Promotions are very important for all the best bookmakers as they create value for their customers and that sort of goodwill will help to keep players onside rather than look for somewhere else to play. Some bookies are more active in this respect than others while there may be the occasional operator who doesn’t list any type of promo, relying instead on the strong prices in their standard markets.
Offers can be split into certain categories so what type of deal could you look forward to?
Free Bets
A free bet is usually issued as a refunded stake if a certain set of circumstances occur in your selected sporting event. For example, a bookmaker may choose to refund losing bets in a football match if the game ends in a 0-0 draw. The amount of refund will have a limit such as £25.00 while the offer may be restricted to certain betting markets such as correct score or match result but expect that refund to arrive as a free bet token.
Other free bet deals reward loyalty: For example, Coral currently have a Bet and Get club where you can receive £10.00 in free bets every week for staking £25.00 in that period.
Welcome Bonuses
For some members of the betting community, a bookmaker simply must publish a welcome bonus or they may not even entertain the thought of signing up. Other bettors may decide that they can look beyond this and consider whether the value is there on the standard markets but a healthy opening deal will certainly attract more customers.
Multiple and Accumulator Insurances
There are various acca insurance offers from around the sportsbook and there are some subtle differences with each one. The principle is very much the same however and, these can look to refund losing stakes if one leg of your multiple lets you down.
A typical deal comes from Ladbrokes who have a regular insurance offer in the football markets. With this promotion, the player picks at least five legs from a certain set of leagues around the world and, if just one of those selections doesn’t win, the bookie will refund losing stakes up to £25.00.
EnergyBet, 21Bet and GentingBet are among a number of bookies who offer similar deals. Those slight differences could include the number of legs you need to pick before the offer kicks in and you may also be refunded in different ways.
With most bookmakers, returns will come as free bet tokens and the usual rules relating to these will then apply but in some isolated cases the refund will arrive as straight cash, paid back into your account.
Multiple and Acca Bonuses
Multiple bets are popular with most of us and that’s why so many bookmaker offers tend to centre around them. As well as getting some insurance deals, you can also get boosts from many operators if you happen to land all of your picks.
Over at 10Bet they have an ‘Acca Jacker’. This has a wider set of sports and starts with 5 leg multis which get a 10% boost if they all land. This then climbs up to 16 folds and more which will get a 60% increase on any winning returns.
Other bookies employ this type of deal and we’ve already seen some of the differences. Entry points vary, the list of sports and qualifying events can also change, while the percentage boosts in question can also be different but they can all give you an excellent and welcome boost on your multiple returns.
Loyalty Programmes
We’ve already touched on Coral’s Bet and Get Club and this type of loyalty programme has also been used by Betway and Bet on Brazil amongst others.
For every 10 multiples with minimum two legs at qualifying odds and stake, the bookmaker will calculate 10% of that total stake and reward the player with a bonus up to 20 Euros.
Like all of these offers, please check terms and conditions but this type of loyalty deal is becoming more popular across the sportsbooks.
Enhanced Welcome Offers
As an alternative to their standard welcome offer, a number of bookmakers are starting to list what are commonly referred to as enhanced odds deals. These are open to new customers only and will typically take the favourite in any event, and lift the odds quite considerably.
For example, Coral published such a deal for the final of the European Under 21 Championships in June 2017 that would pay at 33/1 just for a goal being scored. The stake here was fixed at £1.00 and enhanced profits paid as free bet tokens. Most other sports have been covered by this type of deal at some stage.
RaceBets are another outlet who typically fix the stake at £1.00 while others such as Paddy Power and 888Sport, may allow you to bet between £5.00 and £10.00. In all cases, you should expect to see the enhanced portion of the bet to be paid as free bet tokens.
This type of promo is growing in popularity and others who have quoted recently include Ladbrokes, MarathonBet, ComeOn, SunBets and Bet on Brazil.
Price Boosts
Generally speaking, a price boost deal is made available to all customers. The increases are much smaller but there should be no maximum stake, other than that which is stated under the bookies standard rules and all profits would typically be paid as cash.
Winner Sports and SkyBet are two of the more active bookmakers for this type of promo and they may take a football match and lift the odds on a popular multiple. For example, Real Madrid to win and Cristiano Ronaldo to score may boost from 2/1 to 5/2.
Ladbrokes and William Hill are also among a large number of bookies to get involved with price boosts and once again, the vast majority of sports can be covered by these offers.