Online tournaments have become a part and parcel of online casino gaming. Many online casinos offer tournaments round the clock. These online tournaments are simple in structure. Within the tournament period a player can play once and established his score. At the end of the tournament period the players with the highest scores share the prize pool in the manner that has been decided beforehand.

Multi level online tournaments are grander affairs. Some online casinos hold them annually and some more often. They are usually preceded by a marketing campaign so as to get as many players on board as is possible. Essentially multi level online tournaments are played out over several rounds. A specified number of top players from the first round compete in the second round, a specified number of top players from the second round compete in the third round and so on. The top players of the final round share the prize pool.

Though the basic structure of multi level online tournaments remains as above there are several variations in practice that make these tournaments more exciting and interesting. The larger of the multi level online tournaments have qualifying rounds as well. Some of these qualifying rounds have very low entry fees and some may even be freerolls. Therefore it is possible for a player to ultimately win the top prize without making any investment at all.

Normally players pay the buy in before the first round. Players who qualify on merit for the next round do not have to pay any entry fee again. However the current practice is to allow players direct entry into the later rounds. These may be players who have lost in the earlier rounds or they may be players who did not participate in the earlier rounds. For being given the privilege of participating in the later rounds these players have to pay a penalty in the form of a hefty buy in. These buy ins are much larger than the entry fees paid by players in the first round.

Online slots are by far the most popular of the casino games and most multi level online tournaments are held on slot games. However at the online casinos of the Rushmore group a blackjack multi level online tournament called Blackjack Bowl is a very popular.

The top prize in multi level online tournaments is not always cash or casino credits. Many online casinos offer exotic holiday packages as top prizes. Last year InterCasino offered a holiday package to Egypt, Villa Fortuna online casino offered an African safari and Villento Casino offered a trip to Monte Carlo. Platinum Play online casino has been hosting an annual multi level online tournament called International Casino Games for the last four years. All the players who qualify for the final round are taken on a cruise and the final round is played out there. In 2009 four players were awarded prizes of €50,000 each in the International Casino Games.

Last year Microgaming held a multi level online tournament called the Grand Slam of Slots. This was held simultaneously at all Microgaming online casinos. This was probably the first time that any online tournament was held beyond an online casino group. It was also the first time that any online tournament paid out a top prize of $1 million.