Best Casino Bonuses & VIP Offers for South African players

If you’ve seen a few online casinos that accept South African players, then you’ll notice that they all seem to have one thing in common – they all offer a bonus as an enticement to encourage new players to join.

On the surface, all such bonuses look amazing. Online casinos carefully word their bonus offers so that it almost looks as if they are giving away free money. That is never the case … how would online casinos survive if that is what they did? Bonus money is money that you can only ever spend at the casino that gives it to you.

So, how do you find out which are the best casino bonuses for South African players, and where you can get the best VIP treatment? Well, your best bet is to keep reading right here, right now!

How exactly do casino bonuses work?

There are four main types of casino bonus, and here is a rundown of how each of them work. The actual details vary from casino to casino, but they all work along extremely similar lines.

The no-deposit bonus

A handful of online casinos available to players in South Africa may offer you a ‘no deposit bonus’. This is a bonus that you receive when you complete your registration. Usually, for a casino bonus you have to make a deposit of your own cash in order to receive one. With a no-deposit bonus you do not have to make a deposit. It’s the closest you will get to receiving free cash at an online casino.

You have to spend your bonus at the casino as you cannot ever cash it out. Once you have spent it you can usually cash out your winnings when you have met wagering requirements.

The free spins bonus

More and more casino available to South African players are offering a free spins bonus as opposed to a matched or deposit bonus. When you sign up for an online casino and you’ve made a deposit of a minimum amount, then you will receive a set number of free spins.

These spins cannot be converted into cash or bonus cash. Most of time their use is restricted to one specific slot. Sometimes your free spins can be used on a range of slots, or any of the online video slots at the site, but usually you are tied to a specific slot.

Once you have used your free spins you should be able to cash out your winnings, if you have any. Most sites will expect you to meet wagering requirements before you are able to withdraw.

The matched deposit bonus

The most common type of online casino bonus is the matched deposit bonus. Most offers are in the form of “a x% matched bonus up to Ry” (i.e. ‘a 100% matched bonus up to R10,000’) in which x is the percentage of your deposit that will be matched, and y is the maximum amount of bonus money you can acquire. So, with a 100% matched bonus up to R10,000, if your deposit is R5,000, then you will receive R5,000 in bonus cash. If your deposit is R20,000, then you will receive R10,000 in bonus cash (i.e. the maximum). If the offer was ‘a 50% matched bonus up to R10,000’ and your deposit is R8,000, then you would receive R4,000 in bonus cash.

You can only spend your bonus cash on wagering at the casino, as is usual. You are free to withdraw your winnings once you have met wagering requirements.

The high roller bonus

A high roller bonus is, to all intents and purposes, the same as a deposit bonus except that the stakes are a lot higher. High rollers are people who really like to splash their money about when it comes to online casino play in South Africa. The maximum limits are usually much higher, and the matched percentages lower.

Many online casinos offer high roller bonuses, but they do not advertise them. If you consider yourself to be something of a high roller then you will need to contact any online casino where you are seeking one directly to find out how far they are willing to go.

Casino bonuses … the dreaded terms and conditions …

In an ideal world, you would spend your casino bonus (or use your free spins), collect your winnings, and then either spend them at the online casino or withdraw them and spend them elsewhere. If only online casino life in South Africa was that simple! The first aspect of a welcome bonus you have to deal with is your wagering expectations, and the second is game weightings or contributions.

Wagering expectations? What are they?

Once you have spent your bonus money or used your free spins, you need to get through wagering expectations before you can cash out. These will be in the form of ‘35x the bonus and deposit amount’, or something similar. This means that if you gave a R1,000 deposit, and received a R1,000 bonus, your wagering would be 35 x (R1,000 + R1,000) = R70,000. This means you would have to place wagers totalling R70,000 using your winnings and your own cash (if necessary) before you can cash out.

If this sounds alarming, then you can calm down! That R70,000 expectation (in this example) is the amount of money that you are required to wager, not spend. You could take one of your favourite slots for a spin 700 times for R100 each. You would not lose money on every single spin, and indeed there’s the chance that you’d end up with more money than you started with, or that you would retain a huge chunk of that R70,000 while you are wagering.

Once you have completed wagering, your winnings (or rather, whatever is left of them) will be free for you to withdraw.

But what about game weightings? What are they?

Game weightings or contributions are the amount of each wager you place on each turn of game that counts towards your wagering expectations. If this sounds complicated, then bear with us!

Slots (but not all slots) usually have a 100 percent contribution towards wagering, so, if you had a wagering expectation of R35,000, and you played one spin of a slot for R100, you would now have R34,900 to go, as 100 percent of R100 is, of course, R100!

However, other games do not make such a contribution. At many online casinos, for example, blackjack only makes a 10 percent contribution. This means that if you had a wagering expectation of R35,000, and you played one hand of blackjack for R100, you would now have R34,990 to go, as 10 percent of R100 is R10!

It always pays to try and use slots with high RTP (return to player) values to play-through your wagering. You should always check the terms and conditions of any bonus offer when you sign up for a new casino site, particularly wagering expectations and game contributions.

Another factor is the maximum bet. Some T&Cs will stipulate that there is a maximum bet you can make while you are pursuing wagering. They will not warn you that you are about to step over this maximum while you are wagering, so should you do it by accident, then they will not pay out your winnings when you try to claim them. This is especially annoying if you are lucky enough to secure a big win while you are playing through your wagering expectations.

Who is up for a little VIP treatment?

The majority of online casinos that accept South African players will also have a VIP or loyalty scheme. This is to encourage players to wager more at the casino as the more they wager, the better the benefits that are coming to them!

You are usually entered into a VIP scheme as soon as you sign up for an online casino. To make it to the next level, you need to start acquiring loyalty points (which can also be called player points or comp points). You usually earn loyalty points by making deposits and wagering. For example, an online casino may hand you one loyalty point for every R100 you deposit at the casino.

A VIP scheme is typically constructed on many hierarchical levels (like rungs on a ladder), and the higher up the scheme you rise, the better the benefits. Higher level VIPs can expect to get VIP-only bonuses and cashback offers, birthday gifts, the services of a dedicated accounts manager and countless other beneficial deals.

Some casinos operate their VIP schemes on an ‘invitation only’ basis. The upper reaches of some other VIP schemes are invite-only too. In such cases, the VIP team at the casino will monitor your account and see how much you are depositing and wagering. If they feel you have got what it takes to be a casino VIP, then you can expect a personal invite to pop into your casino inbox!

The best casino bonus deals for players in South Africa

If you are on a hunt for the best bonus deals for players in South Africa, then you can stop hunting as we’ve discovered some of the best deals for you, right here!

Springbok Casino

We generally think that the Springbok Casino is the number one online casino for South African players. It also has one of the best welcome deals for South African players.

If you are new to Springbok Casino you can grab a bonus that’s worth R11,500! This is spread over your first three deposits up to a maximum of R1,500, R5,000 and R5,000 again. The first bonus offer is a 100 percent match, but the second two are 50 percent matches.

Minimum bonus amount is R20 and wagering is a respectable 30 times the sum of your deposit and bonus amount. Some games are excluded totally from wagering, so make sure you check the site’s T&Cs.

Yebo Casino

We heartily recommend that you say ‘yebo!’ to Yebo Casino, and when you do make sure you pick up a welcome bonus of R12,000 plus 50 free spins on the popular video slot Caesar’s Empire.

Wagering is a bit of a mixed bag here. It’s 30x (bonus only!) for slots and 60x for allowed table games and video poker. As usual, some games make zero contributions towards wagering so make sure you’ve read this offer’s T&Cs.

Thunderbolt Casino

There’s lots of casino goodness awaiting you at the Thunderbolt online casino, and that includes a four-tier welcome bonus that’s worth a total of R10,000! What’s more, if you make three deposits then your fourth deposit bonus is absolutely free!

You need to make a wagering expectation of 30x the sum of your deposit plus your bonus before you can cash out. Again, only certain games contribute to wagering, so get them bonus T&Cs checked and read.

… and in conclusion

We hope we have solved some of the mysteries surrounding casino bonuses and VIP schemes. If you are new to the world of online casinos that accept players in South Africa, then understanding aspects of bonuses such as wagering expectations, game contributions and maximum bets can be somewhat mystifying! Once you’ve understood the basics, though, getting accustomed to welcome bonuses is a lot easier than you think.

Just remember not to let your eyes pop out of your head when you see a big bonus amount. It doesn’t matter the size of the bonus, it’s the wagering terms and conditions that matter. If you can find an online casino that’s prepared to play fair with you when it comes to bonuses, then you’ll have the best chance of actually winning some real money.

Also remember to gamble responsibly. If you can’t afford to lose the money that you are gambling with, then you should not be gambling with it. If you find that you cannot stop yourself, then contact the online casino you are playing at, and they will point you in the right direction so you can get some help.

No matter what anyone tells you, it’s all down to luck in the end, and we are here to wish you the very best of it.