As the online gambling industry has grown, so have the ways in which online casino try to pull players to join there casino. That is why we can see hundreds of different bonus offers each one trying to top the last, trying to do their best to stand out amongst the crowd.
Not only are online casinos having to compete with each other for new players, but one of the biggest issues that online casinos face is that players leave to find new online casinos and the deals that they offer. This means they have even more reason to try and pull in more new players.
This need for casinos to get new players means that we as players can take advantage of this need. After all, it is simple supply and demand. Casinos need players more than players need casinos.
The easiest way to get the upper hand on online casinos need for new players is to take advantage of the welcome bonuses that they offer to entice us in, that being said, it is important to know that we are actually getting the best deals that are on offer!
So let us take a peek at what it means to be getting a good deal!
No Deposit Free Spins
Before we can understand what a good deal is, we must first understand what the most common features of any of the welcome bonus deals are.
The biggest online casino bonuses no deposit that can be found online is the offer of free spins.
Free spins are a great tool for us to use for a few different reasons and being able to get our hands on them without having to risk any of our own money is even better!
With so many different offers of free spins out there, they can come in a huge variety of different sized offers, here are the most commonly seen in offers of the following sizes:
- 10 free spins
- 30 free spins
- 50 free spins
- 100 free spins
- 150 free spins
- 200 free spins
- 400 free spins
- 500 free spins
There are obviously going to be bigger and smaller offers of free spins. However, we have to keep a weather eye on deals that are obscenely large as there will often be elements of the terms and conditions that make those free spins significantly less valuable that we will discuss later. Click here to play the best slot games with 500 free spins!
No Deposit Bonus Cash
The next offer that we will see are no deposit bonus cash offers, these are a little rarer to see, but they can be a great way to earn some free real money, they also have a greater utility than free spins.
Great utility means that we are able to play a wider variety of casino games. Free spins are exclusive to slot games, meaning that if we feel like playing a few hands of blackjack or spinning the wheel on a digital roulette table then we will be out of luck!
Bonus cash is the answer to these woes!
Similarly to free spins, we can find bonus cash being offered in loads of different sizes. Here are some of the most common bonus cash amounts to see:
- £10
- £15
- £50
- £100
- £200
- With some even offering £1000!
As with any great deal, it is important to know the elements that can turn a sweet deal sour. Much the same as free spins there are often elements of the terms and conditions that will sully the quality of our welcome offer.
Mixed Online Casino Bonuses
Another great welcome bonus that we can get a hold of is a combination of the two. Both of the bonuses, whilst great, do have their short comings, being able to get a mix of the two in a single welcome offer means that we can get the best of both worlds and mitigate the negatives of each one.
Loyalty Casino Bonuses
This is slightly different to two main types of deals that we can use.
Loyalty bonuses are usually recurrent bonuses that we are able to use for consistently using the same online casino.
They will come in the form of the free spins and bonus cash. There are usually requirements to prove our commitment to the online casino, this will either be through meeting a monthly wagering requirement or a set deposit amount.
Sometimes there are also rewards simply for making deposits over a certain amount, though as this articles title would suggest, we are here to avoid risking our own money!
No Deposit Vs Deposit Bonuses Online Casino Bonus
One thing many people often wonder is what the difference is between no deposit bonuses and deposit bonuses. To answer this we must think about why an online casino offer sign up bonuses from the perspective of a business.
A casino is attempting to balance the risk of new players coming in, winning loads of free money and leaving against new players joining, making deposits and risking their real money with them.
With no deposit bonuses, the chances of this occurring are obviously significantly lower, this means that the risk exposure of the casino is much higher, because of this we can often see stricter restrictions on players ability to withdraw their winnings or less valuable welcome bonuses.
At the end of the day, the answer to this question lies within the individual. Those of us who are here to try and make some risk free money, the only way to do that is to never make a deposit.
For those of us who love the games and thrive in the environment of risk, then depositing some money in will be the right call.
Either way, it is worthwhile to take the time to consider which choice is right for ourselves.
How to Spot the Best Casino Bonus Deal
Now that we have taken the time to see what deals are on offer, we now have to be able to discern what a good deal is and what a bad deal is.
As we have seen, there are literally thousands of different casinos trying to get us to join their online casino, in that overwhelming plethora of potential opportunities, there are good and bad deals and some that are wholly scams. Knowing what to look out for to separate the wheat from the chaff is incredibly important.
So how do we do it?
Always Read the Small Print
That is right, we have to read the small print, the Terms and Conditions. Luckily we can avoid trawling through thousand page documents to find this information as online casinos are legally required to display the important conditions clearly, so let us take a look at what we are actually looking for.
Though if we are unable to track down this information (sometimes it can be really fine print) a little pro-tip is to pull up the whole terms and conditions page and press “Ctrl + F”. This will open up a search bar that will scour the page for anything we type in. Let us see what we will need to be typing.
Wagering Requirements
One of the major restrictions that are put on welcome bonuses, No deposit and deposit bonuses alike are wagering requirements. This is when the online casino will apply a multiplier to the amount that we have been given in the welcome package. The sum of that multiplier is the total amount that we have to gamble before we are able to withdraw our funds.
The wagering requirement can vary drastically, from anything as little as 4x to 100x. This can have deeply significant effects on the value of the bonuses being offered.
To put this into perspective. Imagine an offer of £100 bonus cash with a 100x wagering requirement. To be able to withdraw the winnings from this, it would require us to have gambled a total sum of £10,000!
Whilst this might not be the end of the world, think what the odds are of having the original sum of £100 left after trying to meet that requirement.
Free Spins Values
As we can surely assume, free spins have pre-defined values per spin, this means that we can work out what the total value of the offer is and then be able to apply the same wagering requirement principle to it.
Wagering requirements aside, free spins values are luckily fairly standardised. There is an accepted industry standard of 10p per free spin, however this is not always the case which is why it is important to check the terms and conditions to ensure we are not wasting our time spinning air.
Restricted Bonuses
One slightly lesser issue to look out for is restrictions. We can often find that these bonuses are tied to specific games. This is usually done to advertise a game or to use a popular game to advertise a casino, however there are occasions where online casinos will use game restrictions to force players to play slots that have bad odds, so we need to deposit to play.
