Sports Betting Rewards and VIP Loyalty Programs

Most sites offer online sports betting rewards programs, and nearly all sports betting sites offer new customers some form of signup bonus as an incentive to register an account and make a deposit. New player bonuses are great except they are one-time things. After you get your bonus and cash it out, that’s it for free cash – unless, of course, your site has a rewards program for loyal and VIP bettors.

Welcome bonuses are not the end-all, be all of sports betting promotions. Most sites also have rewards programs that encourage players to stick around and stay loyal.

A rewards programme returns a small proportion of what you stake, in cash, credit or perks. That is worth understanding on its own terms: it is a rebate on activity, not a source of returns, and it does not change whether the bets underneath it were good ones.

If you are going to bet with one firm regularly anyway, a rewards scheme returns something on that activity rather than nothing, and it costs nothing to be enrolled in one. That is the whole of the case for it.

The part worth understanding is that the reward scales with how much you stake, so the scheme pays most for the behaviour that costs most. The incentive runs towards betting more, not towards betting better, and a scheme that rewards volume is doing what it was designed to do.

Sports Betting Loyalty Schemes and VIP Programs

Loyalty schemes and VIP tiers are just some of the terms you’ll see used to describe sports betting reward programs. Whatever it’s called, the basic goal of any rewards program is to earn your repeat business. Most schemes scale what they give you to how much you stake.

Note: Proper research and bankroll management will always have the greatest impact on your long term results. Don’t let the allure of a rewards programme distract you from the wagers themselves, which are what determine where you end up. Look at your rewards program as a nice bonus, not the primary focus.

Long Term VIP Rewards

Long term rewards programs last for the life of your account. Standing offers of this kind — money back on certain football results, best-price promises on some racing, accumulator bonuses — run continuously rather than for a season, and generally need no opt-in.

Rolling Promos

Some sites simply host rolling promos rather than structured VIP rewards programs. Typically, these sites host promotions for whatever season is “in” at the time. For example, the NFL season might be celebrated with a season-long contest to see who wins the most wagers or offer cash bonuses for people who place at least one bet each Sunday.

Cashback rewards are also fairly common. The basic idea with a cashback program is that for every wager you place, a percentage of that is returned to you at the end of the month. You’ll see this quite often for horse racing betting and during the run-up to major sports championships.

Most online sportsbooks also offer reload bonuses to loyal customers. In some cases, these bonuses are offered to anyone with an account and in others, you only get the bonus if you place a bet on a certain event or meet some other qualification. A reload bonus works just like a new player bonus except it’s open to existing customers as well.

Tiered VIP Programs

Tiered sports betting VIP rewards programs are formally structured and give you increasingly valuable benefits based on how much you play. In a typical tiered system, you’ll get VIP points for every dollar wagered. As you earn points, you move up through levels in sportsbook VIP programs. The higher your level, the more you get back in return.

The rewards given by VIP and loyalty programs range from simple reload bonuses to earning reduced juice lines. Tiered programmes return more to people who stake more, and very little to anyone else — the benefits worth having sit at levels most customers never reach.