How to successfully use a sports betting bonus?

All that glitters is not gold, but with the right attitude and a thoughtful choice of office space, you can get that extra capital.

Register and open an account

The first step is to register with your chosen betting shop. The criteria for choosing an interesting betting shop have already been covered in our previous lessons. You should carefully research the specifics of the betting office and only start the registration process once you have all the information you need.

Top up your account and claim your bonus

The welcome bonus is a special feature that “welcomes” new entrants, i.e. newly registered players. To receive the bonus, the player must make a deposit into his account. The options available to top up your account are explained in this lesson.

Once you’ve decided how much you want to deposit, take the necessary steps. For welcome bonuses, it is often the case that you need to claim the bonus separately when you make your first deposit. Don’t be alarmed, as betting shops will always ask you to claim the bonus in a clearly visible place. Once you have made your deposit and received your bonus, you can start playing.

Playing the bonus

In our previous lesson, we learned that betting shop bonuses are usually subject to special conditions, or in technical terms, wagering requirements. In practice, this means that in order to actually claim the bonus amount, you have to wager a certain amount of money first. The exact amount you have to wager is decided by the bookmakers at their discretion.

When choosing a bonus and a bookmaker, always check the terms and conditions. It is easy to discover details that you cannot afford. So to avoid disappointment later on, be prepared and knowledgeable when you go in for a bonus, and if possible, research the terms and conditions thoroughly.

Should I play the bonus or treat it as capital?

You decide. Two ways or views on bonuses are popular among bettors. There are the so-called bonus hunters, who specialise their game specifically to “take” the bonus money out of the halls. To do this, they usually choose a riskier game or, in some cases, play the same dodgy event in two places at the same time with opposite outcomes, so that they can be sure to win with one of them.

The other view is when we approach a bonus as part of our betting capital. This means that we consider our deposit and bonus amount together as our bankroll and play accordingly. If we do this, we can avoid unnecessarily chasing the bonus by simply following our own play. With this approach, there’s a good chance we can end the story in the black.

Let’s take an example: you decide to start betting on sports with 50 USD and your chosen bookmaker offers you a bonus of 50 USD, the bonus is conditional on a five-fold wagering.

What happens then? You have a total of 100 USD of capital and a wagering requirement of 250 USD.

If you follow the bankroll management rules and wager say 5 USD on your bets, you will meet the bonus wagering requirements after 50 bets, as you will have wagered 5×50 USD.

Even if you merely expect a hit rate of around 50% or a close result of 0, you will still end the process with a plus, as you will still have an extra 50 USD of the bonus left over in this case.

In optimistic scenarios, better results can obviously be achieved, so it is of course also possible that you will manage to raise the initial 100USD while “under the grass” you have managed to meet the bonus rotation requirements.

For the above reasons, it is (also) worth looking at the bonus as an opportunity. Don’t obsess about playing the bonus, simply look at it as money to bet with.

What strategy should you choose to play the bonuses?

The answer to this question depends largely on the type of bonus and its requirements. For example, if a bookmaker offers you a free bet, you should open with a strong tip, meaning that you can plan ahead to try to win the bonus with a particular tip. If you win, you’re on to a winner, and if you lose, it’s no tragedy as your deposit is still there and you can continue playing.

Where they offer bonus amounts rather than free bets, they usually set a minimum multiplier and a minimum amount to wager through your bets.

Sometimes you may have to play in betting, which obviously does not increase your odds. Such requirements are not very player-friendly, the bookmaker is playing on the fact that we cannot get the bonus. With these bonuses, it is worth thinking carefully beforehand whether you want to be in this battle. If we decide that we do, we can play for higher odds, riskier picks that we would be less likely to take with our own money. Or we can decide to join in the fun and pick our picks as best we can.