SuperBigWin.com went live in May 2015 and has since seen a lot of growth in visitor numbers and has gotten great positive feedback. A lot of people have been enjoying our pokie reviews, free pokie spins page and casino news. We aim to be your number one source for online casino gaming, casino bonuses and the latest pokie reviews. We pride ourselves on being honest and independent and hope that as a result, you will visit this site often. 

The year 2015 has nearly ended which makes it the perfect time for us to kick off our first of many annual SuperBigWin awards.

For our 2015 awards we have included the following categories:

• Best new pokie – which new pokie impressed us the most?
• Biggest disappointment – which pokie did not make the grade and why?
• Best online casino – which online casino excelled in every aspect and should be tried out?
• Best new online casino – only new kids on the block here. Which new casino proved to be a real asset to the online gaming market?
• Best online pokie developer – which developer gets the nod for best pokie developer?
• Best welcome bonus – at what casino could you get the best sign up bonus in 2015?
• Best no deposit bonus – where can you find the best bonus without depositing any money?
• Worst casino bonus – which bonus(es) should you not even touch with a ten-foot pole?

Ready? Here we go! 

Category “best new pokie release 2015.”

In 2014 we loved the new Thunderkick pokies, with quirky and insanely fun pokies such as Fruit Warp and Esqueleto Explosivo. Sadly, Thunderkick hardly released any new pokies in 2015: the only new Thunderkick title was the retro arcade games inspired Arcader.

Thankfully, there were some other pokie developers that did not disappoint and gave us some truly fantastic pokies. These are our top 3 choices for best new pokies in 2015: 

1. Cool Jewels (WMS). This superb pokie could first be played online in 2015 and what fun we had with Cool Jewels. It is not a conventional pokie; there are no win lines and no reels. Instead, there is a big playing grid full of jewels. When 4 or more jewels connect, they explode, and new symbols fall into their place, possibly forming new winning combinations. There are also supercharged symbols in the game that have special powers and wipe out other symbols for extra wins. Connect two specials symbols, and things will really heat up. Cool Jewels has an exciting free spins bonus with some of the happiest music around. All in all, Cool Jewels is a simply irresistible and will provide hours and hours of brilliant fun. Easily our favourite pokie of 2015. Play Cool Jewels at Cashmio.

2. Taco Brothers (Elk Studios). Second place in our top 3 of best online pokies of 2015 is for a pokie from the lesser known Elk Studios. It was love at first sight when we played Taco Brothers for the first time: a silly but fun storyline, colourful and polished cartoony graphics and super fun and innovative bonus features. There are multipliers, walking and imprisoned wilds and three Mexican brothers fighting for the love of the village’s most beautiful girl – and tacos. Taco Brothers is a great blend of entertainment and exciting gameplay. Play Taco Brothers at Gday Casino.

3. Swedish pokie developer Quickspin has been churning out some of the most polished, innovative and fun online pokies of 2015. Our favourite of the bunch was Crystal Queen, with its cascading symbols, expanding wilds, hidden reels and an exciting free spins bonus. Play Crystal Queen at House of Jack Casino.

Honourable mention: Pyramid: Quest for Immortality

Just before the end of 2015, Netent released one of their best titles: Pyramid: Quest for Immortality. This “win any way” pokie has a lot of exciting features: respins, wilds and increasing multipliers. The greatest thing about this pokie is the fact that you can enjoy yourself a lot without having to stake a lot.

You will get lots of respins, lots of small and medium wins and the occasional big win, keeping you entertained for extended periods of time. It is also evident that Netent paid a lot of attention to detail with this beautifully designed pokie. A great pokie for low – and high rollers.

Play Pyramid: Quest for Immortality at Cashmio.

Category “Most disappointing pokie release in 2015”

Now don’t get us wrong. We love most Netent slots. They have made some of the finest pokie classics. Sometimes they just really miss the mark with their pokie releases. Of course, you can’t please all tastes, and with one new release each month it is hard to keep up a continuous high standard. These two Netent releases we found to be very mediocre, if not plain dull. Another disappointing release came from that other software giant: Microgaming.

1. Sparks (Netent). Sometimes a pokie is released where I think “who the hell designed this?” and even more important “who the hell ok’d this release?” Sparks is boring, monotonous, lacks a real bonus feature and has a very tired New Age theme.

I have played thousands of spins on Sparks hoping to find some unique features or any excitement. There was none. Terrible. 

2. King of Slots (Netent). One word comes to mind when I think of King of Slots: laziness. It is of course a direct port of the successful Jack Hammer. It has the same game mechanism and the exact same bonus feature.

Mix in some very uninspired graphics and an entirely incoherent theme and you end up with one big mess of a pokie.

3. Rugby Star, Basketball Star, Cricket Star, Football Star (Microgaming). Microgaming managed to exceed Netent in total laziness. These pokies are great games in their own right but are all shameless copies of the original pokie Breakaway with different themes.

A market leader like Microgaming should be able to come up with more original content instead of just rehashing existing pokies. 

Category “Best online casino 2015.”

Winner: Leo Vegas

A clear winner for us in this important category: LeoVegas. This popular online casino excels in several ways:

• An excellent selection of only the best pokies from WMS, Netent, Quickspin, Elk Studios and Thunderkick among others.
• A super fast and user-friendly mobile site.
• Fast payouts: withdrawals are usually in your bank account the next day, and E-wallet transactions are even faster. 
• A great welcome bonus: new customers get a very nice 200% bonus + 200 free spins on Starburst with their first deposit.
• Leo Vegas also kicked up the bonuses for existing customers by at least two notches. Free spins, exciting promotions and reload bonuses were abundant in 2015. A significant improvement over prior years.
• Fair and very clear terms and conditions: always a plus for us.

Runner-up: Casumo

Casumo was the biggest discovery for us is 2015. Admittedly, the somewhat strange casumo Mascotte and the layout of the site took some getting used to. It did not take long for us to find out just what an excellent and just plain fun Casumo is. Every customer is greeted with open arms, and the bonuses (called valuables) come quick and plentiful. Another big plus: a lot of their best promotions (including Sunday Super Spins and the very popular Casumo Casino Challenge) are free to enter.

The games that are offered at Casumo are just as good: WMS, QuickSpin, Microgaming, Bally, Netent and Thunderkick among others. 

Edit: Sadly, both LeoVegas and Casumo now no longer accept Australian players. For an extensive list of online casinos that still takes Australian players, check out our top 10 Australian Casinos.

Categorie “Best new online casino of 2015.”

Winner: Omni Slots

Omni Slots is our first pick by a wide margin for the best new online casino in 2015, with the very solid Play Frank and the innovative but slightly pretentious Kaboo taking 2nd and 3rd place.

Omni Slots focuses mainly on online pokie players – right up our alley. Where lots of new online casinos have startup problems within their first half year of operation, Omni Slots stood as solid as Ayer rock from day one:

• A wide selection of great pokies, ranging from well-known titles from Microgaming and Betsoft to the superb high variance pokies from up and coming game developer Endorphina slots. Omnis Slots also carries a range of their own developed pokies, that are geared towards old fashioned fruit machines.
• A very friendly and professional helpdesk that has quick response times.
• Lots of recurring bonuses including weekly free pokie spins and even unique promotions where players can win vacations
• A fast and reliable online gaming site that works well on desktops and mobile devices. 
• An attractive welcome bonus of 100% up to $300 plus 70 free pokie spins (use CODE SBW70).

Category “Best online pokie developer 2015.”

One of our favourites of 2014, Thunderkick, hardly released any new pokies. Netent and Microgaming had some great releases. We love Dazzle Me, Steam Tower and Pyramid: Quest for Immortality by Netent but hated Sparks and King of Slots.

Microgaming released the great Hot as Hades and the brilliant Titans of the Sun, but also released a slew of uninspired pokies that they have become known for. So, which pokie developer impressed us the most? The new Elk Studios showed great promise with Taco Brothers, and Electric Sam and Endorphina has shown that it can produce beautiful and exciting high variance pokies.

However, one developer stood out for us in 2015: Quickspin. This Swedish game developer puts a lot of love, dedication and hard work in their pokies and it truly shows.

Beautiful graphics, highly polished gameplay and some excellent releases in 2015: King Colossus, Jewel Blast, the superb Crystal Queen, Razortooth and Illuminous, to name just a few.

We enjoyed Quickspin’s games immensely in this year and hope they can keep up their great work. Congratulations to Quickspin!

You can play Quickspin pokies at House of Jack Casino and Slots Million.

Category “Best Welcome Bonus 2015”

What is an online casino without a welcome bonus? One of the best things of depositing at a new casino is getting some extra bankroll so you can test out the feel and games of the casino.

These were, in our opinion, the casinos with the best welcome bonuses in 2015:

Winner: Leo Vegas

LeoVegas has a very attractive welcome package for new customers:

• 200% bonus on your first deposit op to 50$
• Deposit $25 and get $75 to play with
• 200 free spins on Starburst
• A wagering requirement of 35x bonus.

A 200% bonus, 200 free spins and a perfectly acceptable wagering requirement of 35x bonus? Sounds like a fantastic deal to us!

Visit LeoVegas now.

Runner-up: GDay

GDay’s welcome package is very, very good:

• 100% Match Bonus up to Infinity on your first deposit
• Free slab of beer if your first deposit is over $100
• 25% Match Bonus up to $500 Bonus on your second deposit
• 50% Match Bonus up to $500 Bonus on your third deposit

GDay’s welcome bonus really stands out from the others for the fact there is no maximum limit on the first deposit bonus. It does not matter how big your first deposit is, GDay will always match it! And who can resist a free slab of beer, delivered right to your doorstep?

Wagering requirements are 35x the bonus + deposit.

Visit GDay casino now.

Category “Best No Deposit Bonus 2015.”

Winner: Hello Casino (50 free no deposit spins on Twin Spin)

Hello Casino gives every new registering player no less than 50 free spins on Twin Spin. That is 50 free spins on one of our favourite Netent pokies, just for registering.

That’s $12.50 worth of free spins, for only a few minutes work. Hello Casino is friendly, generous and offers Netent and Nextgen pokies, a live casino and lots of fun promotions.

Runner-up: GDay casino (50 free spins on South Park Reel Chaos)

GDay Casino was already runner-up for best welcome bonus and is also runner up for best no deposit bonus. Register at GDay casino and get 50 free spins on South Park: Reel Chaos.

Should you decide to make a deposit at GDay, be advised that besides the awesome welcome bonus of 100% up to infinity, you also get a 10% cash back on every single deposit.

Category “Worst Casino Bonus 2015.”

Winner(s): All bonuses with impossible wagering requirements

We have seen it on a regular basis: online casinos offering welcome bonuses with impossible wagering requirements. We have seen bonus terms and conditions stating wagering requirements of 80x the bonus or even 60x (bonus + deposit). The latter, with a bonus of 100%, comes down to a wagering requirement of 120x bonus. And as if that condition wasn’t bad enough, there was also a clause that stated the maximum withdrawal of bonus money could not exceed the total bonus amount. Criminally bad bonus terms and conditions.

The bad news is that there are still lots of casinos out there with horrific bonus terms and conditions. The good news is that you won’t find that kind of casino on SuperBigWin.com. We still strongly advise you always read the bonus terms and conditions before making a first deposit.

If the terms are unfavourable (anything over 50x bonus wagering), unclear or both, steer well clear of this casino. There are plenty of excellent and fair alternatives.

Conclusion: 2015 was a great year for online casino players!

Lots of great things happened in the online casino landscape in 2015.

Some fantastic new pokies were released from some very promising, fresh new pokie developers like Quickspin, Elk Studios and Play N Go.

The overall quality of (new) online casinos seems to be going up every year as well: with all the increased competition, online casinos need to continually keep improving the quality of their sites, their games selection, their helpdesk and their speed. Which is a good thing for the consumer.

We are very curious what 2016 will bring us. Will our beloved Thunderkick finally release some new pokies? How good will the Guns N’ Roses pokie by Netent really be? Even if it is half as cool as the trailer, it promises to be a fantastic pokie release. Will there be any new casinos that can give other newcomers like Omni Slots and Casumo a run for their money?

Of one thing you can be sure: SuperBigWin.com will continue to follow and report all the casino news, trends and pokie releases in 2016.