What is a sign up bonus?
As you might have guessed from the name, a sign up bonus is given to users when they create an account on the platform. It is used as an incentive to acquire new customers. For gamblers, this means an additional benefit when they sign up on a new platform. There are different types of sign up bonuses. A very common one is the first deposit bonus that is given to users after they make their first deposit. You just have to create an account, choose a payment method, deposit money and you’ll be able to claim the bonus. The bonus itself can contain different types of benefits, which we will elaborate more on later. There are also no deposit sign up bonuses. These don’t require you to make a deposit. Instead, you only sign up and the bonus will be given to you right away. No deposit bonuses are more expensive for casinos to offer, so you won’t find as many of them around.
Features
To be able to compare different bonus offers, it’s best to have a general idea of what key elements of no deposit bonuses are. While casinos could get very creative with these offers and come up with very unique promotions, there are some key features that are very common in most types of offers. You’ll be able to use these features to compare different types of Australian casino sign up bonuses and decide which one to go for.
Benefit
Of course one of the most important things to consider is what benefit you’ll be receiving from the bonus. There are different types of benefits a bonus might contain. A very frequent one is a match bonus, which is a characteristic of deposit bonuses specifically. A match bonus will match your deposit by a certain percentage up to a limit. So, if a sign up bonus contains a 100% match bonus, your deposit will be doubled i.e. if you deposit $50, you’ll get an extra $50 to gamble with. You won’t be able to withdraw that money directly, but you’ll get to keep the winnings. The limit specifies the maximum amount of bonus cash you can receive in this manner. A match bonus is a very popular benefit an Aussie casino sign up bonus could contain, however, it’s not the only one.
Free spins are also offered very often. You’ll get a fixed number of free spins for specific slots games that will be delivered all at once, or in installments. You can use the free spins to play a slots game a given number of times for free. Much like with the match bonus, you’ll get to keep the winnings. Free spins are a great way for casinos to market new games. Sometimes players aren’t willing to try out new games, so casinos will put out free spins promotions to encourage new customers to try a certain game. Who knows, maybe you’ll find your new favorite slots this way. Free spins are also a very common benefit to include in a sign up bonus. In some cases, you’ll get a combination of free spins and a match bonus as well.
No deposit bonus offers also sometimes include free cash. You don’t have to make a deposit to get this money. You simply have to sign up and the casino will give you a specified amount of free cash to gamble with. While you won’t be able to withdraw the cash, you’ll get to keep the winnings. No deposit bonus offers might also include free spins or a combination of cash and free spins. These aren’t the only benefits you’ll get from casino bonuses. As we said, the competition in the market is very tough, so the more creative offers a casino comes up with, the more customers it is able to attract. You’ll find many interesting sign up bonuses Australia offers that don’t give either of the above-listed benefits but are still extremely appealing.
Wagering Requirements
We’ve mentioned a couple of times now that you’re not able to directly withdraw the bonus cash, but you get to keep the winnings. However, that’s not completely guaranteed. To be able to withdraw the winnings, first, you have to meet the wagering requirements. These requirements specify how many times over you have to bet the bonus amount. For example, if you’ve received a bonus of $100 and the wagering requirement is 3x, you’ll need to bet $300 before you can withdraw the winnings from the bonus. To be more specific, $300 is the size of combined bets you make. Sometimes, casinos will even specify which bets count toward the requirement and which don’t. When you’re comparing different Australian casino online sign up bonus offers, don’t forget to take that into consideration as well.
The higher the wagering requirement, the more you have to bet to be allowed to withdraw. The more you bet, the higher the chances that you lose whatever you won from the bonus. That’s why you want to go for casinos that offer sign up bonuses with lower wagering requirements. This way you’ll be free to make the decision yourself whether to withdraw the won amount or continue gambling with it.
Games
Sometimes you’ll only be able to use the bonus on certain games. This is especially true for free spins. When you receive these spins, you’ll also be told what games they can be used for. Usually, those are for a specific slots game. With the bonus cash you get from the match bonus or a no deposit casino sign up bonus, you have more flexibility. You can choose which game you want to spend it on and it usually covers most games on the platform. However, you might not be allowed to gamble with the bonus money on certain games. There are also cases where the value of the bonus is halved for betting on some games. You have to read all of that information before judging a bonus simply for the benefit it offers. Casinos will go out of their way to advertise the benefits but will leave the requirements and conditions in the fine print. It’s up to you to research the bonus well before making any final decisions.
Benefits of sign up bonuses
Try out the casino functionality
Australian casino sign up bonus offers have some obvious advantages. First of all, they allow you to explore the functionality of a casino. You might decide not to deposit too much money on the casino at first and whatever you can spare might not be enough to completely understand the workings of a casino and its best games. With bonuses, however, you get more resources to do so. Furthermore, when your own money is on the line, you won’t be willing to take as many risks. You might opt for games you are already familiar with. With bonus money, on the other hand, you’ll explore new games that could end up being your favorites and will overall make riskier moves, which sometimes pays well in gambling.
Keep the winnings
Naturally, we can’t forget about the monetary benefit as well. If you’re lucky enough to win with the bonus cash and you also meet the wagering requirements, you’ll get to keep the winnings. You can withdraw your winnings back to your bank account and spend them in real life, or you can leave the winnings on your casino account and continue gambling with it. In either case, you’ll have more money which you earned by gambling with bonus cash and not risking your own funds. While not everyone is lucky enough to end up winning, some do, and it’s definitely an advantage of Australian casino free sign up bonus offers that you can’t ignore.
Tiebreaker
When you decide to start gambling or if you want to switch to a new casino, you’ll need to pick out the best platform from many that are available on the market. In this process, you can use a few criteria for comparison, including game selection, payment methods, and user experience. However, there are many platforms that offer a wide selection of games and payment channels along with great user experience. Casinos can only do so much when it comes to these issues. When you’ve narrowed down to a handful of good websites, you can use their casino sign up bonus AU offers to make the final decision.
Risks of sign up bonuses
Tough requirements
Bonus offers don’t come without drawbacks. As you already know, these offers have wagering requirements that you have to meet in order to be able to withdraw the winnings. Sometimes, casinos will offer great benefits but will compensate with tough requirements. If you don’t research the bonus well, you might end up with too high expectations only to be disappointed when you find out that it’s practically impossible to meet the wagering requirements. That’s definitely a big downside of sign up bonus Australia casino offers.
Used by scams
We’ve mentioned several times that bonuses are used by casinos to appeal to new users. That’s because these offers do have a significant appeal to gamblers. Unfortunately, there are also ill-intentioned individuals who want to take advantage of this appeal and use it to attract customers to their scams. When you see an offer that sounds too good to be true, you have to be especially careful as a scammer might be trying to lure you into their trap. With enough research and careful deliberation, you can mitigate these risks, however, you have to be aware that your interest in casino sign up bonus Australia offers may be used against you.
When you’re choosing a casino to sign up on and you’re comparing different platforms, you might be tempted to base your judgment solely on the sign up offer. After all, that’s an immediate benefit you’ll be receiving, where’s the adequacy of the customer service might not seem as important at first. While sign up offers are indeed important, they are a one time benefit that shouldn’t overshadow everything else the casino has to offer. Things that will be there after months are way more important so it would be unwise to choose an unreliable platform with not that much to offer only because of the sign up bonus Australia offer.
