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How We Calculate Casino Similarity
Kiwi players comparing online casinos usually run into the same problem: dozens of sites that all claim to be "the best alternative" to whatever you already play at, with no clear way to check if that's actually true. The Similar Casinos section on every Casinos Analyzer casino page exists to solve that, and this page walks through exactly how the matching is done.
The system compares each casino against every other casino in our database across up to 24 separate data points, then ranks the results by a single similarity score.
What is a similarity score?
Each pairing gets a score from 0 to 1, split into four bands: Perfect match (0.80–1.00) — nearly identical casinos across licences, payment methods, bonus profile, and focus; Good match (0.60–0.79) — strong alternatives with minor differences in bonus type or market focus; Fair match (0.40–0.59) — partial overlap on licences or payment methods but a significantly different bonus setup; Low match (0.00–0.39) — quite different, an unlikely alternative for most players. Worth noting: casinos with no active bonus at all are excluded from similarity results entirely, since they can't be meaningfully compared on a factor players care about this much.
What we compare — the 24 criteria
The 24 criteria split into two groups. Casino Fundamentals carry 61% of the total score: licences held (~15%), deposit methods (~10%), withdrawal methods (~10%), casino categories (~8%), game providers (5%), supported currencies (5%), interface languages (4%), operating company (3%), restricted countries (2%), casino type (2%), overall rating (0.5%), year founded (0.25%), and minimum deposit (0.25%). Bonus Programme makes up the remaining 39%: number of no-deposit bonuses (8%), NDB quality score (7%), NDB generosity score (6%), total bonus count (4%), overall bonus quality (3%), bonus specialisation/NDB focus (2%), overall bonus generosity (2%), deposit bonus focus (1.5%), and bonus types, categories, and free-spins focus (0.5% each).
Because most casinos accepting New Zealand players operate under offshore licences — Curaçao and Malta being the most common, since there's no local online casino licensing regime under the Department of Internal Affairs — the licensing comparison is often the single most revealing signal for how consistent and accountable an alternative will actually be.
If a casino is missing data on a criterion — say, no game provider information on file — that weight gets redistributed automatically across the remaining factors, so the total always adds up to 100%.
Bonus specialisation — what it is and why it matters
Bonus count alone can be misleading. We sort each casino's bonus programme into one of five bands: NDB-focused (50%+ no-deposit — good for players who want to try before committing), NDB-friendly (30–49% no-deposit), Deposit-focused (70%+ deposit bonuses, for players ready to commit for bigger rewards), Free spins-focused (60%+ bonuses include free spins), or Balanced (no single type dominates).
Two casinos with matching totals can still sit at opposite ends of the focus spectrum — exactly the kind of difference a Kiwi player switching casinos would notice within the first week, even though it doesn't show up in a simple bonus-count comparison.
How the maths works
We apply one of two formulas depending on whether a criterion is a list or a number.
For lists: Jaccard similarity — Similarity = Shared items ÷ All unique items combined. Used for licences, payment methods (including POLi and NZD-friendly options), game providers, bonus types, and currencies. Example: Casino A offers Deposit, Free Spins, and NDB bonuses; Casino B offers Deposit, Free Spins, and Cashback — 2 shared out of 4 unique items, a similarity of 0.50.
For numbers: proportional distance — Similarity = 1 − (difference ÷ maximum difference in database). Example: Casino A has 38 bonuses, Casino B has 35, and the widest spread in the database is 64 — that's 1 − (3 ÷ 64) = 0.95.
For bonus focus: percentage distance — Similarity = 1 − |Casino A % − Casino B %| ÷ 100. Two casinos at 21% and 23% NDB score 0.98; two casinos at 21% and 66% NDB score just 0.55.
A real-world example
Take a balanced reference casino with 38 active bonuses, 8 of them no-deposit (a 21% NDB rate). Here's how three alternatives compare:
- KatsuBet — 35 bonuses, 8 no-deposit (23%), Deposit-focused → 0.73
- LevelUp Casino — 29 bonuses, 19 no-deposit (66%), NDB-focused → 0.71
- Bitstarz — 20 bonuses, 9 no-deposit (45%), NDB-friendly → 0.70
KatsuBet comes out on top because its bonus count and NDB volume land closest to the reference casino, even with a marginally different overall mix. LevelUp Casino has a much larger raw number of no-deposit offers, but 66% of its entire programme is NDB-driven — a genuinely different kind of casino to play at, not just a bigger one — which is what pulls its score below KatsuBet's. Scores like these recalculate automatically whenever a casino's bonuses, payment methods, or licences change, so the ranking always reflects current data.
Why licences carry the most weight
Licensing makes up roughly 15% of the total score, the single heaviest factor we track. Since New Zealand has no domestic online casino licence, the offshore regulator a casino operates under tells you a great deal about dispute handling, player fund protection, and how seriously complaints get taken. It's also the hardest data point for an operator to fake, which makes it a reliable anchor for comparison.
Payment methods sit close behind at roughly 10% each for deposits and withdrawals. For New Zealand players, that usually comes down to whether an alternative casino supports the same NZD-friendly banking options you already use, rather than forcing you to learn a new deposit routine from scratch.
Frequently asked questions
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Why doesn't the casino with the most no-deposit bonuses always rank first?
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Because the engine matches specialisation, not just volume — LevelUp Casino has more than double KatsuBet's no-deposit bonus count, yet ranks lower because its overall programme shape differs more from the reference casino.
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Can I filter results by bonus type?
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Yes. Every casino page lets you filter Similar Casinos by NDB-focused, NDB-friendly, deposit-focused, free-spins-focused, or balanced alternatives.
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What if a casino has missing data?
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The system redistributes that criterion's weight automatically across the remaining factors, so no casino is unfairly penalised for a data gap.
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How often are scores recalculated?
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Whenever new data comes in for either casino — usually within 24 hours of a bonus update, a verified licence change, or a new payment method.
