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Understanding Sportsbook Bonuses

The online betting world is very competitive with many online sportsbooks all fighting to get your business. In order to attract new bettors to their sites, they will try to tempt you in with a welcome bonus or some other exciting free bet offer.

Remember, all that glitters is not gold...

Many of these sportsbook offers and bonuses look pretty impressive at first glance, some perhaps even too good to be true. Of course it wouldn’t be a sustainable business practice for online sportsbooks to simply give away free money to every new player. So there are a few things you need to be aware of before you go any further.

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Bonus Offer Terms and Conditions

Look a little closer and you will find the usual fine print which sets out those all-important terms and conditions. No-one likes reading through all that small print so we do the hard work for you and simply lay down the key points so you know how to successfully claim a sports betting bonus and make the most out of it.

Vegas Odds will safely guide you through the Terms and Conditions minefield.

You will soon realise there’s a few hoops you will have to jump through regarding obtaining and using these bonuses. Some will be easier than others but truth is sports betting bonuses can be a way to improve your overall long term betting profits. (if you know what you are doing!)

If played correctly, sportsbook bonuses allow you to maximize your bankroll and give you the chance to win some sizable payouts for relatively small stakes.

IMPORTANT - When you make an initial deposit into a sportsbook your funds will appear separately into two categories / balances - real cash and bonus funds. Together they are your total bankroll but you can only withdraw funds from your real cash balance. You can only withdraw bonus funds when you have met the offer’s wagering requirement.

Sportsbook Bonus Wagering Requirements

We need to talk about ‘wagering requirements’ next (sometimes referred to as turnover requirements) as these are one of the most important aspects of bonus bagging.

The wagering requirement is simply a multiplier that specifies how much money must be wagered before any of your bonus funds are converted into real cash that you can withdraw.

Always make sure that the site you are betting at displays any bonus terms and conditions clearly. Some less trustworthy sites will try to hide the terms or use confusing language that can be difficult to understand even for experienced bettors.

How Do Sports Betting Bonus Wagering-Requirements Work?

You may be sceptical when you first come across these terms but it’s standard practice with online betting sites that these bonus funds have to be wagered a certain amount of times before they can be withdrawn as cash. Online sportsbooks are in business to make a profit and they’re not going to do that by giving out free cash to all and sundry!

With online casino bonuses this wagering can be anywhere between 20x sometimes up to 60x and sometimes more. I’ve even seen 100x in some places. Thankfully things are much better for sports bettors with way more favourable turnover requirements, usually much lower than for casino offers and occasionally sportsbook betting bonuses come with no turnover requirements whatsoever. These are golden.

If you are a regular bettor who plans on betting anyway then these requirements should be perfectly manageable if you don’t overstretch yourself. And there’s always a few tricks you can use to cover the betting requirement such as ‘betting both sides’ which we’ll come to later.

Bigger Bonuses Are Not Always Better

It’s important to always check what the wagering requirements are first and then you can decide, based on how much you bet, what size of welcome bonus to go for so that you will be able to comfortably manage to meet the wagering requirement. (assuming you don’t go broke before then!)

For example, if the wagering requirement is 10x and you get a $50 bonus then you will need to make $500 worth of bets (10x $50) before you would be able to withdraw any bonus funds (and any winnings from your bonuses) as cash.

If you were to go for the maximum bonus of $250 then you would have to wager a total of $2500 (10 x $250) before any bonus funds are converted to real money.

What if I don’t meet the sportsbook bonus wagering requirements?

If you fail to fulfill the wagering and/or other requirements for a particular bonus you will forfeit the bonus and any winnings derived from that bonus.

Vegas Odds only displays the best offers from the most reputable and trustworthy sites explaining the most pertinent points such as any wagering and odds requirements to ensure you don’t miss out.

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Bovada Welcome Bonus

Let’s start with an easy example. One of our recommended sportsbooks, Bovada, is currently offering all new players a 50% welcome bonus up to a maximum of $250.

So, if you make an initial deposit of $100, you will receive $50 in Bovada bonus funds. To get the maximum bonus available you would need to deposit $500 to receive a $250 bonus.

Bovada’s 50% New Customer Welcome Bonus >>

More details / Claim Bonus

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What Are The Different Types of Sports Betting Bonuses

Sportsbooks offer a variety of deposit bonuses and reload bonuses (coming in various shapes and forms) and promotions to draw in new bettors and keep their existing customers coming back to gamble on sports on their site.

Here are the main types of sports betting bonuses you should look out for:

• Sign-up / Welcome Bonuses - Bonuses funds awarded to new customers usually based on a percentage of your first deposit
• Deposit Bonus - An additional top-up for each deposit you make
• Risk-free Bets - A promotion that will refund stakes of a losing bet
• Mobile Bonuses
• No Deposit Bonuses - Usually a smaller welcome / sign-up bonus that requires no initial deposit to be made
• Free Bet Tokens - Sportsbooks can credit free bet credits for various reasons such as loyalty bonuses or near misses (Losing in overtime for example)
• Odds Boosts - Special enhanced odds offers for certain outcomes
• Reload Bonuses - Bonus funds awarded with further deposits
• Parlay Insurance - A concession for parlay bets where if one of your selections let you down, your stake is refunded (usually as a free bet)

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