With so many online casinos to choose from, they’re all fighting to win your custom. The most obvious way they do this is with sign-up bonuses, which dominate advertisements for most online casinos.

However, they usually have a loyalty scheme to keep you playing once you’ve joined, and special tournaments for the most experienced players to take part in.

Sign-up Bonuses
Look out for a deposit match when you join a new casino – this is a chance to earn extra gaming credit, based on the amount you initially pay into your account.

It’s usually calculated as a percentage of your pay-in, rather than as a fixed sum, so the more you deposit, the more you receive in bonus credit.

Just remember you probably won’t get away with withdrawing your real money and still keeping the bonus funds, so don’t pay in more than you can afford in the hope of tricking the bonus system.

Loyalty Schemes
Often called bonus schemes or VIP schemes, loyalty points are awarded based on the amount you wager at your chosen site.

This clearly favors people who play often and bet big, which is where the VIP label comes from – it’s easier to reach the top tier of the scheme if you’re a high-roller.

Many bonus programs have multiple tiers – often called bronze, silver, gold and platinum – so look out for when you’re nearing the next level, and what new offers you can take advantage of.

Special Tournaments
Some contests are only open to VIPs – especially those where players are pitted against each other, like poker.

Look out for these and you can rest assured that the field of competitors will have a decent amount of quality within it – and you won’t lose out to a newbie making an outlandish bluff that no experienced player would ever try!

Similarly, if the field is restricted to your own VIP tier, you can feel confident that most of your competitors will have similar levels of experience and strategy, giving you an even better chance of making it to the final table.

Freeroll Slots
Of course, it’s not just poker that appears in tournament form – there’s also freeroll slots tournaments.

These let you play the online slots for a designated period of time, or a fixed number of spins, and your overall winnings determine your place on the scoreboard.

You don’t get your winnings, but instead the top-placed players receive a cash prize fixed before the tournament began.

Again, you can sometimes buy into freerolls using loyalty points, and sometimes there’s a small cash entry fee for similar tournaments.

Different casinos have all sorts of different promotions, payouts, prizes and tournaments, so look out for the news page at your chosen site.

Keep a close eye on this for newly launched promotions and special VIP offers, and you can make the most of the loyalty you’ve built up at your favorite site.