Sports Betting Bonuses and Promotions

Placing your sports bets on the Internet isn't only more convenient than other alternatives, but it also comes with the added advantage of benefitting from the generous sports betting bonuses online gambling sites have to offer. Most of the top sports betting sites will reward you with a decent bonus just for signing up and making your first deposit, and many will offer you additional bonuses and rewards if you continue to bet.

Whether you like to bet big or just place a small wager from time to time, these bonuses can be an excellent way to get extra value from your gambling and increase your betting bankroll. To help, we have compiled and listed below a selection of sports betting sites that are particularly good for bonuses and promotions. We also explain about the different types of bonuses and rewards associated with these sites.

Sports Betting Sites with the Best Bonuses & Promotions

Having researched a great many gambling sites, we find the following to be among the very best in terms of bonuses and promotions on offer. They all meet our very high standards in other important areas, and we consider them to be reputable and reliable places at which to bet. For anyone looking to get the best value out of their online sports betting, these are our top recommendations.

Sign Up Bonuses & Free Bets

Pretty much every sports betting site will offer new customers some kind of incentive to join, and the sign up bonus is the most common way to do this. Typically, you'll have to make an initial deposit to claim it, although some sites do offer a small no deposit bonus. This appeals to those wishing to try it out without risking money, but making a deposit is usually the best way to get decent added value.

This added value is provided in a couple of ways. The most straightforward option is having the bonus added directly into your account as funds to use however you want. There will be some wagering requirements attached to these funds, meaning you'll have to place a certain value of bets before you can make a withdrawal. For example, if there's a "10 times" wagering requirement on a $100 bonus, then you will need to make $1,000 worth of bets before the bonus can be released. Please be aware that this doesn't mean you need to lose $1,000, just that you need to make that amount in bets. Once you have done this, the bonus and any winnings are yours to keep.

An alternative is to have the bonus credited as free credits, or free bets. The principle is basically the same as above, but you only get to keep any winnings you make from your free bets and not the actual stake itself. This might seem less attractive, and it probably is. However, free bets or credits tend to have lower wagering requirements, and thus there are advantages as well as disadvantages.

It's also worth noting that other terms and conditions may apply. For example, only wagers of a certain type or on certain sports may count towards the wagering requirements. We suggest you always read the terms and conditions before accepting this (or any other) type of bonus at a gambling site to make sure you understand exactly the relevant rules.

Reload Bonuses & Reward Schemes

In addition to incentives for new customers, the leading sports betting sites also provide added value for existing customers. There are a number of ways in which they do this, one of the most frequently used methods being reload bonuses. These are basically funds or free bets that are added to your account when you make a deposit after the initial one. Reload bonuses are used by many sites and are particularly common at US betting sites.

Some sites will offer a reload bonus on the first deposit of each month or each week, and some will even offer one on each deposit made. They can give some great extra value and are well worth taking advantage of. Terms and conditions again apply, so make sure you check them out so that you know the nature of any requirements.

Also common at sports betting sites are reward schemes, which work in a variety of different ways. Generally speaking, the idea is that you are given rewards (such as cash added to your account or additional free bets) based on your wagering activity such that the more you wager, the more you are likely to receive. Reward schemes can be particularly valuable for regular and high stake bettors, but recreational bettors can benefit from them as well.

Sports Betting Rebates

Rebates,or cash back, are another method some sports betting sites use to reward customers. A rebate in this context is an amount of money put into your betting account, usually at the end of a week or month. Typically the amount of money is a fixed percentage of your losses for the relevant period, although some sites do offer a (smaller) percentage of your total wagers. Rebates are particularly common at horse racing betting sites.

Promotions at Sports Betting Sites

In addition to the bonuses and rewards mentioned above, sports betting sites often run special promotions and contests for customers. These are generally based around a specific sport or a specific event, and they come in a variety of forms. For example, you might find a football betting site offering reduced juice lines on "Monday Night Football" games, or a golf betting site offering enhanced odds on certain players during the four majors. Sites may run prediction contests for a number of different sports.

You should always keep an eye out for any promotions and contests, because these can be a great deal of fun as well as potentially providing even more value. Some places will send out regular newsletters to customers with details on all the current and upcoming promotions, while others will have a section of their website devoted to information about promotions.