One of the first things you’ll notice when entering a sportsbook website is their welcome bonus. Bookies know only too well that as long as the promotions they’re offering are rewarding, the number of people playing on their website will keep growing. But how do you know which websites have the absolute best betting offers in the industry and why are bonuses and promotions such a big deal in the first place?
I have spent plenty of hours exploring some of the most popular online sportsbooks in order to find out which of them are the most generous. I tried not to be biased and compile a list of sites players can join and get the best possible offers.
Apart from the list below, I also wrote about each individual bonus type and explained how they work. If you’re only starting to scrape the surface of online sports betting, this is the right place to be.
In short, here are some of the things you will learn by skimming through my extensive guide:
- Top sportsbooks and betting offers in 2020
- The importance of betting offers
- Different types of betting offers
- Most common betting offer restrictions and terms of use
- Other things to consider when searching for betting offers
So if you’re ready to start your online sports betting adventure with an advantage, read on and tell me what you think in the comments.
Sportsbook bonuses and promotions have been around even before online betting. Bookies have always searched for a way to attract more players, and they realized that the easiest way to do so is to give their customers a little something on top of regular wagering.
For those of you who are new to sports betting, a betting offer is a special offer tailored by the bookmaker that provides you with some extra money to bet with.
Betting offers are important because they can turn “free” bonus money into real money without too much risk involved. I say “free” because it’s technically not free — unlocking the money won with an offer can sometimes be difficult and full of complicated requirements, but I’ll talk about that later on. In any case, betting offers represent a nice way to kick-start your betting journey and test a certain sportsbook site before fully devoting yourself to it.
Betting offers come in many shapes and forms. You can categorize them by player status (new players only, recurring customers, VIP customers), duration of the offer (time-limited, long-term), deposit (no-deposit, first deposit, reload), and the way the bonus money is released (free bet, percentage bonus, cashback).
Here are some of the most frequent betting offers you will run into on sportsbook websites.
Welcome Offers
Almost every modern sportsbook has some sort of a bonus for their first-time players. The only condition is that you’ve never played on that website before, including anyone in your household who uses the same device or IP address. Once you register on a sportsbook site of your choice, you will be rewarded with this one-time deal that’s usually the best offer the bookie has.
Welcome offers themselves can be in the form of deposit bonuses or free bets. You usually need to deposit and/or bet that deposit amount for the bonus funds to be released. In certain situations, a bookie will require you to use a bonus code to unlock the offer.
Of course, you should always read the full terms and conditions of a given bonus to understand all requirements and limitations the offer might carry, such as wagering requirements, minimum odds, and others.
Reload Offers
Your welcome bonus has run out and you want more? No problem! A lot of sportsbooks have reload bonuses you can use once your welcome bonus funds are spent. However, reload offers are not as good as welcome promotions, but it’s still better to use them than not have them at all.
A reload bonus is usually connected to a welcome offer; it counts toward your second, or, in some cases, third and fourth deposits. If you’re sure that you’ve made the right choice by selecting a certain bookmaker and you like to bet a lot, taking advantage of multiple reload bonuses is the best and least risky move.
Free Bets
The bonus money bookies give you usually comes in the form of free bets. In most situations, you will be required to deposit a certain amount of money and wager that money before you can receive a free bet.
For example, let’s say a sportsbook welcome offer claims you will get a $30 free bet if you deposit and wager $10. First, you need to deposit $10 and bet all of it (watch out for minimum odds limits). Regardless of whether you win or lose that bet, once it’s settled, the bookmaker should release $30 into your account. You can then use that money to play for free. Sometimes, the $30 will be given to you in increments (e.g. three individual free bets of $10 each).
Naturally, you won’t be able to withdraw the free bet money — you can only play with it. However, any potential winnings from free bets can be withdrawn. This offer usually doesn’t include any wagering requirements, so you can make a withdrawal once you’ve used the bonus.
It’s also important to note that the stake is not yours. Let’s say you’ve wagered a $10 free bet on even odds. You will only get the $10 profit, while the rest will be removed from your balance.
Apart from the terms and conditions, you should also consider the free bet amount before committing to it. The example I provided (wager $10 and get $30) is considered a solid free bet offer. If the amount is too low and the minimum betting limit is high, you should look for another bookmaker with a better offer.
Deposit Bonuses
Deposit bonuses are released to you immediately after you make your first deposit on a website, but they can sometimes be offered to recurring players as well. They are also called percentage bonuses or matched bonuses.
How do deposit offers work? It’s simple, you will be rewarded with a percentage of your initial deposit amount once it goes through. For example, let’s say the deposit offer consists of 50% worth up to $200. This means that if you deposit $400, you will get 50% ($200) as free money to play with.
Of course, you can choose to deposit less (e.g. deposit $50 and get $25), but the maximum amount you can receive in this case is $200. So even if you deposit $800, the bookie will still give you only $200 on top of that to play with.
Sometimes you can get special deposit offers if you decide to deposit with a specific payment method. These days, a lot of bookmakers promote cryptocurrency transactions on their websites, giving you an exclusive chance to claim lucrative bonuses if you deposit using bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies.
Unlike free bets, deposit bonuses usually include some wagering requirements, which is something I will talk about later on. Again, the size of the bonus and the min/max deposit are important and can represent the difference between a good offer and a bad one.
Note that these offers are also called matched bonuses, but they should not be confused with the term matched betting. The latter is a strategy used to get the most out of the discrepancies in odds from two different bookies, but that is a topic for another article.
No Deposit Offers
These are very rare and usually not as good as they sound. Yes, you will get a certain bonus amount once you register even if you don’t deposit or bet anything, but the requirements for unlocking such bonuses and being allowed to withdraw the winnings are oftentimes brutal and almost impossible to meet.
Also, no deposit offers are much more common for casino games rather than sports betting, but some bookies do have these kinds of promotions.
Cashback Offers
Cashback bonuses are like getting a second chance from a bookmaker. With this offer, you get a certain amount of money back from your losing bet. It’s usually not much, but it’s still better than nothing.
A bookmaker has specific rules when it comes to receiving cashback offers. For example, if your betting slip failed by only one pair, you will get a percentage of your accumulated winning odds. In other cases, you will be compensated for your losses in specific situations, like when a soccer match ends with no goals and you’ve bet on either team to score. Also, the compensation can sometimes come in the form of free bets.
Accumulator Bonuses, Enhanced Odds, and Best Odds Guaranteed
I put these three together because they all relate to your fixtures’ given odds and the way you construct your betting slip.
To receive an accumulator bonus, you usually need to have as many fixtures as possible on a single slip. For example, if you’ve placed eight or more bets, your potential winnings will get increased by 5%. If you’ve placed more than 12 bets, potential winnings will be 10% higher.
Enhanced odds offers are just what they sound like. You get better odds on certain fixtures, although the winnings from those odds will usually be paid in the form of free bets. In some situations, enhanced odds can be connected to accumulator bonuses we’ve discussed above.
Best odds guaranteed is a promotion related to horse racing and greyhound racing. If you bet on these events in advance (several hours or days before the start), you will get favorable odds from the bookmaker.
Mobile Bonuses
Mobile betting is the future, as many bettors are switching from playing on desktop computers to placing bets using their smartphones and tablets. Bookmakers understand that players are into placing bets this way, which is why they offer exclusive bonuses to incentivize them to use a mobile device.
Mobile bonuses are usually in the form of free bets or percentage offers. In most cases, the operator will require you to download their mobile app to get the bonus, but you can sometimes access the promotions using their mobile browser site too.
All betting offers sound great when you read the first line, but there are a lot of things under the surface. You can notice that each bonus on a sportsbook site has “terms of use apply” or “bonus terms apply” written underneath in small text. By clicking on these terms of use, you will find all the rules and restrictions for a given bonus.
Below, I will be writing about the most common ones.
Wagering Requirements
Also called rollover requirements, wagering requirements represent the number of times you must play your bonus money over in order to become eligible for a withdrawal. These requirements are usually tied to different kinds of deposit bonuses and are rare when it comes to free bets.
Rollover requirements are a little difficult to understand if you’re only beginning to learn the ropes of online betting, but I’ll try to explain them in the simplest way possible.
Let’s say you’ve got $50 as a reward on your initial deposit. If the bonus terms state that the wagering requirements are 5x, this means that you have to play the bonus over five times to be able to withdraw any potential winnings.
In this particular situation, you need to wager at least $250 (5x$50), and only then can you pick up what’s left. You must only use your bonus money to bet, as other deposits don’t count toward the requirements.
The example I gave with the 5x wagering requirements is pretty generous. For deposit bonuses, this number is usually 10x or higher. For free bets, the rollover requirements (if there are any) are usually just 1x.
Minimum Odds
Minimum odds are imposed on a qualifying bet for your free bet bonus, but the free bet itself can sometimes have the minimum odds requirement as well.
In any case, these minimum odds are usually 1/1, 1/2, or anywhere in between. Only the qualifying bet made with these odds can unlock the free bet bonus. As for the free bets, they can also have minimum odds, but this is a bit arbitrary since you don’t get to keep the stake anyway, meaning that you won’t have any incentive to bet on odds smaller than required.
Validity Period
Of course, once you unlock the bonus, nobody will be rushing you to use it right away, but there are still some time limitations you should be aware of. The validity period of a given bonus can be anywhere from one week to one month.
This is not an issue when it comes to free bets, as you’d normally use them fairly quickly. However, sometimes you may be waiting for the right game to bet on, so it’s best if a free bet bonus gives you some time to think things over.
Deposit bonuses can be a bit tricky, as you will need time to meet all the wagering requirements. Whatever the case, the longer the validity period, the better.
Bonus Codes
Some betting offers require bonus codes that consist of different numbers and letters. You will need to manually type in this code once you sign up on the website and claim that you want to use the offer. You can usually find the bonus code on the Terms and Conditions page of the offer.
Geographical Restrictions
Unfortunately, some bookies don’t allow players from certain countries to use their bonuses, mostly because of legal reasons. Just like many of these terms and conditions, geographical restrictions might also not be in plain sight, which means you’ll have to search for them. Make sure that this is the first thing you check, as there’s nothing worse than committing to a sportsbook only to realize that you can’t use their offers.
Also, even if your country is not on the restricted list, geographical restrictions for a betting offer can still exclude your region. Plus, note that there could be some restrictions regarding certain payment methods or currencies.
This is a question every bettor in the world wants to know the answer to. All renowned bookmakers have at least one offer, but oftentimes there are several rewarding ones. That’s why keeping track and comparing every one of them is not easy, especially if you’ve just started to bet.
That’s why I did all the homework for you and decided to present what I consider the best betting offers in the industry today. Check out my list and think hard before you take your pick. Again, I must stress out that some betting offers look good on the surface, but things like wagering requirements and other restrictions can bring down their actual value.
Apart from the size of the offer and its terms of use, you should also think about the sportsbook itself. Just because a website has a juicy bonus, it does not mean you will have a great experience there. Consider the number of markets, the size of the odds, betting options, mobile accessibility, banking methods, and other options and features.
I hope that you had fun reading my article and that you’ve learned something new about betting offers. Before you decide to use any of these offers, make sure to understand the differences between them and pay attention to any restrictions and terms of use that apply to them.
If you wish to add something or ask me a question, feel free to do so in the Comments section below. I love chatting with my readers and will give my best to reply to your comments as quickly as possible. Other than that, good luck!
Can betting offers be combined with each other?