It is impossible to find a sportsbook that doesn’t bombard you with a bunch of promotions to sign up for their service. However, rewards programs are surprisingly pretty rare in the offshore sportsbook market. Rewards programs are great in that they add another way for a bettor to leverage their advantage against a sportsbook. Sometimes it doesn’t take much for a bet to go from having a negative to positive expected value. Consequently, a good rewards system could be the thing that tilts the bet in your favor.
The cross section of sportsbook that we’d recommend and that also have rewards systems is pretty small. Below, we break down our top three offshore sportsbooks that have reward systems.
3. Heritage Sports
Heritage Sports is the first sportsbook on our list and it comes in at the #3 spot.
There really isn’t too much that goes into the Heritage Sports rewards program. Basically, there are four rewards levels and it appears that making just one bet places you in the 2-diamond group. Your reward level will then coincide with the amount of cash back that you get for every bet. At 2 diamonds, the cash back is 0.2% on most bets and 0.4% for popular bets (side bets, totals) in football, basketball, and baseball. At 3 diamonds, the cash back in 0.3% and 0.6%, respectively, And for 4 diamonds, those numbers go up to 0.4% and 0.8%.
To reach 3 diamond level, the bettor simply has to make 150 bets. Further, to get to 4 diamond, the bettor must make 500 bets. These numbers reset quarterly in January, April, July, and October. Combining these cash back rewards with the reduced juice that Heritage already offers ends up being a pretty huge advantage for the better.
2. GTBets
GTBets offers an awesome rewards system in conjunction with their partner GameTimeRewards. The rewards system consists of three tiers: Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Players level up to Gold by reaching a lifetime points value of 20,000 and to Platinum at 200,000 points. As one’s level increases, so does the amount of points that they accrue with each bet. Silver level gets 16 points per every $10 dollars bet. Next, gold level gets 20 points per every $10 bet. Finally, Platinum level members get 25.5 points per every ten dollar bet.
The rewards system is very easy to use as players can cash out points for dollars. Essentially, every 1,000 points equals $1 in betting cash that can be used for future wagers. This means that at Platinum level, every $392 dollars bet will eventually earn you an extra $1 in cash back. Doing the math, this equates to an additional 0.25% edge.
1. Bovada
On June 1st, 2022, Bovada completely revamped their rewards system and it is really something to behold. They have definitely found a way to gamify the sports betting experience and it is quite awesome! There are a total of six tiers ranging from 1-star “Starter” level to 6-star “Hall of Fame” level. With each additional tier come better redemption rates and other unlockables. There are a variety of ways to earn reward points at Bovada, and below we highlighted the ones that are sports related.
The program is designed to keep you leveling up for a while. The top tier is reached at 5 million lifetime points, so it should be obvious that getting there will take some time. At the lowest levels, the rewards redemption rate is at 2,500 points per $1. On straight bets, this equates only a 0.08% advantage which is pretty negligible. However, with parlay bets that advantage jumps to 0.84% which can be an enormous advantage to the bettor if played correctly.
Concluding…
No one should choose a sportsbook solely on their rewards program, but it’s always nice to know what extra advantages can be had. All three of these sportsbooks are great to work with! Further, the gamification of sports betting makes the experience even more fun. Hopefully, this helps you enjoy yourself a little more while betting! But don’t forget to be responsible!