One of the best things about having so many sports betting sites to choose from is that a lot of them offer their customers free bets. These bets usually have a stipulation, but once it is met you are free to withdraw the money you made, which is why you need to take advantage of the opportunity.
Before you can take advantage of these free bets, you have to understand how they work. Most sportsbooks will either give you a free bonus, or free bet, when you sign up. The free bonus is usually a percentage of your initial deposit, up to a certain amount, while the free bet usually means that the sportsbook will give you a free bet for signing up. As previously mentioned, these bets have a stipulation, which prevents people from winning a bet and running away with their winnings. The stipulation can involve the deposit, the bonus awarded, and the free bet.
The most common stipulation the sportsbooks have, is that you rollover the money a certain amount of times. Betting sites commonly ask their clients to rollover the free money, and the number of times they need to do it varies from 3-10 depending on the site. What this means is that if the free bonus you received was $30 and let’s say that you have to roll it over three times before you can withdraw your money. This can be done by placing $90 worth of bets, or $90 on one specific bet.
The same rule applies for the free bets, you have to rollover whatever the amount of the free bet is, or make one bet that is equal to the amount of the rollover, before withdrawing your winning. In some cases, the online sportsbooks don’t allow you to withdraw winnings from free bets, so make sure you check out the fine print before joining the sportsbook.
The most popular method that sports bettors use to take advantage of the free offers, is a method called matched betting. Matched betting is something used by mathematicians and sports bettors, which promises to help people make risk free bets. It exploits the free bet offers that are made by numerous online sportsbooks, to bet on certain results on a game, then betting the opposite on the same game, using the free offers from different sportsbooks.
One of the most popular ways to take advantage of the free bet offers is called Arbing. This method requires you to have an account with a sportsbook, which doesn’t have a bonus tied to it, and open an account with a sportsbook that is offering a bonus. Once you have done so, you should make a bet on each account, which should be on the same event. On the account with the bonus, take the underdog, and on the account without the bonus, take the favorite.
The reason why you should bet on different outcomes in the same event, is because if the account with the bonus loses, you still win the same amount on the account without the rollover. Since most sportsbook rollovers reset once the bonus is bust, you should be able to withdraw the rest of the cash that you have in the account. You should be careful if you want to use this strategy, because some sportsbooks might try to keep your remaining balance, if they feel that you are intentionally arbing, which they call bonus pyramiding. You should stick to the more reputable sportsbooks, if you intend to use this method, and make sure you read their fine print before attempting to use it.
Another way you can take advantage of the free bets, is by using parlays. Parlays are an effective way to fulfill your rollover stipulations, because when you use straight bets, the stake money you put on the games is only used once. With parlays, you keep rolling forward your stake plus the wins automatically, which means that it allows you to rollover the required amount quicker than you would placing straight bets. The key to the parlay technique is not to get carried away, and limit your parlays to three or four teams. Doing so allows gives you a much better chance of winning than you would if you are constantly betting eight or nine team parlays, and will help you meet your target quickly.
These are just a couple of ways to take advantage of the free bets, there are other methods that people use, but these have proved to be the most effective.
