The sports betting industry is highly competitive and online bookies are continually battling each other to get your attention. This means they’re going to be offering a lot of bonuses and promotions both new and regular punters can snap up.
From a chance to make 100% free bets to having your first deposit doubled, today’s online betting promotions really do make sports gambling more lucrative, exciting, and profitable.
Today, we’ll walk you through different types of promotions and show you how they work and what kinds of promotions you’ll encounter on your betting adventures.
Expect to see:
- Bookmakers offering the best bonuses and promotions
- Most common types of betting promotions
- Soccer betting promotions
- How to stay on top of promotions
If you’re ready to learn how to take advantage of all the gifts that bookies generously offer when you sign up, let’s get started!
Online bookmakers offer all sorts of bonuses, many of which are often related to a particular game or event. During the most elite competitions, punters are spoilt with choice, which means they can win everything from hefty cash prizes to all-expenses-paid trips.
Top bookmakers also often have bonuses available around New Year and Christmas. They can be anything from enhanced odds to free bets and cashback bonuses.
Our team did some digging on the Internet to find the best promotions currently offered. Take a look at our selection and choose the one that suits your betting style the most.
The competitive nature of the online betting industry has resulted in some very creative promotion strategies that offer both new and regular users different ways to make betting a bit more exciting.
These include:
- Welcome bonuses
- Regular customer offers
- Cashback bonuses
- Reload bonuses
- Accumulator bonuses
- ACCA insurance promotions
- Enhanced odds
- Best odds guaranteed
- Competition promotions
Below, we’ll explain how each of them works and teach you how to make the most of them.
Welcome Bonus
A welcome bonus is pretty self-explanatory — it’s designed to welcome new customers on the site and give them a head start. Depending on the bookmaker, you’ll come across several kinds of welcome offers. The two most common types are match bonuses and free bets.
Free Bets
After you make your first deposit, some bookmakers will reward you with a free bet offer. In most cases, free bet bonuses don’t require you to meet any wagering requirements. This means that if you wager with free bets and your betting slip turns green, you can cash out with no strings attached. Keep in mind that you can’t withdraw the stake from the free bet — only the winnings are paid.
Match Bonuses
The majority of betting sites will offer to match your deposit to a certain extent, often 100% or more. Most often, these bonuses come with a turnover requirement. This means you have to play through the bonus money a couple of times before you can withdraw any winnings.
Regular Customer Offers
Bookmakers don’t turn their backs on regular players. To reward them for their loyalty, betting operators provide offers that can include free bets, enhanced odds, and so on. In most cases, regular customer offers are slightly less valuable than welcome bonuses, but they are still generous.
Reload Bonuses
Reload bonuses are targeted at players who have already deposited in the past on the site. This is a win-win scenario for both the bookie and the customer. The bookmaker gets to keep you as a customer and you get a hefty bankroll boost.
Cashback Bonuses
Cashback promotions are of great value when Lady Luck turns her back on you. It’s one of the most popular promotions out there that can be applied to a variety of betting situations. This offer will give you back a percentage of the money the bookmaker made from your bets.
So even if you don’t win your bet, you’ll get a refund on your deposit that you can use for another bet. It’s usually not a ton of money. Nevertheless, it’s a nice gift.
Cashback promos are especially popular when it comes to soccer betting. For instance, bookmakers may refund your losses (partially) if both teams score zero. And we all know how frustrating a scoreless draw can be, right?
Accumulator Bonuses
Through accumulator bonuses, bookies reward players for winning two or more separate wagers placed together. In most cases, the bonus comes in the form of a percentage of your prize.
This type of bonus is also proportionate to the number of bets you place. Therefore, the more bets you have on your betting slip, the more valuable the bonus will be. If you’re one of those punters who are trying to win big bucks with small bets, you’ll find this offer especially tempting.
ACCA Insurance Promotions
ACCA insurance allows you to qualify for a refund if you miss only one game in an accumulator bet. For example, if you bet on seven matches and only six of them go your way, the bookmaker will partially recuperate your losses. Depending on the terms and conditions, as well as the bookmaker itself, the refund can be partial or full. In most cases, the refund is returned in the form of free bets instead of cash.
This promotion can indeed be worthwhile — just think about how many times your accumulator bet failed only because of one game? It’s kind of a consolation prize that can give you another shot at winning money. Maybe the second time’s the charm?
Enhanced Odds
Enhanced odds are temporary promotions that offer boosted odds for certain games. Depending on the event, enhanced odds promos can raise the odds on the underdog and provide a more rewarding prize should they prevail. In other cases, these bonuses target the winning team, making the betting experience a lot more appealing.
As tempting as this offer may sound, an enhanced odds promo is offered in the form of free bets instead of cash, so make sure to go through the T&C before placing a bet. Bookies often offer boosted odds for accumulator bets with two or more games on one slip.
Best Odds Guaranteed
This type of bonus is usually used in greyhound and horse racing and it can be potentially lucrative. The best odds promotion is available to punters who place their bets early and use the odds before the beginning of a race.
As odds often fluctuate, bookies reward early-birds with best odds guaranteed. The best odds guaranteed promotion will give you the best possible odds available at the time of placing your bet.
Competition Promotions
The only thing that can make an elite sports competition more thrilling is the competition promos that come along with it. Top betting companies present these offers for events such as Grand Slams in tennis, Champions League in soccer, Playoffs in the NBA, the Olympic Games, etc.
The format of these special promos widely varies from one bookie to another, but what they all have in common is that you have to bet constantly during the whole competition.
Soccer is, hands down, the most popular sport on the planet, as well as the sport that attracts the biggest betting enthusiasts. The fact that soccer enjoys so much popularity worldwide is not surprising, considering the number of matches that take place on a daily basis.
Virtually every esteemed bookmaker offers promotions for soccer, one way or the other. The best betting sites for soccer are often the heavy hitters of the industry, but there are also those who are “pro-soccer oriented”.
The most common types of soccer betting offers include:
- Enhanced odds
- Accumulator promotions
- ACCA insurance
- Competition promotions
- Cashback promotions
To get the most out of betting promotions, you need to be aware of them. Just because a bookmaker is running a promotion doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll enjoy the benefits. Knowing which promotions are currently active and which are coming up is of utmost importance.
Here’s what you need to do to make sure you don’t miss out on anything:
Subscribe to Bookmaker’s Site
You will often be given an option to subscribe to the bookie’s site as soon as you register. We know how much spam and junk mail you have in your email box, but keep in mind that messages from bookmakers usually contain promotional updates you will want to know about.
Emails from betting companies are not junk but stuff that’s important to you. If you’re a member of the site and not sure whether you’ve subscribed, contact their support team and ask them if you can be added to the list.
Follow Bookmaker on Social Media
The majority of top-tier bookmakers have Facebook/Instagram/Twitter pages where they are constantly updating players about promotions and bonus offers. Since you’re probably a user of at least one of these platforms, make sure to follow these accounts to stay up to speed.
Visit Bookmaker’s Site Frequently
To stay up-to-date with promotional packages offered by the bookies, don’t forget to visit the site every once in a while. Promotional line-ups can change quickly, and you don’t want to miss a fantastic offer. It will only take a couple of minutes of your time, but those few minutes can make all the difference.
Ask Customer Support if They Are Currently Offering Anything
Promotions pages usually have all the current promos and bonuses listed, but in some rare instances, the bookmaker may opt not to put a specific bonus on the list. For example, there are certain VIP bonuses that aren’t always displayed on the site.
If you’re a big player, it pays off to stay on top of these offers. Don’t be shy — contact the customer support team and ask about promos. The worst thing that can happen is that they tell you they don’t have anything special going on.
Why do bookmakers offer betting promotions?