BONUS BET DEFINITION

What is a Bonus Bet?

Used as a marketing tool, bonuses or Bonus Bets (also sometimes referred to as Free Bets) are distributed to sportsbook customers to encourage deposits and the placement of bets.

Bonus Bets are bets that do not use the bettors actual money and instead are free bets that the Sportsbook has given the bettor. The only difference between bonus bets and regular bets is that the user is not returned the stake of the bet if it wins.

For example if a bettor has received a $20 bonus bet from a Sportsbook and they placed it on the Boston Red Sox to win against the New York Yankees at +100.

If the Red Sox win instead of receiving $40 for their bet (their stake at $20 plus the profit of $20) they will only receive the profit of $20 for their bet

How to Get Bonus Bets

The most common way bettors receive bonus bets is through signing up to online Sportsbooks. Many online Sportsbooks offer a variety of sign-up offers that often include bonus bets to try and entice the customer to sign up. For example, the most common sign-up bonus bet offer is known as a ‘deposit match’. A deposit match is a promotional offer provided to predominantly new customers, where the Sportsbooks will match your deposit with bonus bets up to a certain amount. E.g. If a sportsbook says they have a ‘up to $1000 deposit match offer’ means that if you were to sign up to their sportsbook and deposit $1000 they will match it and give you a free $1000 bonus bet. Note that you usually don’t have to deposit the max amount of a deposit offer to receive the bonus bet. If you were to only deposit $50 instead of $1000 you will still receive a matched bonus bet of $50. With this in mind however, your second deposit won’t have the same conditions, as these deposit match offers usually only apply to your first deposit with the Sportsbooks.

View some of the different available Sportsbooks deposit matches here:

Turnover Requirements

Beware that most Sportsbooks have different turnover requirements before you can withdraw your funds. This means that usually you will have to bet a certain amount of money (normally just the amount you deposited) before you can withdraw your funds. This is to prevent new customers from taking advantage of deposit match offers and withdrawing their funds before actually placing a bet. Make sure to check your Sportsbooks turnover requirements before making deposits if you plan on withdrawing shortly.

Promotions

Deposit matches aren’t the only way bettors can receive bonus bets, most Sportsbooks constantly offer a range of promotional offers to reward existing users and to keep them using their site. The majority of Sportsbooks have a “Promotions'' section on their site where you can find their various offers. An example of a promotion that a sportsbook might offer would be offering refunds in bonus bets if a team you bet on meets a certain criteria but still loses the game. For example, “Place a moneyline bet on any NBA game this week and if your team leads at any break but still lose, we will refund your bet in bonus bets”. In this example if a bettor was to place a $50 moneyline bet on the +150 Los Angeles Lakers in an NBA game during this promotion there are three different scenarios:

Result	Outcome
LA Lakers win	The bettor wins the bet and no bonus bet is returned
LA Lakers lose but lead at a break (after 1 quarter, half-time or through three quarters)	The bettor loses the bet but is returned a $50 bonus bet
LA Lakers lose and don’t lead at any break	The bettor loses bet and isn’t returned any bonus bet

There are many other different types of promotions offered by Sportsbooks which are usually constantly updated and changed. Be sure to check in on what promotions your favorite Sportsbooks are offering to receive more bonus bets

Using Bonus Bets for Guaranteed Profit

It is possible to earn guaranteed profits if you are smart about how you place your bonus bets. Many sports bettors use their bonus bets to generate risk free profit. Any bonus bet you receive can be used to earn risk free profit, however the bigger and more bonus bets you have, the more profit you are likely to receive.

The strategies used below are similar to that of an Arbitrage bet, where the bettor bets on both sides of the market. This is to ensure that one of your two bets are guaranteed to win if you place them correctly. Betting on the spread or total market is usually the best way to use your bonus bets for profit as both sides of the market are similarly priced at fair odds and there isn’t a favorite or underdog in this market.

Scenario 1 - You only have one Bonus Bet

By placing your bonus bet on one side of the market and hedging the bet on the other side with the money in your sportsbook account you are generally always able to generate 40-48% of the bonus bet value into withdrawable funds. See the example below betting on the spread market on the game between the Rams and the Seahawks:

Sportsbook Z	Odds	Stake	Return
Los Angeles Rams -5.5	-105	$1000 (bonus bet)	$950
Sportsbook Y
Seattle Seahawks +5.5	-105	$487.25	$950
		Total Stake $487.25	Profit $462.75

Scenario 2 - You have at least two Bonus Bets

By placing both of your bonus bets on each side of the market you can guarantee one of them wins and hence make a profit with no risk and no real stake. See the example below betting on the spread market on the game between the Rams and the Seahawks:

Sportsbook Z	Odds	Stake	Return
Los Angeles Rams -5.5	-105	$1000 (bonus bet)	$950
Sportsbook Y
Seattle Seahawks +5.5	-105	$1000 (bonus bet)	$950
		Total Stake $0 ($2000 in bonus bets)	Profit $950

See our Bonus Bet calculator to learn how you can lock up a guaranteed profit if you are given bonus bets.