Your Guide to Making the Most of the Ocean of Casino Bonus

Anyone who wants to try their hand at online casino gaming can find the experience a little daunting to start with: there are so many welcome offers that it’s hard to know which the best one is for you. From bonus cash to free spins to no-deposit offers, you need to know the pros and cons of the many casino bonuses available to help you find the best ones.

As the online casino scene is so competitive, nearly every website is offering a welcome bonus to new customers to introduce them to their range of games, but some are much better than others. Here, we’ll be detailing what each form of welcome bonus entails and what type of casino gamer they suit.

Matched Deposit Bonuses

Source: Pixabay

Historically, the most common form of welcome bonus has been the matched deposit offer. When you sign-up and accept this form of casino bonus, your first deposit will be matched in bonus funds to the percentage indicated. For example, a welcome bonus indicating a 100 per cent matched deposit will give you £50 in bonus funds when you deposit £50 in real money, giving you a total of £100 to use. These offers are usually only applied to your first deposit, but some online casinos offer matched deposit plans where each of your first three, four, or five deposits are matched to a set percentage in bonus funds.

The distinction is made between real money deposited and bonus funds received through a bonus offer because bonus funds are often tied to wagering requirements. These terms and conditions mean that once you’ve played through the bonus funds, you then have to play through the winnings from the bonus funds a set number of times before anything can become real money that can be withdrawn.

The matched deposit casino bonuses are best suited to players who want to try out a good range of games, from top-ranking slots like Gonzo’s Quest to classic table games like European roulette. Through the use of these offers, you can usually end up playing with at least double the balance that you would start with if you made a deposit without accepting a bonus offer. If this is the bonus for you, be sure to find out the wagering requirements beforehand, and also make sure that accepting the bonus doesn’t combine your real money with the bonus funds into one balance of non-withdrawable bonus funds.

Free Spins Bonuses

Where once matched deposit offers were the ‘in thing’, free spins welcome offers are now the most common bonuses. The simple fact is that online slots are by far the most popular games at online casinos, so savvy websites decided to give players free plays on their most popular games, often including Book of Dead. The bonus works similarly to the matched deposit offer: if your first deposit is over a certain amount, they’ll give you a set number of free spins to play on certain slot games.

Free spins offers can come with wagering requirements to playthrough to turn the free spins winnings into real cash. Some casinos have combined matched deposit offers with free spins bonuses, so you can have the best of both worlds if you want to play slots and other casino games. Make sure that you read the terms and conditions first to see what games the free spins bonus applies to, and search the games online to see if you want to play them in the first place. If you don’t want to play the games included in the free spins, there’s not much point in placing a deposit to get the bonus.

No Deposit Bonuses

Source: Pixabay

By far the most sought-after casino bonus of all is the No Deposit Free Spins offer. Where other welcome offers require you to deposit real money into your account, no deposit offers only require you to sign-up and create an account. That’s it! Once you’ve signed up, you’ll get a certain amount of free spins or bonus cash without committing a single penny to the online casino, ensuring that you can get a full feel for the website before making a deposit.

At the top end of the competitive casino market, there are websites which offer no deposit bonuses that aren’t tied to wagering requirements and are played as real money. However, it isn’t uncommon for no deposit free spins or no deposit cash offers to have some terms and conditions attached. Some no deposit free spins offers will be for use on a selection of popular games, but as you don’t have to make a deposit, you may as well sign-up, give them a spin, and see how it goes.

High Roller Bonuses

As the name suggests, some welcome offers are enhanced for those who wish to make a large first deposit. There aren’t too many of these high roller casino bonuses going around, but the ones that currently exist often offer significant perks to depositing a significant sum – often upwards of £100. Rewards can include an enhanced amount of free spins or bonus cash compared to the bonus of a regular welcome offer, but some go as far as to offer real spins.

Referral Bonuses

Source: Pixabay

If you’re signing up to an online casino because your friend suggested it, or you and a friend are planning on joining a new website, see if the casino offers a referral bonus. Referring a friend will usually net you and your friend a decent amount of bonus funds.

To make the offer work for you and your friend, or friends, you will want to sign-up first, go onto your account page to get your ‘friend code’, and then distribute it to your friends. When they sign-up and submit that code, you’ll both get the bonus. However, using a referral bonus code may exclude the new player from other welcome bonuses.

There are plenty of different casino bonuses out there to suit all forms of casino gamers, so be sure to find the one that suits you the best.