Maximizing your sportsbook bonuses has several moving parts -- first and foremost, you will need a fundamentally sound strategy. Within that, there are several tips and tricks you can use to squeeze some extra juice.
What's the Big Strategy?
There are several components to the strategy:
- Adequately prepare before you start betting
- Remember that you are maximizing your overall profit, NOT the profit on any single bonus
- Don't be penny-wise, pound-foolish and sacrifice future bonuses to get an extra few dollars
- Avoid mistakes that get you profiled as a sharp bettor
- Avoid mistakes that get you limited/banned
Preparation Prevents Mistakes
We have a featured article on all the steps to prepare. Here are some of the problems our preparation guide prevents:
1. Not Having Money Available to Capture a Bonus
When FanDuel only gives you 6 hours to deposit $4,000 for a $2,000 bonus, you want to make sure you are prepared with $4,000 to deposit on short notice.
A single one of these bonuses pays for all of your preparation and then some, so don't be penny-wise and pound-foolish by cutting corners with your preparation.
2. Forgetting to Check Your Accounts or Emails
Preparing a new phone specifically dedicated to sports betting keeps you organized. All of the juicy promotion emails sportsbooks send don't get lost among your personal emails, and your apps aren't buried on the 3rd or 4th screen of your personal phone.
3. Problems Depositing into Sportsbooks
If you follow our preparation guide fully, you will be able to deposit into sportsbooks from PayPal without any problems.
If you don't follow our guide and decide to deposit in some other way, the following things can happen:
- Your payment is declined. Was it a problem at the sportsbook? Your bank? You'll need to get on customer support to find out, and that is bad news for your bonuses at that sportsbook.
- Your bank flags a sportsbook deposit as "unusual", and you have to call your bank and convince them you did want to deposit into a sportsbook
4. Missed Bonuses During Travel
You take a trip to a state where online betting isn't legal and miss out on bonuses. Planning your schedule in advance means you don't miss out on bonuses that come in when you can't use them. This is especially important in your first month, and REALLY important on your second weekend -- missing the DraftKings VIP Showcase means leaving $1,000s on the table.
5. Being Generally Disorganized
There's a catch-22 here: the biggest opportunities sports betting are for beginners who don't have experience with sports betting. Because you don't have experience, you don't have the habits established to capture all the opportunities.
Being organized and prepared with a dedicated betting phone lets you build those habits and create a system for capturing these betting opportunities. You could take a DIY approach and hope for the best, but for most people taking the time to prepare and follow the instructions closely earns them $4,000-$5,000 more than they would get on their own in the first few months.
Keep the Big Picture in Mind
You will be tempted to use your $100 bonus bets on higher-profit markets. You will be able to get an $80 profit by betting on something obscure like an NBA player over assists + rebounds. It will take deliberate mental effort to instead use it on a vanilla moneyline bet and instead "only" win $65.
Here's the trouble: sportsbooks know very well what sharp bettors bet on and what square bettors bet on. Moneylines and parlays are for squares, exotic player prop markets are for sharps (with some exceptions).
You want to start out slow and stick to moneylines and parlays as much as you can while sportsbooks still give you big bonuses. After a few weeks, you should be profiled as a square and you will have more leniency to expand into other betting markets.
Avoid Common Mistakes
There are some mistakes you can make that will get you instantly limited or banned:
1. Betting from Someone Else's Phone
Fanatics in particular will ban you instantly if you log in on someone else's phone. All of those bonuses and rewards, gone in an instant.
2. Betting on "Contaminated" Wifi
If someone else has been limited or banned on your Wi-fi connection, you may be limited by association. ESPN Bet especially is very aggressive with this.
We recommend getting a dedicated phone plan and avoiding Wi-fi to prevent this. You don't need much data to bet on sports, and you don't know who has done what on your work Wi-fi or Starbucks wi-fi.
3. Betting from the Same Location Where Someone Else Has Been Limited
It's tempting to form a group and go through all the signups together so you have support. Just don't do all of your betting at the same place at the same time.
ESPNBet again is very aggressive limiting people by association. The record is about 2 hours after opening an account to when the person was limited to $10 bets across the board. All that value... gone.
4. Using Arbitrage or +EV Strategies Too Soon After Opening an Account
This bears repeating again -- sportsbooks can tell when you do this.
Your account will be under the most scrutiny shortly after you open it. Don't tip your hand that you are a sharp while they are actively monitoring you. Stick to moneylines and parlays and be patient.
Useful tip: bet on moneylines close to game start time -- 5-10 mins beforehand is perfect. This is when casual (square) bettors place their bets -- not at 10am. This also "beats" the system sportsbooks use to profile you as sharp or square. It will be nearly impossible for them to profile you as sharp if you stick to this rule.
Final Thoughts
By following these guidelines, you could potentially earn $4,000-$5,000 more in bonuses during your first few months compared to a DIY approach. Remember that maximizing sportsbook bonuses is about:
- Being prepared
- Making strategic decisions
- Understanding the system
- Maintaining a disciplined approach
Disclaimer: Always bet responsibly and within your means. Sports betting should be viewed as entertainment, not a guaranteed income source.