Mastering Casino Bonus Strategies: Maximize Your Wins
Online casino bonuses allow players to boost their bankrolls and potentially win real cash prizes. These promotional offers come in many creative forms, attracting first-time players and retaining existing ones. These offers include generous welcome deals, free spins, cashback rewards, and more. This guide will explain the best strategies to use when claiming bonus deals. They will also help you choose the best online casino to play at to claim promo offers.
Why Claim Casino Bonuses?
The first question is, what makes casino bonuses so valuable?
Here are 5 key reasons:
- Win Real Money: Bonus deals give you a chance to convert bonus money into real money.
- Cushion a Losing Streak: If you hit a losing streak after you deposit but have an active bonus, you could win that money back by playing through the wagering requirement.
- Play for Longer: Deposit match and free spins bonuses give you a bonus money balance. If you deposit and lose your real money balance while you have an active onus, you can continue playing real money games using your bonus balance. Again, wagering requirements typically apply to convert this bonus balance to real money.
- Leaderboard Promos & Tournaments: Win free cash by playing slots and earning points for multipliers. One of the reasons this type of promotion is attractive is that you can play your regular game, and if you hit a winning streak, you could win a cash prize with no wagering requirement attached.
- Cashback On Your Losses: When you lose your deposit, the casino returns a percentage of your losses. This allows you to continue playing for longer. Most casinos offer low wagering requirements on this type of bonus.
Some promotional offers come with 0x wagering, which means you win an instant real money balance. However, these are few and far between. However, most bonus deals come with wagering requirements, which we’ll begin as one of our first casino bonus strategies to cover.
Understand the Difference Between Real Money and Bonus Money
Before you can learn more about casino bonus strategies, it helps to understand the difference between a ‘real money balance’ and a ‘bonus money balance.’
Here is a brief beginner’s guide to real money Vs bonus money:
- Real Money Balance: This balance represents real money you have deposited into your casino bankroll. It could also be money you have converted from a bonus or won via a prize drop, leaderboard, promo, raffle, or tournament. There are no restrictions on your real money balance, leaving you free to withdraw it or bet on any game available to play at the casino.
- Bonus Money Balance: You cannot withdraw bonus money while the bonus is active, which will cancel the offer. You must play through the wagering requirement to convert your bonus into your real money balance.
Understanding these two balances is vital to understanding how to hunt down the best bonuses as a strategy.
Bonus Strategy 101 – Read the Bonus Terms
Before you claim any casino bonus and use the strategies in this guide, your first step should be to read the bonus terms and conditions.
Here are some critical points to look for:
- Wagering requirements: Also known as the ‘Bonus turnover,’ ‘Rollover,’ or ‘Play-through.’
- Max Bet: Maximum bet allowed using bonus money.
- Bonus expiry: The time your bonus balance will be available before it expires.
- Game Contributions: The amount of your bet contributing to the bonus turnover when playing a particular game.
- Excluded Games: Games you should avoid playing using bonus money.
Understanding these elements will help you understand the conditions you need to stick to successfully convert your bonus into real money and avoid bonus abuse.
The Lowest Wagering Requirement Bonus Strategy
You will find the wagering requirements in the bonus terms and conditions.
The first golden rule to implementing your wagering requirement bonus strategy is ‘the lower the wagering requirement, the better.’
Wagering requirements represent the number of times you must bet your bonus to convert it into real money. That means the best bonus deals offer the lowest wagering requirement because this gives you a better chance of winning a real money balance.
How do wagering requirements work?
If you have a wagering requirement 25x and your balance is $10, then to convert your $10 bonus money into real money, you need to play through it 25x.
- 25 x $10.00 = $250.00
- You need to accumulate $240.00 worth of wins from your $10.00 bonus and bet that $240.00 and the $10.00 bonus make the ‘bonus’ to ‘real money’ conversion.
- With RTPs on most slots averaging 96%, this is a realistic target.
There are two types of wagering requirements to look out for:
Beginners to casino bonuses can get caught out by how casinos describe the bonus wagering. There are two types: ' bonus only’ and ‘deposit + bonus.’
- 35x Bonus Only: If a bonus is a 100% deposit match from a $20.00 deposit, and the wagering requirement says 35x ‘Bonus Only,’ you only need to play through the $20.00 bonus money 35 times that amount.
- 35x Deposit + Bonus: If a bonus is a 100% deposit match from a $20.00 deposit, and the wagering requirement says 35x ‘Deposit + Bonus, you to play through the $20.00 deposit + the $20.00 bonus, $40.00 in total, 35x.
You can see from the two examples that the best type of bonus is the ‘35x Bonus Only’. Therefore, part of your strategy for finding the lowest wagering requirements is to remain vigilant when reading the online casino’s bonus T&Cs to see if the turnover is ‘bonus’ or ‘bonus only.’
Find Bonuses with 0x Wagering
With the ‘The Lowest Wagering Requirement Bonus Strategy’ a key part of your bonus strategy, finding deals with 0x wagering is uneatable.
Not many online casinos offer this kind of deal, but they are out there. Most will attach the 0x wagering not to the deposit match bonus but to your free spins winnings. Now, does this mean you get a real money balance, and it is yours to do as you please? The answer is a resounding yes!
Bonus Money Bet Sizing Strategy
Your next step to apply to your casino bonus strategy is bet sizing. There are two common approaches expert bonus players use.
1. The Low Stake Bonus Money Betting Strategy
If you have a $100.00 bonus balance, the best approach is to bet low; instead of betting $5.00 per spin and giving yourself potentially 20 spins, which turn up with no wins, you should bet just 1% or 2% of your bonus per spin. The same applies to table games.
Here are some examples:
- $100.00 bonus money balance: $1.00 to $2,00 per spin
- $50.00 bonus money balance: $0.50 to $1.00 per spin
- $10.00 bonus money balance: $0.10 to $0.20 per spin
Due to RTPs and variance, you could begin running cold, so taking large spin bets would wipe out your bonus quickly. However, if you are placing low bets, you can ride the cold streak, and a hot streak could suddenly kick in.
2. The High-Stake Bonus Money Betting Strategy
Some players prefer to place large bets to try their luck at hitting a winning streak in a short number of spins, which occasionally works.
You should be aware that it takes several attempts to pull off this strategy successfully. As a result, you must play at an online casino with plenty of weekly deposits and free spins bonus offers. Another point you should be wary of is that bonus deals come with a maximum bet. This is typically $5.00 per spin or a max spin bet of $0.50 per spin, so before you use this bonus strategy, read the bonus T&Cs carefully.
Which strategy is best for you?
The best way to determine which of these two bonus strategies suits you is to test each. You may find a middle ground between the two and formulate your bet bonus money bet sizing strategy. If you are a beginner at casino gameplay, you will also find that bet sizing is an essential strategy, even when betting with your real money balance, to avoid blowing through your bankroll too quickly.
Play Games That Contribute 100% to Your Wagering Requirement.
In the bonus terms, you will see ‘game contributions’ or ‘game weights.’ Here, you will see the percentage of your bets playing certain games will contribute to the wagering. If 100% of the bet contributes to the turnover required, then you are getting maximum value.
Here is an example:
- 100% - Online slots, scratch cards, keno, bingo
- 50% - Live Casino Gameshows
- 10% - Live Casino Games (Except Baccarat)
- 5% - All Table Games (virtual tables)
- 0% - Progressive Jackpots
Although a casino’s bonus T&Cs may show 100% for online slots, you must also check the bonus terms for slots contributing 50%, 20%, or 0%. Also, you should look for games excluded from bonus bets. If a casino does not offer this information, you are probably better off avoiding the bonus.
Take Advantage of No Deposit Bonuses
A no-deposit bonus (a.k.a. a signup bonus or NDB) is essentially free bonus money credited to your account simply for signing up. It is an incentive to encourage you to test out the casino’s platform. The casino operator hopes you will enjoy your experience and make a deposit to continue playing with their brand.
Key advantages of using no-deposit bonuses as part of your bonus strategy:
- You do not need to deposit, provide payment details, or pass a KYC check to claim a no-deposit bonus offer.
- You are not obligated to continue playing at the casino once you use your signup bonus. It is fair game if you decide the platform is not for you.
- You could convert your bonus into real money.
As a final word on this topic, no deposit bonus offers are available, such as free spins or bonus money for casino games. Sports betting NDBs are normally free bets. They come with similar rules to any other bonus so that you can use any of the casino bonus strategies mentioned in this article.
Cashback on Your Losses as a Regular Bonus Gaming Strategy
One of the best casino bonus deals available for online slot and table game players is the cashback. If you do your due diligence while searching for this type of bonus, you will find casinos offering high-percentage cashback deals with low wagering. They also come with varying time scales, for example, daily, weekly, or monthly.
The best cashback deals come with:
- High percentage cashback
- Low Wagering Requirement
- High real money cash amount returned on your losses
Online Slot Cashback
Most online slot cashback deals have 5x wagering. However, these offers can largely depend on your VIP loyalty level. Aside from this, here is a good example of an online slot cashback.
- 15% Weekly Cashback up to $300: Any deposit you make during the 7 days will give you 15% of your losses back up to $300. If you lose $100, you get $15 in bonus money with wagering requirements that apply.
When you consider slots come with an average RTP of 96%, and online slots like Blood Suckers, which has an RTP of 98%, even a 5% cashback on your losses is a good deal!
Live Casino Cashback
The best cashback offers we have seen are for live casino games. They are rarely connected to a VIP loyalty program, and many casinos only attach a 1x wagering requirement.
That’s real value for money. Especially when considering single-zero roulette has a standard RTP of 97.3% (2.7% House Edge), Blackjack games like Evolution A B C D and Pragmatic Play Blackjack Azure tables come with RTPs of 99.59% (0.41% house edge).
Take Part in Software Provider Promotions
The final bonus strategy is simple and effective. There are certain promotions by software providers like Wazdan, Pragmatic Play, Kalamba, and other top brands that offer leaderboard promotions and/or random cash prize drops.
These promotions should be part of your bonus strategy because you only need to opt in before you play slots designated for leaderboard or prize drop promos. All you need to do is play your usual slot game and meet the minimum bet required to qualify to earn points or win cash prize drops with 0x wagering attached to the win.
Wazdan’s Mystery Drop and Kalamba prize drop promos don’t require a minimum bet, so you can play at the lowest spin bet and have a shot at winning a cash prize.
Pragmatic Play’s Drops & Wins has a $0.50 min bet to qualify. The added incentive for playing Pragmatic Play slots is that if you win the highest multiplier win during one of the leaderboard promos, you could win thousands. The best part of this promo is it doesn’t matter how big your bet is; as long as you bet at least the minimum, it is your multipliers that earn points, not the amount you win.
Getting the Most from Casino Bonuses
There are tons of different casino bonuses out there, but you need to know how to pick the good ones. Check out areas like wagering requirements and the bonus rules to see if anything is out of the ordinary. The key is to select those with a lower wagering requirement, the better. Even better than this, some promo deals come with no play-through requirements, so you can withdraw the money you win.
Also, think about how much you bet when using a bonus. Betting small means the bonus lasts longer. Betting big could score you a nice payout quickly, but this only works if the casino offers plenty of bonus offers throughout the week. Another point worth noting is that you should stick to games that let your bets count 100% to clear the bonus turnover.
Last tips - take free no-deposit deals to test out online casinos, and keep your eyes peeled for cashback on your losses. Finally, special promos by different software providers give you the chance to win real cash prizes.
Follow this guide, and you'll get way more value from the bonuses casinos offer. More value means stretching your money further. Stretch your money further, and you have a better shot of coming out ahead when all is said and done!
