BetSafe Poker Rakeback Deal and Review
Betsafe Poker Rakeback Deal
By signing up through ItalyPokerDeals you will benefit from the following Betsafe Poker rakeback deal:
- Welcome Bonus 100% up to €2,000, worth 20% additional rakeback
- Up to 30% loyalty rewards, boosted to the highest VIP level
- €50,000 Twister Races
- €5,000 Exclusive Monthly Rake Chase for ItalyPokerDeals players
Below you can check the details of the Betsafe Poker VIP system:
Betsafe Poker rakeback deal ranges from 10% up to 30% by earning loyalty rewards based on your VIP level. There are currently 4 VIP levels: Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond with different loyalty points requirements, where the amount of Betsafe Poker rakeback increases depending on your current VIP status. Thus, VIP diamond status offers the highest possible rakeback of 30%.
To get more into details, players receive 10 loyalty points for every €1 paid in rake, being initially assigned to the first VIP level, Silver. Once they reach 500 loyalty points, they are promoted to the next level, Gold. The third one is platinum, being reached once you earn 1,000 points and the last one is Diamond, where you need to acquire at least 3,000 points, based on our Betsafe Poker review.
It is worth mentioning that not only are you required to acquire more loyalty points to climb the limits, but you can also increase your rakeback rate, given that each VIP status applies a different multiplier for your loyalty points, when calculating your actual VIP rewards. Thus, for Silver the multiplier is 1, increasing at 1.5 for Gold, 2 for Platinum and 3 for Diamond players.
The good news is that all players who sign up through ItalyPokerDeals will maximize their Betsafe Poker rakeback, being boosted automatically to the highest VIP level, which rewards them with 30%.
Conclusion
In our humble opinion, Betsafe is one of the most reputable brands in online poker industry and a great choice for cash games players, due to the high traffic for most stakes and multi-tabling capacity which allows not only winning heavily at the tables by playing many hands per hour, but also maximizing your Betsafe Poker rakeback, by signing up through ItalyPokerDeals.
Thus, if you add up the initial welcome bonus of up to €2,000, the 30% flat rakeback resulted from the boost of your VIP status to the highest level, as well as the extra cashback coming from the exclusive rake chases, you might get up to 60% total rakeback by grinding on the iPoker network.
However, we consider there are better options out there for micro stakes players who can find enough traffic elsewhere without having to pay the very high rake of 6.67%. Also, casual players might not love the lack of mobile apps, which make the games accessibility a little bit harder.
It seems that iPoker software is rather designed for desktop users and preferred by grinders, who can easily exploit their opponents, by combining multi-tabling with the usage of HUD at the tables, although iPoker tries to make all efforts to attract casual players by prohibiting bum hunters and allowing amateurs to switch their nicknames more frequently, to be less exploited by grinders.
Betsafe Poker Cashier (Deposit and withdrawal methods)
Betsafe offers direct cashier and a wide range of payment methods such as Visa or Mastercard debit cards, Wire transfer, Paypal, Skrill or Neteller eWallets, with a minimum deposit of €10, while the minimum required amount for withdrawals is €20, which are usually processed fast within 2 days.
Depending on your location and gambling legislation, the available payment methods might vary. You should also take into account that players from the following countries are prohibited to join:
Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, China, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guyane (French Guiana), Hungary, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kuwait, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Norfolk Island, N. Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Portugal, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Sudan, Somalia, South Sudan, Spain, Syria, Turkey, Tunisia, UAE, Yemen, United States, UK, Guam, Marshall Islands, N. Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Vietnam.
Betsafe Poker Traffic and Games Overview
Until 2020, Betsafe was part of the Microgaming Poker Network (MPN), thus having a significant player base. However, after the closure of MPN, it migrated to iPoker, where it shared the same player pool with other skins of the network, thus the traffic spiked significantly after that move.
According to Pokerscout, iPoker is the 4th largest online poker network, with an average of 1,500 players online during the week and up to 3,000 at peak hours, especially during European evenings. Here you can find plenty of cash games for Both Texas Holdem and Omaha lovers at all stakes, starting from NL/PLO2 up to NL/PLO1K. While full ring and heads up tables are also available, most of the action takes place at short-handed ones. There’s also a speed poker variant up to NL200.
The MTT offering is less impressive since most of the traffic comes from cash games. Nevertheless, there are quite a few tournaments scheduled daily with entry buy ins ranging from €1 up to €100:
- €12,000 GTD First of Fury with entry buy-in €20
- €12,000 GTD The Main Sweat, entry buy-in €50
- €50,000 GTD Ultimate Sweat, entry buy-in €100
Besides this, iPoker also hosts the exciting lottery sit and go’s for recreational players, Twister Spins. Here gamblers can get lucky and get huge rewards of up to 1,000x the initial buy-in of 1€ up to €100.
Betsafe Poker Rake Structure
The rake structure is pretty straightforward at Betsafe, being the same for all iPoker skins. Thus, while the rake method used for collecting rake follows a weighted contributed formula, source based rake formula is used for distributing rake in order to better reward amateur players.
The rake applied for cash games is 5%, with different rake caps between €0.5 and €4, except for micro stakes where the rake is slightly higher – 6.67%. MTTs are charged 10%, while Twister Spins have a 7% fee. Thus, we can consider the rake being pretty high for small stakes but rather average for higher stakes, making it affordable especially for grinders seeking for good cash games traffic.
Betsafe Poker Tracking, Software features, Account Access and Details
You are probably wondering whether you are allowed to collect statistics on your opponents and use the HUD at the tables in order to better exploit the leaks of weaker players. Yes, you can. Even though the tendency in online poker nowadays is to prohibit the usage of third parties software in order to maintain or even improve the so-called „poker ecology” of the networks, iPoker still allows the usage of Holdem Manager or PokerTracker, thus making games for beginners a little bit tougher.
While this can be considered a disadvantage for less skilled players, it can also be used as a learning tool to challenge themselves and improve their game. Poker is a game of skill and that’s a double edged sword. You should always improve your game and increase your win rate by becoming better, but on the other side you should never forget that the easiest money in poker comes from rookies.
This is why iPoker struggles to keep attracting recreational players in all ways, because if a network becomes flooded by regulars, it is doomed to fail. After all, that may be the reason for the MPN closure.
While iPoker still allows the usage of HUD and multitabling for grinders (playing up to 16 tables simultaneously), they also added recently some features to attract amateurs:
- players can switch their nicknames every 1,000 hands
- table selection restrictions for bum hunters (no waiting lists)
- tables can be seen in observer mode to check the action
Betsafe uses the same software as other iPoker skins, which was developed by Playtech. The client was designed to be downloaded for the Windows operating system. However, for MAC and mobile users of Android or iOS devices, there is the alternative of playing in the browser, with no downloadable app.
The software looks nice and is running smoothly, being easy to navigate. While the downloadable client is preferred, the instant-play which is browser based is also decent, being customized for both beginners and experienced multi-table grinders. The downside comes from the auto-mucking losing hands feature, which prohibits you from getting extra info and making relevant notes on your villains.
Betsafe Poker Promotions
Besides the flat Betsafe Poker rakeback of 30% received by signing up through ItalyPokerDeals and the 100% up to €2,000 Welcome bonus which is worth 20% additional rakeback during the first 2 months of play, you also have the chance to get additional benefits from Betsafe Poker promotions:
- €50,000 Twister Races
- €5,000 Exclusive Rake Chase
€50,000 Twister Races are offered by iPoker as an exciting promotion for casual players, that runs every week, having a prize pool of €12,500, with up to €1,000 for the winner, based on the leaderboard results, which are updated on a weekly basis, competing with other players.
As opposed to the Twister Races, the rake chase is not designed as a tool for attracting recreational players, but rather for grinders who are serious about the game. Here you don’t compete with others, but rather with yourself and the more rake you make, you can get up to €5,000 in rewards.
The €5,000 exclusive rake chase is a promotion only available for ItalyPokerDeals players, where you can get up to 10% extra rakeback. Of course, the rakeback amount increases the more you rake, but the percentage decreases so that more grinders can take advantage of this promotion. To be eligible to earn any prize, you need to collect at least 500 iPoker loyalty points, meaning 50 EUR rake to get €5.
The rake chase takes place every month and all ItalyPokerDeals players are automatically registered. Prizes will be credited directly to their accounts before the 7th of the following month, according to the final leaderboard. Players from the following countries are excluded: Sweden, Denmark, Germany.
Betsafe Poker Bonuses
Perhaps the most exciting promotion for new players is the €2,000 welcome bonus which matches your initial deposit. To be eligible to receive the sign up bonus you need to make an initial deposit of at least €10 and afterwards you can start harvesting the welcome bonus in your first 60 days.
As previously mentioned, according to our Betsafe Poker review, you earn 10 loyalty points for every €1 paid in rake and every once in a while you can redeem your loyalty points into cash, at an exchange rate of 250 loyalty points for every chunk of €5, which is worth an extra rakeback of 20%. This means that every time you rake €25, you release a small increment of €5 from your bonus.
Given that the welcome bonus is released in such small increments, you don’t run the risk of not being able to clear the whole bonus. In this respect, if you are a professional poker player, you should aim to deposit the maximum amount and multi-table your preferred cash games in order to get the maximum value from your initial Betsafe Poker Bonus and receive €2,000 additional money.
If you’re an amateur, perhaps harvesting as much of the initial bonus is not your aim. However, you should keep in mind that new players can also complete the four daily missions and earn additional rewards, such as for instance winning €10 tournament tickets, helping them to boost their bankroll.
Betsafe Poker Review
Betsafe Poker is a well established and trusted Scandinavian brand which was initially launched in 2006 and operated for many years serving customers from Norway and Denmark. Until 2020, Betsafe was part of the Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) but after its closure, it became part of the iPoker network, which has experienced a spike in traffic for cash games after the migration.
Right now, Betsafe has increased its user base and serves many customers worldwide, especially from Europe. According to our Betsafe Poker review, the operator is licensed by Maltese Gaming Authority and offers a huge welcome bonus, solid rakeback and other rake chases for regulars.
Other advantages for grinders are the great traffic for cash games at most stakes, as well as the multi-tabling capacity and excellent software, which allows poker trackers and HUD at the tables. The disadvantages may seem less obvious, but they should also be assessed: the high rake for micro stakes as well as the toughness of the games which might reduce your win rate at the tables.