How to Know Which Online Bonus is Best for You
You’re reading this post which means you’re interested in the iGaming industry. Also, chances are high that you’ve already opened a few accounts at multiple online casinos. In most cases, the first thing to notice is the welcome bonus. And that’s where the confusion starts, right?
Is that bonus good? Should I deposit the money? Will I get it back? What if I can’t wager it? All of these questions plague the mind, especially for new players. So, we thought, why don’t we create a quick guide that at least tries to solve this problem?
This is our top 7 ways to know which online bonus is best for you.
7 Ways to Know Which Online Bonus is Best
Before we start listing the tricks, it’s important that we define “best”. It’s a very subjective term that can mean different things for different players. So, we’re not going to give you a direct answer as to what bonus is the best.
Rather, we’re going to share knowledge that you can use to gauge the feasibility of the bonus by yourself.
1. Lower Wagering Always Wins
This may be the most obvious tip on this post. We’re all familiar with wagering requirements and we know that no online bonus is free from them. So, every time you find a bonus, you need to check the wagering requirements.
Now, what do we mean by “lower”? As a rule of thumb, up to 40x wagering requirement on the bonus is considered feasible, given that you have enough time. So, anything you can find up to 40x is a decent bonus. In fact, you can also find no wagering bonuses in Canada!
An important thing to notice is what the wagering applies to. For the most part, it’s the bonus. 40x bonus means you wager the bonus 40 times. But if it says 40x bonus + deposit, it means you have to wager the deposit as well! That becomes 80x wagering which is not feasible.
2. Minimum Deposit Requirement
A bonus is often designed to appeal to a massive audience. That’s why most of them start as low as $10. If you have to deposit at least $10 to claim a bonus, that’s your minimum deposit requirement. All deposit bonuses have this requirement.
When the minimum deposit is set so low, you have room to play with your bankroll. You deposit $200 if you can spare it or you could stick to $20 if the wallet is a little on the lighter side. Whatever the case is, a lower minimum deposit requirement always gives you more options.
3. Higher Maximum Bet
Among many other restrictions during the wagering process, the maximum bet is one. It refers to how much you can spend on a single wager when you have active wagering requirements. If you go over it, the bet won’t count in the wagering process.
The most common maximum bet or max bet restriction is $5. It means you can’t spend more than $5 on a single round of roulette, blackjack, slots, or any other games. As you can see, the higher it goes, the quicker you should be able to complete the wagering process.
4. Payment Method Restrictions
This aspect of bonuses is very rarely explored. In many cases, an online casino restricts bonuses for certain payment methods. From what we’ve seen, e-wallets are mostly the excluded methods. Skrill, PayPal, Neteller, Neosurf, Paysafecard, etc. all have been and still are part of many bonus terms and conditions.
When you claim a bonus in Canada, it’s mandatory that you can pay for it. If you have to go through a series of account openings and deposits just for the sake of gambling, it’s not worth it in our opinion.
What we’re trying to establish here is that you should try to go for bonuses you can directly claim with a deposit from your credit card.
5. High Maximum Winning
A 200% match on your first deposit certainly sounds fascinating, doesn’t it? But when we add “up to $50”, the bonus loses its glamour by a lot. It’s simply because $50 is a very underwhelming bonus amount considering the concurrent practice in Canada.
What we’re trying to say here is that how much you can win from a bonus matters a lot. If it’s a tiny bonus that you have to wait a long time for, it’s often not worth it. At the same time, you need to keep in mind that larger bonuses mean larger wagering requirements.
6. Type of Bonus
Well, this should’ve been the first point in our discussion. But better late than never, right?
Primarily, there are 2 different types of online bonuses. Deposit and no deposit. They’re pretty self-explanatory. Deposit bonuses require you to deposit real money before you can get the bonus. And a no deposit bonus directly credits the bonus to your account.
This brings us to why we didn’t clarify this in the very beginning. It’s simply because all the terms and conditions we’ve covered until this point apply to both deposit and no deposit bonuses.
In general, no deposit bonuses are better as long as the T&C is the same as a deposit bonus. Things start to go wrong when you have to deal with additional wagering requirements, shorter deadlines, and other strict terms.
If that’s the case, you should only stick to deposit bonuses. You do need a tiny investment upfront but you won’t have to deal with excruciating terms.
7. Casino Bonus vs Sportsbook Bonus
This is an important distinction for any iGaming bonus. A casino and a sportsbook bonus can look the same on paper but the execution of those bonuses will be different. So will the terms and conditions.
You’ll need to determine which bonus you want. A 30x wagering requirement is very doable at an online casino. But for an online sportsbook, 30x is a lot! Sports wagering requirements usually vary between 1x to 15x in Canada. The bottom line is that check the distinction before you enter a promo code or confirm a bonus during registration.
Don’t Forget Special Promotions
Many online casinos offer special bonuses that only last for a limited time. They might be associated with particular game titles only. Keep an eye on the promotions page of your preferred casino so that you don’t miss out on a good bonus.