The option to sign up to as many bookies as you like and take advantage of really attractive welcome offers puts a lot of power in the hands of the punter. Online betting sites are exceptionally competitive, most people take advantage of this by taking up introductory offers, not just to get the best value out of bets, but also to try the bookmaker services out. Modern life however seems to be becoming less loyal, many of us switch products and services regularly to get the best deals. Companies know this and therefore put a lot of effort into attracting new customers sometimes at the expense of keeping those regular customers who come back each and every week.
Familiarity is nice and many people simply don’t want to switch products and services every five minutes, their bookie included. It is annoying when you find a betting site that you like only for the incentives to dry up very quickly. Betting requires a lot of trust between the punter and the bookie and bettors want to know not only that they are safe and secure but also that their custom is recognised and rewarded. In this article we discuss some online bookies that go the extra mile for their existing customers by providing rewards, bonuses and features to keep you betting happy. For retention free bets and bonuses for racing visit our racing offers page.
- Existing Customers:
- Free Bet Clubs
- Loyalty Points & Rewards
- Free Prediction Jackpot Games
Existing Customer Free Bet Clubs
Opt-in and place a £10 single or bet builder bet on football during the weekend with VirginBet (Friday to Sunday) at odds of 1/2 (1.50) and you can get a £5 free bet, available every weekend.
The free bet can be used on any sportsbook markets and is valid for 7 days from issue.
It is a very straightforward offer with a high reward value, what you may have come to expect from things with the Virgin brand. For those that bet on weekend football regularly this offer can add a lot of value over time.
It’s difficult to cram in all the loyalty offers that Quinnbet have. The Irish owned family bookie have a mission to make betting fairer and in an already short space of time they have lived up to that bill with some of the best exisitng customer loyalty promotions around.
To start with all customers can take part in the loyalty programme. Each week you will be contacted to claim a bespoke free bet that is based on how you bet, this gives you up to 14% of your weekly stakes back as a free bet if you account is up and up to 25% if your account is down. More consideration is given to customers who bet widely on different sports, markets, products and bet types.
This is in addition to the main bet club. This rewards customers who have five or more settled bets at evens+ before the end of Sunday each week. Place 5x£5+ bets and get £5 free, place 10x£10 bets get £10 free or 20x£20 to get £20 free. Each free token is then valid one week for use on any markets at 1/2+ odds. This club is one of the most flexible around, suiting punters who want to place a few low stakes bets up to those that want to place many more bets at higher stakes.
In addition to the loyalty weekly rewards and the bet club Quinnbet have acca bonuses, in play bonuses, money back on loses, horse racing free bets and insurance, football money back and insurance, and much more.
One of the very best betting sites for existing customer loyalty right now, and staggeringly good considering how new they are.
Free Prediction Games With Cash Prizes
Most free football games ask you to predict match results or correct scores, which can be a bit samey every week. Beat Fred is a little different.
Instead it asks you six more varied yes / no questions about a selection of fixtures. Get all six correct and win a share of £10,000 but you can also get prizes for getting just three out of the six correct:
- 3/6 = £0.50 free bet
- 4/6 = £1 free bet
- 5/6 = £2 free bet
All free bets are valid 7 days.
This long running free to play game form Coral gives you the chance to predict horses to place in seven featured races, usually Saturday TV races or around big race meetings. If you get all correct you can win of share £10,000 in cash, sometimes more as Coral often increase the jackpot for big meetings.
Unlike other racing jackpot offers you are not predicting just the winner but any horse to finish in the official places. It could be that none of your horses actually win but all place and you can still share a portion of the £10k jackpot.
How much you win in the end will depend on how popular the horses are you choose. For example, when writing this the week before 50 people shared £200 each. In some weeks where an couple of outsiders place you can end up with a handful or just one winner. If you picked those outsiders then the jackpot can be bigger. It is a balance between picking horses you think will place but also trying to find those races where there may be upsets to allow you to gain an advantage on others.
One entry per customer per week, UK & IRE online and users only.
Ladbrokes have had a free football game running pretty much since they’ve had a website. These days it is called 1-2-Free and it is a fairly simple game that just asks you to predict the correct score in three games. These are generally Premier League or Champions League games but it varies depending on the time of year and what is one, e.g. it could be the FA Cup or Euros, etc.
The game is free to enter for account holders. If you get one correct score you will earn 500 LadBucks. Two correct will grab you a £2 free bet builder (within 48 hours, use on any bet builder with at least one football selection). Get all three correct and win a share of a £10,000 cash prize. The less people that get it right with you the bigger the share of the pot you would win.
If you want to play the best free prediction game then go to the best bookie, bet365. They were a little late to the party when it comes to games like this but 6 Scores Challenge was worth the wait as it is the best of the lot of them in our opinion.
Predict six football scores in a given gameweek. These are often Premier League fixtures but can be cup fixtures or other domestic or foreign legaues depending on the schedule.
Get six correct and win or share £250,000, get five correct win or share £50,000, four correct win or share £10,000 and three correct win or share £5,000. All in cash.
How to win with a free bet or bonus
There is no way to guarantee a bet will win but you can make sure you are getting the best possible value from your bookie so that when you do win you get maximum returns. Here are a few general points to consider when picking the best free bet and bonus offers to bet with.
- Cash is King – The best offers give you cash in reward. This is a good benchmark for an offer (and often a bookie). Think about the best bookie offeer, they don’t do free bets they always reward in cash.
- Free Tokens – There is nothing to say a free token is any less valuable than a bonus. Free bets generally have no odds restrictions (so you could just put them on a banker) and your winnings should automatically come back in cash. As a negative you don’t get your stake back and you have to bet the token in one go.
- Bonus Cash – These are a little trickier, if you are paid out in bonus cash this can be good as it lets you split the cash into multiple wagers. The promo cash is also usually returned as part of the winnings. These come with more restrictions than free bets however, there are usually minimum odds and you need to wager the promo cash several times over to convert it to real cash. Saying that you can withdraw the bonus itself once you meet the requirements.
- Back Yourself with a Free Bet – If you’ve got a free token you can either stick it on a low odds bet to ensure you at least get some cash or you can back yourself and go for the bigger odds lines. I’m not saying put stupid bets on but in general with free tokens you may as well go for a line that will give you decent returns, evens or greater at least. If you go really big (>10/1) check there are no maximum odds or winnings limits.
- Be More Cautious with a Bonus – Most bonuses are withdrawable but you need to rollover the amount several times to convert it to cash. There will be minimum odds (usually 1/2 (1.50) or more) but this doesn’t mean you need to go crazy backing very high odds. If you’ve got a £20 bonus with 6x rollover let’s say you will need to bet £120 of bonus and winnings to convert to cash, a single 5/1 win will give you enough funds to do this. In general it helps to split your bonus up to give yourself the best chance of winning in the end.
- Bonus Stake Not Returned – There is a third type of bonus that is becoming more common, it’s more like a free bet in that the stake is not returned and winnings are paid in cash, and so are withdrawable. These bonuses however provide the best of both worlds when you can find them as you avoid the wagering requirements seen with normal bonuses but you can split the bonus into multiple bets which you can’t do with a free bet.
Common Terms and Conditions
The most common reason for not getting the best out of an offer is not understanding the terms in advance. What’s the point opting into an offer to get a freebie just to let it expire or become invalid? Here are some common major terms you should familiarise yourself with to get the best from free tokens and bonus funds.
- Expiry – Punters lose out very often from expired free bet tokens and bonuses. It really is worth checking how long the freebie is valid for, some have long expiries of a week or more whereas others vanish after 24 hours. If you place your bet on a Saturday and get a freebie don’t necessarily expect it to still be there the next week. Don’t assume either that all free bets from the same bookmaker have the same terms. If the bookie has given you something for free at the very least make sure you use it in time, even a throw away bet is better than no bet at all.
- Minimum Odds – It is mainly bonuses that come with minimums but occasionally free bets do too so check. You will be allowed to place bets with bonus funds below the minimum odds but they will not contribute to the rollover.
- Maximum Odds – Freebets can come with maximum odds, usually if this is stipulated it should be 10/1 or more, bonuses rarely have maximum odds.
- Maximum Winnings – This can apply to both types of offer. This is usually quite high (several thousand) but something to be aware of if you are using your freebies on high odds lines or big accumulators.
- Restricted Markets – Freebies are usually open to all markets but for some promotions they can be restricted. The bet may stipulate that it must be wagered on football, on an accumulator, etc. Some free tokens are restricted for use on horse racing too. Bet types such as full cover bets (e.g. Luck 15), tote bets and other more exotic markets can also be restricted.