How to Receive Free Bets in 2024

Free Bets!

Whether you’re new or a seasoned sports better, everyone wants to get free betting action. So how does it work? Free bets, or bonus bets are great because you can end up with some winnings without really taking a big risk. Free betting credits generally aren’t hard to use, but in any event, it’s important to understand that if you wager with a bonus bet, you’re only going to get the “net” gains. The first question to ask yourself though, is how exactly does one find these so-called “Bonus Bets” for wagering on American sports betting sites? 

How to Use Bonus Bets

First off, you must figure out how to use a bonus bet, once you have it. The amount likely won’t be shown in your gaming balance, but more often in a separate “Bonus Bets” balance listed elsewhere. Note that this process will vary slightly for any given sportsbook, but generally follow this pattern. To use your bonus bets, here are the steps to follow:

  1. Login to your account with whichever sportsbook
  2. Find your match/game and prepare your betslip
  3. At the time of verifying your choice, make sure to select “Play with Bonus Bet” or some similar verbiage
  4. Validate your betslip 

That’s it! At this point, you just have to wait until the matches that you wagered on are over. When your bonus bet is a winner, you should have the winnings credited directly to your gaming balance. It should go without saying that since you didn’t put down real money to begin with, you won’t get “your” original bet money back. Once in your gaming account, you can use the funds to place new bets, or withdraw the funds to your bank—whatever you like.

Free Bets: Types and Best Practices

Top US sportsbooks like DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and Caesars offer enticing free bet promotions that can enhance your betting experience with minimal risk. Free bets, often received through various promotions, allow you to place wagers without tapping into your actual funds. The winnings from these bets are usually the net profit, excluding the stake. Using these bonus bets is straightforward: simply select the free bet option when placing a wager to apply it. It’s always best to use them right away so you can avoid having them expire! It's a fantastic way to leverage your bets on sports events, particularly for new bettors looking to explore without immediate risk, though users should be aware of any associated terms like expiry dates or qualifying conditions.

Once more, verify what criteria you will have to meet to get the Free Bets before proceeding. It’s possible you could find bonuses that don’t have any strings attached. Other times, the bonuses might be dispersed over a period of time that requires you to keep occasionally betting your own money to keep getting chunks of the initial bonus. Pay attention too as there could be strict expiration dates, say, that you must use your bonus bets within one week, or a month, after signing up. In any event, you won’t really have anything to lose and might stand quite a lot to gain on the basis of these bonus bets alone! Also, keep in mind that you can reap all the rewards of new subscriber bonuses by signing up with all the major sportsbooks! 

Promotions for the Biggest Events

Sportsbooks love to offer special promotions to attract new clients in time for the biggest sporting events of the year—be it the NBA Finals, the Super Bowl, or the Masters. Take your pick, there are plenty of these important annual sporting events! That’s not to forget the even rarer events such as the World Cup or the Olympics that come around every four years. Often, you’ll find that special offers are put in place at the time of these matches—the top of the top; the most exciting times to watch AND bet on sports! The bonuses offered could take any number of forms, such as completing a series of challenges to earn bonus bets. 

Because of the cyclical nature of such offers, we can only speculate here—you’ll have to keep yourself informed of the offers available with any given sportsbook. These periodic offers will usually be prominently posted front and center on the sites, so you don’t have to do much, if any sleuthing. You should even take a peek at sites that you’re not currently signed up for as they might finally entice you to open an account, with the right special offer!

Loyalty Programs or Bonuses 

Sports betting websites want you to stay with them for a long time, so they will sometimes make exceptional offers to existing users. Stay aware of these types of offers, which will usually only appear inside your account, or perhaps be sent to the email address associated with your account. Certain other sites might offer “points” or other rewards that accumulate in function with the amount of money you deposit into your account, which can then be exchanged for more prizes or more bonus bets.

Pay Attention to Social Media

There’s one other common enough way to look for bonus bets, one that doesn’t even involve going to the sportsbook’s website! If you look at the social media pages for the different sportsbooks, you’ll see that these companies are rather active on Facebook, Instagram, or X—sometimes offering contests or drawings on their pages.

That all being said, it’s a good idea to follow them on your own social media apps or pages, as you might find other bonus bets offered. It may also be worth activating notifications for sportsbooks’ accounts, to stay abreast of updates. They also might offer mini-games just before the big matches. If you don’t know, you can’t try, and if you don’t try, you can’t win more bonus bets!

Generally, social media is a great place to locate additional bonus bets. As opposed to the other methods proposed earlier on, with this method, you don’t have to do much.

How Long Will It Take to Get My Bonus Bets?

The sportsbooks aren’t going to make you wait a long time to receive your bonus bet credits, however, the amount of time required could depend on the method with which you earned them. Like we said at the beginning, welcome bonuses, will depend on the conditions put in place by whichever sportsbook. For offers via social media and loyalty programs, typically those are added immediately.

As far as the event-exclusive offers go, it’ll also depend on the conditions offered by the sportsbooks. Sometimes, they’ll get added to your account in the wake of the eligible match, but that’s not always the case. When a bonus is only for a certain competition, like the World Cup, it might be added only after the end of the entire thing! 

One thing remains constant across all bonus bets: make sure you’re well informed on all the conditions of the offer *before* you sign up, so that you will always be up to speed on when and where you’ll receive the amount of your bonus bet.

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