bookmakers' bonuses [question mark]

[fraac]

Are these common? I know about poker and casinos and their respective whoring guide websites. Casinos don't sound fun, poker is work, but I can enjoy betting on sport. I got a phonecall from Betfair offering me £10 today. Didn't occur to me beforehand.

[nosmith]

Most of the UK bookmakers (Ladbrokes, Stan James etc) offer a first free matched bet usualy £10 - £50. So when you place your first bet of £25 and they give you a free bet of £25. The other major Internet ones (Pinnacle, Bodog etc) offer a sign up bonus of 10-25% which is similar to a poker bonus in that you have to wager so much in order to withdraw. For example say you deposit $1000 into a sporsbook that has a 20% deposit bonus they will credit your account with $1200 if its a 3 times playthrough you have to wager $3600 in order to withdraw. There are a few other variations of bonus but these are the most common. Hope this helps.