What Are Independent Casinos?
Independent casinos, sometimes called stand-alone casinos, run mostly on single site platforms offering a customer experience that is unique to their brand and a preferable alternative to the plethora of cookie-cutter white label sites out there.
What’s Wrong With White Label Casinos?
The UK casino market is awash with sites all run by a small group of businesses known as white label operators. Each has their own licensed platform from which they run 10s or sometimes even 100s of casinos. Names like White Hat Gaming, Aspire Global and Skill on Net are amongst the most popular of these.
Whilst these are good casinos, playing at more than one on the same platform can start to feel like déjà vu! The brand names, colours and logos may change from one Aspire Global site to the next, but the site layouts, welcome bonus packages, promotions, game lists and even the support team, are always the same.
These casinos are cheap and cheerful, rolling off the production line in quick succession. But they lack the personality of the best independents.
Why Independent Is Better
Independent casinos provide an excellent alternative.
Gambling businesses who invest in their own platform have big budgets and they are in it for the long haul. They cut their own deals with game developers and payment providers, build their own websites, promotion and bonusing tools, and run their own customer support teams. Everything is bespoke to their brand which is why the experience is unlike any you will find elsewhere.
Here are some of the typical features of independent casinos. Not all sites have all these characteristics, but most do.
- Interesting and immersive themes and website designs. The best example of this is Casumo, one of the most popular and long-standing independent casinos in Europe. Their immersive Casumo universe is something you would never find at a white label site.
- Unique welcome offers with interesting free spins deals – Independent casinos have some of the best deals out there. Right now, Kwiff Casino, a sportsbook brand, has one of the most popular deals on our site with 200 Book of Dead Spins (winnings in cash) for new players.
- Generous loyalty programs – Again, check out Casumo with its integrated loyalty program with level-ups for regular players, with increasing rewards at each stage. The investment in programs like these is exclusive to independent casinos.
- Big Game Lists – You will always find a good game selection at the best independent sites. Mr Q from Lindar Media is a great example. They have integrated many top name developers as well as smaller studios into their platform. When reviewing their site we also found that they consistently run games at higher RTP rates then white label casinos.
- Good Range of Payment Options – If you are looking to deposit with a payment service other than Visa, Mastercard or Paypal then independents are often a good bet. For example, 10Bet, a sportsbook and casino, is one of the few sites we list to offer Apple Pay as a deposit service.
- Excellent Customer Support – We have found that the support service at independents is generally better than that found at smaller white labels. A business that builds its own platform works hard to protect its brands reputation, and customer support is a big part of that. In particular you will find that sportsbooks with a high street presence like Betfred offer better customer service – including phone support - than other sites.
If you think those features are important, you’ll enjoy the sites on this page.
Conclusion
Whilst there is good reason for the success of the white label casino model in the UK, in my opinion you will get a better service and find a site you are more likely to stick with if you try one of the independent sites in our list. The quality of the experience, from website to promotions and customer support, is in most cases, of a higher standard. Have a browse through our list and read our reviews if you want to know more before making your choice.
