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Online casino bonus
To receive a bonus essentially means that you’ve got something for free. But is there such a thing as a free lunch? Or do you actually have to do something extra in order to receive something extra? In the world of online casinos, anything is possible, but it all depends on a lot of factors. And we’re here to help you sort through the bonus jungle and hope to answer all of your questions about, and related to, online casino bonuses.
These are some of the most frequently asked questions that people send us:
- Where can I find the best casino bonus online?
- Which online casino offers the best bonus?
- Are casino bonuses really worth it?
- Are there free bonuses that require no deposit?
- Are casino bonus codes still used today?
- What are enhanced/boosted odds?
- Can you help me find a bonus for a crypto casino?
- How does RTP correlate to casino bonuses?
I know that you’re eager to hear the answers. So without further ado, let’s dive down the rabbit hole!
Casino bonuses and RTP
RTP (Return-to-player), which is what we always try to find. Can work better in your favor if you know what bonus to pick and what games you should play in order to maximize the % of potential winnings you could take. Many times all of the games that would give you a theoretical better chance to turn your bonus into real money would be lined up as games that will not count towards your wagering or that if you have played them at all the casino has the right to deny your bonus and all claims to the money won.
So it’s important to check the terms and conditions on the casinos and their bonuses before you chase the games that work out better with bonuses. For example, games where you progress and get better free spin rounds or you get closer to getting the bonus the more you play are games you would like to choose if you have a big amount of bonus money. Wild Swarm from Push Gaming is a slot machine where you get closer to the bonus. Yggdrasil’s “Vikings go” – series are also games where you progress by getting wins with certain symbols which would be a good choice. Snowborn Games also created a Viking-style game called Masters of Valhalla which could be worth looking at when playing with casino bonuses, if it’s allowed by the T&C’s of course.
Casino bonus codes
The first topic that we’ll explore surrounding this subject is bonus codes.
- What are they?
- How are they used?
- Where can I find the best bonus codes?
- Are they still relevant in 2022?
A bonus code offered by an online casino is a string of characters that makes you eligible for a casino bonus. The string can contain both letters and numbers and be either a generic code that anyone can use or a unique code that can only be used by you personally.
The code string can be entered on the casino’s registration page where you first sign up for an account or on the deposit page when you are about to top up your balance.
It’s rather difficult to say where you find the best bonus codes as it depends on where you live and it has to be matched by the countries from where the casino accepts its customers.
And to be honest, in 2022 only a handful of online casinos use bonus codes these days. All the bonuses are automatically triggered based on cookies and the marketing channels from which you enter the site or the customer group that you are placed under.
Free casino bonuses
Casino bonuses that are 100% free are rare. And even if you manage to find some they are too small to enjoy the gameplay with. Hence, making it a hassle to find 100% free cash or free spins more time-consuming and annoying than worthwhile.
However, as we’re in direct contact with most of the online casinos and betting sites and know that these types of bonuses are highly sought after we try to negotiate and make them available to our members and visitors.
No deposit bonuses
A no deposit bonus is a bonus that doesn’t require you to make a deposit in order to receive the bonus. It’s actually the same thing as a free bonus and this type of bonus usually comes with terms and conditions applied to it. The reason for this is that they are rather expensive for the casino operator to issue.
A no deposit bonus can come in as many forms as any other bonus. It could be some free spins awarded to you based on signing up and an account, referring a friend, liking a casino page on Facebook, or anything else along those lines. The best no deposit bonuses are wager free and require no wagering before you can withdraw any potential winnings.
Welcome bonus
The welcome bonus is pretty self-explanatory. It’s a bonus created as a welcome gift and is given to you on your first deposit. The welcome bonuses could be structured in a number of ways and the percentage %, the ($€£) total cash amount, and the wagering requirements attached to the bonus may vary a lot between casino and betting operators.
A bonus is obviously better if the percentage and total cash amount that you are awarded are bigger. However, what most people overlook when it comes to bonuses are the wagering requirements and the lower the wagering requirements are, the more valuable the bonus (welcome bonus) is.
A standard welcome bonus offered by an online casino is usually around 100% up to $£€100 and has 25-35x wagering attached. Anything better than this is to be considered good.
Besides wagering requirements, amounts and percentages, the welcome bonus could be structured in a number of ways. I’ll explain the differences and go into details about how they work, but first I’d like to list the different types that I’m aware of.
Welcome bonus structures
Getting into the differences between welcome bonus structures can become confusing quite easily and fast. Therefore, we’ll stick to listing and explaining the most common and popular ones. These structures would be (list can be added to):
- Parachute
- Sticky
- Non-sticky
A standard bonus example: (100% up to 100 $€£)
Deposit: 100 $€£
Bonus: 100 $€£
Wagering requirements: 35x on bonus (70x total amount).
Time limit: Beat wagering within 30 days
Sticky bonus
The sticky bonus is the least attractive of these 3 (but can still be really good). It’s what you might expect from a bonus.
With this sticky bonus from the example above, all of the real money and bonus money get lumped together and you would have to wager a total of 14000 $€£ before you can cash out any potential winning.
If you don’t manage to beat the wagering requirements within the time limit, then all of your funds are gone.
Non-sticky bonus
With a non-sticky bonus, the real money and bonus money are separated. If you get a 100% bonus on your deposit, 50% of the total amount would be real money and 50% would be bonus money. Then each time you make a bet 50% is drawn from each wallet is put towards that.
Since 50% of the money is yours (and 50% technically being the casinos), you can, at any time, withdraw 50% of your total funds. Hence, making it no-sticky. This can be done both if you are up or down from your initial total amount.
Only after you’ve cleared the wagering requirements, the bonus money will only be considered yours and you’d be eligible to make a withdrawal for the full amount.
Parachute bonus
The so-called parachute bonus is a very fair concept. The real money and bonus money are separated as for the non-sticky bonus. However, the main difference here is that you start out playing with 100% real money. If you win only using your initial 100 $€£ deposit or want to cash out before going below 100 $€£, then you are free to do so and all of the money is yours. But as soon as you go below 100 $€£, you’ve now lost your real money and are left with the bonus money which has to be wagered 35 times (or 7000 $€£).
The parachute bonus doesn’t trap you in any bonus terms if you’re a winning player and lets you enjoy a longer first playing session if you are a losing player.
First deposit bonus
The first deposit bonus is, as it’s written, only given to players who make their first deposit. This is usually the same thing as a Welcome bonus with a minor difference. Because if you don’t make your initial deposit on the same day as your registration, the casino will put you in their customer relationship communication life cycle. What this means is essentially that they begin to offer you enhanced bonus offers in order to turn you into a paying customer.
Reload bonus
A reload bonus is the opposite of a welcome or first deposit bonus. It is a term used by the casinos for all the bonuses awarded to any deposit followed up by your first one. These are only sent out to pre-signed, depositing customers, who signed up for email and SMS communication.
Some casinos don’t actually know how to properly calculate bonuses, the cost of bonuses, and what potential edge it could give to a player. And this is where it gets really interesting, as you could gain an advantage over the house yourself…
Just make sure never to opt-out from any email or SMS communication from an online casino to which you’ve signed up and make sure to check the offers sent out on a regular basis!
Wager free bonuses
Wager-free bonuses are the best possible bonuses you can get. If you ever see one, grab and run with it!
Wager-free bonuses don’t come with any wagering requirements attached to them which means that the winnings are yours to keep and that you can cash out your winnings at any time.
Cashback bonus
Cashback bonuses are easy to understand. That’s why they are great. If you lose your deposit playing, you’ll get X% amount of your money back based on your net losses.
With a cash back bonus you don’t need to worry about wagering requirements or restricted games which is usually included in the fine print of any standard casinos bonus T&C´s.
Cashback (or Rakeback) was very popular in the golden era of poker but has made a comeback with online casinos in recent years and many casinos try to attract players and gain market shares simply by offering higher cashback % than their competitors. And that’s a really good thing for us players.
It’s also an efficient way for casinos to get you to come back and play at their site. The cashback is usually not credited to you immediately after losing. Standard practice is to have it paid out on a weekly basis, before weekends, on a Thursday or Friday.
Crypto casino bonus
Crypto has become a (very) hot commodity and is something that is on everyone’s lips these days. It’s without a shadow of a doubt the most powerful consumer trend in the online gambling industry. And the reasons for that are pretty obvious.
People who’ve been holding crypto assets over the past decade have seen their wealth growing astronomically large and so have the early-adopting casinos that took the bet on accepting cryptocurrencies for deposits.
And to be honest, for the past decade, gambling has probably been the most useful thing you could do with your crypto. It’s also been a very good alternative to trading in the attempt to potentially grow one’s portfolio.
It goes hand in hand. People with Crypto got money to spend and more and more casinos want a piece of the action. Therefore we’ve seen an increasing trend of new casino brands launching again and a large share of these new casinos accepting crypto and offering bonuses on crypto deposits. Some welcome bonuses are as large as 1BTC!
If you don’t have any cryptocurrencies to play with you don’t need to worry. Most of the casinos have secure payment gateways installed with which you can exchange your fiat money (£$€) for any desired crypto token.
Free (spin) bonus round
We’ve all claimed and tested free spin bonuses. And we don’t say no to free spins, but as a slot player, what we want to achieve with these is to get into the “bonus round”. This is where the greatest potential of the majority of slots lies. Some casinos picked up on this and started offering what is in a player’s eyes a more attractive bonus.
The value of these bonuses, however, usually remains the same. So instead of getting 100-200 free spins (worth 0,1-0,2 $£€ each), they offered 1-4 “free bonus round” (worth 10 £$€ each)
I remember that Jammin Jars was one of the first slots for which these free bonus rounds were being offered by casinos. And it attracted a lot of players to sign up claiming the bonus from any casino offering it. As the max potential payout was huge and it was rather difficult and expensive to trigger the bonus round. Hence, making the offer really attractive.