With an online casino bonus it is much easier to win a lot of money, when gambling. You get some pounds to play with on top of your deposit. This increases your chances of grabbing that big jackpot or, at least, to win enough for making a juicy withdrawal straight into your bank account.
There are many different types of casino bonus including: deposit bonuses, free spins on slots, welcome bonus offers and weekly casino campaigns. Below you will find all information you need before claiming that online casino bonus of yours.
Casino Welcome Bonus
When you open an account, you can get a casino welcome bonus. This goes for pretty much all internet gambling sites. Even those that offer multiple real money gambling products such as bingo, poker and betting. Casino welcome bonus is often the best of all the deals you can get.
Some online casino sites extend their welcome offer to cover several deposits. In that case, this offer is called casino welcome bonus package. Extra funds you can claim from the casino as a new player are valid either for casino games only or for all products. Wagering requirements apply. They differ, depending on which gambling product you decide to play with, when claiming your bonus.
In addition to your deposit bonuses, the package often includes free spins on selected slots. The average value of those is somewhere between £0.10 and £0.25 per spin. The quality of your welcome package offer is determined by:
- the size of bonus,
- terms and conditions that apply for bonus
- free spins wagering conditions.
A casino welcome bonus that is worth a while should have a wagering requirement of less than 40 times the bonus amount. Is your deposit amount also included into the equation? Then the maximum wagering amount should be 25 times the bonus plus deposit.
There are more criteria that may help you to decide how good your welcome bonus is. These include limitations in terms of which slots you are allowed to play and the option to cancel the bonus without losing the money you deposited.
No Deposit Casino Bonus
As the level of competition between online casinos is growing, no deposit casino bonus offers upon registration are getting more and more popular. These offers are usually included in your casino welcome package. Your no deposit casino bonus is normally rewarded for playing slot games only. Have you found an internet casino that is offering you some free money to play blackjack and roulette? Then claim this offer immediately, as this is an extremely generous and unusual offer.
No deposit casino bonus is usually credited as ten free spins on Starburst slot. As the value of a Starburst spin is £0,10, this means that you get £1 for free upon sign up. If these spins are free from wagering, then you get a fair deal.
If you want to get no deposit bonus after your registration, then you should try to get included into the segment of loyal players and collect some loyalty points. The majority of online casinos have a VIP program or a special loyalty program for active depositing players. You get points for various activities on site. Once you have managed to collect a certain minimum number of points, you get a chance to buy no deposit bonus and play casino games for free.
Casino Deposit Bonus
Even after claiming your welcome offer, there are plenty of opportunities of receiving casino deposit bonus. Many casinos use a different term for this: reload bonus. You get those when you make deposits into your casino account during special campaign periods. The rules on how to receive your reload bonus money vary, depending on the casino. The most common ways of receiving your casino deposit bonus are following:
Tick the checkbox to get your deposit bonus
At most of online casinos you need to accept your deposit bonus when you make a deposit. If you are eligible for the reload bonus, you will see a checkbox on the deposit with the bonus name, its short description and a link to its terms and conditions. It's totally up to you to decide if you want to accept it or not. You do this by ticking the checkbox.
Enter the bonus code after insertion
In some cases, you need to use a bonus code in order to claim your casino deposit bonus. As soon as the code is submitted and your deposit is done, the bonus will be credited. Note, that in some cases you enter the code in connection with your deposit, while sometimes you do it later on – after having made the deposit.
Automatic bonus
It is the easiest way to get your casino deposit bonus. You do not need to do anything at all. If you have been assigned a bonus, you will get it automatically. It is, however, impossible to reject the bonus.
Once you have received the bonus money, you can play most of the online casino games available on site. Note, that some games might be excluded from playing with bonus. In addition, there might be a list of casino games that do not contribute to your wagering of bonus in the same way as the other games do.
Internet casinos usually apply wagering factor or coefficient to some of the games that have high volatility or bonus rounds with accumulating winnings.
Avoid playing any video pokers and table games with your deposit bonus. It usually takes forever to wager your bonus when playing these games. The smartest choice for wagering your casino deposit bonus is to play it on low-volatility slots with high RTP, such as Blood Suckers from NetEnt.
Casino Weekly Bonus
A bonus campaign that is recurring every week is a good sign that the casino is serious and cares about its image. Casino weekly bonus offers is a proof that the company is here to stay. It is always nice with scheduled bonus campaigns, so that you don’t have to visit the casino every day in order to see what’s on.
If the bonus offers are good, we memorize the day and tend to visit casino again and again. We at SirSlot think that all gambling sites should have a clear calendar with casino weekly bonus campaigns available. All that is needed for this are the calendar feature, smart promotion schedule and some stylish newsletter send outs, so that we start getting used to weekly casino promotions. As it looks right now, bingo sites are still much better at weekly promotions than online casinos.
A few years ago, when the number of internet casino sites was low, the competition for certain days was low, too. It was enough with selecting a day of the week in order to make it into “your day” in the minds of casino players. Today, it is more difficult, as hundreds of casinos fight with each other for customers every day of the week. This is good for us who play casino games. We can find a large number of weekly casino bonuses every day of the week. Usually, the best weekly bonuses come on Friday. These are often weekend bonuses, i.e. are valid for the entire weekend.
In addition to weekly casino bonuses, many gambling sites offer monthly bonuses and free spins. This offer is often connected to the launch of a new NetEnt slot and is up for grabs in the end of each month.
Casino Bonus Code
Sometimes you are required to have a casino bonus code in order to receive your bonus. The reason for this is to make it easier for the casinos to distinguish between different bonus promotions they have. It is an easy way for them to give away something extra without too much fuzz and configuration.
One of the main goals that we at SirSlot have is finding secret casino bonus codes and telling you all we know about them. If you read our casino reviews, the chances are high that you'll find some codes there. Unfortunately, the number of casino bonus codes available is decreasing. Online casinos choose to remove bonus code functionality. It is getting more popular to reward the customers in different ways. Many online casinos are offering free spins and an advanced gamification tool with automated bonus release.
Bonus code is exactly the same thing as promotional code or promo code. However, it is not the same as the thing called voucher code. Some online casinos use wrong terminology and seem to be confusing the concepts. It makes it quite difficult to understand their bonus offers.
Bonus Codes
Bonus codes are linked to a particular campaign. They are the same for all players, who take part in the campaign and become eligible for the bonus offer. For example, if you receive a newsletter about a 100% reload bonus, you can take part in this campaign as you got the newsletter. If you make a deposit and use the casino bonus code that everyone has received, you will get your bonus credited;
Voucher Codes
Casino voucher codes are unique combinations of letters and numbers that are valid only once. They can be used by all players, including the new ones. Instead of segmenting the bonus offers by configuring them in their back-office, the casino management sends out different voucher codes to different groups of players. In some cases, it is much easier for a casino to use voucher codes instead of casino bonus codes. A good example for such a case is when they need to provide a quick compensation for technical problems on site.
The ever-growing interest in online gaming sites and increasing competition between the casinos contributes hugely to the large number of very tempting offers like slots bonuses, created specifically to attract new players and retain old loyal customers. Since there are no geographic restrictions stopping the players from changing the casino and spending their money elsewhere, the perks are an important choice criteria, apart from obviously portfolio of games, security and player protection measures.
Money is what most online casino customers are after, and money is what casinos are quite happy to give. Not for free of course and not without a catch. Slots bonuses are a way to keep players playing. The higher the amount usually means the stricter conditions around wagering requirements.
The most common slots bonuses are Free Spins. That’s a predefined number of free rounds offered to the player on a selected slot or a set. Below we’re going to talk about a few other common types of campaigns.
Registration Bonus
Practically all online gaming sites welcome their new customers with a registration bonus upon signing-up. It is the best value hand-out a casino will ever make to their customer. It very often is a no deposit or a free cash offer, which means free cash placed in the player’s account to enjoy in the online casino.
These extra money must be used for playing on a particular set of slot games, sometimes on all products; sometimes the slots bonuses are linked to free spins. The extra funds received upon registration can be cashable (you can keep it after meeting the wagering requirements) or non-cashable (in other words: sticky; you can not keep the extra cash but you can wager and keep the winnings).
The main condition to receiving a welcome offer is of course firstly successfully opening an account in the online casino. Wagering requirements vary from casino to casino and depend on wether we chose slots, poker or another product. Check carefully the wagering requirements before signing up; they should be less than 40x to be interesting.
First Deposit Bonus
A newly registered customer who has not deposited yet, would be encouraged by the casino to do so by a first deposit bonus, which can also be given out to tempt the new players to open an account and experience on their favourite slot. It only applies to the first-ever deposit done by the player. Usually a minimum deposit amount is required.
One of the first deposit bonus types is a match one. It consists of the casino matching in 100% the amount deposited by the player, up to a specified amount. For example, it could be 100% match up to 200 euro. The player will have to make a deposit of 100 euro, the online casino will match it with another 100 euro, and so the total bankroll to enjoy on the slots will amount to 200 euro. Some casinos tempt with an unlimited amount match deposit.
Another kind of first deposit bonus is a percentage one. These usually vary from 50% to even 300%. The rule is the same as for the previous offer. Say you sign up for 300% slots bonus up to 300 eur. You have to deposit 100 euro and the casino will add 300 euro to your player’s account. Read carefully the details of this campaign, as very often only an equivalent of 100% of your deposit will be added to your account with your first deposit, and the remaining 200% will be added with the consequent deposits.
Weekly Bonus Offers
This is type of campaign is carried out by serious casinos to offer amongst others their slots players on a regular weekly basis hence the name of it - weekly bonus offer. They are not as common as monthly ones. The recurring nature of this slots bonus is rather attractive to the customers and they are likely to plan to log in to the gaming site and play on the day and time, when they know the Offer takes place. It is a great tool for casinos to invite the players to keep coming back, keep them engaged and create loyalty.
Wagering of Slots Bonus
In the early days of the gaming industry, as the casinos gave away very generous amounts of extra money to play with in their welcome packages, they also introduced wagering of slots bonuses. This was a way to protect themselves from the potentially huge financial risk brought on by BONUS abusers; players, who would open multiple accounts in numerous online casinos specifically to benefit from these offers and never come back.
Wagering requirements, in other words play through requirements, apply to nearly all online casino extra cash to play with. The term relates to the amount that the player will have to bet, to be able to cash out their winnings on an offer. For example a wagering requirement of slots bonus is 15x.
The customer deposits 100 euro, casino matches it with another 100 euro. Their total bankroll amounts to 200 euro, they will have to place bets to the value of 1500 euro. Playing on the SLOTs gives 100% contribution to the play through requirements, whereas other games like poker contribute less, even 40%. Very often the extra funds can not be withdrawn.