What You Need To Know About Bonus Hunting
One of the best perks about opening a sports betting account is that you get a sweet reward upon depositing. The industry average is about 10% but you can find bonuses in the range of 50% or more (head over to the sportsbook bonus page if you wish to check specifics for each betting site).
We all know that sports betting can be a bit challenging, so it’s nice that you can start your account off with a profit. However, if you’ve never researched these bonuses before, you’ll want to read through our guide. They’re not all the same and some of them – surprise, surprise – have strings attached.
Not All Bonuses Are Equal
The first thing you’ll want to discover is what type of bonus is being offered. Some sportsbooks will be straight up with you and put cash in your account. Others will be on the gimmicky side. Some of the options you might see:
Free Play: A free play is basically the sportsbook giving you a free bet. If you lose, then your bonus is gone. If you win, you get to keep the profits. Since you don’t actually keep the free play amount, usually free play bonuses come with a higher percentage. That’s one way that they catch your attention.
Cash: For most people, this is the best bonus. If a sportsbook is giving you a 10% cash bonus, that means that whatever amount you deposit, they’ll add 10% to your account. Whatever you want to do with that money is up to you. That’s ideal for most people because then you don’t have to think about a one-time free play and where you want to bet it. With cash, you use it however you want. If you win, you still have your bonus along with the profits. Because cash is better for the customer and worse for the sportsbooks, you’ll typically find that cash bonuses are smaller than free play bonuses.
Cash Back: Some sportsbooks will give you the option to have cash back rather than money up front. Some people like this option because it serves as an insurance of sorts. If you have a bad year and your account gets cleaned out, then the sportsbook will come in – usually on a specified date – and provide you with a bonus. This bonus is usually cash.
Reload: One other important factor to keep in mind when you’re shopping around for bonuses is whether or not a sportsbook has a reload bonus. Almost every book has an initial deposit bonus and that’s because they want to get you in the door. But it’s nice to get a bonus every time you deposit. You can find that if you shop around.
Rollovers
So you’ve heard the saying that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, right? That’s the case with bonuses. All bonuses come with a rollover attached to it, which is simply to protect the sportsbook from having you deposit, them paying you a generous bonus, and you withdrawing your money plus the bonus. However, you have to be careful here because some sportsbooks have small rollovers just to protect themselves with a layer of security while others take advantage of this rule. For example: one sportsbook could offer you a 10% cash bonus with a two-time rollover whereas another book might offer you a 10% bonus with a 10-time rollover.
If you’re puzzled by what a rollover is, it’s your deposit amount plus your bonus multiplied by how many times they want you to roll over the money. Let’s say you deposited $1000 and got a 10% bonus of $100. A two-time rollover means that after you’ve accumulated $2200 in action – win or lose – you can withdraw any or all of your money. So you can see why a smaller rollover benefits the player. With something like a 10-time rollover, you’d have to bet ($1100 x 10) $11,000 before they would allow you to take your money out. That’s a significant difference.