Betting Bonuses India - What You Need to Know
The legal situation in India as regards gambling in general is quite complex, and that also extends to online sports betting. Too complex to go into much detail in this article. But here’s what you need to know: there are no federal laws that prohibit online betting in India, meaning that if you’re based there, you can open an online sports betting account and place bets without any repercussions. With many of the very best online sportsbooks now accepting Indian customers, there are plenty of India betting bonuses up for grabs.
That leads to lots of opportunities for you to get your hands on some great betting bonuses for Indian players that can be claimed as part of a welcome offer or that reward you for your loyalty down the line. They give you more bang for your buck by providing you with more cash to play with, money back on losses and the opportunity to try out bets on sports you wouldn’t normally place that are ‘on the house’: paid for by the Sportsbook rather than yourself.
Let’s look at some of the most popular betting bonuses in India, how they work, how they differ from each other and any important terms and conditions you should be aware of when claiming them.
Different Types of Betting Bonuses in India
There are probably at least a dozen different types of betting bonuses in India across all the different sportsbooks. After all, part of a sportsbook’s role when trying to attract new customers and keep existing ones on board is to come up with new and innovative ways of giving out India sports betting bonuses. But these are the ones you’re most likely to see on a regular basis.
Free Bets
In the past, big matched deposits (see below) were the standard sports betting welcome bonuses at Indian betting sites. But the last few years have seen a shift towards the sign-up offer being free bets, instead. However, one of the reasons why free bets are one of the most common India betting bonuses is that they’re often given out both as part of a welcome offer and to existing customers, as well.
When they’re part of the welcome offer, you generally need to make a minimum deposit of, say, 500 or 1,000 INR before you can claim the free bet(s), though in some rare cases, the sportsbook may even give you a free bet to use without you having to make a deposit.
A typical welcome offer would be that when you sign up and deposit 1,000 INR, the sportsbook might give you 2000 INR in free bets to use. They’ll specify if you need to use the free bet in one go or if you can split the free bets across numerous bets. They’ll also specify if the free bet(s) needs to be used on a particular sport or competition, if it needs to be placed in a particular way (e.g. as a single, Bet Builder, acca or Live Bet) and will almost always need to be struck at minimum odds, generally 1.5 or 1.8.
Being awarded a free bet as an existing customer is pretty much the same, the one key difference being that you could be awarded free bets on a regular basis as an existing customer, whereas a welcome offer can only be claimed once.
You can always keep the winnings generated from the free bet (see ‘wagering requirements’ below) but rarely get the stake returned as well, even if the bet wins. So if you were given a 500 INR free bet and placed it at odds of 2.0, you’d win and keep the 50 INR profit, but not the original 50 INR stake.
Deposit Match Bonuses
This is another example of India sports betting bonuses that can either be awarded as part of a welcome offer or given to existing customers at a later stage.
The way they work is that the betting site will promise to give you a percentage of the value of your first/next deposit as extra money to bet with. If you’re really lucky, it might be 100%, which means that if you were to deposit 5,000 INR, they’d give you an additional 5,000 INR to bet with. If it were 50%, they’d obviously give you 50% of what you deposited, which in this case would be 2,500 INR.
However, in a bid to keep things sensible, they’ll also establish a maximum amount which you can claim as a deposit bonus. It wouldn’t be practical not to set a cap as a customer might come along and wish to deposit 500,000 INR in order to claim a 100% bonus and expect to be awarded the same 500,000 INR in extra cash to bet with.
So, a typical deposit bonus, also sometimes known as a reload bonus, might be 50% up to 5,000 INR.
Cashback Betting Bonuses
This is one of the rarer India betting bonuses and one normally reserved for VIP customers rather than all customers.
The way it works is that if you have a losing month, the betting site may give you back a percentage of your losses- maybe 10% or 20% so that you can place bets with that cashback in the future.
In rare cases, Indian betting sites may say in advance that they’ll give you "20% cashback on any losses up to 20,000 INR" or something similar as part of an ongoing VIP/Loyalty Program.
However, the more common way of doing things is to give you cashback as a goodwill gesture without prior notice.
Boosted Odds
Professional gamblers will know that betting value (betting at higher odds than a selection should be available at) is paramount to long-term success. And boosted odds, an increasingly popular form of best betting offers India, are an example of that.
Let’s say that Virat Kohli’s normal price to top-score for India in an ODI against Australia is 3.75. A particular betting site may decide to increase those odds on Kohli to 4.5 and advertise the ‘boost’ on their site under promotions, or in a special section dedicated to boosted odds.
You can then bet at those boosted odds and will be paid out at those boosted odds if the bet wins, though there may be a limit on the amount you can stake at the enhanced odds.
Extra legs in your acca
In a bid to encourage customers to have more legs in their acca, the bookie may say that for every selection you add after the first 3 legs, you’ll receive extra payouts.
For example:
- 4 legs: Extra 5%
- 5 legs: Extra 10%
- 6 legs: Extra 15%, and so on.
The more legs you have, the greater the extra percentage of your payout you stand to win.
Bonus Terms and Conditions in India
Terms and conditions will vary from one site to another, but here are a few of the more common ones:
Minimum Deposit/Minimum bet amount
When claiming a free bet (as part of the welcome offer) or deposit bonus, you normally need to deposit a minimum amount, e.g. 1,000 INR.
If you need to place a qualifying bet in order to get the free bet, the qualifying bet will have a minimum amount, too.
Be sure to meet that minimum requirement, or you won’t be eligible for the bonus.
Minimum Odds
A ‘qualifying bet’ is sometimes required to be placed before you can claim a free bet for the same amount. The qualifying bet will often have minimum odds at which it must be struck, e. odds of at least 1.5 or 2.0, and sometimes the free bet must be placed at minimum odds, too.
In neither case are there ever maximum odds at which the bets can be placed.
Expiry Date
Almost all India sports betting bonuses have an expiry date. In other words, they’re not available forever.
Check when the qualifying bet/deposit must be made/placed and how long you have to use the bonus once it’s awarded to you. If you don’t use it by the expiry date, the bookie will remove the bonus.
Wagering Requirements
It wouldn’t be practical for a bookie to give you an extra 5,000 INR in bonus money only for you to withdraw it straight away.
So, most bonuses carry wagering requirements. That means you have to wager the bonus money through the site several times before you can withdraw it. For example, 5x wagering requirements on a 1,000 INR bonus mean you’d have to wager through the bonus 5x or place bets totalling 5,000 INR if you prefer, before you could withdraw it.
Sometimes, winnings generated from free bets have wagering requirements on them, too.
