At Unibet, bets placed in their live casino will earn you bonuses in you sports bet bonuses.  Bet €10 on blackjack in their live casino and you get a €5 bonus to bet with on sports. Bet €30 on live blackjack and you get a €15 sports bet bonus.  If your live blackjack wagers are more than €50 in total, your sportsbet bonus is €25.

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At Super Casino all wagers on the day put you into the draw for a Sony PlayStation3 plus games and Blue-Ray films.

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At William Hill Vegas it’s pretty simple. Every £25 played through on any of their games on this day puts you in the draw for £1,000 cash.

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Finally, at Smart Live Casino, you will get 10% of any losses credited back to your account to a maximum of £75.

There you go, a little bit of Christmas cheer with only 9 sleeps to go!

For a more complete list of what’s  happening promo-wise this festive season, visit our Hot Offers section in the forums.

Either way, this is what’s behind the calendar door for casinos running daily advent giveaways…

At SuperCasino all play puts you in the draw for a 16Gb iPad2…

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At Smart Live Casino you’ll get 10% back on your live baccarat bets for the day…

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At William Hill Vegas’ live casino you get £10 back on any losses for the day…

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At William Hill Vegas’ generally every £25 wagered gets you a ticket in a £1,000 cash draw …

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At Unibet you can still catch the tail end of their €1000 draw. Every €10 wagered gets you a ticket.  10 winners each get €100…

Here are our best picks.

bet365′s 12 Levels of Christmas

• Running: 1^st to 31^st December
• How it works: Bets on all casino games (including live) earn comp points. You then win a prize based on the comp point level you reach. 12 levels in all.
• What you get: Prize is determined by the level you reach (see below)
• More details: here or at bet365

888 Casino’s New Year Prize Giveaway

• Running: 1^st December to 1^st January
• How it works: Every £50/$50/€50 deposited and wagered in their live casino gets you a ticket in a draw that will take place on 2 January.
• What you get: 8 winners will receive prizes as follows:
  1^st - £3,000/$3,000/€3.000
  2^nd - £2,000/$2,000/€2.000
  3^rd - £1,000/$1,000/€1.000
  4^th - £800/$800/€800
  5^th - £500/$500/€500
  6^th - Lamborghini Laptop
  ^7th - Sony PSP Vita
  8^th - Samsung Galaxy S2
• More details: here or at 888

Betfair’s £40,000 Christmas Races

• Running: 1^st to 31^st December
• How it works: Every bet staked of £5 or more in their live casino earns you a race point. The more points you get the higher up the live leader board you go.
• What you get: Bonus cash (10x wager requirement attached) in accordance with below table.
• More details: here or at Betfair

Supercasino’s Prize-a-day Christmas Advent calendar

• Running: 1^st to 25^th December
• How it works: Every day until Christmas they’r holding  a prize draw.  To be in it all you need to do is deposit £20 or more and play in their live casino on that day.
• What you get: Prizes vary each day and include iPhone 4S, Kindle, Wii Fit, iPad2, LG home cinema system, golf clubs, HiFi systems, Sony Playstations…
• More details: here or at Supercasino

William Hill’s Live Casino Christmas Calendar

• Running: 1^st to 31^st December
• How it works: Each day there’s  different prize and different qualification criteria.
• What you get: Prizes include entry into a £2,012 cash prize draw, iPads, iPod Touch’s and HTC Wildfire’s
• More details: here or at William Hill (Vegas)

Mystery Advent Calendars from Unibet and Smart Live Casino

• Running: 1^st to 25^th December
• How it works: Each new day unlocks a surprise Christmas bonus.
• What you get: We don’t know! Future dates on the calendar are locked. You’ll have to find out on the day!
• More details: at Smart Live Casino or at Unibet

                              Merry Christmas!

Late last week the owners of SuperCasino came out with the announcement that they have not only built an iPhone app. for their live roulette game, but that it had been approved by Apple and added to the AppStore.

The game can now be downloaded free directly from the App Store by iPhone users in the UK and it pretty much offers most of the functionality of the TV version of the game that is broadcast shown on Channel Five and various other networks across Britain.  You can bet with real money, message the presenter and see live video stream of the game as it happens – albeit on a much smaller window.

Whether live dealer/presenter games are a good fit for the iPhone is debatable. After all the real appeal of these games is seeing and interacting with a real dealer – live and large as if you were sitting across the table from them in a traditional casino.  I reckon a certain amount of this appeal is lost when the game window is so small.

Nevertheless, the wider significance of this development can’t be understated.

In May BetFair became the first company to get a real money betting app approved by Apple for addition to the AppStore. But this was sports betting related rather than casino games.  If I had to take a punt on the first company to get a casino game over the line I would have said Spin3 (Microgaming mobile unit) or Playtech, who also have an impressive mobile offering and strong UK presence.

SuperCasino’s live roulette app has beaten a long list eager companies to the punch to be the first real money game added to the AppStore.  A very impressive achievement from a company that’s a live gaming specialist rather than a mobile gaming one.

So if you’re:

• from the UK; and
• use an iPhone; and
• like roulette; and
• like your dealers very small

then pop into the AppStore for a look see!

More screen shots and user reviews of the game can be found at the iTunes site.

Blackjack’s actually never left Supercasino. It’s been offered in live TV and RNG  format for some time now.

What they are actually referring to is a promotion that they are running for the month of July that caught our eye.  The eye catching bit isn’t so much the promo itself;  the UK player to turnover the most during July playing any of their blackjack games gets a £500 Selfridges voucher -  not exactly mind blowing.

The more interesting part is that they have added a completely new live dealer platform to their game line-up to compliment their live TV games.  Which one I hear you ask?

The clue’s in the screen shot pic in the above banner.  Recognize the live dealer studio?

Of course you do…it’s Playtech’s Euro dealers.  So now they have a genuine 24/7 live-for-web casino platform for their players.  Is it just us or was this added without all the  fanfare and trumpet blowing that is usually synonymous with the online gambling industry?

Anyway, its a great development for Supercasino players.

While we’re on Supercasino, it should also be mentioned that  they’re also running a promo on their TV roulette game. It’s called Spin a Million, and as the name suggests they are giving players the chance to win a £1 million.

Seems they’ve been pretty busy over there at the offices of NetPlayTV.

To visit the casino, click here

To read our review, click here

LD

Casino TV isn’t new.  As far back as 2005 subscribers to Sky Digital in the UK have been able to play casino games on their TV’s courtesy of Vegas 24/7 Broadcasting Ltd’s pioneering roulette television game.

But back then, game range and availability (ie networks and channels) were severely limited.  It was still very much an experimental gaming medium.

Five years on, judging by the levels of investment and activity in this area, it seems the experiment has proven to have legs.  Casino TV has grown from a 1-operator, 1-channel, 1-game. 1-country concern, to something far more prevalent.  It’s not quite as ubiquitous as the late night shopping channels, but it is gaining ground…fast.

Two of the more aggressive players in this space driving this expansion are the Smart Gaming Group who operate  Smart Live Casino and NetPLay TV Plc who acquired Vegas 24/7 Broadcasting a couple of years back and now operate a TV casino under the brand Super Casino.

Distribution channels expanding, in the UK and abroad

Game range is no longer limited to roulette.  Viewers can now play blackjack and baccarat as well.  And access isn’t limited to Sky subscribers in the UK.  Now a bunch of channels, including subscriber and free-to-air, within the UK and abroad are screening the games.

Smart Live games are now being broadcast on SKY and Freesat to UK viewers as well as over  the Hispasat Spanish satellite network, into Western and Central European via Europbird and as of last week to Maltese players via that country’s largest pay-tv network -  Melita TV.

Meanwhile, Netplay have been just as busy getting their games on more channels in more countries, with broadcasts on Freeview, SKY, FreeSat, STV in Scotland and significantly, Britain’s free-to-air Channel Five.

The Channel Five deal came on the back of (UK television regulator) Ofcom’s relaxing of the definition  of ‘teleshopping’ to include casino games.  This change, in turn, was prompted by television network appeals to Ofcom to give them access to additional revenue streams in the wake of plummeting advertising revenues due to the GFC.  NetPlay jumped at this opportunity and remote gambling landscape was indelibly altered when SuperCasino started airing on Channel Five.  Understandably this development was not without its detractors.  But whether good or bad, few argue its significance.

Supercasino now shares the airwaves with programs like Neighbours, Grey’s Anatomy, The Mentalist and UEFA Europa League and occupies a four hour slice of Five’s late night viewing schedule.

Networks now broadcasting casino games:

Is casino TV here to stay?

There are no certainties in life, and this is especially true in the volatile remote gambling regulatory environment.  But this does seem to have become an entrenched form of casino gaming.  It is no longer an experiment.  And while stunning profit figures are yet to materialise (NetPlay lost £3.2 in the first half of 2009), player and turnover numbers continue to grow and provide encouragement for incumbent and potential future operators.

It would take a brave analyst to bet that casino TV is a flash in the pan.

For more details on casino TV visit this TV casino guide

Place your bets - roulette tv in the UK

When UK television stations got hit by the GFC and plummeting advertising revenues through 2008 and 09, they appealed to regulator Ofcom to relax their definition of “teleshopping” to include gambling.  Full history and details are set out here , but basically Ofcom were only too happy to oblige, and the resulting change meant that for the first time history, UK residents could tune in to free-to-air television stations that broadcast casino games they could bet on.

Netplay TV were quick to get their foot in a door that may not have remained opened for too long and purchased some broadcasting times to air their live roulette game.  Now you won’t be able to tune in and play roulette prime time on Channel Five, which is kind of understandable.  The broadcast schedule is limited to the wee hours of the morning which is probably how it will always remain.  A slightly expanded schedule exists on a bunch of pay per view stations (see below) and of course the web, playable on your PC.

6 months on from launch, the UK’s love affair with roulette television shows no signs of slowing up and looks likely to become a permanent part of the late night viewing.  And if Supercasino’s foray into free-to-air tv proves financially successful, you can be sure others like Smart Live etc will be soon to follow.

Current broadcast schedule…

(GMT)
Monday	1am to 3am	6pm to 4am	12am to 4am	6pm to 4am	6pm to 4am
Tuesday	1am to 3am	6pm to 4am	12am to 4am	6pm to 4am	6pm to 4am
Wednesday	1:30am to 3am	6pm to 4am	12am to 4am	6pm to 4am	6pm to 4am
Thursday	12am to 4am	6pm to 4am	12am to 4am	6pm to 4am	6pm to 4am
Friday	12am to 4am	6pm to 4am	12am to 4am	6pm to 4am	6pm to 4am
Saturday	12am to 4am	6pm to 4am	12am to 4am	6pm to 4am	6pm to 4am
Sunday	1am to 3am	6pm to 4am	12am to 4am	6pm to 4am	6pm to 4am

Live roulette on Channel Five…

A flashy new look and new RNG games platform for Supercasino

The guys at NetplayTV have beefed up their general online gambling offering with a new suite of RNG games from Playtech.  And it looks like they took the update as an opportunity to do a wholesale site redesign.

And the result?  Well you can see for yourself here but for what its worth we think it’s a definite improvement on the old site, and a very slick casino website full stop.  With all the wiz-bang flashy web 2.0 tools at the disposal of site operators these days, most tread a precarious line between intuitive navigation and information display, and downright stuffing of features onto the page to the point of confusing visitors.

Supercasino haven’t overstepped this mark and the site is fun and simple to browse.  Of course, when push comes to shove we could care less about what an operators website looks like…the quality of their games is the real yardstick.  And in this regard not much has changed over at Supercasino – particularly with regard to the live games, which are still available on a limited broadcast schedule on TV (Freeview, Freesat, SKY, Channel Five in the UK) and the Web.  Our review doesn’t need updating at all.

The major change is the addition of Playtech’s RNG games – which to be honest doesn’t excite us that much either.