Bookmakers tend to rely on two types of people: New customers and loyal punters. Obviously I’ve looked in pretty good detail at the sort of deals and offers that are available for new customers, but what do those bettors who have already taken advantage of them get out of the whole thing? Why stick with one bookie rather than hop around from place to place, constantly taking advantage of the new deals that pop up?
Obviously one answer to that is that there are only a finite number of times that you can be a ‘new customer’. More importantly, though, there are some bookmakers that appreciate your loyalty and want it to be rewarded. Just like certain coffee shops that will stamp your card every time you buy something from them, the more you use particular bookmakers the more they’ll give you a little something to say thank you. Here’s a look at how it all works.
Loyalty Points & Rewards for Sports Betting
Whereas lots of casinos offer loyalty points very few sports betting sites and bookmakers do. But why not? Why shouldn’t you get a reward for your loyal custom? Well, luckily, there are a few top class UK online bookies that do recognise the value of their customers with loyalty reward programs.
In essence there are two types of loyalty rewards that you are likely to be able to take advantage of. The first type is one where you get things such as free bets depending on how many bets you place with a certain bookie.
For example, some bookmakers have offers along these lines: If you place five bets of £5 within a week then you’ll get a free £5 bet at the end of the week. These are typically referred to as ‘Bet Clubs’ and different bookies will offer them for different things. Some offer them on accumulators, whilst others are happy as long as you’re betting on the sports book.
There are variations on a theme on that front, too. That is to say, some bookmakers are keen to push a specific service that they offer, such as their mobile app. When that’s the case you’ll find that they will give you a free bet for wagering a certain amount as long as you place your bet through the app, rather than the desktop site.
The other type of reward is the one we’re interested here – Loyalty Schemes. The reason that they’re different is that you don’t need to do specific things in order to take advantage of them. Let’s carry on the coffee shop metaphor for a minute, shall we? The ‘Bet Club’ type offers are the equivalent of getting a free hot drink every time you buy five hot drinks.
Loyalty Schemes, on the other hand, say that you get one point for simply entering the coffee shop in the first place. Smile at the barista? Two points. Well done for putting your used napkin in the bin! That’s five points! Bought a muffin to go with your coffee? That’s three points. Did you use…well, you get the point. Pretty much everything you do when you’re logged in on the website leads to points and points can be exchanged for prizes.
Loyalty Schemes v Sign Up Offers
Again, whether it’s better to take advantage of Loyalty Schemes or to go from bookie to bookie taking advantage of the constantly popping up sign up offers will depend entirely on your personality and how much money you like to bet with.
There’s no question that people who bet regularly and heavily will benefit the most from a Loyalty Scheme. That’s what will see you get decent rewards for your betting and will also be the most convenient for you. It’s also the method that requires the least effort when it comes to keep tracking of things as Sport Nation and Betway both make a note of your points for you.
If, however, you’re the sort of person who doesn’t mind spending time filling out membership forms and making sure that you’re hitting the targets necessary to take advantage of free bets and bonuses, then don’t worry too much about the Loyalty Schemes. Is it better to get £30 in free bets every week than a free roll in a casino every day? That’s the sort of thing you’ll have to decide for yourself.
Using Your Loyalty Points & Reward Schemes Wisely
Just because online bookmakers will give you loyalty points and offer reward schemes in an attempt to keep you interested doesn’t mean that you should be dismissive in your use of them. You want to work hard to get the most of your rewards and do what you can to build up your loyalty points in order to ensure that you get as much as you can from your bookie of choice for placing bets you were doing to place anyway.
As with every thing offered by bookmakers to entice in punters, we want to make it really clear that you should only take them up on their offer if you were going to be placing the bets anyway. That is one of the first things that you should think about when wondering how to get the most out of the offers: would you be placing these bets normally or are you placing more bets than you intended to in order to get the bonuses?
We’re not saying that if you’d normally place £20s worth of bets and you need to spend £25 to get a loyalty bonus, as long as you can afford the extra £5. What we are saying, though, is that if you only place £10 of bets on a weekly basis then don’t suddenly start spending £50 because you’ll be given some sort of reward. You need to ensure that you keep your spending in check.
Being Clever In Building Up Your Points
You know what sort of bets you want to place. Whilst we would never advise somebody to change their system in order to earn themselves some loyalty points, what we would say is that it is worth thinking about whether you could tweak your bets in order to better take advantage of such schemes. As an example, if you get 25x points for a 4-fold accumulator and 35x for a 5-fold, is it sensible to add one more leg to your acca?
Obviously the more legs you add to an accumulator the more likely it is that you might end up losing it, but you could add an odds-on banker to your multiple that is likely to come in and boost your reward points. What is the lowest number of throw-ins awarded in a football match that you can add as a leg, for example? Or the lowest number of points won in a tennis game? Adding them won’t shift the odds of your acca much, but it will improve your loyalty points.
Make Sure You Do Your Research
Whatever it is that you’re betting on, we’re always keen to remind you to do your research before you place your bets. This is just as relevant with the bets that earn you your loyalty points as it is with the free bets that you get for being so loyal. Just because the bet is free doesn’t mean that you should behave any differently with it as if it was your own hard-earned cash. After all, you used real money to get the free bet in the first place.
Whatever the sport is that you’re planning on betting on, there is going to be a wealth of information online that you can turn to to do some research. The beauty of sport is that nothing is ever guaranteed, but the more research you do into the outcome of an event, the more you’re going to put yourself into a situation where you can expect the end result of your betting to be something that works in your favour.
This isn’t just about researching your bets wisely, either. When it comes to loyalty points, there are a wealth of things that an online bookmaker will issue them for. The best thing that you can do is to have a look at the small print and see what you can earn loyalty points for doing. Perhaps you earn them when you make a deposit with a new banking method for example, or when you bet on a new sport.
There are often a wealth of relatively easy things that you can do to earn points that will boost your ability to take advantage of the loyalty scheme. The best thing that you can do is to play the bookies at their own game and know what things you can do that will see them giving you rewards for making relatively little effort. This is especially true when you were going to do it anyway, but you’ll only find out that you would earn points by researching.
Be Sensibly Experimental With Rewards
It might sound like a contradiction, but one thing that free bets allow you to do is be experimental in a sensible fashion. Again, we’d always be quick to encourage people to only place bets that they were going to place anyway, as well as betting on sports that they know, but within that framework you can still push the boat out a little if you want to. Maybe you’ve always wanted to try In-Play betting but never have before, for example.
As long as the small print for the free bet doesn’t say that In-Play betting is excluded, you can use your free bet to have a go at In-Play betting and know that if it doesn’t work out then you didn’t use up any of your own money finding out. The same thing is true for betting on a sport that you enjoy watching but have never placed bets on before. Are you a big American football fan but are intimidated by what the money line is?
The very best thing that you can do as a bettor is do your research and be sensible in what you’re betting on. What loyalty points and rewards schemes allow you to do is push the boat out a little bit with what you’re betting on whilst knowing that it’s the house money that’s on the line. If you lose £5 bonus funds betting on the NFL, at least you’ll know that it isn’t for you and your actual bankroll is still intact.
