Follow our expert guide to ensure you get the most suitable welcome offer!
At BRC, we have been trawling through welcome offers from gambling sites since they first became available online. We have decided to use that experience and knowledge, providing an expert guide to ensure you find the most suitable, most affordable and best value new player welcome offers when you sign up with an online betting site, casino or similar.
Our expert guide will follow the format of a series of questions you should ask yourself when considering any welcome offer from any site you are considering joining. We will not only explore the question in more detail, but guide you as to what your answers to these questions may mean regarding the suitability, or lack of it, of a specific welcome offer.
So, let’s get this expert guide started by looking at the key questions you should be asking about any welcome offer you are considering activating.
Always remember to gamble responsibly.
Check out bet365’s Safer Gambling page for more details.
Expert Guide to New Player Welcome Bonuses
- What welcome offers are available on the site?
Depending on the site you join, you may find that a site has several welcome offers, if it offers multiple platforms, such as sports betting, poker, casino gaming, bingo etc. However, specialist sites which offer one form of wagering may only have one offer to pick from.
If your site has multiple welcome offers, review all the available welcome bonuses to see which one offers you the most potential for long-term value, alongside the benefits of the welcome offer.
For example, if you are more likely to engage in poker gaming, than sports betting, taking a poker welcome offer of lesser value, may be a better choice for you than a sports betting or casino offer of slightly higher value.
- How much will it cost me to access the Welcome Offer as a minimum and maximum?
All welcome offers will have terms and conditions and this expert guide suggests you take a closer look at them to find out what the minimum deposit is to activate the offer, as well as what the maximum potential benefit is.
For example, if you have a relatively low budget to begin with, a welcome offer that requires a higher initial minimum deposit amount may not be as viable for you as one that has a considerably lower minimum deposit requirement.
- Is the maximum welcome offer feasible for me to access?
A headline of a £3,000 100% Matched Deposit Welcome Offer really does catch the eye! However, if you need to deposit £3,000 to access that offer in full, then it may not be feasible for you to make the required deposit to benefit from it.
Maximising the value of your welcome offer is key to getting the best value when you sign up. Therefore, you need to judge what the best value is you can get for the deposit and wagering you can afford to make.
For example, that £3,000 welcome offer will catch the eye, but it isn’t viable for someone looking to deposit just £10 to start off with. However, a welcome offer like the current bet365 Sport Deposit Bet £10 get £50 in Free Bets bonus certainly is.
- How many deposits is my Welcome Offer available for?
One expert guide top is that you need to also consider the Welcome Offer in full. Some welcome offers work off just one deposit, others can run over your first two, three, four or more deposits.
Considering how much it will cost you to access the offer in total is important in terms of affordability and accessibility.
It is also worth remembering that the number of deposits required to access a welcome offer in full, usually means a requirement to deposit more money, in the stated time frame, and several wagering requirements to meet for each of the different bonuses that comprise the welcome offer.
That may be viable for punters that deposit frequently with a site, but for others who deposit infrequently, an offer that is based on your first deposit and/or bet may be more beneficial.
- How does the bonus part of the Welcome Offer compare to my qualifying deposit?
Bet365 Casino & Games Welcome Offer – 17/01/2025. Offer available at time of writing.
This is the key part of our expert guide as it is directly assessing the value of an offer to you. Essentially, it is asking “What am I getting for my deposit”?
It is a great idea to break down comparable offers and compare the results for the deposit you wish to make. So say you want to deposit £10 to start your betting site account. You could look at what your £10 would get you with several top betting sites, such as bet365, William Hill, Ladbrokes, Betfred, Coral, Paddy Power etc.
If you know a £10 deposit and spend will get you £50 in free bets with bet365, is that a better offer for you than one with another company which may only offer £20 in free bets, but perhaps 50 Free Spins in addition?
As a punter, you want bang for your buck and reward for your loyalty, so comparing what you can get through an offer with other similar deals is another expert guide top tip!
- Do I need to deposit to receive the bonus, or must I also make a bet? If so, what are the requirements?
Initially, many sites offered a bonus to customers when they made their first deposit on the site. While there are still some offers like this around, they are growing rarer by the day.
Nowadays, many Welcome Offers are based not just on making a qualifying deposit of a stated amount but also betting through that deposit amount in full on the site.
If you are required to make a bet, you should check out the terms and conditions for that bet. Can you make five bets of £2 to make up your £10 deposit spend, or must it be spent in a single £10 bet? There may also be limitations on the types of bets, odds and markets you can place your qualifying bet on.
If a welcome offer forces you to bet more than you are comfortable betting in a single transaction, then our expert guide suggests that this, perhaps, is not the right welcome bonus for you.
- What are the wagering requirements for the bonus? How realistic and achievable are they?
Our expert guide found that wagering requirements are hugely important and can be the key factor, moreso than any other, as to whether a Welcome Offer is a good value deal, or a poor one.
The best deals are those which have no wagering requirement attached to the bonus. Bet365 is a good example of a site that operates in this way.
This means that when you get a qualifying welcome bonus at bet365, you play through your deposit and bonus, and then any winnings attributable to that are free to be withdrawn.
Some less scrupulous sites may offer a much larger initial bonus, but then render it effectively worthless due to restrictive wagering requirements of 20x, 30x or 40x the bonus and deposit amount.
So if you join Dodgy Casino PLC and access their deposit £10 get 100 Free Spins bonus and any returns from your Free Spins come with a 40x wagering requirement, that means if you deposit and spend £10, you get 100 Free Spins. Let’s say you then win £10 on those Free Spins. You cannot withdraw that money as there is a 40x wagering requirement on that £10. That means, you need to wager £400 to be able to withdraw that £10.
That renders this offer effectively worthless in terms of making anything back from your welcome bonus.
- How long do I have to complete the wagering requirements for the welcome bonus?
Time is also a key factor for wagering requirements and welcome bonuses.
The initial welcome bonus may need to be triggered within a stated amount of time of you joining the site. This can range from triggering it immediately on sign up, to triggering it within 30 days or so of joining the site.
You will likely also need to make a qualifying deposit within this time period to access the offer.
Once available, your Welcome Bonus will then have a time limit on it being used, again this can range from a day or two, up to a week or so in most cases.
If there is a wagering requirement on the bonus, you may also have a stated time limit for this and sometimes these can be very short periods of time.
For example, in the Dodgy Casino PLC example above, that casino may state that you have 48 hours within which to complete the wagering requirement. Again rendering it almost worthless in terms of value for you as a punter.
- Does the Welcome Offer have additional offerings and how pertinent are they to my interests?
Occasionally, a welcome offer may be a multi-faceted offer. If you join a sports betting site, you may get a bonus to be used for sports betting, but you may also get some free spins to play at the casino part of the site.
Of course, any additional offerings alongside the main welcome bonus are generally a good thing. However, if you are not going to be playing on the slots, then is taking a smaller sports betting welcome offer and 50 Free Spins a better deal for you than taking a larger sports betting welcome bonus with no free spins?
Multi-faceted offers are good for customers that like to explore the different parts of a gambling platform, but if you specialise or just use one particular form of wagering, then they don’t offer as much value to you as an individual.
- How well does this Welcome Bonus fit in with my budget and gambling interests?
Our expert guide has already given you plenty to consider and to conclude the process, you need to make a key judgement call, asking yourself whether this welcome bonus:
- Is affordable for me and my preferred way to wager.
- Offers a good bonus-to-deposit ratio.
- Offers a genuine chance of some returns, or is the offer designed so it is almost impossible for you to make any return on your first deposit and bonus.
- Matches my interests in terms of betting and gambling.
- Offers the opportunity for me to join a site where other benefits become available to me and which offers good prospects for long term value when playing on the site.
Hopefully, by following this expert guide and series of questions, you now have the tools to judge whether a welcome offer at an online gambling site matches your requirements. If so, you can now use this knowledge to help make better-judged decisions about which sites to join and which to avoid!
Finally, outlined below is a site that we recommend that fits the requirements of millions of customers worldwide and who are a great starting point for anybody considering signing up to enjoy betting, casino gaming or even poker online!
A Site We Recommend – bet365
Why do we recommend bet365 to customers? Let’s take a look at some of the criteria from this expert guide and see how the company compares:
- A choice of welcome offers is available (bet365 Sport, bet365 Casino/Games, bet365 Poker, bet365 Bingo – each has their own welcome offer).
- Each welcome offer can be accessed for a comparatively small minimum deposit of £10.
- Each welcome offer offers a sizable bonus compared to the minimum deposit and bet size required to activate it. (e.g. the latest welcome offer at bet365 Sport, it is deposit and bet £10 to get £50 worth of free bet credits!)
- There is no wagering requirement on any winnings attributable to your bonus. You simply need to wager your deposit and bonus funds 1x on the site and any funds remaining after you have done so can be withdrawn.
- Bonus codes are not required to access any offer so you won’t miss out by not entering a code at sign-up or when depositing.
- Lots of Free options to access, offering real cash as prizes, such as the 6 Scores Challenge, 6 Horses Challenge, Daily Poker Freerolls, Free Fantasy Sports Games and daily Free Bingo.
- Long-term value with a range of on-site promotions such as the 100% Acca Bonus, Dual Drop Jackpots etc.
- Fantastic customer support including a high profile for responsible gambling on site.
- Consistently good value odds across a broad range of markets for sports fans.
- Wide choice of casino, bingo, poker and other games.
- Virtual Sports, Esports, Live Betting, Live Streaming and Fantasy Sports all included.
As you can see, bet365 ticks all the right boxes, so we recommend the site as a fabulous option for beginners! Especially those who may want to explore all the different wagering options available in a safe, responsible, affordable and supportive environment!
Always remember to gamble responsibly.
Check out bet365’s Safer Gambling page for more details.
