Live Casino Bonuses

Best Bonuses at Live Casinos

Bonuses come in all shapes and sizes. Our goal is to make sure you understand everything you need to know about the different types of bonuses out there, and it’s all on this page. Once you’re confident you’ve got a grip on how the different bonuses work, we can even help you get set up with one at a great live casino. Check out our reviews, where we take an in-depth look at the bonuses on offer at each casino.

See the list below for our current favorite bonuses.

Types of Live Casino Bonuses

See below to read more about specific types of bonuses available at live casinos:

Live casinos are the future of online gambling. Combining real dealers in real casinos with virtual software means we get the best of both worlds – the authentic casino atmosphere conveniently available anywhere, at the touch of a button.

But live casino technology is still comparatively new in the betting world, and attracting new players is the order of the day. One of the main ways that casinos do this is with live casino bonuses.

Casinos use bonuses and promotions basically as marketing tools. The idea is that they create an offer so attractive, we just can’t resist signing up or playing on their site.

This is obviously great for us too. They may be marketing tools, but that doesn’t mean bonuses aren’t potentially very valuable. Live casino bonuses represent some extra value, an opportunity to play and win more than the casino typically allows.

We look at:

• Welcome bonuses
• On-running promotions
• Bonus terms and conditions
• How to claim a bonus

Welcome Bonuses

A welcome bonus is basically a one time offer a live casino will give new players when they create an account. They are only available once and only for brand new players. Welcome bonuses are arguably the most significant type of bonus, since they need to be especially good value to tempt new players to sign up.

Welcome bonuses also come in different forms, and we’re going to take a quick look at all of the most common types.

Enhanced / Boosted Deposit Bonus

This is probably the most common type of welcome bonus. With an enhanced deposit bonus (sometimes just called a deposit bonus), whatever your first deposit, the casino will match some or all of it up to a certain limit.

100% deposit bonuses (meaning the casino will double your first deposit) are very common, but some casinos may only offer a smaller percentage boost, like 50%.

The limits vary a lot depending on the casino, but a typical bonus might include a 100% boost on your first deposit up to £250.

That means if you deposit £250, you will receive £500 in total. If you deposit £25, you will receive £50.

However, the boosted portion of your deposit is not available for immediate withdrawal and may appear in your account as bonus cash.

Bonus Cash

Bonus cash funds you have received as part of a promotion or bonus, which can’t be withdrawn immediately. Instead, you need to fulfill certain conditions before it can be withdrawn, the most important of which is the playthrough requirement. You can read a full explanation of this and more below in our Terms and Conditions section.

Enhanced deposit bonuses are great, because they significantly boost your bankroll upfront. Offers with high limits are especially valuable for players who intend to make a big deposit upfront, since the value of your bonus depends on how much you deposit.

For players with especially small bankrolls, no-deposit bonuses might be more appealing.

No Deposit Bonuses

Just like it sounds, a no-deposit bonus is a bonus you receive without depositing any of your own money into your account. All you need to do to claim a no-deposit bonus is register with the casino.

Effectively, this means you get a totally free shot at playing your favorite live dealer games for real money.

No-deposit bonuses tend to be much smaller than the potential limits of enhanced deposit bonuses. For example, casinos might give new players £10 or £20 just for creating an account.

Again, this money will be in the form of bonus cash, and you won’t be able to withdraw it immediately – which makes sense, otherwise, the casinos would literally be handing out free money! The playthrough requirements on no-deposit bonuses may be stricter than enhanced deposits too.

No-deposit bonuses are great for letting you try out a site absolutely free. Maybe you don’t have much money in your bankroll, or maybe you just want to test out a few different sites before committing to one.

In these cases, no-deposit bonuses are perfect.

Free Spin Bonuses / Free Game Bonuses

These types of bonuses are significantly more common at virtual casinos than live casinos, but you can still find them at some live casinos.

They involve a number of free plays on a certain game, most commonly slots. A live casino may let you play a certain number of hands of blackjack at a predetermined value, or 10 bets on a color on roulette.

Winnings from free spins are often subject to playthrough requirements too, but not always.

These types of bonuses tend to suit players who are signing up especially to play a certain game.

On-Running Promotions

While welcome bonuses are one-time-only offers designed to lure new players through the virtual casino doors, on-running promotions are designed to keep current players happy and engaged.

Since casinos are most interested in attracting new players, on-running promotions sometimes take something of a back seat compared with welcome bonuses – but they are just as important and as valuable.

On-running bonuses are also used by casinos to promote certain games, by creating offers that focus on getting players to try specific games or tables. With live dealer games currently enjoying a surge in popularity, it’s common to find casinos creating promotions to encourage long time players to try them out.

Types of On-Running Promotions

Often the promotions will be similar to the welcome bonuses we’ve already looked at.

For example, reload bonuses work in exactly the same way as enhanced deposit bonuses, only they apply to later deposits. You might find a casino offers one reload bonus per month, or that your first 3 deposits will qualify for a reload bonus.

Just as with a welcome bonus, the same terms and conditions surrounding bonus cash will apply (which you can read more about below).

Live casinos might also use on-running promotions to promote specific games, similar to the last section. A casino may give every player ten free spins per week, or something similar.

Another alternative could be a potential jackpot, or offering enhanced odds for certain games.

For example, a casino could offer players a share of jackpot any time the number 0 is rolled on a live roulette table, or some money back if you hit 21 three times in an hour in live blackjack.

These kinds of bonuses are often time-limited: they might only be in play for an hour a day or after 9 pm for example.

Loyalty Bonuses

While some on-running bonuses are given to all players, others need to be earned through playing. Lots of casinos have loyalty schemes or VIP programs that involve earning loyalty points, which can then be cashed in for prizes or bonuses.

The more points you earn, the more privileges you receive; like expedited withdrawals, invitations to tournaments or even real prizes like cell phones or speakers.

VIP programs tend to be more valuable for high volume, higher stakes players.

Bonus Terms and Conditions

If you’ve been reading up to now thinking all these bonuses just sound too good to be true, well, you’re partly right.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Just about all live casino bonuses come with terms and conditions attached – the main reason for which is to protect the casino.

A no-deposit bonus of £10 might be advertised as free cash, but you can be sure that no casino is literally giving out free money. It’s not exactly a long term business plan.

Your first port of call with every single bonus should be to head to the terms and conditions section and read it very carefully.

In this section, we’re looking at the most common surprises lurking in the small print. You should consider every single one of the following when deciding how valuable a bonus is – although some may not apply in every case.

It’s also worth noting that, although casinos obviously prefer to grab our attention with flashy headlines and leave the conditions in the background, they are (usually) not actually trying to scam players. It’s not really in the casinos interest to annoy and alienate players.

Even with their attached terms and conditions, casino bonuses can still be genuinely valuable as long as you understand how to make the most of them. We really can’t stress enough how important it is to fully read the terms and conditions of your bonuses, to avoid any nasty shocks in the long run.

Wagering Requirements

This can also be known as “playthrough” or “turnover” and it’s probably the most important of all the common conditions attached to bonuses.

It applies to bonus cash – which you might receive either as a no-deposit bonus or as part of an enhanced deposit bonus – and it refers to how many times you need to gamble the money before you can withdraw it. Once you have completed the wagering requirements on bonus cash, it becomes normal cash.

For example, a wagering requirement of 20x would mean you need to bet the full value of your bonus 20 times before you can withdraw it.

Say you deposit £100 with a 100% bonus and 20x playthrough. You will receive £100 in cash and £100 in bonus cash. At first, you won’t be able to withdraw the bonus cash. To unlock it, you would need to place bets worth up to (100 x 20) £2,000.

Sometimes, casinos calculate the playthrough based on your initial deposit + bonus cash, which in this example would be (200 x 20) £4,000.

As you can probably tell, a low wagering requirement makes a huge difference to the actual value of a bonus, and it’s just about the first thing you should look at. To give an example, a no-deposit bonus of £10 with 10x playthrough attached is way more valuable than £20 with 50x playthrough.

Wagering requirements vary a lot depending on the casino and on the overall value of the bonus. It could really be anywhere from 1x to 70x.

Obviously, the lower the wagering requirements the better. Don’t be fooled by headlines: the wagering requirement is just as important as the upper limit in an enhanced deposits bonus, or the amount of a no-deposit bonus.

Weighted Games / Contributions

This goes hand-in-hand with wagering requirements but doesn’t necessarily apply at every casino.

The idea here is that some games count more towards the wagering requirements than others – so it could take you twice as long to unlock your bonus cash playing online slots than at a live blackjack table for example.

The reason for this is that the odds of winning are different depending on what kind of games you are playing, so the wagering requirements are adjusted to reflect this.

Like wagering requirements, the information should be easy to find, even if it’s not plastered all over the front page of your casino. There is often a chart or a table showing how much the different games count towards the playthrough.

Time Limits

Lots of bonuses come with expiry dates. You may have a week to claim your bonus once you sign up, or a limited amount of time to unlock your bonus cash before it expires.

The time limits on bonuses are rarely too strict, and as long as you are aware it exists it shouldn’t affect the value of your bonus too much.

Not Applicable Payment Types

This refers to welcome bonuses or bonuses when you need to make a deposit. Some casinos make their bonuses unavailable to certain payment methods.

Maybe they have a deal with a certain e-wallet, and want to encourage users to use that one instead of its competitors, or maybe some methods incur fees on the casinos side that they don’t like.

This stipulation is comparatively rare, but it does turn up from time to time. If so, it will be clearly mentioned in the small print of the welcome bonus.

Claiming a Bonus

There are different ways to claim bonuses.

For welcome bonuses for new players, a bonus code is often required. This is a special password that you can type in during the registration process which unlocks your bonus. If you have a bonus code, look out for the box to type it in when you sign up.

Some casinos allow you to type in the code in the cashier after you have signed up. Sometimes you need to check a box instead of type in a code.

Other casinos don’t require any action on your behalf, and instead, just automatically credit new players with their welcome bonus.

If that sounds like a lot of different possibilities for claiming your bonus, don’t worry. Casinos aren’t really in the business of trying to stop players claiming their bonuses, and as long as you read the instructions you should never miss out.

If you sign up to a live casino using our BetSpin links, we will also make totally sure you receive your welcome bonus.

For on-running promotions, you may need to opt-in in the cashier or the casino might just credit your account with them automatically.

There aren’t really any hard and fast rules when it comes to claiming bonuses, but it is never too difficult or confusing. If in doubt, just read our reviews carefully and sign up via our links.

Make the Most of Live Casino Bonuses

There you have it. If you feel like you’ve got a good handle on everything we’ve looked at on this page, you’re more than ready to claim some valuable live casino bonuses.

We’ll leave you with two final pieces of advice about bonuses.

The first is that the value of every bonus varies depending on the players. A 100% deposit bonus with a huge £10,000 limit isn’t much use if you’re a lower-stakes player with a more modest bankroll. Figure out what type of bonus would be most beneficial for how you play, and look for a live casino that will give it to you.

The second piece of advice is even more simple: always read and understand the terms and conditions! They are consistently the difference between a good bonus and an excellent bonus.

Head over to our live casino reviews, where we leave no stone unturned when we look at the bonuses on offer. If you like what you read, sign up via our links and you’ll never miss out on a bonus again.