With the official launch of online sports betting in the Tar Heel State right around the corner, it’s best to understand exactly what’s offered. So we’ve outlined the common types of promotional offers you’ll see when sports betting is live in North Carolina.

Bet and Get Bonus Bets

These are excellent for players just getting started with online betting in general. They often have a low wager requirement and are almost always guaranteed to pay out, regardless of whether you win or lose the cash bet.

In a lot of instances, the structure will be something akin to “place a $5 cash bet and get $150 in bonus bets when it settles.” So you can potentially collect 30 times your cash stake in bonus bets even if you lose the original bet.

It’s important to review the terms and conditions as there are a couple of things to keep an eye with these promotional structures:

• Deposit requirements: Almost all new customer offers, regardless of the structure have some kind of minimum deposit requirement as it ensures that customers don’t just take the money and run when it comes to sign-up offers.
• Wager requirements: Often times it will be $5, but can range as high as $20 with a sure-fire bonus bet payout once your cash wager settles.
• Odds requirement: Some bet and gets have specific odds requirements around -500 or longer which means that moneyline wagers at -220 would play but that futures bet at -800 would not.
• Settlement requirements: Occasionally, you’ll see a bet and get that’s essentially structured the same, but requires that your first wager WIN for you to earn any bonus bets, FanDuel currently has such an offer on a national level, though it’s unclear if the go-live promotion will be structured the same way.
• Payout dispersal: With a current, widely available Fanatics Sportsbook promotion, you’ll get a portion of the bonus bets at the end of each day, spread across a specified amount of days, totaling the full value of the promotion. It’s not clear if that’s what the North Carolina go-live promotion will be, but its nonetheless worthwhile to keep in mind.
• Expiration date: Any bonus bets you earn will likely have a denoted expiration date, the specific time can vary from one book to the next but it’s often between seven and 14 days.

Deposit Match

As it sounds, with these promotions, sportsbook will match — fractionally or in full — the amount you deposit in cash, credited to your account as bonus bets.

At times, they may be called “credits” “sports bonuses” or even “FanCash” but functionally, they’re the same as bonus bets. They’re credits, so they cannot be withdrawn without being wagered and they do expire.

We’ve outlined the critically important components to keep in mind when claiming a deposit match at any sportsbook.

• Value of the deposit match: As noted above, there are widely available sportsbook promotions (BetMGM in particular) that offer a fractional deposit match, which is not terribly uncommon. Not all deposit matches are in full and the fractional ones can still be a great sign-up option but review the terms to be sure before signing up.
• Minimum deposit requirements: Most new customer offers have some kind of cash deposit requirement that’s usually around $10 but it will specify in the T&Cs.
• Odds requirements: These can be less common with deposit matches in particular but it’s best to double check to make sure you aren’t limited to specific markets.
• How the bonus bets are distributed: Sometimes you may get each daily wager matched rather than a portion of your initial wager. Before claiming any deposit match, check out how the distribution works in the T&Cs.
• Playthrough requirement: Some deposit matches will have a specific playthrough requirement where you’ll need to wager a specific amount (often 10x) within a specified amount of time (often 30 days) to keep your eligibility.
• Expiration date: Any bonus bets you earn will have some kind of expiration date but it can have more variation with these type of promotions that bet and gets

First Bet Insurance

This is the tried and true promotion of online sports betting. Almost every sportsbook has, at one time or another, offered some kind of first bet insurance promotion. As it sounds, you’ll get your first bet credited back to your account as bonus bets in the event that your first bet settles as a loss.

Bet insurance offers are a solid entry point into sports betting because you can take a chance on an underdog and, even if it doesn’t actually pay out, you’ll often get your stake back in bonus bets.

As mentioned above, you can’t actually withdraw those bonus bets in the same way you could with cash. You’ll be required to place additional wagers to have access to them. You’ll still lose the money, but you have the potential to win it back (and more) if your bonus bet wagers hit.

The tennets outlined above still mostly apply to this promotion but some of the more specific things to keep an eye on with these types of promotions are:

• Minimum deposit: You’ll need to put down a little something in cash just to register your account.
• Insurance value cap: Every one of these promotions will have a specific cap, often times it’s $1K, that you will be paid out up to. Beyond that, you will not qualify for this promotion. They’ll usually specify the cap in the headline of the promotion.
• Expiration date: All of the bonus bets you earn will have an expiration date. Often times it’s seven days but can be longer than that. Don’t assume, it will be outline specification expiration dates in the T&Cs.