Are No Deposit Bonuses Worth It?
On the face of it, no deposit bonuses appear to be great. The concept of being rewarded without having to deposit any money is undoubtedly appealing, but like with all things when you look a bit deeper, they might not be as good as they appear. When you make a deposit with a site you are likely to receive some form of welcome promotion. A welcome promotion's sole purpose is to make you, the gambler, sign up to their site. Once they have you, they should want to keep you, and what better way of getting someone's attention than to offer a bonus where you do not need to hand over any money right? Well, the issue here is not so much the credibility of these offers but their value. In other words, it is not so much what a casino gives, but what you potentially make from them. After all, we do gamble to have fun and hopefully make some money. If I were to give you $10 now, you probably would be thinking thank you very much. But imagine going to the shops and not being able to spend this money. In many ways, this is how a lot of no deposit bonuses function. A good bonus should incentivize us with a chance of winning big and not all no deposit bonuses offer this opportunity.
It Is All About Wagering Requirements
Wagering requirements are something that all gamblers need to be familiar with. In case you are unaware, some bonuses need to be wagered multiple times. Meaning that you can't just place your €100 on one bet and then walk away with any winnings that you might receive from it. If the wagering requirements are too much the chances of you turning your money into withdrawable cash are very low.
With this in mind, what is a reasonable amount of times for a casino to request your bonus funds be wagered? Well, in my experience most offers of this nature require you to wager your funds at least 40 times. On top of this, the majority of no deposit bonuses tend to be small so it is likely that you won't have the chance to wager all of your money before you run out of funds.
With this in mind if you ever come across an offer that requires that your money is wagered less, then it is likely to be a good offer. Most casino offers will be very upfront with how many times you have to wager your money and if you check the small print on the promotion you should be able to see if the offer requires wagering or not.
The Best Policy Is To Try And Strike It Lucky
Normally, I would like to give you some deep detailed strategy but the truth with no deposit bonuses is that you need to be very lucky to see some profit. Because of the high wagering requirements, it is difficult to play the game in such a way that you are likely to make some profit as you might have with some other offers.
Is this really a negative though? Most of us dream of putting a large amount of money on one bet but don't do it because it will be reckless and would go against the good discipline that every gambler should strive for. With this type of offer though you can place these types of bets and experience the thrill of knowing that there will be no consequences to losing since you are not depositing any money.
Game Restrictions
On some of these games, you will be not able to play them with the bonus funds, or at the very least, these games will not contribute to the wagering requirements. Why is this? Well if you were to play with bonus funds on a game like roulette or blackjack which have a very small house edge you could play the offer in such a way where you are likely to make money. Casinos are aware of this and will only let you play games where you can't implement an obvious strategy.
Are No Deposit Bonuses Worth It?
In theory, there is no harm to choosing a no deposit bonus. You do not lose any money and they can give people the experience of playing a real online casino game for free. If this is what you are after then by all means take advantage of one of these no deposit bonus promotions. If you are looking to actually withdraw some cash from these offers though then you are going to have a much more difficult time. These offers often have unrealistic wagering requirements and your only real way of making money is by getting extremely lucky by hitting a big win. This could happen to anyone though so there is nothing to lose and perhaps a lot to gain.
Other Promotions Are Likely To Be More Valuable
With all of this said if you are looking for a killer promotion, your best bet will be to look for free bet promotions if you like sportsbook betting or bonus deposit promotions if casinos are more of your thing. No deposit bonuses, in my opinion, are great for those who want to experiment or for those who are not yet familiar with online casinos. When joining a site for the first time you are likely to see promotions at their most attractive. Therefore you really should take advantage of this. Every gambler should love the bonus and the better the offer, the more time you can spend dedicated to something you love.
In my experience, a lot of gamblers do not consider the full value they are getting from several promotions. In fact, they often miss out on a lot of value because they don't know the specifics of the offers they are signing up for. If I had to offer one piece of advice it would be to think very carefully about the signing up process to sites and make sure you are gaining maximum value based on the amount you can afford to deposit.
This article delivers the thoughts and opinions of the author, and it doesn't represent the stance of GoodLuckMate.
Our casino experts have tried and tested all aspects of each and every casino, so you can feel confident when signing up.
