Jimmy Boyd in 
Sportsbooks use promotions and bonus offers to reel new bettors in while keeping the loyalty of existing customers. These bonuses are often wrapped in terms and conditions that might complicate what you are hoping to get out of them. In this guide I’ll go over the sportsbook bonus types that are typically used and help you understand what the terms actually mean.
Actual Real Money Sportsbook Bonus
Nothing beats straight cash money. Some sportsbooks offer actual cash bonuses that are credited to your account where you can either wager or withdraw immediately. However, these are pretty rare since they are literally giving money away for free.
If you do find an actual cash bonus offer it’s likely to be for a small amount, like $10 or $25. If you withdraw that money immediately I doubt you’ll find yourself in the position to receive another from that same sportsbook as they will limit your account.
Free Play or Bonus Bet Credits
One of the most popular incentives offered by the sportsbooks are the free plays. These bet credits are not real money but can only be used to place bonus bets.
The catch here is that you can’t withdraw the free credit, but the good news is that you can use it on nearly any bet you want, from live betting to futures or the usual pregame betting odds.
For example, let’s say you get a $20 free bet and place it on the Atlanta Braves at +100. If the Braves win you get the $20 in profit added to your account. You don’t get the $20 in winning plus the $20 you wagered.
This promotion allows the bettor a chance to win free money without risking anything, but isn’t as good of a deal as the player thinks it is. From the sports book’s point of view it sounds better than it is and gets the user actually wagering on their site.
Risk Free First Bet on the House
When you place your first bet, the sportsbook is offering to refund it if it loses, up to a certain amount.
For instance, if you sign up for a new account and place a bet for $500 and lose, the sportsbook might refund the full $500 or only a portion of it.
It’s another bonus that sounds better than it really is. If you place the bet and win, you don’t really get anything out of it.
But the sportsbooks love it because it gets new users active in their app. It might also cause them to wager more than they normally would and get used to the bigger bet amounts.
Deposit Match Betting Promotions
This bonus is actually pretty straightforward. When you make a deposit into your betting account the sportsbook will match a certain percentage of that deposit in bonus money.
If the book is offering a 50% deposit match and you deposit $100, you’ll get an extra $50 added to your account.
However, you have to check the sportsbook rollover requirements as they will vary widely from book to book. Some of them make you put that money into play several times whereas others are more lenient.
Site Credits or Bonus Cash
The site credit option is a little different because the sportsbook actually lets you keep the credits after you wager them, unlike with free plays. This isn’t very popular and I’m not sure of any sportsbook that is currently using site credits or bonus cash.
Unfortunately, they’ve all gone to using free plays where the credit they give you disappears after you wager.
Sports Betting Profit Boosts
One of the best ways to bet is with profit boosts. DraftKings does a really good job of offering these.
Normally you’ll see the sportsbook boost a specific event. If you live in Iowa then you might see a boost on the Iowa Hawkeye games or the Iowa State Cyclone games.
The sportsbooks use this to get you engaged with your favorite teams.
What I like about profit boosts is that they can turn losing wagers into positive EV ones. If you think a team has a 50% chance of winning but the odds given represent 49%, you can typically boost the odds 10-20% and get it to a profitable number.
Reload Bonuses
Most of the bonuses offered are for new customers, but the sportsbooks want to retain existing customers as well. That’s why you’ll see reload bonuses offered by sports betting companies. These work in the same fashion as the ones above so just be sure to check what type of promotion you are getting.
Conclusion
Hopefully now you understand a little bit more about each bonus type the sportsbooks offer and can use them to your advantage. Just remember that they are incentivizing you to keep you playing, and hopefully losing, on their site so these free “gifts” aren’t really made from the kindness of their hearts. If you want help profiting over the books make sure you check out our premium sports picks today!