Betting Offers

As with everything in life, there are pros and cons, so it’s up to you to weigh them up against each other and see whether you think it’s worth claiming a welcome offer when you sign up to a new betting site:

Pros

Sign up offers are one of the best ways to give you an initial boost when signing up to a new bookmaker. It allows you to bet more which can potentially result in bigger winnings should you be correct. It also allows you place more bets, so if you are not confident on the bet you placed at the start of the match you will have more money to bet in-play with, in order to try and turn the situation to your advantage.

They’re also a great way of testing out a new bookmaker. Some will even let you claim a bonus without having to deposit anything which means you can have a look around at all the features available without actually having to spend any of your own money. This will help you find a betting website that you actually like and feel like you’d want to continue to bet at.

Finally, the chance to earn some risk-free cash is always a hard one to pass up, we all love free money, right? Well, there’s nothing better than earning free money off of risk-free bets – whether you’re betting on the horse races or the Premier League.

Cons

Betting promotions are often worded in a way which makes them sound incredibly appealing, but this is seldom the case. Always look at the terms and conditions first to ensure you fully understand what it’s all about. Over the past year or so we’ve seen these a number of enhanced odds promotions being changed from paid in cash to paid out in free bets, which then go on to have a wagering requirement to be completed. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true then it normally is.

We’ve already mentioned wagering requirements in some detail above but they are definitely a con and one you should consider whether you think you will be able to fulfil it within the set time limit. Remember if you don’t get through the wagering requirement in the set time limit, then you will lose your bonus, deposit and all winnings that haven’t gone above the wagering requirement.

Max Winnings are generally added to free bets to prevent customers winning too much cash off their promotions, one of these is 888sport who does put a limit on their treble odds offer to prevent a punter coming in and winning ridiculous sums of money.

What types of offers are available for new and existing bettors?

There is quite a variety of bonuses for new customers :

Free Bet No Deposit:

This is a very very rare welcome offer to see nowadays, only a few bookies in the online betting world will actually offer this to new customers. Every now and then you will find a betting site who will give new bettors a £10 no deposit bonus when they sign up on the site.

Matched Deposit Bonus:

These are much bigger and tend to be similar to casino bonuses and poker bonuses when it comes down to their terms and conditions. Usually having a much bigger wagering requirement. An example of this matched bonus is the £50 deposit bonus from 10Bet. This is a great type of bonus for Premier League betting, especially when you’re covering a selection of bets on both the pre-match and in-play betting.

Risk Free Bets:

These act in a similar way to moneyback specials. If your first wager loses, then you will get the money back as a free bet to use again. In our expert opinion, we feel that these offers are best avoided as if you win you don’t actually get anything. One online bookmaker who is offering this is Betfair who has a £20 risk free bet up for grabs.

Offers for existing customers:

Price Boosts:

You certainly need to keep your eyes open for these as they come and go incredibly quick. Normally released at the start of the day, they can be used on a variety of sporting events such as rugby league & rugby union, ice hockey etc. These offers will certainly give you a profit boost or two.

Reload Bonuses:

There are actually some online bookmakers that will offer their customers free bets for life. However, not many do – many simply offer free bets clubs where you place a certain number of bets in a time frame and you can earn a free bet.

Money Back Specials:

This is where you’ll be rewarded with free bets up to a certain amount if your original bet doesn’t happen. Generally, these are limited to a certain amount and can be available across all the Premier League, Champions League, Europa League matches – and in fact every other sport under the sun.

Best way to turnover a wagering requirement

Turning over your betting offer can be quite a challenge, but if you know what you’re betting on it does make it significantly easier. Remember, each bookmaker normally has a minimum betting odds that you must wager on. Always remember to pick the sport you know most about as you don’t want to be wasting any potential winnings you could earn. Once you’ve chosen the sport, you will want to refer to the terms and conditions (in this example we will be using 10bet’s who currently have 3 x Bonus + Deposit) so if we deposit £40 and claim a £20 welcome bonus we will need to wager £200 before we can cash out. which when you think about it is very similar to a casino bonus

Now, this isn’t all about winning the most money off your £20 bonus, it’s about getting through it so any subsequent winnings from it are yours to keep. After trying this ourselves, we have found the best way to do this is to stay close to the betting odds requirement which is 1.5. This means every bet we place in order for it to contribute to the wagering requirement will need to have odds greater than 1.5. So now you just need to scour the leagues, matches anything to find favourites or teams that you think may be undervalued and back them. Once you’ve placed a bet it’s just a matter of waiting it out, so if you’d of wagered £10 you would need to do this 11 more times before you’ve completed the turnover requirement and you can cash out any of your winnings.

Should you always claim a free bet offer when signing up?

There’s a lot of debate going on about this. This is due to every welcome bonus having its own set of terms and conditions which can prevent you from cashing out your winnings. For instance, if you choose to sign up to 10Betand claim their £50 deposit bonus, you will then be locked into their wagering requirement term this means that any winnings you got from your original cash deposit would need to be turned over a set amount of times, which means having to place around £2500 worth of bets before you can even cash anything out. This is great if you’re a serious gambler and know your stuff, but if you’re just looking for a flutter here and there on the football, then its probably best to swerve these types of offers. Remember to look out for promo codes and bonus codes as some of these free bets will require them.

For those of you looking for just a bit of extra cash, we’d definitely advise that you claim the low-value welcome offers (nothing above £50) as these will return the best value for money as normally the majority of them only require a 1x turn over before you can cash out any of your winnings, Ladbrokes is great for this as you’ll only need to deposit £5 and you’ll be credited with a £20 free bet.

Remember it’s completely down to you whether you think the offer is worth it. Some times it’s better to sign up to a site that you like the look of as opposed to who’s offering the most money upfront – because, in the long run, better odds and a brand that looks after their existing customers will be much better for your overall betting experience.