With such a wide variety of different betting promotions on offer among different bookmakers, sometimes it can be difficult to get your head around what they all mean. It is, however, important to make the distinction between the various available promotions, because not all of them are made equal – in fact far from it. While some bonuses can be particularly useful and if used smartly can be of great benefit to the customer, others don’t offer nearly as much as they might seem to. For example, some bookmakers may offer you an early payout on a certain market in the event that the team you’ve bet on fulfils some predetermined metric, which might sound great in theory until you realise that in reality, that early payout will only ever really be fulfilled if your bet is going to get up regardless. It’s for that reason that it’s important to understand exactly what it is that a promotion is offering and how beneficial it can be to you, and to help you out we’ve created a list of some of the most common types of bonuses, promotions and betting offers.
✔️ Welcome bonus
This was for a long time one of the most common types of betting sites bonuses, and one which is offered by many if not most betting sites. The way it works is simple, though the specifics of it can vary quite a lot between different bookmakers. Often it will simply be in the form of a bonus bet credited to your account when you make an initial deposit, or even when you just sign up – typically this won’t be a huge amount, but you might be able to squeeze a $10 bonus bet out of some bookies for example. However, the Australian government has relatively recently put a halt to the bookies’ ability to provide these bonuses in an attempt to crack down on betting promotions Australia being used as an inducement to get potential customers to sign up, so this is not a bonus type you’ll likely come across for the time being.
✔️ First deposit bonus
In some respects, the first deposit bonus could fall under the umbrella of a welcome bonus, but we’ve put it as its own section given how common it is, as well as the fact that on some occasions it can exist as well as a separate welcome bonus. The first deposit bonus functions essentially as the name suggests it would – when you make an initial deposit into a new betting account, you’ll receive a bonus bet.
The value of this bonus bet offer will of course vary between bookmakers. Typically it will be a percentage of the deposit that you make, while it will also generally have a limit as to how big your bonus can be. For example, some bookies might give you a 100% first deposit match up to $50 – this means that if you deposit $50, you’ll get a $50 bonus bet, while if you deposit $25 you’ll get that amount in bonus bets, though if you deposit $100 you’ll still only get a $50 bonus. Conversely, others might offer a 50% first deposit match up to $100 – in this case, a $200 deposit will yield you a $100 bonus, a $100 deposit will yield you a $50 bonus, while a $300 deposit will still get you just a $100 bonus.
Like the welcome bonus, this is a pretty good promotion which can often give the punter positive results. It is worth noting, however, that in this case you do need to scratch the bookmaker’s back in order to get them to scratch yours – unlike the welcome bonus, which you get simply for signing up, you do actually need to deposit money to get this bonus. Given it applies to the first deposit, however, you would likely be making this deposit regardless of the presence of any promotion, so in that case it is a relatively good one.
✔️ Deposit match promotion
A deposit match promotion works in a very similar way to the aforementioned first deposit match. At certain periods, if a bookmaker wants you to deposit with them in order to bet on a particular major event, if you haven’t bet with them for a while and they want you to come back, or as a reward for loyalty, you may be eligible for this kind of bonus.
It works essentially the same way as the first deposit match. The specifics will vary between different betting sites, but again you’ll be given a bonus bet to the value of a certain percentage of the deposit that you make – it could be a 100% match, it could be 50% or it could be even less. When you deposit, your bonus bet will be calculated and automatically credited to your account.
Similar to the first deposit match, this can be a good promotion for punters, but again it’s worth noting that you do need to deposit your own money to access it. And unlike with the first deposit match, in order to access this bonus you might have to deposit with a bookmaker with whom you may not otherwise have been intending to bet. That’s why in this case, it’s worth evaluating whether the bonus bet you’ll receive is likely to be worth making a deposit with a bookie that may not be your first choice, particularly given that if you win money with your bonus bet, you will generally have to bet with it again and turn it over on a bet of a certain minimum value before you can withdraw it.
✔️ Early payouts
Early payouts are a very different kind of bonus to the aforementioned but are quite common for a few bookmakers. This does tend to be a bonus that certain bookies offer regularly while others never venture into; for example, Bet365 fairly often offers it in some form or another. The way it works is as follows; when you bet on a particular match in a particular code or sport, generally on the head-to-head market, if the team that you bet on gets ahead by a certain amount then you will automatically be paid out as a winner.
Obviously for each sport, the amount that your team needs to be in front varies. It might be five goals in AFL, two goals in soccer, or ten points in rugby – those aren’t necessarily the exact numbers that bookmakers will offer the bonus for, but more a reflection of what would be considered an equally significant margin across different codes. If the team that you bet on gets that predetermined margin ahead, you’ll be paid out straight away as a winner, regardless of what happens in the rest of the match.
This bonus, however, can be something of a double-edged sword. It can, on rare occasions, be really beneficial, particularly given that it’s often offered up to quite a large amount and payouts are also in actual money rather than just a bonus bet offer. This means that if you do receive the early payout and then your team loses, you can count yourself very lucky and come out quite a long way ahead of where you would have been otherwise. However, the margins are deliberately selected because it’s extremely rare for a team to lead by that predetermined margin and then lose. In this sense, while you might often receive an early payout, it will generally only be on a team which goes on to win anyway, so the only real benefit you receive is that the money will be in your account sooner than it would have been otherwise.
✔️ Bonus back if x number of legs fail
This is a fairly common betting sites bonus that you’ll probably come across at one point or another with a high proportion of bookmakers that you sign up with. It applies to multis – i.e. bets which include a number of different outcomes either in the same game or across different games – and benefits you if your multi goes close to winning, but misses by just one or sometimes a couple of legs.
Generally, it applies either to the same game, or at least to the same league. For example, it might be a bonus relating to NBA multis, which posits that if you place a four or more leg multi on NBA matches, if one leg fails then you will receive your stake back as a bonus. Some bookies try to tempt you to put more legs into your multi by offering your stake back if multiple legs fail if you have more legs – for example, it might be that two legs can fail in a six-leg multi, or three in an eight-leg multi.
This bonus can be useful for those frustrating occasions which seem to occur all too often when a multi goes so close to getting up, but just falls at one or two hurdles. However, it too can be a double-edged sword in the sense that it can lure you into placing more legs in your multi that you may not otherwise have included, so while you have the chance of receiving a bonus stake back, you’re also probably reducing your overall chances of winning.
✔️ Bonus back if close loss
The final bonus that we’ll look at is a bonus back if you lose by a small margin – a bonus which can relate both to sports and racing. This is similar to the previous promotion we looked at but relates to individual bets rather than multis. For sports, it again applies to head-to-head bets, and as an example may posit that if the team you bet on loses by less than two goals in AFL or six points in the NRL you’ll receive your stake back as a bonus. For racing, it might be that if your runner comes second or third you’ll also receive your stake back as a bonus.
This can definitely be a fruitful bonus for punters, particularly if you use it wisely and bet on games or races in which you are confident your selection will either win or at least go close to winning. As always, make sure that you read the fine print to ensure you’re aware of what the maximum bonus stake return is.
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