From time to time an online gambling site can give you bonuses. Depending on when whether or not you are already a customer with the online gambling site, you might be eligible for different categories of bonuses.
In this article, we will go into details about these categories before we discuss the different kind of bonuses you can receive. The goal of this article is to provide you with truthful information about bonuses for slot machines, live casino games and sports betting.
Our casino guide on how bonuses work is part of two bigger article series. The first article series focuses on how online casinos work and include topics such as slot machines, live casino games and game providers.
We kick off this article by discussing the bonus categories you should familiarise yourself with.
Contents
WELCOME BONUSES
It is common for an online gambling site to offer welcome bonuses to new players. More often than not these bonuses are time-restricted, and the player can’t be an existing customer to receive one. To make sure there are no misunderstandings around the fact that this bonus is restricted to new customers only, gambling sites use the term ‘welcome bonus’.
A welcome bonus can consist of any bonuses but more often than not you will see a welcome bonus in the shape and form of a match deposit bonus. You may even come across welcome bonuses giving out additional types of bonuses, such as free spins and free bets.
Whenever you see a percentage(%) in a welcome bonus, this indicates how much of your deposit will be matched. In cases where you see ‘100% up to….’ your deposit will be matched 100% up to the amount of money following this sentence.
To receive a welcome bonus you have to open up an account with an online casino. Make sure you read the instructions carefully as some online casinos want you to choose your welcome bonus upon registration and some want you to do it upon your first deposit.
RELOAD BONUSES
Be aware that welcome bonuses often get paid out as bonus money and not real money. To convert the bonus money to real money, you will need to fulfil the wagering requirements. What is left after this is fulfilled will be converted to real money.
Similar to a welcome bonus, reload bonuses are yet another bonus category depending on whether or not you are an existing customer with a gambling site.
We’ve just learned that welcome bonuses are restricted to new players only. As a comparison, reload bonuses are restricted to existing players.
While the purpose of giving a welcome bonus is to acquire new players, the purpose of a reload bonus is to retain you as a player. This is a good deal for you as a player because a reload bonus often benefits you.
A reload bonus can also consist of almost any kind of bonus. Deposit bonuses, free spins, free bets and profit boosts are among the most common reload bonuses, however, you should not be surprised if you receive a different bonus.
Wagering requirements are a natural part of a reload bonus. It is more common when given an online casino bonus than when you are given an odds betting bonus.
We recommend reading the terms and conditions of the bonus you have received, especially if the bonus requires a deposit. This will make sure that your expectations for that bonus are matching the quality of it.
ONLINE CASINO BONUSES EXPLAINED
Now that you have learned about bonus categories, it’s time to learn about the different types of bonuses you can receive. We start by looking at casino bonuses which are bonuses designed to be used on slot machines.
In good online casinos, you can receive a casino bonus almost every day if you do things right. To make sure you get the most out of your experience, we recommend that you accept email and SMS communications from your online casino. By doing that, you open up the possibility of them sending you bonuses.
We also recommend that you check out their promotion pages from time to time. There are many examples of online casinos running public tournaments and achievement races on a daily basis. These promotions can win you bonuses.
We’re now going to take a look at the different types of promotions and bonuses you can receive in an online casino and explain exactly how they work.
HOW FREE SPINS WORK
If you love slot machines as much as we do, we bet you love free spins too. In this part of our article about how bonuses work, we will take a look at how promotional free spins work.
Promotional free spins must not be mistaken for the in-game feature with the same name. The in-game feature must be won inside the game and often include entering a bonus round. To win them you’ll have to spend your own money and get lucky.
Free spins are often given to you as an individual through email and SMS communications. They can become quite expensive for the online casino, which is why you don’t find them very often as part of public promotions.
When they send them directly to players, they are able to filter out bonus abusers or people that never spend their own money with them.
Free spins are always connected to one single slot machine. In most online casinos you can jump directly into that slot machine and you will have a pop-up telling you that you have free spins.
However, in some online casinos, you may have to visit an offer page to activate them before you can use them.
When you have accepted them, the value is set automatically and all you have to do is press spin. Instead of using your own money, the value of each free spin will be used as a stake.
The fact that you can play, and have a chance to win money without having to spend your own money, is the reason why they are named free spins.
HOW NO-DEPOSIT BONUSES WORK
Back in the days, no-deposit bonuses with huge wagering requirements used to be the industry standard for welcome bonuses. The problem was that this attracted a lot of players with no intention of ever spending money on gambling.
Because of the bonus abuse, it’s difficult to find no-deposit bonuses with serious online casinos. As a welcome bonus, you almost exclusively find them with non-licensed casinos.
Even though it might be tempting to play with such a casino, you don’t want to give personal information and credit card information to people unable to follow simple regulations.
However, there are ways of getting no-deposit bonuses from legitimate casinos as well. They are normally restricted to so-called VIP players, spending a significant amount of time and money with online casinos.
If you have the potential to become a VIP player, we recommend accepting communication to become eligible for no-deposit bonuses.
When you receive a no-deposit bonus, you will be given bonus money. This is similar to real money but with wagering requirements attached to it.
How many times you have to turn the money over before they become withdrawable depends on the casino and your VIP level.
HOW DEPOSIT BONUS WORKS
Now that we have discussed the rare no-deposit bonus, a natural next step towards learning how bonuses work is looking closer at the more common deposit bonus.
Many of you are used to seeing deposit bonuses as part of welcome bonuses. Some online casinos also offer deposit bonuses through email communication but also through public promotions.
Deposit bonuses can work a few different ways and in this section, we will try to cover most of them.
Common for all of them you have to deposit something and as a result you will get something in return. That ‘something’ is the variable that separates them.
The most common deposit bonus is the match bonus. You recognize these bonuses by the addition of a percentage (%) symbol. An example of a match bonus is “100% up to 10.000”.
Sometimes you may even get a match bonus, where the return is free spins or free bets. An example of this is “100% up to 100 worth of free spins”.
The second most common deposit bonus is the “deposit+get” bonus. This is not necessarily a match bonus, however, it has a lot of the same mechanics. A deposit+get bonus typically looks like this: Deposit 100 and get 100 free spins!
Although these deposit bonuses can come in more shape and sizes, these are the most common ones and through the information, we have provided, you should be able to determine how it works.
HOW GAME TOKENS & FREE IN-GAME FEATURES WORKS
In recent years, online casinos have been able to give out in-game feature bonuses on some slot machines. It all started with the game provider Quickspin, inventing game tokens.
In these slot machines, you can typically enter a bonus round by either hitting certain symbols or by collecting tokens over time.
By handing out these tokens, the online casino pushes you closer to the potentially big payout and as a result, you will need fewer spins to get into the bonus round.
Tokens are almost exclusively handed out through emails and SMS.
ODDS BETTING BONUSES EXPLAINED
When betting on odds with a sportsbook, you want to get an occasional free bet or profit boost to increase your potential profit. In addition to providing a great opportunity for some extra cash, these bonuses multiply the entertainment by a lot.
Similar to when you play online casino, it’s beneficial to accept communication from the betting site through email and SMS when you want odds bonuses. This is because it is common for a betting site to mix up public bonuses with personal bonuses from time to time.
Among the most popular odds bonuses, you find free bets and profit boosts. In this section, we will go into detail about how they work.
HOW FREE BETS WORK
Free bets are extremely popular among online betting enthusiasts for a reason. They provide the player with a free shot at winning real cash. The winnings from free bets rarely have any wagering requirements connected, which makes them extra valuable.
When you want to use a free bet, you fill in your bet slip as normal but instead of filling in how much of your own money you want to stake, you click on the free bet.
Winnings from free bets are paid out without the original stake. That means you will only be left with the winnings. A good example of this is when you use a 50 Free Bet on 3.00 in odds, you can win 100, which is 50 times three, minus the original stake (50).
You can receive a free bet as a match bonus, a no-deposit bonus and as extra winnings in a promotion.
Although without wagering requirements on winnings, you have to be aware of the minimum and maximum limits. There might be a required minimum odds or maximum winnings.
HOW PROFIT BOOSTS WORK
Profit boosts are one of our favourite bonuses here at AllGambling. The reason why is that they are skill-based and they provide great potential for extra cash. The best part is that they are handed out quite often.
A profit boost is a skill-based bonus, making them relatively cheap for the betting site, as most people don’t win anything from them. However, if you are a good odds bettor, this is a good chance to get the upper hand.
Because they are cheap, you can get a profit boost almost every day through public promotions and personal communication.
What the bonus does, is that it boosts the profit part of your stake. It can be a bit difficult to understand how they work, but if you pay attention, we will give it our best shot.
In our example, we have placed a bet with a stake of 1000 and the odds is 4.00. The bet is placed with a 100% profit boost.
The original payout for this bet is 4.00 x 1000, which is 4000. With 1000 in original stake, the profit is 3000. Because we used a profit boost, the 3000 in profit gets doubled to 6000.
Instead of getting a 4000 payout with 3000 in profit, we end up getting a 7000 payout with 6000 profit on the same bet.
These winnings normally don’t come with wagering requirements.