Sky City Online Casino Review
It is now official Sky City will be launching an Online Casino. This news is shaking up the industry as the first of the large land based casinos in New Zealand gets ready to enter the world of real money online gambling. Sky City will be hoping their reputation as New Zealand’s top offline casino translates into the online sphere.
The SkyCity Online casino is going to be a collaboration between the SkyCity Entertainment Group and the Gaming Innovation Group (GIG). This means that the Sky City online casino will likely have a Maltese gambling license which is good news for potential New Zealand casino fans. The agreement is between a Maltese subsidiary(SKYCITY Malta Ltd) of SkyCity allowing for New Zealanders to take advantage of the fact that offshore operators are allowed to offer real money gambling to Kiwis.
The online casino is currently in the development and licensing phase and is likely to be launched early in the 3rd quarter of 2019. The reason Sky City are able to launch their new online casino in such a short time is down to the fact most of the development, regulatory requirements and integration will be handled by GIG. This means that players will straight away have access to all their favorite games from: Net Entertainment, Microgaming, Pragmatic Play, BetSoft, Evolution Gaming, Amatic, Mr Slotty, Amaya, Belatra Games, iSoftBet, BetSoft, NYX Gaming, Endorphina, Spinomenal, GameArt, SoftSwiss, BGaming, Ezugi, ELK Studios, EGT and Thunderkick.
We have not yet seen the SkyCity online casino website but it is likely going to have a very similar feel to the brick and mortar casino found in Auckland. There have even been suggestions that they might link their online and offline bonuses allowing players to get an experience that no other online casino currently offers their players. This is highly unlikely though as the Auckland based casino may share a name with the online casino but they are essentially seperate businesses.
CASINO SOFTWARE & PLATFORM
SkyCity Online Casino will be utilizing the Gaming Innovation Group white label casino solution. This is the same platform that Rizk Casino uses which means you are going to get a high quality online gambling experience.
GIG have integrated a multitude of gaming providers which means that players will be able to play giant progressive jackpot slots like Mega Moolah, the largest jackpot pokie in the world, and Mega Fortune, the signature linked pokie from NetEnt. Kiwi casino players will also get access to a wide array of video poker games, table games and the best live casino games in New Zealand. These games will be available on traditional desktop and laptop computers as well as on mobile and tablet devices.
SkyCity will also allow players from New Zealand to play in New Zealand Dollars which offers multiple advantages as described in our NZD Casinos article. The casino should also offer all your favorite deposit methods including:
- Credit Card
- Neteller
- PayPal
- Paysafe card
- Poli
EXCITING BONUSES AND PROMOTIONS
We have still not received confirmation on what the opening offer will be for New Zealanders looking to join SkyCity online casino. The offer will likely be comprised of a strong deposit bonus somewhere between 100% to 150% along with additional free spins. Until official confirmation is given we can only speculate but an offer similar to that of Rizk is likely to be in place. The current Rizk offer for new players is a 100% deposit match up to $100 with an additional 50 Free spins on your first deposit.
The most exciting rumor we have heard is that many of the online promotions will be linked to the land based SkyCity casino. We believe these rumors to be false though as the two businesses need to be run independently. There may be a higher proportion of promotions linked to real world events though.
VIP PRIVILEGE
There currently no details on whether or not the SkyCity online casino will offer a VIP club. It is likely that they will as most online casinos that use the GIG software platform do offer this.
FREE SPINS
We have already speculated regarding the likelihood of the welcome bonus containing a free spins component. We know that the best online casinos in new Zealand frequently use free spins to keep customers loyal and allow they to try games that they may not yet be familiar with. SkyCity are likely to utilize similar techniques to incentivize players to keep playing at Sky City Online Casino.
GAME OPTIONS
Sky City Casino will over players a plethora of games to choose from. The variety of games available to GIG casino partners is one of the best in the industry. Sky City should have games from the large game studios like Microgaming, Yggdrasil Gaming and Netent as well as some of the smaller studios that provide unique games like Belatra.
Pokies
SkyCity Online casino will have one of the largest selection on online pokie machines in New Zealand offering popular well know pokies like Immortal Romance and Startburst to some more niche slots like ReacToonz.
Live Casino Games
We expect Sky City will launch with live casino games. These games will be available on both mobile and desktop devices allowing you to experience real world casino tables and croupiers right from the comfort of your own home.
Table Games
The standard table games like Roulette, Blackjack and craps will be available to play right from the start. Kiwi players will also be able to play some great variations on classic table games like Black Jack Party and Triple Chance Hi-Lo
Progressive Jackpots
SkyCity Online Casino will have no shortage of progressive jackpot pokies. The big ones like Mega Moolah and Mega fortune will be there as well as some of the smaller less competitive ones like Divine Fortune and Holmes and the Stolen Stones. Tiki Fruits will also be available to play offering daily jackpots.
Video Poker
There will be a wide variety of Video Poker games available at launch. These will include Caribbean, 3 Card and other popular variants online video poker.
MOBILE CASINO AND APP
It is highly unlikely that SkyCity Casino will have a mobile app available for New Zealand casino players in either the Apple App store or in the Google Play Store. Players will be able to play on their mobile devices via the Sky City Online Casino website.
PAYMENTS
GIG will provide the payment processing for Sky City which means that you will get all the payment options available at other GIG platform casinos. The deposit and withdrawal methods vary slightly and both should allow for NZ dollar payments if set up correctly.
Deposit Options
Visa/Mastercard, Maestro, Skrill, Neteller, PaysafeCard, Interac, Ecopayz, Sofort, Cubits, Wirecard, Zimpler, Trustly, iDebit.
Withdrawal Options
Visa/Mastercard, Maestro, Skrill, Neteller, Sofort, Cubits, Trustly, Zimpler.
The expected time frames for withdrawal processing are:- EWallets: 0–1 hour
- Credit / Debit Cards: 0–24 hours
- Bank Transfers 1-3 days
- Pending Time 0-2 hours
CONCLUSION
We cannot give you a full review without having tested the casino and will reserve judgement until we can. The early indicators are really good though, SkyCity has made a lot of correct decisions up until this point in the selection of games and platform provider. They also have a strong brand and presence in New Zealand which is really exciting for us.
Watch this space and we will give you all the details of SkyCity Online Casino as soon as it goes live in New Zealand.