The Power of Free Stuff: Why Bookmakers Give out Betting Bonuses

How many times have you seen adverts promising you free bets when you join a specific bookie site? If you bet online regularly, you see promotional emails frequently. These bonuses often come with a catch, like the need to deposit real money and wager it before you can receive your bonus.

Bookies aren’t alone in offering free stuff that come with conditions. From Amazon to eBay, small T-shirt stores to social media-based businesses; everyone is using freebies as a way to market their products. The concept works for some companies better than others. Regardless, here’s why brands, especially bookmakers, give out freebies in the form of bonuses.

To Grab your Attention

You might know all the top betting companies that sponsor EPL teams but you’ve probably never paid close attention to their services. To grab your attention and make you visit their websites, bookmakers offer you free betting money.

The best betting sites offer you a free bet even before you make your first deposit. However, most companies give out bonuses if you create an account and deposit money. You could get £10 in bonuses for every £10 you bet with real money or receive £30 when you spend £10. It’s up to the betting sites on how much they give you.

With a free bet on offer, lots of people get interested. They know they don’t have to spend real money to try out the betting sit’s games. And if they do, they’ll receive rewards to increase their profits.

To learn more about you

Most betting sites that give out bonuses require you to register an account with them. That means you provide your email address and in some cases, select your favorite betting markets. By giving you free bets, the companies also learn how you bet—information they could use to recommend matches to bet on in the future.

In addition to learning about you, bookies provide bonuses to give you a chance to learn more about them. For instance, you could check out their supported games, their odds, payment methods and customer support. 

You also get to experience their software and how easy or difficult it is to bet on their platforms. In turn, you can gain respect for a bookmaker and even bet on its website.

To encourage you to Spend Real Money

The ultimate goal of bookies when they give you bonuses is to encourage you to spend real money. That’s why many football and horse racing betting sites prefer to give you free bets when you spend real money. That way, they don’t give you freebies without getting something in return.

The best betting sites award you bonuses every time you deposit money to your account. Some also give you random free bets to motivate you to bet on their websites. Of course, the companies also make sure they get value from each of their bonuses.

That’s why they have rules governing how you bet their bonus money. For instance, you can only bet games with odds 1.50 and above. And if you win, you must bet your profits on another game or two. If you still have profits when you complete the requirements, you can cash it out.

Impacting Positive Brand Association

Psychologists believe people are more likely to say positive things about companies that give out free stuff than those that don’t. Even when a bookmaker has unreliable customer support and offers poor odds, buyers are more forgiving to generous brands.

Bookies with positive reputations also want to maintain their status quo. The industry is immensely competitive and every company is trying to enhance their market share. Due to that, it’s popular for top-rated betting sites to give out freebies regularly.

For example, they can give out cash backs to help you recoup some of your losses. They could also give you loyalty points you could later redeem for free bets. 

To Hype New Features and Services

People not only grab free bonuses quickly when offered but they also tweet and share the news to their Facebook friends. This creates a buzz around a betting platform and the specific service or feature it’s promoting.

If a bookie gives out a free bet to everyone who spends real money on its new in-play betting service, people will obviously talk about the feature. Everyone sharing the free bet will also mention the live betting part, thereby helping promote the service.

When promoting a new payment method, bookies reward only people who deposit money using the said banking option. Knowing that, people ensure they mention about the payment method to their friends. In the process, the bookie gets the word out there about their new service but at the cost of free bets.

To turn you into Regular Customers

Your first free bet is meant to grab your attention and to motivate you to spend real money on a bookie site. But bookies that give out bonuses regularly do it purposefully to encourage you to bet using real money regularly.

It’s every company’s dream to have returning customers, after all. Of course, they all wish people could become loyal punters without having to give you rewards. But with every other betting site giving out freebies, the concept of giving out bonuses to encourage loyalty isn’t likely to disappear any time soon.

As a player, though, don’t get blinded by bonuses. They all come with conditions. And if these conditions force you to spend large amounts of money to get free bets, they are not worth it. Read bonus terms and conditions carefully before you claim them. Choose offers with the least or the most convenient terms.

To Conclude

Psychologists have a lot of theories as to why brands give out bonuses. But one thing is granted; bookies that offer free bets have lots of customers. Most punters are always looking for a way to bet without spending their money. So, when they get a bonus, they claim it.