Hopa casino review (UK)

Hopa Casino is decked out with some great gaming content but it requires some UX experts to tidy up this organised mess. The congested website struggled with user experience issues, topped off with some questionable speeds.

When I arrived on the homepage I didn’t know where to look, there was just so much going on. There is a lot of text all over the page, banner animations, winners feed and a cluster of game tiles cramped in. The site wasn’t the cleanest or most attractive by a long shot. It was easy enough to navigate around with a clear top menu and some game categories.

I experienced some slow load times while I was using a Safari browser. I decided the best thing to do was to move over to the Chrome browser which did improve the site’s performance speed.

A two-step sign up form made it easy-peasy to register, although the signup form wasn’t the most customer-friendly and could do with a nice refresh. Once I finished the registration, I was stuck on a load screen for a short while before I had the option to opt into the welcome offer.

Hopa Casino is a fully-fledged casino operator that’s packed with great content and features but let down by slow speeds, a cluttered appearance and some UX hitches.

Hopa presents their welcome offer as a £500 bonus plus 100 spins. However, this is spread across multiple deposits and the first deposit is a 50% bonus and not the industry-standard 100%. Your first deposit will get a 50% bonus up to £50 and 20 spins on Starburst. Any winnings from the bonus are subject to 35x wagering requirements with any bonus money voided after 21 days.

I decided against this offer as it was only 50%, it would have been more enticing to double my deposit, which is the industry standard for a first-time deposit offer. Had I claimed the bonus on the £40 deposit I would have got £20 back in bonus funds and would have to play through £2,100 before the bonus money would turn into withdrawable cash.

The promotions page only featured offers for their sportsbook players and nothing for the casino enthusiast. I was pretty disappointed with Hopa’s promotional offering, there was nothing to excite me and keep me coming back for more.

I was overwhelmed by the number of games in view on this site. I was seeing seven games on one row with endless rows of games insight.

The menu filters the games down by ‘New’, ‘Slots’, ‘Classic’, ‘Table Games’, ‘Keno’ and ‘All Games’. You can also search by game title or provider in the search field. The live casino lobby and scratch cards have a separate section on the site’s main menu.

To try out a game I took it back to the old school and opened the cult classic Thunderstruck II for a spin. The game had some displays of lag but it was bearable. I picked out a more recent game with sharper graphics and more intuitive gameplay in NetEnt’s Gorilla Kingdom. The lag was a little more noticeable so I jumped to Rainbow Riches where the lag increased. The reels spun for longer than usual and made play uneasy.

I moved over to the Chrome browser where the speed picked up. The live casino lobby offered a heap of live dealer tables from Evolution Gaming. The search filters included ‘Blackjack’, ‘Roulette’ and ‘Baccarat’ but nothing to filter down to the likes of Dream Catcher, Football Studio and other games not played on a table. I played a few £1 bets on the wheel and still had no wins to report on. The performance of the game was pretty decent, no major loading issues compared to the Safari browser.

Hopa has a brilliant selection of games from the industry’s top providers. The site speed can be improved but it still delivers respectable performance. I would recommend using your Google Chrome browser for this casino site (and any other) as it just handles better than Safari.

The fully optimised mobile version of this online casino was more user-friendly. The top menu features 'casino', 'live casino', 'sport' and 'virtual sport'. The casino games menu is easy to navigate but a little squished together. However, it’s very much tolerable so not a total gutter ball.

The games are far more organised on mobile. Swiping through the games library was to my liking. I picked out Book of Dead and found the gameplay to be superior, no lag and untroubled play with every spin. Hopa has a dedicated mobile app available on iOS and Android devices. However, I found the app to be a tad slower than the mobile site, this was also reflected in the app reviews.

You can access the live chat feature through the icon in the top right corner of each page. Selecting ‘contact us’ also brings up two links, one for live chat and one for email. The support operation hours are between 8 am and midnight, every day of the week. These hours are pretty decent, covering peak playing times. The live chat button opened up the chatbox and some FAQ categories. These categories make it easy to nail down your issue by taking out the effort to find the answer to a query. The chat starts with ‘Please type in your query below and a support representative will be with you shortly.’ There was no indication of how long it would be before a support agent was available. I waited three minutes before someone jumped on and responded. I would have felt more at ease if there was a countdown timer or a queue position visible.

I was impressed with the support representative’s politeness and efficiency in solving my issue. After each chat, you can provide feedback on the service. This shows that Hopa is dedicated to providing excellent support efforts.

The document upload area is found within the account section. Hopa’s verification process is simple, you just upload your ID documents to the file uploader and that’s it. However, there is no clear guidance on what documents are required. I uploaded my passport but I wasn’t sure if I needed to provide proof of address too. I asked support who confirmed that proof of address was needed but also stated that a front and back copy of the card I used to deposit was required before I could withdraw. This is only required for the first withdrawal but it had me wondering at what point would this have been mentioned if I didn’t query it with support.

This process could have been made easier if this information was stated on the file uploaded page, instead of me having to wait for a support agent.

Once I hit the deposit button I only needed to fill in the basic bank details and complete my deposit. Hopa offers PayPal, Skrill, Paysafecard and debit card as payment options. I made a £40 deposit using my Visa debit card but I was charged £41 which included a deposit fee. I always sigh when I have to pay fees for making a deposit, it just hurts me.

Hopa has a dedicated ‘cash out’ section within the menu. I tried to withdraw the remaining £19.60 in my account but it would only allow me to withdraw £19. It automatically rounded up the withdrawal to the pound. I don’t know why I couldn’t withdraw my full balance, it certainly had nothing to do with technical limitations. I proceeded to withdraw my £19 and had no choice but to use the remaining £0.60 left in my account on a couple of spins.

I received an email the next day to inform me that my withdrawal was being processed. It took an additional five working days for the money to arrive in my account. Overall, the timing was acceptable but with the fees on top, I would have expected a quicker process.