Well there you go. Just as I start to think there’s no life left in promo hunting, along comes a cracker of a month like January….
January 2017
Total Bets: 204
Turnover: $8,441.90
Total Profit: $967.39
POT: 11.46%
All Time (2015 – 2017)
Total Bets: 3,412
Turnover: $156,687.05
Total Profit: $13,206.67
POT: 8.43%
This month was all about the BBL and Australian Open, and although the offers weren’t as generous as last year, there were still some good opportunities for profit.
Big Bash
With the BBL, where last year’s were all about scoring a certain amount and losing, this year most of the bookies went for promos based on winning high scoring games, with the main ones I was eligible for being Sportsbet’s “score 180+ and win” ($50 bonus bet based on win amount) and Bet 365’s “hit 8+ sixes and win promos” (up to $200 matched winnings).
Most games I played those on opposite sides, usually adding in TAB Touch’s “hit the most sixes but lose” $50 cashback on the same side as Sportsbet.
One of the trickier aspects of this round of promos from a not getting banned point of view, was the variable staking levels required to take full advantage. Both Sportsbet and 365 based their promo payouts on your winnings, which meant that if you were going to take the maximum value ($50 or $200) for each game you’d need to adjust your staking accordingly (increased stakes on favourites, smaller on the underdogs). To my mind that’s going to stick out pretty obviously if you’re playing these things for maximum promo return on each game. While it will have cost me profit, I tried to play this slightly conservatively in an attempt not to be too obvious, sticking to relatively consistent stakes in the hope of looking like a standard mug punter and not a cynical promo abuser. Who knows whether it will make a difference.
Hit a fair few bonuses along the way from these promos. Mostly the TAB Touch one, which somewhat surprised me, but also a couple of nice payouts from Bet 365 (including the final). With the amount of profit I’ve taken from those guys I’m sure my account cannot be long for this world, but it’s definitely fun while it lasts.
Chase the Ace
I wasn’t eligible for the Chase the Ace bonanza last year ($1 cash per ace scored by your player), having already been banned by William Hill, but owing to the consolidation of their other two properties (Tom Waterhouse and Centrebet) under the WH brand, I had myself a promo eligible account in time for this year, and this promo provided some great opportunities for risk free profit. This year they’d switched to bonus bets, but added the extra element of an (allegedly) random bonus bet value, triggered after you placed the bet. With the default value being $0.50, I obviously hit that on the majority of the games I played, but also a fair few $1 and $2 bonuses, and even one $10 bonus.
Mindful of how quickly I got promo banned by them the last time, I tried to play this one fairly conservatively, picking and choosing my games rather than hammering every men’s match. I definitely missed out on some profit this way, but hopefully it helps keep me going there a bit and will pay off in the long run.
I also have a small problem in that many of my subsequent bonus bets ended up winning on the WH side, which creates a turnover requirement. On the bright side, though, that will at least force me to play some non-promotional bets through them as I work my way through that. Slightly annoying that WH don’t show you anywhere in your account how much turnover you still need to do, but I guess that’s where good record keeping comes in. I’ve added a new sheet to the spreadsheet where I track all my activity that will automatically calculate the remaining required turnover so I can keep track of that one.
Looking Ahead
I expect February will be very quiet. Once the Superbowl is done and dusted on Monday it will just be treading water until the footy seasons kick off at the end of March.