Note that bet365 has different VIP schemes for poker, casino and bingo. In this article we are discussing the Poker VIP scheme at bet365 and how it works.
Bet365 updated their VIP program in April of 2012. This guide reflects those changes.
Jump to a section:
Overview of the Bet365 VIP Scheme
Players at bet365 earn Merit Points with real money play in the poker room. The number of Merit Points a player earns determines their VIP status. The better the VIP status, the greater the rewards.
How much value can you get and what will it take to get it? Let’s start to dive a bit further into the VIP scheme at bet365.
Bet365 VIP Scheme: The Basics
There are four levels to the VIP scheme at bet365 poker: Bronze, Silver, Gold and the top level: Platinum. To attain (and maintain) a VIP level, a player needs to earn a certain minimum number of Merit Points per month.
How do you earn Merit Points? You play in real-money cash games or tournaments. For cash games you earn 15 points for every dollar you pay in rake. For tournaments at bet365, you earn 15 Merit Points for every dollar you pay in tournament fees. For tournament fees under $1, you earn a proportional amount of Merit Points.
If you’re not familiar, the tournament fee is the second number in a tournament buy in; if a tournament costs $10+ $1 to enter, the $1 is the tournament fee.
Moving Up VIP Levels
All players start below the base level of the VIP scheme – Bronze. To enter the first level of the scheme, you need to earn at least one Merit Point. Once you do, you’ll have earned Bronze status for the next month. To maintain that status, you’ll need to continue to earn at least one Merit Point a month. In terms of rake, that means you will need to pay about .07 in rake during the month to earn and maintain Bronze status.
Each level following works the same way – your VIP status for any given month is determined by the amount of Merit Points you earned the previous month. Below are the point thresholds for the VIP Status Levels at bet365:
- Platinum – 25,000 Merit Points
- Gold – 10,000 Merit Points
- Silver – 1,000 Merit Points
- Bronze – 1 Merit Point
A quick example will help to illustrate how the program works.
Dave signs up at Bet365 poker in December and he earns 1200 Merit Points in December. What VIP status will Dave have in January?
Silver. Dave earned at least 1000 (but less than the 10,000 needed for the Gold level) in December. Your VIP status at Bet365 Poker is determined anew every month, determined only by the amount of points you earned the month before. Therefore, Dave would have Silver status in January. The total number of Merit Points Dave has earned does not matter – only his individual month totals.
To maintain his VIP status, Dave will need to earn at least 1000 points every month going forward. If he fails to do so, he will loses his status the month after he does not meet the minimum points required. For example, if Dave had earned 20,000 points in December but none in January, he would have no VIP status in February.
You do not have to “spend” your points to get your VIP status – you just need to earn the required amount of points. You get to spend your points later on rewards.
Easy enough. Remember, however, that Merit Points are not really “free” – you basically pay for them by paying rake and tournament fees. To know how much the VIP Scheme is worth to you, you have to know how much you’re paying. Let’s take another look at those VIP point thresholds, but this time we’ll do the quick math and show how much rake (rounded up) you need to pay to achieve each status:
- Platinum – 25,000 Merit Points = $1667 in rake
- Gold – 10,000 Merit Points = $667 in rake
- Silver – 1,000 Merit Points = $67 in rake
- Bronze – 1 Merit Point = .07 in rake
… and let’s not forget that you need to pay that much rake every month for three months straight to earn that status before you reap the benefits of the status. We’ll come back to these numbers in the next section where we evaluate the actual value of the VIP scheme for players.
What You Get Out of the Bet365 VIP Scheme
The two primary sources of value in the VIP program for poker players at bet365 are exchanging Merit Points for cash or tournament entries and “Loyalty Rewards.”
Unlike some VIP programs there is no multiplier element – you earn Merit Points at the same rate no matter what your VIP status is
Merit Points Exchange
You can exchange Merit Points for cash or tournament entries. The higher your VIP status, the larger the rewards. In order to qualify for an exchange you must meet three conditions:
- You must have achieved the VIP Status required by the exchange
- You must have maintained that status for a minimum of three months prior to the exchange
- You must have enough points for the exchange
In case you’re wondering, exchanging points does not impact your VIP status. You keep your VIP status when you spend points, because your VIP status is based on the amount of points you earn.
The table below breaks down the relative value of tournament and cash game rewards at Bet365. The first column shows the amount of Merit Points you need to spend in order to get the reward. The second shows the cash value of the award. The third is arguably the most important and shows the rakeback percentage the reward represents – basically the actual value of the reward. The fourth shows the amount of rake you need to pay to acquire the Merit Points required for the reward, and the final shows the minimum VIP Status required to qualify for the exchange.
Obviously the largest rewards also represent the most value, but the level of rake required for the top rewards is simply out of reach of the casual player.
For example, a mid-stakes tournament player probably has an average buy in of about $30, meaning they pay about $3 in tournament fees each time they play a tournament – good for 45 Merit Points. To get the points required for the top reward a player would have to rack up well over 100,000 tournaments – or over 300 a day if you wanted to do it in a year.
Anyhow, at the lower tiers, tournament tickets are generally a better value for your points than cash bonuses, but not by much. This value is also completely negated if you’re not good at tournaments.
The real lesson to take from the chart is that it’s really worth it to hold on to your points as long as you possibly can – the more points you have, the more each individual point is worth.
Loyalty Rewards
Loyalty Rewards are only available to players in the Platinum Tier. Here’s how they work: If you maintain your Platinum status for consecutive months, Bet365 will give you extra rewards. These rewards do not require you to spend any points. Loyalty rewards are given at 3,6 and 12 months of consecutive Platinum status:
- Three Months: $350
- Six Months: $800
- Twelve Months: $1750
At a bare minimum, maintaining Platinum VIP Status for 12 consecutive months will require you to pay $20,000 in rake. That means loyalty bonuses are worth several extra percentage points in rakeback, especially if you can manage to maintain the status for 12 months.
Important: You have to contact bet365 to claim this bonus.
Also Important: These bonuses do not “stack” – if you cash in a 3 month bonus, you are back to 0 months for the purpose of earning Loyalty Rewards. So, if you maintain Platinum status for 12 months, you can either get the 12 month bonus ($1750) or two 6 month bonuses, or four 3 month bonuses – not the 12 month bonus AND all of the other bonuses on the way.
Bet365 VIP Scheme: Fine Print
We encourage all players – especially those planning to put in significant rake to take advantage of the VIP Scheme – to read the full terms and conditions and become intimately familiar with them. That said, there are a few points of the terms that everyone should be aware of.
Quoted directly from bet365:
- Should a player pay no rake or tournament fees for a period of 13 weeks, their entire Merit Point balance will be forfeited.
- Regardless of player activity, all unused Merit Points will expire after 12 months.
- Any prize/bonus amounts offered will be calculated using the current currency multiplier table as determined at the sole discretion of bet365.
- In each calendar month, players may receive a maximum of one Cash Reward and one Tournament Token Reward.
Visit Bet365.