Just about every sportsbook on the market offers promotions of some sort to users. These promotions are a win-win for you and the sportsbook: you get some added value for your bets, while the sportsbook keeps you coming back for more bets.

Taking advantage of sportsbook promotions adds a ton of value to your sports betting experience

It’s very important when choosing a sportsbook to ensure that your choice offers a plethora of promotions for the user. These promotions add up over time and can really add a ton of value to you over the years. If you can even get a 5% profit boost on your winnings once a week, then you’ll be making that much more money over time.

We believe the following sportsbooks treat their users to the best sports betting promotions.

Sportsbooks with Sports Betting Promotions

1. PointsBet - Refer-a-Friend, odds boosts, and parlay insurance
2. Bet365 - Early payout offers & Multi Sport Parlay Bonus
3. Unibet - Parlay & Profit boosts
4. 888 Sport - First live bet bonus & daily free bets
5. FanDuel Sportsbook - Daily odds boosts & Same Game Parlay Insurance
6. DraftKings Sportsbook - Daily free-to-play pools
7. BetMGM - Parlay insurance & odds boosts
8. Caesars Sportsbook - Profit boosts & free bets
9. Barstool Sportsbook - Bonus for customizing profile
10. SI Sportsbook - Parlay bonuses and free-to-play games
11. FOX Bet - Regular super boosts
12. BetRivers - House Special bets & Refer-a-Friend

Not all sportsbook promos are created equal - there are a few key factors that can determine how much value you’re really getting from an offer.

While some of this information may be highly advertised, you may have to dig deeper to find out the more minute details. As always, make sure to read the Terms & Conditions readily available on every promotion to arm yourself with information and put yourself in a position to win big.

This isn’t a one-size-fits-all situation - there are many different types of sports betting promotions available. Where they’re offered, how much they’re really worth, and how frequently they’re available can vary wildly.

Check out our quick breakdowns of the top sports betting promotions available below.

The free bet is a popular form of sportsbook promotion. Free bets are on-site credits that can be used for betting and are almost always non-withdrawable and non-transferrable.

How and why free bet promos are doled out can be varied.

Oftentimes, free bets are offered for a specific major sporting event. PointsBet offered some free bet promotions surrounding the Olympics, for example.

In other cases, free bets are the result of an action the user takes on the site. If a sportsbook wants bettors to try out a new feature, they’ll often offer users a small free bet as a reward for being the guinea pig for this new feature.

PFree bets usually necessitate a turnover requirement to be satisfied before they can be withdrawn as cash.

Some sportsbooks offer users to win rewards like free bets or cash prizes without any risk at all.

This can come in the form of prediction games like pick ‘ems or pools. DraftKings Sportsbook offers users the chance to take part in free to play pools every day for the chance to win cash rewards with no personal risk

These are some of our favorite promotions because they tend to be fun and offer truly no risk to the user.

The risk free bet is standard fare for sportsbooks to offer as a sign up bonus, but it’s also common to see them offered for existing players as a sportsbook promotion.

With risk free bets, the user is refunded up to a certain amount in bet credits if their wager misses the mark. The bettor will then need to fulfill a turnover requirement in order for the refunded site credits to be converted into real cash once again.

Similar to free bet promotions, these wagers are often offered for major events. PointsBet has been known to frequently offer risk free bet promotions for Sunday Night Football, for instance.

Probably the most popular existing customer promotion, odds boosts are offered by just about every sportsbook on the market in some form or another.

With odds boosts, sportsbooks will alter the odds of a given event to make the possible payout more profitable to the bettor. This is a low-risk move by the sportsbook since they’ll end up not having to pay out on the boosted odds half the time, while also attracting more action to a match-up.

For example, a site like DraftKings Sportsbook frequently offers odds boosts. If they would normally offer +360 odds on Giancarlo Stanton to hit a home run in a given game, they could bump it up to +450. This will bump up the action on the wager, meaning that the sportsbook will get to pocket more if Stanton is kept inside the ballpark. However, if you took the bait and bet on Stanton to go yard and he does, then you just made a higher percentage on your profit.

It’s a win-win proposition for the sportsbook and the bettor, so it makes sense that you can find odds boosts offered on almost every sportsbook.

Functionally very similar to odds boosts, profit boosts increase your possible winnings on certain bets.

They are different than odds boosts because the sportsbook usually allows you to use your profit boost at your own discretion. Additionally, profit boosts typically only apply to your winnings - so your stake is not included in the boost percentage.

Another way to get juiced payouts on sportsbooks is to take advantage of some boosted parlays. Parlays are much riskier than straight bets because they require multiple outcomes to go your way instead of just one.

So, it makes sense that sportsbooks try to push players to take this route. If you do want to place parlay bets (which, let’s be honest, we all do) choosing a sportsbook that regularly offers parlay boosts can be a smart way to enhances your chances at a big payday.

Not dissimilar from risk free bets, bet insurance promotions protect you from bad beats and ensure that you’ll see some sort of reward from your wager.

Many sportsbooks offer this as a way to entice bettors to place certain bets, with assurances that their winnings will be locked in at some point or that close losses will be refunded with on-site credits. For example, Bet365 offers an early payout for many sports if the team a bettor backed goes up by a certain number of points or runs.

Another interesting twist on bet insurance promos is parlay insurance. Extremely similar to typical bet insurance in practice, parlay insurance refunds bettors with on-site credits if one leg of their parlay fails. Usually, these offers require parlay bets to have a minimum of 3 legs and have their total insured amount capped around $25, although these numbers could vary.

Many sportsbooks offer this specifically for same or single game parlays, which is a feature that has become very popular in recent years.

Many sportsbooks look to entice players to come back by offering an ongoing slate of rewards for returning players. Rewards can include free bets, virtual currency that you can redeem for prizes, or even real-life rewards at hotel and casino.

Casino brands that have begun offering online sports betting, like Caesars, BetMGM, and BetRivers even let users link their hotel and casino rewards memberships to the sportsbook, so they can earn credit towards hotel stays and other high roller perks.

Of course, many sportsbooks still look to plain old word of mouth to spread the good word of their platform. After all, what’s better marketing than a recommendation from a friend? It doesn’t matter how many pro athletes or movie stars you get to promote a product - this will always be more effective than a commercial.

How do sportsbooks encourage regular users to promote their platform? By doling out some cash, of course.

That's right, many sportsbooks will give bettors a promo, just for getting their buddies to sign up and deposit on the betting site. Typically, the referrer receives a bonus and the new bettor starts with a nice bonus on top of their typical sign up bonus.

If you have a group of friends that loves sports, I encourage you to look into sportsbooks with Refer-A-Friend programs. It's a simple, easy way to maximize the monetary value of your sportsbook experience for you and your friends.

Of course, to get you in the door, sportsbooks also usually offer valuable sign up bonuses to try to draw users to their product.

There are a few different types of bonuses that you’ll frequently see offered, including free bets, risk free bets, and deposit bonuses.

The Free Bet is one of the most valuable sign up bonuses offered to new users, although is not as common as the risk free bet.

Usually, free bets try to lure new players in by promising them the chance to test out the betting site for free with little-to-no deposit required at registration. In this way, the new user gets to test out the platform all while not taking on any risk at all.

The bettor gets a ton of value with this bonus, but the value is low for the sportsbook as they run the risk of giving away free money to a user who may or may not return to invest any of their own capital.

This method was more popular in the early days of legal online sports betting in the US when there was a mad dash to acquire customers, particularly those new to betting. Free bets were especially attractive to this demographic who may have been tentative about risk.

It’s a bit out of fashion now that many online sportsbooks have established themselves and aren’t as desperate for new users. However, you’ll still see them offered occasionally. More often than not, free bets are offered by sportsbooks as existing customer promotions now.

Sites like Barstool Sportsbook still offer this to new users.

Currently the most commonly offered sportsbook bonus on the market, the risk free bet puts both the player and the betting site in a position to succeed.

You start by placing a real-money wager. If your bet wins, you get nothing. However, if you lose you’ll be refunded your bet amount, usually in on-site credits. So you have defacto bet insurance, but you’ll only get the benefit if your bet loses.

This is a bit less valuable than a free bet because you only get the benefit of the bonus if your wager loses. Even then, you will almost always be refunded in site credits and need to then complete the offer’s turnover requirement.

Many online sportsbooks have adopted this sign up bonus model.

Deposit bonuses are another common sportsbook bonus used to attract new users.

Here, the sportsbook will track how much money you place into your account with your initial deposit. From there, the betting site will usually match your initial deposit, up to a certain dollar amount.

Deposit bonuses are more user-friendly than the risk free bet but less generous than the free bet. Deposit bonuses are offered by sites like DraftKings Sportsbook and BetRivers.