What is a bingo bonus? Bingo bonus is different to cash as bets made with bonus funds pay their winnings as bonus until the wagering requirement of the bonus is met.
The bonus plus winnings transfer to your bingo account cash balance when the wagering requirement is completed.
I have claimed bonuses from all of the websites featured here at Bingo Sites Guru. I have experienced the highs (completing the wagering requirement and withdrawing cash) and lows (usually from not reading the t&cs correctly :/ ). Therefore, I created this guide to help you know what you are signing up for.
Most bonus guides online are written for casino bonuses. So I set out to fix that.
Many bingo bonuses are different at each online bingo site. However, there are some common features.
Here is the guide:
Types of Bingo Bonus
– First Deposit Bonuses
– Reload Deposit Bonuses
– No Deposit Bingo Bonus
– Loyalty Points
– Free Bingo Tickets
– Games Bonus
Can I Win Real Money With A Bingo Bonus?
– How Bingo Sites Make Money (House Edge)
– How Bingo Sites Calculate The Cost Of A Bingo Bonus
– How To Withdraw A Bingo Bonus
– What Is A Wagering Requirement?
Which Bingo Sites Offer Bingo Bonus?
Always read the terms and conditions of a bingo bonus before claiming.
Keep reading to find out everything about bingo bonuses.
Types of Bingo Bonus
There are different types of bingo bonuses, and we have listed them for you below:
First Deposit Bonuses
With a deposit bonus offer, you receive a bingo bonus immediately after making a qualifying deposit, assuming you had passed KYC and other verification checks like age and address when you created your account.
Most bingo sites offer a first deposit bonus, a fixed amount of bingo bonus, regardless of how much you deposit. For example, deposit £10 or more and get £30 of bingo bonus.
Other bingo sites offer a percentage deposit match, like 300% of your first deposit. For example, deposit £10 and get a 300% bonus would give you £30 bingo bonus to play with, in addition to your £10 cash. But if you deposit £20 and get a 300% bonus the site would give you £60 bingo bonus to play with, in addition to your £20 cash deposit balance.
With percentage deposit match offers, there is an upper limit on the maximum amount of bonus that you can claim.
Reload Deposit Bonuses
A ‘reload’ deposit bonus is a bingo bonus given when you make a further deposit with the bingo site.
Bingo sites offer them to encourage players to keep coming back and continue to play.
Some bingo sites offer reload bonuses on second and third deposits, whereas others offer them only occasionally, typically around big events.
Remember to opt-in for email offers when you create your account, as this is the usual way they inform about their offers – there could be a delicious reload bingo bonus offer for you!
No Deposit Bingo Bonus
No Deposit Bingo Bonus is a free bingo bonus that does not require a deposit.
The best thing about this offer is that you can claim them without risking any of your own cash. However, the downside is that no deposit bonuses tend to be smaller in value and have higher wagering requirements, making them harder to complete and withdraw as cash.
You can claim a no deposit bingo bonus at some sites when you create your account. However, it is less common to see this now than a few years ago. The more common free bingo offer is free tickets (see below).
Loyalty Points
Bingo sites love to reward their most loyal players and have various ways to give value back to the customer. One reward for bingo players is loyalty points.
Each time you buy a bingo ticket, you earn loyalty points. You don’t have to do anything to join the loyalty points systems. All purchases automatically qualify, but be aware that only cash purchases qualify at some sites.
You can then cash in your loyalty points for rewards like bonus funds and use that to play more bingo.
The more you play, the more you get back!
You can usually redeem loyalty points by going to your ‘My Account’ section when you log in or within a loyalty section of the bingo lobby.
Free Bingo Tickets
A bingo ticket is an individual grid made up of various columns and rows based on the bingo game type chosen. For example, in 90 ball bingo, a ticket is a grid of 27 squares consisting of nine columns and three rows. Each row contains five numbers and four blank squares.
Free tickets are bingo tickets you can use without spending your cash or bingo bonus. These are a type of promotion offered at the best bingo sites. Free tickets are not usually eligible on all games, so you need to look at the terms and conditions of the free ticket offer to see at which bingo room or variants you can use them.
Games Bonus
Games bonus is different to bingo bonus as you can only use it to play casino and slots games, not bingo.
The wagering requirements of games bonuses are often higher than bingo bonuses, and it is possible to qualify for both bingo and games bonus with just one deposit. You will see the bonuses shown in different wallet balances in your account.
Can I Win Real Money With A Bingo Bonus?
Yes, you can! When you claim a bingo bonus, you must meet specific terms and conditions or restrictions before winning real money.
Bingo bonus terms and conditions include wagering requirements or depositing before you can withdraw your free bingo money.
Here at Bingo Sites Guru, you will always see the terms and conditions of an offer before deciding whether or not you want to claim it.
How Bingo Sites Make Money (House Edge)
When a player buys a bingo ticket, most of that amount goes to the prize pot of that game, and a small amount goes to the Bingo Site.
The amount kept by the Bingo Site is called the Rake or House Edge.
Profits made from the Rake are used to pay staff and the other costs that they have for hosting the games on their website.
How Bingo Sites Calculate The Cost Of Bingo Bonuses
Bingo Sites can also give some of their profits back to players by making games more exciting with promotions and giving players bingo bonuses.
To calculate the cost of each bonus given away, the Bingo Sites use averages.
A typical bingo game may have a 20% Rake or House Edge. In this case, 20p of every £1 of tickets sold is kept as profit.
On average, every time a player buys £1 of tickets, the Bingo Site pays out 80p in prizes.
If the Bingo Site gives a player a £1 bingo bonus, the cost to the Bingo Site is the 80p that is won by players, on average.
To reduce the bonus cost, a Bingo Site will add wagering requirements to the terms and conditions of the bonus. Wagering requirements are a term or condition of a bonus offer (see below).
How To Withdraw A Bingo Bonus
A player must meet the terms and conditions of the bonus by completing the wagering requirements.
Once the T&Cs are met, the players’ bonus balance transfers to their cash balance.
The player is then free to continue playing with their cash funds or withdraw them.
What Is A Wagering Requirement?
Bingo wagering requirements are an amount of money that must be bet on bingo games.
They are a term or condition used by bingo sites that players must meet to complete a bingo bonus.
Wagering requirements are usually expressed as a multiple of the bonus amount, e.g. 4x (bet the entire bonus amount four times).
For example, a £10 bingo bonus with 4x wagering requirement means that the player must buy £40 of bingo tickets with the bonus to complete it.
You can read more about wagering requirements in our complete guide: What Are Bingo Wagering Requirements?
Which Bingo Sites Offer Bingo Bonus?
Are you ready for the best bit? Almost all Bingo Sites offer a bingo bonus when you make a first deposit and then give you other perks when you continue to play!
There are no restrictions on the number of different Bingo Sites that you can join, and most players have three or more accounts. [1]
Follow the recommendations at Bingo Sites Guru, and you will find the best for you!
What to do next?
Now we can answer ‘What is bingo bonus?’ knowing that they are extra funds that you can use to buy bingo tickets and play bingo games.
Whether a bingo bonus is a first deposit bonus, reload or free tickets, we know it is several extra bingo games that we can play, in addition to what we could have bought with just our own cash.
We also see why they are used by online bingo sites (to attract new players and keep existing players on the website) and where to find them (in the recommended sections of Bingo Sites Guru!).
Congratulations on becoming one step closer to achieving online bingo nirvana! Please read our other bingo guides and continue to learn from your master bingo teachers, the Bingo Sites Guru team 🧘🏽♀️
