Eve Luneborg
When you sign up and join a live casino, you almost always get to take part in a bonus offer for new players. Typically, you get to use the standard casino bonus the operator offers, as dedicated live casino welcome bonuses are few and far between. What you get will differ from casino to casino, but most often, you can expect a match deposit bonus of at least 100%.
Here, we’ll tell you all you need to know about live casino welcome bonuses. We’ll cover what you get at the best Irish live casinos, how to claim your bonus, and which rules you need to be aware of in order to withdraw your winnings.
To make sure you get the most from your first deposit at a new live casino, claim a live casino welcome bonus. Below, we’ve listed all the best offers available to Irish players. Not only do these operators offer a great bonus, but they are also ranked among the best overall live casino operators by our casino experts.
The casinos we’ve listed above have been chosen based on what they offer new live casino players. We carried out a thorough review of the welcome bonus, looking at what you get, which games it can be used on, and which bonus terms apply. We also considered the overall quality of the live casino to ensure these are safe, fair, and trusted operators.
At Wild Robin, you get to claim a welcome bonus that offers a 100% bonus of up to €500. In addition, you’ll get 200 free spins and a bonus crab.
You can use this bonus to play live dealer games, with a 10% wagering contribution. This applies to all live games, except for some game shows that contribute 50%. There is no maximum win limit, and the max bet is set at €5. Also, this is a non-sticky bonus with a wagering requirement of 35x the bonus and deposit.
The VegasNow welcome bonus gives you a 150% boost on your first deposit, up to €1,500. You’ll also get 200 free spins on a selected slot machine.
This bonus is a sticky bonus, but with the large match percentage, it’s still worth claiming. You can play roulette with a 25% wagering contribution, while card games contribute 10%. Unfortunately, other live dealer game types are not available to play using bonus funds. The bonus wagering requirement is 40x, and the maximum you can withdraw is €5,000.
At Kingmaker, you’ll get to take part in a 100% welcome bonus that can give you a maximum of €500. In addition, you’ll get to play 50 spins on a lucky wheel, where you can win up to €1 million.
The applicable wagering requirement is 35x deposit and bonus, and bets on live dealer games will contribute 10% towards this requirement. You can bet a maximum of €5 per game round, and there is no maximum win limit. This is a non-sticky bonus.
To ensure we consider all important factors before we select operators for our casino top list, we look at a range of aspects. Below, we’ve outlined some of what we review and explained why it’s important.
A live casino welcome bonus is a bonus offered to new players who sign up and make their first deposit. What each operator chooses to offer will differ, but most will give Irish players a matched deposit bonus. Typically, you’ll get at least a 100% match, but some offer even more.
However, most online casinos do not offer a bonus specifically to be used for live casino games. Instead, they will usually let you play live dealer games using the standard casino welcome bonus. The bets placed in live casino games won’t contribute 100% towards the wagering requirement. Somewhere between 5% and 50% is more common. The latter, up to 50%, usually only applies to certain games or categories, such as game shows.
For us here at LiveCasino.ie, we consider a live casino welcome bonus to be any welcome offer that can be used in live dealer games. However, we recognise that some offers are more suitable for new players than others. This is why we’ve only presented the best ones on this page.
Using a live casino welcome bonus is simple, but there are a few different ways it can be done. This will depend on the casino’s procedures, but it’s usually intuitive once you enter their site.
The first thing you need to do is sign up as a new player. The casino’s website will have a button called ‘Sign Up’ or ‘Register’, and by clicking this, the registration form will open. Complete the form by entering your information, such as e-mail, mobile number, name, address, and date of birth.
Once you’re logged in, you can go to the deposit page. There, you choose a payment method and enter the amount you wish to deposit. Make sure this amount is equal to or greater than the minimum required amount to claim the bonus.
Often, you’ll find a bonus field on the deposit page, and here you enter the welcome bonus code. If no code is required, you can often select the bonus from a list showing all available offers. In some cases, you won’t have to do anything, as the bonus is automatically added as soon as you complete a qualifying deposit.
When your payment has been processed, your funds will be credited to your casino account. Either the bonus is also credited, or you’ll have to navigate to the bonus section of your account in order to activate it.
Playing live dealer games with a standard casino bonus is possible at most Irish casinos. However, you need to know that bets on live casino games do not fully contribute towards the casino’s wagering requirement. This means you’ll need to wager a much larger amount on live dealer games than you would if you chose to play slot machines.
Typically, you can expect that between 5% and 20% of bets on live table games contribute towards the playthrough requirement. Some game shows will often contribute more, and the best live casinos weigh game show bets at 50%.
A wagering contribution between 20% and 50%, as described above, is the best-case scenario when you use a standard casino welcome bonus to play live games. At the other end of the scale, you’ll find operators that restrict all gameplay on live casino games while you have an active bonus. In such cases, what you can do depends on the bonus mechanic, which we’ll go into below.
Before you accept a live casino welcome bonus, it’s important that you check how the bonus mechanic works — that is, whether it’s a sticky or non-sticky bonus.
All the best live casino operators offer a non-sticky live casino welcome bonus. The way this bonus mechanic works is that you start playing using your own real money. If you’re lucky with these funds, you can cancel the bonus and request a withdrawal whenever you like. Only if you’re unlucky and lose your own funds will you start playing using bonus money. At this point, bonus terms apply, such as maximum bet limits and wagering requirements.
If the bonus you take part in is a sticky bonus, your real money and the bonus funds are all added into one pot. This means the bonus is activated from the outset, and all bonus terms apply. In other words, you start wagering the bonus straight away, and you cannot withdraw funds before you’ve completed the playthrough requirement.
As you can see, a non-sticky bonus is almost always the best option. This is especially relevant if you want to play live casino games. As long as you use real money, you can play any game you want, and no maximum bet rules apply.
When you find a live casino welcome bonus you’d like to claim, you need to read the full bonus terms. In there, you’ll find information about how the bonus works, which games you can play, and what the contribution bets are. There are also other key terms you need to check, and here we’ll list and describe what you need to keep an eye on.
The wagering requirement tells you how many times you need to play through your bonus funds, and sometimes deposited money, before the bonus is converted into real money that you can withdraw. Typically, most casino bonuses require between 30× and 40× wagering.
The contribution rate explains how large a percentage of bets count towards the wagering requirement. The lower this contribution rate is, the more times you will need to wager your bonus, which reduces your chances of converting the bonus.
Some casinos restrict certain games from being played using bonus funds. This might apply either to specific game titles or to whole game categories. Some online casinos restrict all live dealer games from bonus gameplay.
Bonuses you receive are not valid indefinitely. Usually, you’ll have a specified number of days to claim the bonus, and then another specified number of days to complete the required wagering. Expect anything from 3 to 30 days. If the bonus expires, all bonus funds and winnings from it will be forfeited and debited from your account.
While you’re working on a wagering requirement, casinos will limit how much you are allowed to bet per game round. The standard for this is €5, which includes “extra” bets during a game round, such as splitting or doubling down in blackjack. Keep in mind that this affects your ability to use progressive betting strategies.
Some casinos ban the use of betting strategies while using a bonus, as well as what are known as “low-risk bets”. This can include the use of Martingale, Paroli, and Fibonacci strategies. Typically, betting on both Player and Banker in baccarat or more than half of the roulette wheel is prohibited.
A rule you might find at some live casino operators is a maximum win limit. This will cap either how much you can convert from bonus money to real money or how much you can withdraw from bonus winnings. These limits can typically be anything from 5× your deposited funds up to €10,000.
Claiming a live casino welcome bonus will boost your deposit and give you more money to play with. This is, naturally, something most players appreciate and want to take part in. But with a matched deposit bonus, it can be tempting to deposit more in order to get a bigger bonus. This is something you should avoid, as it’s always important to play responsibly and within your means.
Just because you get a bonus does not guarantee that you win, so never deposit money you can’t afford to lose.
Our best tip to ensure you gamble within limits you’re comfortable with is to activate restrictions on your account. As soon as you sign up at the casino, you can set deposit limits or loss limits. Usually, you can do this within your account settings or by contacting the customer support team.
You’ll find a responsible gambling page at most casinos, and there you’ll also find links to help organisations and sometimes self-assessment tests created to help you stay aware of your gambling habits.
Live casino welcome bonuses give you extra funds, but the rules and restrictions that apply are just as important as the size of the offer. Wagering requirements, contribution rates, and game restrictions vary from one operator to another, which affects how realistic it is to turn bonus money into withdrawable cash.
By checking the terms in advance and choosing non-sticky bonuses where possible, you can ensure you get the most from your bonus. Since not all casinos structure their offers the same way, you need to compare details such as expiry periods, maximum bet limits, and whether live dealer games contribute towards the wagering requirement.
Eve Luneborg – Live Casino Specialist at LiveCasino.ie
Eve Luneborg has been part of the online casino industry since 2014, when she moved to the sunny shores of Malta to pursue her passion for gaming.
