Casino Tournaments – How They Work And Where to Play Them

As casino sites are constantly looking for ways to engage players and further enhance the gaming experience, online casino tournaments are becoming increasingly common. 

Today, many casinos are keeping busy tournament schedules, introducing a fun-loving element of competition and a social aspect to the gaming experience. Read on to learn what casino tournaments are, how they work and where you can play exciting tournaments and lay your hands on massive cash prizes!

Casino tournaments are mostly played on slots and allow players to compete against each other in chosen games to win a share of a prize pool. 

There are many variations and prize structures, and tournaments can either be hosted by the casinos themselves or occasionally by game providers. 

These tournaments can be daily, weekly or even monthly competitions. It is also not uncommon for casinos to have tournaments that merely last an hour, or sometimes less, to keep a jam-packed tournament schedule throughout the day.

How a Casino Tournament Works in a Nutshell:

  • You play and accumulate tournament points by performing specific actions, such as placing real money wagers, scoring high win multipliers or getting the highest net win. The leader board is usually updated in real-time so that you can follow your progress with every spin. To participate, you must generally meet a few criteria, such as having made at least one deposit with the casino.
  • Your objective is to rank as high as possible on the leader board. The more points you have, the higher you will rank. Usually, casinos will split a prize pool between the top 50 to 100 players.
  • The top three players usually receive particularly bountiful prizes. The rest of the prize pool is then divided equally, or according to rank, among the remaining ranked players.

Types of casino tournaments:

  • Real Money Tournaments – In these tournaments, you place real money wagers and collect points that determine your rank on the leaderboard.
  • Tournaments That Are Played With Credits or Spins – You buy-in to the tournament at a fixed fee or by making a qualifying deposit. You then receive tournament credits or spins that you use to play. When you have finished the credits or spins, you can occasionally purchase a re-buy to receive more, keep playing and improve your rank on the leaderboard.

What is the difference between these two tournament types?

The big difference is that you cannot win any real money on the actual spins in tournaments that use credits or spins. The sole purpose of these credits is to collect points that will improve your rank on the leaderboard. In other words, you only compete for tournament prizes, which indeed are mostly cash prizes. A big advantage of these tournaments is that they allow you to play a lot longer at a smaller fee.

In real money tournaments, you place real money wagers. Therefore, you stand to win additional wins on top of any prizes you bag in the tournament. The drawback is that these tournaments cost a lot more to play.

Prizes That You Can Win In Online Slot Tournaments

Tournaments prize pools commonly comprise both cash and free spins. Most casinos have prize pools ranging from around $500 to $1,000 with approximately 500 to a 1,000 free spins. 

However, you do come across casinos with massive prize pools in the thousands. Having said that, you must keep in mind that prize pools are always split between a rather large number of players.

Here is a quick glance at the various prizes you stand to win in an online slot tournament:

Cash prizes – These are usually bonus credits with a standard, or occasionally lowered, wagering requirement. For example, if you win cash prize in:

Free spins – Wagering requirements typically apply – however, they are often lower than the casino’s standard wagering requirement for free spin wins.

Physical prizes – These could comprise mobile phones and computers or even trips. These kinds of prizes are much less common than cash prizes and free spins.

Many casinos create combinations of these various prize categories, and most will offer a variety of cash prizes and free spins. In such tournaments, the top-three-to-five players usually receive a cash prize, while the remaining players split an allocated pot of free spins.

Examples of Online Slot Tournaments

Here  are a few examples of typical casino tournaments in different categories.

AU Example

Daily Tournaments at Woo Casino

Woo Casino’s Daily Slot Race is a typical example of a daily casino tournament. Each day, this casino rewards 50 players with free spins and cash prizes. Here are the details:

Prize pool: €800 and 800 free spins.

Prize Structure

RankPrize
1€250
2€150
3€175
4-15Cash prizes ranging from €10 to €60.
16-50Between 10 and 50 free spins.

Qualification: You must have made at least one deposit.

Rules:

  • You can only play slots.
  • A point system determines your rank on the leaderboard. Every €1 wagered gives you 1 point.
  • A x3 wagering requirement applies to all cash prizes and free spins. Prizes must be wagered in 7 days.
  • Free spins valid on Elvis the Frog in Vegas* – the game most likely changes with every day/week.

*Games may change.

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Fastpay Casino’s Monthly Slot Race

Fastpay Casino hosts a monthly slot race running starting on the 10th of every month. Here are the details:

Prize pool: €1,000 and 800 free spins.

Prize Structure

RankPrize
1€300
2€200
3€150
4-10Cash prizes ranging from €10 to €100.
11-5020 free spins.

Qualification: You must have made at least three deposits.

Rules:

  • The race starts on the 10th every month and closes at 23:00 UTC, on the 9th of the following month.
  • You can only play Evoplay slots.
  • A point system determines your rank on the leader board. Every €10 wagered gives 1 point.
  • A x10 wagering requirement applies to all cash prizes and free spins. Prizes must be wagered in 48 hours.
  • Free spins wins are capped at €50/USD/75 AUD.
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UK EXAMPLE

Betfair offers a wide range of tournaments with various prizes. You can play weekly tournaments or participate in several daily ones that only last 20 minutes.

The prize pools range from as little as €100 up to €10,000 in cash. Here is an example of a typical tournament we found at the time of writing:

Betfair’s Weekly Slot Tournament

Prize pool: €5,200 in cash and 1,500 free spins.

Prize Structure

RankPrize
1€1,500
2€1,000
3€500
4€400
5€300
6-10€100
11-25100 free spins

Qualification: None specified.

Rules: The tournament uses a point-based system. You earn points as follows:

  • Get five Consecutive Losses: 15 points.
  • Get two Consecutive Wins: 10 points.
  • Hit a 15x Win or more: 50 points.

Rules:

  • You must bet at least 20c per spin.

BGO Casino’s Tournaments

BGO’s offers several online slot tournaments lasting from 59 minutes up to six hours. To participate, you must make a deposit at least 24 hours before the tournament ends.

Once you have met the requirement, you can enter any tournament. When you have joined a tournament, you receive a certain number of tournament spins.

You then use these spins to play the designated games and try to achieve a score that will place you as high as possible on the leaderboard. Here is an example of a typical tournament at BGO Casino:

Daily Drop

Prize pool: £300 and 120 free spins.

Prize Structure

RankPrize
1£200
2£75
3€25
4-10€20 free spins

Qualification: Deposit at least 24 hours before the tournament ends.

Rules:

  • You receive 20 tournament spins on Siberian Storm. Simply play and hope that your game results translate into a score that places you on the leaderboard.
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US Example

Lincoln Casino offers multiple tournaments on both slots and Keno. Some tournaments last for more than a week, while others are done and dusted in 24 hours.

The prize pools are also varied and range from $100 up to $5,000. They are usually split between the ten highest-ranked players.

The Month Long

Prize pool: $5,000 cash.

Prize Structure

RankPrize
1$1,500
2$750
3$500
4$250
5$250
6$100
7$100
8$100
9$100
10$100

Qualification: A $5 buy-in.

Rules:

  • When you have purchased the buy-in, you receive a certain number of spins that you use to play and score points that rank you on the leaderboard. When you are out of spins, you can purchase a $5 re-buy to keep playing and improve your leader board position.
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FAQ

Casino tournaments are competitions in which players compete for their share of a prize pool. These tournaments are usually hosted on slots, but you can occasionally find casinos with tournaments on other games.

To win a casino tournament, you must score points and rank among the top winners on a leaderboard. Casinos usually reward between 10 and 100 winners, which split the prize pool. Prizes generally comprise cash and free spins or a combination of both.

You win by playing designated games and scoring points. The more points you accumulate, the higher you will rank on the leaderboard. Generally, casinos select 50 to 100 winners that share a prize pool, and the prizes are relative to the leaderboard rankings.

To participate in a casino tournament, you must generally have made at least one deposit or buy into the tournament at a fixed fee.

A slot tournament is essentially a casino tournament valid on slots. Most online casino tournaments are, in fact, slot tournaments.

You win by scoring points and ranking as high as possible on the leaderboard.

Depending on the tournament, you score by points by placing real money wagers or hitting high win multipliers. Usually, a specific action translates to a number of points – for instance, a $1 real money wager may give you 1 tournament point.

Most slot tournaments require a qualifying deposit or a buy-in. However, you can browse our recommended no deposit casinos and see if any are offering free slot tournaments.

Yes, you absolutely can. Most casinos with slot tournaments use HTML5 websites that allow for a seamless gaming experience on any smartphone or tablet.

Yes, you can. Most casino tournaments have cash prizes that come with wagering requirements. Once you have wagered your winnings, you will be able to cash out any remaining funds.

It is worth noting that many casinos apply lower wagering requirements to tournament wins than they do to their no deposit and match deposit bonuses.

It is impossible to say as there are many casinos offering slot tournaments. However, we can highly recommend Betfair for UK players, and Lincoln Casino for players in the US. If you are located in Australia, New Zealand or any other country, we can recommend Woo Casino.

Published on: 2021/04/14

About the Author

Hi, I'm Courtney, the Webmaster at No Deposit Kings - We provide visitors with free and easy access to real money casino gaming thanks to no deposit casino bonuses offered by our hand-picked selection of online casinos.