As the battle for your poker dollar rages, the marketing bods at Virgin Poker are earning their money by setting up a scheme allowing poker players to earn Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles while playing online.

Virgin Poker has announced one of the most generous loyalty memberships ever with the launch of V-points.

The scheme aims to provide high street value to players and will compete with leading UK schemes such as Nectar, and be matched only by the very best high street loyalty programmes such as Boots.

Over the next few months Virgin Poker will announce further reward options, including Virgin Digital downloads and Virgin Mobile top ups. For low-raking players, there will be regular chances to supplement their V-points with special tournaments and promotions – such as the Million Mile Challenge freeroll in May, where Virgin Poker will give away the equivalent of 40 flights to Las Vegas.

The value offered by V-points is by far the best of any online poker service. For example, a middle ranking player playing for ten hours a week on the £4 / £8 tables could realistically expect to earn enough V-points for a return flight to Las Vegas, New York or LA every 6 months.

One of the new breed of professional online players, playing for 20 hours a week on the £10 / £20 tables, will earn enough V-points for a return trip to Vegas every two months – which with the World Series around the corner, means that there has never been a better time to start playing on Virgin.

Tournament players will be also be glad to know that they will earn V-points at the standard rate whenever they play single or multi table tournaments.

Simon Burridge, CEO Virgin Games, said: “When we launched Virgin Poker in November 2005, our loyalty scheme was always envisaged as a key differentiator. Poker is now a mass market leisure activity and Virgin Poker is perfectly placed to draw on the resources of the Virgin Group to offer greater value than high street loyalty schemes to players of all levels.”

“The average player would typically have to put in years of grinding to actually see any tangible benefits from other poker loyalty schemes. With V-points, everyday players can easily accumulate points for Virgin Vouchers or save up their Flying Club miles for a holiday. Meanwhile, players who spend their time on the high stakes tables can expect to earn, for example, a return flight to New York, Vegas or LA every couple of months – a totally unique offer in this marketplace.”