The Truth About Sign-up Bonuses
by Predictem.com Staff
So your new to the sports betting world. You turn on your computer, go to google, type in “online sportsbooks” and start sifting through the masses. You see different sites but notice that many have one thing in common. Almost all offer sign up bonuses. These bonuses generally range from 10-50% and all come with their own terms
The sign-up bonus is an incentive that online bookies use in which to obtain you as a client. Their more than happy to give you this bonus as long as you abide by a few simple rules they’ve set forth in the fine print. With any sort of incentive, it comes with rules and regulations that you must follow in order to prevent from having problems down the road. Let’s take a look at a few of those.
The Bonus Whore: All bookies can spot “the bonus whore” from a mile away. They’ve come to the book for one reason. To milk them out of that bonus and be gone. Free money hunters. In order to prevent these characters from getting over on the book, the book is forced to implement “rollovers” and “no withdrawal timeframes” in which you must follow if you accept the sign up bonus.
A rollover basically means that you have to bet the bonus amount x times. Some books make you bet the deposit AND the bonus x amount of times before you can w/d. Furthermore, many books won’t let you w/d for 30 days or more, some longer depending on what kind of bonus you got. Each book certainly has their own rules though and it’s highly recommended that you read their fine print.
A standard bonus runs around 10-25%. Say you deposit $500. The book will give you $50-$125 extra to play with. Often times it’s automatically added to your account These 10-25% bonuses are often required to be rolled over 6x and no withdraw to be allowed for 30 days.
Some bonuses range as high as 50% or more. Often times these rollovers can range from 10-25x and no w/d for 30-60 days. Hey, if your going to accept free money, the book can pretty much set their own set of rules to defend themselves. After all, their looking for good long term clients, not hit and run bonus whores.
Many of the 50% or more bonuses are actually match plays. We’ll compare and contrast a real cash bonus and a match play below as many confuse the two:
Real Cash Bonus: A real cash bonus is just as it sounds. You deposit funds into your account and are rewarded with real cash that is put into your sports betting account to bet with.
Match Play: A match play is a credit. It’s like somebody telling you that their going to give you a free bet in which your able to place a bet using that credit, but you only get to keep the winnings. The stake disappears and is not yours to keep. Still a pretty sweet deal but only worth about half a real cash bonus.
In summary, read the fine print. If the stipulations don’t work for you, simply tell the book you’d like to refuse the bonus. Many online sports bettors don’t even care about bonuses. Their main concern is that their betting on sports at a venue that is going to pay them promptly should they decide to put in a withdrawal request for their winnings.
Related: Sportsbook Bonus List.
