Bookmakers will regularly push products that the offer in addition to the ones that you will tend to play most of the time. If you’re a sportsbook bettor, for example, bookies are desperate for you to also use their casino product. If you only ever tend to play slot games, they really want you to expend into table games. Regardless of what you already give a betting company in terms of the money you spend, they always want more. This, of course, means that you should be naturally wary of what they’re pushing and why.
That doesn’t mean that you should always ignore everything that you hear from a bookmaker, however. Many betting companies will have loss leading offers, which are designed to entice customers to play games or place bets that they wouldn’t normally be interested in. The key, of course, is to know what you’re looking out for and to be clever in which products you allow yourself to be seduced by. There are plenty of things that you’d be mad to ignore, in addition to more than a few that are blatantly making a grab for your money.
Loss Leading Promotions
When Amazon started broadcasting Premier League football, they didn’t do so because they felt as if they really had the ability to offer an exciting alternative to the broadcasting methods used by Sky. Instead, they believed that offering top-flight football was the perfect way of persuading people to buy products through their website. Companies will often engage in loss leading exercises if they believe that it will result in them making a profit further down the line and bookmakers are no exception to that particular rule.
As a result, it is common for bookies to offer promotions to their customers that they think will end in said customer spending more money with them in the long-term. The perfect example of this comes in the form of the artificially inflated odds that are sometimes offered to new customers. A bookmaker will say that new customers can bet on a team that is blatantly favourites and would normally have odds of, say, 1/3 at odds of 20/1. There is a limit to how much can be bet, but the likelihood is that they’ll lose money.
If, however, a person who took the bookmaker up on this offer continues using their services, The likelihood is that the bookie will make their money back several-fold over the years that follow. The same sort of logic applies to offers that are put forward for loyal customers, keeping them happy and encouraging them to keep placing wagers. Betting companies aren’t stupid and they know that taking a slight hit in the short-term will almost certainly lead to them making more money in the long-term, so they’re happy to.
The Offers To Say Yes To
It is not always easy to know which offers you should say yes to, of course. There’s no hard and fast rule in this regard, but the best way of thinking about it is that if it doesn’t cost you anything or costs you less than usual and if the bet that you’re placing because of it is one that you were going to place anyway, you might has well take advantage. A good example of this comes with the Best Odds Guarantee promotion offered by the majority of major bookmakers around horse racing. It doesn’t cost anything but can work in your favour.
The Best Odds Guarantee says that you will be paid out at the best odds offered by a bookmaker out of the price you took when you placed the bet and the Starting Price. Let’s imagine that you took odds of 3/1 and the Starting Price ends up being 7/1, bookmakers with a Best Odds Guarantee promotion in play will pay you at 7/1. That costs you nothing and is really easy to do, given you simply need to bet with a company that has a Best Odds Guarantee, so it would be silly not to ensure that you take advantage of the offer.
It is often especially the case that betting companies will make big promotional offers around major events, such as the Grand National or the Cheltenham Festival, so keeping your eyes peeled for such things at those sorts of times makes complete sense. Maybe they’ll offer to payout on Each-Way bets to 5 places, for example. That’s not a huge offer, but it is the sort of thing that will usually be offered close to a major race and so should be seized upon, given the fact that it costs you nothing but could result in you winning money.
Things To Avoid
There are a number of promotions and products pushed by bookmakers that you really want to avoid where possible. Bookies that try to steer you towards playing slot games when you normally wouldn’t go near them are worth looking out for, as are those that attempt to get you to play casino games courtesy of deposit bonuses or the likes. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself why they are trying to persuade you to do something, such as play virtual sports. Does it feel like something that is for your benefit or theirs?
Login to a major bookmaker nowadays and you’ll soon see that bets that have been requested by other punters are high on the list of markets around major events. This is because they are, generally speaking, terrible value bets that make the bookies a lot of money, so there’s an obvious reason why they’re pushing them. The same is true of accumulators and build-a-bet promotions, given that the more legs you add to such a thing the less likely you are to win and the higher the chance that the bookmaker will make money off you (margins are additive in an accumulator).
The best advice that we can give is that it makes sense to take bookies up on promotions when it feels as though it’s going to benefit you and avoid any products that feel like they won’t. Of course you would benefit from playing casino games if you won, but you won’t win the majority of the time that you play them. As always, thinking about things dispassionately and following the data is key. Try not to allow yourself to be lulled into playing something that you wouldn’t normally play, don’t understand and will probably lose.
Treat Gaming Promotions With Caution
If you are a sports bettor and not really interested in casino, slot and live games then simply do not bother with them. It is a fact that more money is lost each year playing casino games compared to sports bets and whereas all gambling can be addictive the worst elements of problem gambling are found with casino players.
Ultimately casino games have fixed odds and a guaranteed profit margin for the operator, the house ALWAYS wins overall. With sports betting odds are of course weighted in a bookmakers favour but there is still an opportunity to find an edge or use your knowledge against the betting company, that can lead to success. Almost no one who plays online casino games for a significant amount of time will win overall.
Therefore if you are a sports punter treat any gaming promotions cautiously. Of course the sites want you to play games because they earn most of their money this way but ultimately even with a good promotion you are still likely to lose overall. That is unless you can be disciplined and only use the best value gaming promotions without playing further – although if you do this you will have your account limited and will no longer be offered gaming promotions anyway. It is ultimately almost always a win for the operator and a lose for the player.
