Bookmakers actively use bonus offers in advertising their services. New clients are promised grand prizes and gifts. It may seem that by receiving such bonuses, you can actually make some easy money.
This has given rise to a phenomenon known as bonus hunting in bookmaker companies. Let’s break down what it is and whether it’s really possible to profit from bookmakers’ reward programs.
What is bonus hunting and who are bonus hunters?
Bonus hunters, in turn, are players who try to gain extra profit by participating in promotions, tournaments, and contests.
These “hunters” are attracted to modern interactive bookmakers by:
- large welcome gifts — it’s hard to refuse the chance to double your first deposit;
- no-deposit rewards, such as for registering in a mobile app;
- free bets or free spins as incentives for activity on the bookmaker’s website;
- lottery draws or contests with major prizes and jackpots.
Bookmakers successfully exploit people’s love for gifts by offering a wide range of bonus promotions.
How do “bonus hunters” operate?
To become a bonus hunter, you’ll need to:
- Register accounts with multiple bookmakers. To regularly qualify for bonuses, you need to cover as many companies as possible.
- Place bets that meet the requirements of various promotions and wagering conditions.
- Carefully study the rules of every reward program you plan to join.
- Learn how to convert bonus points or free bets into real money. Usually, accrued bonuses must be wagered multiple times. It’s important to place successful bets with higher odds to eventually move virtual credits to your main cash balance.
- Choose promotions where fulfilling the bookmaker’s requirements is actually feasible. Often, bookmakers craft the terms in such a way that even when players meet all conditions, they still end up at a loss.
Bonus hunters also face purely technical difficulties. Typically, identification is required to receive any prize. This requirement is often specified not only in the general terms of the bookmaker’s operations.
How do bookmakers respond to bonus hunting?
Bookmakers do not crack down on bonus hunters as harshly as they do on arbers (sure bettors). Arbitrage betting is often explicitly prohibited in the bookmaker’s terms of service.
In the case of bonus hunting, bookmakers use softer wording. For example, their terms may state:
“A player will be excluded from the promotion if it is proven that they are abusing the bookmaker’s bonus offers.”
In reality, bookmakers use indirect methods that effectively make it impossible to profit from bonus hunting:
- they set complex wagering rules that ensure the player loses more money than they receive in bonuses;
- they prohibit simultaneous participation in multiple promotions, making wagering requirements harder to meet;
- they issue prizes as free bets rather than cash, with no guarantee of profit from them;
- they introduce hidden restrictions, such as blocking withdrawals during the wagering period.
Important! Promotional terms usually include a clause allowing the organizer to exclude any participant from the bonus program without explanation. While responsible and reputable companies rarely abuse this, it remains a fact.
Why you shouldn’t become a bonus hunter
To answer whether bonus hunting is profitable, the clear answer is: It’s not worth it! The issue isn’t just the cunning bookmakers who impose unrealistic wagering requirements or impossible conditions.
Bookmakers don’t give away gifts — they encourage betting activity. The more wagers clients place, the more the bookmaker earns from the margin. A portion of these earnings is then allocated to marketing in the form of bonus promotions.
