe for a casino’s withdrawals, as well as player experiences of the system. Other factors you’ll commonly see listed by casino reviewers include:
- Licensing and regulation
- Exact game selections – developers, game types, numbers
- Payment method choices
- Bonuses and their terms
- Customer support availability and experience
Notice that withdrawal speeds and general user experience are often as important, if not more so, than bonuses to many gamblers. Which you might not think looking at the way they’re advertised.
Customer Experience and Support Matter as Much as Bonuses
In a recent UK Gambling Commission survey of British online gamblers, only 30% of players said they changed to a new gambling operator simply because of a bonus offer. While that is a significant number, it’s not as high as you might think looking at casino home pages or comparison sites where bonuses are usually front and centre.
Signing up to a site because of a bonus is one thing, but becoming a returning customer after using it is another. When players do decide to take up a casino bonus, they still want the entire experience to be engaging and seamless. A poor withdrawal experience can outweigh sign up incentives, especially if those winnings were from the bonus.
To this end, players, especially experienced ones, do use comparison and review sites to bonus hunt. They just look for specific considerations over headline numbers, such as:
- Bonus size
- Wagering requirement
- Games it is playable on
- Time limits or other restrictions
These bonus terms are sometimes – although it is not as common as it was – hidden in deep small text pages of terms and conditions. Even when they’re not, assembling a dozen casino bonus pages for comparison is a hassle. So, many players turn to paid experts who summarise the key clauses of each bonus for them to compare easily and conveniently.
All of this shows that the way players choose online casinos has changed dramatically from even 10 years ago. Long term customers for online casinos can’t be driven by singular factors or headline promotions, but by delivering a consistent service that stands up to scrutiny across the board.
