From 200% matching bonuses to hundreds of free spins, welcome bonuses seem to be getting better in a hurry. While there’s no such thing as a free lunch – especially in the casino world – there are many offers out there that will literally pay you a premium just to play on their platform. We’ve got our eye on all of them. Keep reading to discover all the best welcome bonuses and exactly how they operate in the digital era.
| Casino | Welcome Bonus |
|---|---|
| 777 Casino | 100% up to £200 + 25 Free Spins |
| Mayfair Casino | 100% up to £500 + 50 Spins |
| Jackpot Village | 100% Up To £500 + 50 Bonus Spins |
Welcome bonuses are arguably the most important tool in the online casino’s arsenal – but find the right one, and you can squeeze a pretty penny out of the deal.
So what is a welcome bonus, exactly? A welcome bonus is a promotional offer provided by an online casino in order to gain your loyalty as a player on their website. Most welcome bonuses are triggered by either creating an account with a particular casino site, making a deposit, or a combination of both. The goal of the welcome bonus is simple: get as many new players in the door as possible. However, the bonuses are often designed to provide some sort of immediate benefit to the player, such as an improved chance of winning on a slot game or more money to play with.
You may want to jump on offers that provide a matching bonus of 200% or 300% for up to £2000, but surprisingly, these aren’t always the best ones available. That’s why it’s essential to understand how each bonus benefits the house and the player, including all the secret caveats they employ to ensure they increase their odds of getting their money back from every new registrant.
A matching bonus is the most common type of welcome bonus used by online casinos today. It can be defined as bonus money provided by an online casino that agrees to match based on the total amount you deposit once you’ve joined their platform. The percentage matched will often range between 50-300%. Let’s say you sign up to 777 Casino , which offers a matching bonus of 100% for up to £200, and deposit £100; 777 Casino will match your deposit by adding an extra £100 to play with. Some platforms present these bonuses as Welcome Packages, which have varying match bonus amounts on the first 1-5 deposits on the site. Now, many of these matching bonus funds must fulfill certain requirements in order to be eligible for withdrawal, so be sure to read our section on why you need to read the terms and conditions further below.
Free Spin bonuses are standard add-ons to a matching bonus or welcome package on an online casino. The free spin offers are normally eligible on a small handful of games, such as Book of Dead, Age of the Gods, and Starburst. Additionally, free spins offers do tend to expire after a predetermined time limit, which can be as long as 30 days or as short as 7 days. Before you commit to a site with a free spin promotion, be sure to see how long you have to use them.
From now on, you should consider the Terms and Conditions as your bible for navigating the complex world of online casino gaming. There are hidden stipulations baked into every welcome bonus on every site that enable operators to recoup on their investment. Read on to know everything you need to know about the special conditions online casinos leverage to make money.
A wagering requirement (often referred to as WR) is a conditional rule that many sites require players to follow to redeem money won on the site as part of a bonus offer. The wagering requirement usually ranges between 20x and 70x, which means the number of times you must wager your money relative to the initial bonus amount (X). To clarify, a website that provides a free bonus of £100 and a wagering requirement of 40x would require a player to wager 40 times their bonus amount (£100), which would equal £4000. This may seem like a lot…and that’s because it is. This is the trump card used by virtually every online casino in operation today, making your odds of coming out of the transaction with more money than you started with very unlikely.
Another critical bylaw of most wagering requirements involves the game contribution rate – and how it impacts progress towards fulfilling your WR. Typically, a wager (bet) on a slots game would be worth 100% towards your wagering requirement, blackjack would be 25-50%, and other games spanning a wide variety of contribution rates, depending on the platform. If you truly want to breeze through the wagering requirement and get paid quickly, be sure to place bets on a game that contributes 100% per game.
When reading the fine print, you might find a reference to redeemable and non-redeemable bonuses. This is another sly trick used by casinos to make players unable to withdraw any of the original bonus funds offered by the platform. It is referred to as a play-only bonus. If you see the bonus money referred to as a redeemable bonus, that means you can withdraw it as real money once you have fulfilled the wagering requirements set out in the casino’s terms and conditions.
