Welcome bonus Casinos Canada

The Different Types of Welcome Bonuses

As we mentioned above, there are many different types of casino welcome bonuses nowadays. Although every casino is unique and has a different welcome offers for its newly registered players, the most common forms of welcome bonuses are deposit offers. But also free spins, cashback, and combinations of two or three of these types of bonuses.

Deposit Bonus - With or Without Deposit Bonus Codes

In most cases, online casinos will hand out deposit bonuses, also called match, to new players. A match bonus, as the name suggests, “matches” the amount of money you initially deposit into your account with a certain percentage.

Example: So, for instance, when an online casino offers new players a welcome bonus in the form of a deposit bonus of 100% up to CA$100. If you decide to deposit CA$50, you will start with CA$100 in your account, consisting of your own deposited CA$50 and CA$50 in bonus funds from the casino.

But, as the bonus is capped at CA$100, this means that if you were to deposit CA$200, you will not start with CA$400 on your account. It will be CA$300, as CA$100 is the maximum amount of bonus cash you can receive with this particular promotion.

Free Spins - One of the Best Online Casino Bonuses

Free spins, which we have covered in our full guide on free spins bonuses, are free spins that you can use on a specific slot or a selection of online slot games. These free spins can have different values, such as CA$0.10 per free spin, CA$0.20 per free spin, or even CA$0.50 per free spin.

These free spins are often given to entice new players to try certain slots and other games as part of welcome bonuses. However, they could also be offered as stand-alone bonuses, without any form of deposit offer that goes along with them. Note that you will have to adhere to the terms before you are able to cash out your bonus winnings. Sometimes, players need to enter the right bonus codes to make use of these types of welcome casino bonuses.

Example: A certain online casino has a partnership with the popular and well-known casino software provider and gaming studio Pragmatic Play. For this reason, the gambling site hands out 20 free spins valued at CA$0.20 each on the provider’s latest smash hit Sweet Bonanza.

All newly registered players are now able to play this slot for free for 20 rounds or spins, and they stand the chance to win real money. The winnings from these free spins will be subject to certain rules, called the bonus terms, which we will discuss later in this Canadian casino welcome bonuses guide.

Free Bets - One of the Latest Casino Bonuses or Bonus Offers for Sports Betting Sites

Just like free spins can be used on a specific slot or series of slot machines, free bets are to be used on certain sports betting markets or events. Online bookmakers often give free bets to their new and existing punters instead of free spins. As they are more likely to be into sports betting than into slots and other traditional casino games.

Cashback Bonuses at Canadian Casinos

Cashback bonuses are a unique type of welcome bonus, where you as a player receive a part of your losses back. Although this might sound strange at first glance, it is often actually the most valuable type of casino welcome bonus over the long run.

Example: To illustrate the effectiveness of a cashback bonus, let’s say the casino gives you 10% cashback on all your losses up to CA$200, which is actually quite common. This would mean that if you deposit CA$200 and lose it all, you will still receive CA$20 back into your account from the casino.

This basically increases your odds or chances of winning by 10%, which is something no other form of bonus gives you. For this reason, the cashback bonus is the most sought-after welcome offer by experienced players.

However, for new players, there is one type of casino welcome bonus that is even more popular, namely the no deposit bonus.

No Deposit Bonus

The no deposit bonus is quite a unique casino welcome bonus. As the name suggests, it requires no deposit from the player. It is already given by Canadian online casinos to new players after they have registered an account and filled in their personal details.

A no deposit bonus is a great way to explore the casino games on offer at a certain gambling site. It allows you to play online casino games for free, without having to risk any of your hard-earned savings, while still standing the chance to win real money.

For this reason, no deposit bonuses are quite rare and not given that often to new Canadian players. However, our casino experts have done their job quite well and have found quite a few Canadian casinos that offer this type of bonus. So you don’t have to scavenge through the depths of the internet to find these sites.

You will find our list of top no deposit bonus offers and other lucrative casino welcome bonuses on this page and on the bonus-specific pages of this website.

How to Choose the Best Welcome Bonus?

As you know by now, there are quite a few types of casino welcome bonuses you can receive as a new Canadian player at online gambling sites. However, how do you know which one is the best one that suits your playstyle and strategies?

Well, to answer that question, you should first decide what kind of player you are. Below are some tips and tricks to help you decide what the best welcome bonus for you could be.

Which Casino Games Do You Like the Most?

First of all, you should ask yourself which casino games you like the most. Are you a fan of slots, or do you prefer classic table games, such as Blackjack, Baccarat, or Roulette? How about live casino games, poker, scratch cards, sports betting, crash games, online bingo, or keno? It could obviously also be the case that you like more than one game category. In this case, it will probably be best to search for an online casino that offers these multiple game type categories in the first place. Know that the first deposit bonus in the form of a percentual deposit bonus, where you receive bonus money as a sign-up bonus, is probably the most common deposit casino bonus given. Often a minimum deposit is required to receive this sign-up bonus.

Which Casino Software Provider or Gaming Studio Do You Prefer?

It doesn’t matter whether you’re into slots, table games, poker, or live dealer games, there is always a company behind these types of games. Chances are that if you’re a seasoned player, you prefer games from a certain software provider or gaming studio.

For this reason, you should always read our honest and independent casino reviews to know beforehand which software providers and gaming studios are present at a certain gambling site before signing up and making a deposit.

After all, it has no use when you make a deposit at a site, only to find out that it doesn’t even have your favorite game. Or that it actually does have your game of choice, but from some weird software provider or gaming studio you’ve never heard of before.

Which Type of Welcome Bonus Suits Your Playstyle?

The third and maybe most important question to ask yourself is which type of welcome bonus would best suit your playstyle. If you like to just play a few casino games for free and maybe make a tiny deposit of your own, a no deposit bonus would suit you best.

Do you rather like to play slots only and not so much other casino games, such as Blackjack, Poker, Bingo, or Roulette? Then a free spins welcome offer probably is your best choice. If you are looking to deposit substantial amounts of money into your account, then it might be better to go for a deposit or high roller bonus instead. A cashback offer would also be a good alternative.

How Do I Claim?

If you are new to the world of online gambling, it could very well be the case that you’ve never claimed or redeemed a casino welcome bonus before. Luckily, this is a fairly easy process, which we shall explain step-by-step in the section below.

• Compare the Best Casino Bonuses: Our experts have compiled extensive casino reviews and comparison tables for your convenience. Read through the reviews and choose the bonus that suits your playstyle the best.
• Register at the Casino: Once you’ve found a casino to your liking, navigate to the sign-up page by clicking on one of the ‘’sign up’’ or ‘’register’’ buttons. In most cases, a pop-up window will appear, asking you to enter some personal details, such as your name, date of birth, and address. Make sure to fill these details in correctly as the casino will check these when submitting your first withdrawal request.
• Select the Welcome Bonus: Now that you’ve successfully registered your account at the online casino, it is time to select the offer that you want to claim and redeem. We want to stipulate the importance of carefully selecting the welcome bonus that you want. Because if you forget to do so, you may not receive anything from the casino in question.
• Enter the Bonus Code (optional): Now that you have selected the welcome bonus that you want to claim, it is time to copy and paste the code that goes with it. This isn’t always the case, but in most scenarios, these bonuses require a certain bonus code to be entered to activate them. Make sure you copy and paste the code correctly and that you don’t make any typing errors. As with the previous step, making a small typing mistake can cause the bonus not to be credited to your player account.
• Make a First Deposit: If the welcome bonus offered by the online casino isn’t a no deposit bonus. You will have to make a first deposit of your own money to receive the bonus funds. Navigate to the cashier area of the casino, select your preferred payment method, and specify the amount you want to deposit. Make sure your deposit meets the minimum deposit requirements of the casino’s welcome offer by double-checking this on the promotional or offers page of the site in question.
• Follow the On-screen Instructions: Follow the on-screen instructions to verify and complete the transaction. Your funds should almost instantly arrive in your player account, and your welcome bonus will be credited automatically by the casino as well.
• Contact Customer Support: If your welcome bonus isn’t credited to your account for some reason, our experts highly recommend you contact the casino’s customer support as soon as possible. Do not make any wagers yet. In most cases, if you haven’t placed any bets or made any wagers, the casino’s customer service staff will still be able to credit it to your account. Even if you forgot to select it or entered the wrong bonus code by mistake. The crucial part here is that you really mustn't place any bets yet. Even a single bet placed or single spin of an online slot game can void the rights to any welcome bonus.
• Play Your Favorite Games With Bonus Money: Now that you’ve received your welcome bonus, it is time to play your favorite slots and other casino games with it! Head over to the casino’s lobby and start the game you like by clicking on it. If you cannot find it initially, you can use the handy search feature or game filters to ease and/or narrow your search.

What Games Can I Play With it?

Although free spins offers can obviously only be used on slots, it is safe to assume that welcome bonuses in any other format can be used on practically all casino games. This includes slots, Roulette, Blackjack, bingo games, Baccarat, video poker, instant win games, and crash games.

Slots

Most casino bonuses can perfectly be used in combination with online slot games. These games often have their own built-in bonuses as well, such as free spins, expanding wilds, jackpots, and even entire mini bonus games. If you want to get the most out of an online casino’s welcome bonus, we highly recommend playing slots.

Roulette

Although some casinos prohibit the use of bonus funds on Roulette, we strongly suggest you play Roulette games if these are available for play with an active bonus. The reason for this is that you are completely in control of your chances every game round, which allows for more efficient bankroll management.

Blackjack

Blackjack is perhaps the de facto best game to play with an active bonus if the casino allows you to play it. The reason behind this is that Blackjack has always been the game with the highest odds of winning for the player. It is often higher than 48%, which makes for great chances of winning when playing with bonus funds.

Bingo Games

You may not find casino welcome bonuses in the form of free bingo tickets every day. But some online bingo halls and gambling sites give bonuses to new players that can be used on bingo, keno, and other lottery games. If you like the social aspect of these kinds of games, we highly recommend playing them with an active casino bonus. In most cases, your chances of winning per bingo ticket stay the same anyway, greatly reducing your costs of playing whilst still having decent chances of winning.

Baccarat or Punto Banco

We must be very honest with you: welcome bonuses usable on Baccarat or Punto Banco games are extremely rare. The reason for this is actually the same as is the case for Blackjack. The house edge on Baccarat variants is just so low that casinos tend to avoid giving players bonuses that can be used on these games. If you happen to find a casino bonus that is usable on Baccarat, Punto Banco, Sic Bo, Bac Bo, or any other form of Baccarat or Baccarat-style game, you should definitely go for it.

Video Poker

Video poker games are another type of casino game where the player is in total control of his or her own chances of winning. Added to this, video poker games, such as Deuces Wild, Joker Poker, and Jacks or Better, often have high RTP ratios in the 98% zone. This obviously makes for highly efficient games when played with an active casino bonus.

Instant Win Games

Instant win games is a general game category at online casinos and gambling sites that often consists of fast-paced games. Examples are online scratch cards and so-called ‘’crash games.’’ Crash games are often featured at crypto-friendly casinos and refer to an airplane, blip, or other flying object that will ‘’crash’’ at one point during the game.

Before the vehicle in question crashes, a multiplier will start going up rapidly. The goal of these games is to “jump out” or “escape” the vehicle before it crashes and thereby cashing in on the multiplier offered.

Crash games are often not available to players with an active welcome bonus. The simple reason is that players can control their own odds even more accurately than with let’s say Blackjack or Roulette.

If you happen to find an online casino that allows you to play instant win games, such as scratch cards, minesweeper games, Plinko, or crash games, you should definitely take advantage of this opportunity.

The Terms and Conditions

Most casino welcome bonuses come with terms and conditions attached to them, also called the bonus terms. In most cases, the most important clause of these welcome offers is their wagering requirements.

Bonus Wagering Requirements

Although they are definitely not something in favor of the player, but rather in favor of the casino or “the house,” they are in place so that people cannot just claim welcome bonuses and instantly withdraw these to their bank account, e-wallet, or cryptocurrency wallet.

In essence, wagering requirements state that you can only withdraw winnings derived from a certain casino bonus when you’ve wagered your received bonus funds an x amount of times. The industry standard is 35x, but there are also casinos with higher or lower wagering requirements. As a general rule of thumb: the lower the wagering requirements of a welcome bonus, the more in favor of the player.

Example: To illustrate and explain how the wagering requirements of bonuses work. Let’s say that there is a hypothetical online casino that gives new players a 100% welcome bonus up to CA$100 with 40x wagering requirements.

If you would deposit CA$100, your account balance will start at CA$200, consisting of CA$100 of your own money and CA$100 of the bonus funds. As you have received CA$100 on top of your own initial deposit, you will have to wager a total of CA$4,000 (CA$100 x 40) to be able to withdraw any winnings made.

Although this sounds like a very hard thing to do, you have to keep in mind that you have to wager a total of CA$4,000, which means all your bets and wagers cumulative are all added up, which actually goes way quicker than you might expect.

Some casino welcome bonuses, such as free spins and cashback bonuses, may be exempt from wagering requirements. In the case of free spins, we then speak of so-called “no wagering free spins,” because no wagering is required to be able to cash out the winnings made with them.

Apart from wagering requirements, casino welcome bonuses often have other terms and conditions that are of great importance as well. Let’s take a look at some of the most crucial terms in the section below.

Wagering Contribution Percentages

Not all wagers or bets placed on slot games and other casino games count in full for playing through the wagering requirements. In most scenarios, bets placed on table games, such as Blackjack, Baccarat, or Roulette, for instance, only count for between 10% and 25%.

This means that if we take the same example as above, a CA$10 bet on a hand of Blackjack will only count for between CA$1 and CA$2.50 for playing through the welcome bonus. Often, you can find more detailed information about the different wagering contribution percentages of specific game categories at the online casino’s promotional page. All the way at the bottom of its homepage or on its terms and conditions page.

Excluded Games

Another important clause to keep in mind is the excluded games section. In this section of the bonus terms and conditions, you will find the slots and other casino games that aren’t available for play while still playing through an active bonus. In other cases, you will be able to play these games, but any bets or wagers made on them won’t count for the playthrough of the casino’s welcome bonus.

Excluded games often include casino games with high RTP ratios. RTP stands for Return to Player and is a measurement of how profitable the game is for the casino and the player. Online slots have an average RTP of 96%, meaning that the house edge on these games is about 4%.

This is quite a large house edge, and for this reason, bets and wagers placed on slot machines will count in full for playing through casino bonuses, such as the welcome bonus. But, other classic games like Blackjack and Roulette have RTP ratios of 99.50% and 97.30%, respectively.

As the house edge is significantly smaller, bets and wagers placed on these games won’t count for the bonus playthrough (wagering requirements). Additionally, you will find that online slot machines with exceptionally high RTP ratios. Such as Bloodsuckers (98%), Starmania (97.87%), White Rabbit (97.72%), and Medusa Megaways (97.63%), are often fully excluded from play when still having an active welcome bonus or other form of casino bonus.

Betting Limits

In most cases, whenever you receive a casino welcome bonus, you cannot just bet any amount you want per spin, hand, or game round. Online casinos and gambling sites often have so-called betting limits in place.

As the name suggests, this means that you can only bet a certain amount of money per spin or round and that you cannot bet more than this. In some cases, it is perfectly possible to bet or wager higher than these betting limits, but you will find out that your bonus and its winnings will be void afterward.

Obviously, this is something that you want to avoid at all times and for this reason, you should always adhere to the betting limits an online casino has in place while still playing through an active bonus. In most scenarios, these betting limits are somewhere between CA$4 and CA$6 per spin or game round. We recommend checking the casino’s bonus terms and conditions to find out the exact maximum betting limit. If no information is given regarding a maximum betting limit, we strongly suggest you contact customer support. They should be able to tell you any maximum betting limits if these are in place.

Excluded Deposit Methods

Some deposit methods are excluded from receiving casino welcome bonuses. In most cases, these deposit methods include e-wallet deposits made through PayPal, Neteller, and Skrill. In some situations, cryptocurrency deposits are excluded from receiving bonuses as well at new online casinos.

For this reason, we suggest being 100% sure beforehand that your preferred payment method is eligible to receive casino welcome bonuses and other bonuses. It has no use trying to claim and redeem a generous welcome bonus by depositing with one of the excluded deposit methods. Even the customer support staff will tell you that you simply won’t be getting any bonus, even if you make another deposit with one of the eligible deposit methods afterward.

This has to do with the fact that the promotional budgets of online casinos are very well thought through. They simply cannot take the risk of granting a player a bonus when he or she has deposited with one of the excluded deposit methods.

Maximum Winnings or Maximum Bonus

Although a maximum winnings clause in any casino’s bonus terms and conditions is luckily quite rare. Some online casinos and gambling sites do have a maximum winnings rule in place that limits the bonus amount you can win. As the name suggests, these casinos set certain limits players can win by accepting their welcome bonus or other form of promotion.

For instance, a site might limit the maximum winnings to the height of the welcome bonus or at a certain multiplier of the player’s first deposit. But, our experts want to stipulate that online casino sites with a maximum winnings clause in their bonus terms and conditions should generally be avoided.

Expiry Times

Most casino bonuses, including even free spins, no deposit, and other forms of welcome bonuses, have expiration dates. This means that casino bonuses only stay valid for a certain time period. You have to use them or meet their requirements within this timeframe to make use of them.

In most cases, deposit bonuses stay valid for a period of 14, 21, or 30 days, while free spins often only last 24 to 72 hours. As you can see, free spins expire faster than deposit bonuses. If you’re being offered free spins by an online casino, you should use them as soon as possible - before they expire and are removed from your player account.

The same counts for casino bonuses, of course. If you happen to receive a 100% bonus up to CA$100 on your CA$100 deposit, you initially start with CA$200. However, if you don’t use the bonus funds at all, your balance may be reduced to CA$100 in a few weeks.

Our experts highly recommend never letting any promotion go to waste. Carefully read all the terms and conditions associated with your offer. Make sure beforehand that you have enough time to meet the wagering requirements and other requirements of the welcome bonus before it expires.

Luckily, some online casinos notify you whenever a welcome or other form of casino bonus is about to expire. This is great for players that don’t log into their accounts on a daily basis.

Minimum Age Requirement

At some online casinos, you have to have reached a certain age before being able to receive a welcome bonus. This is to prevent young adults from gambling with more money than they should and acts as a way to promote responsible gambling. You should always be at least 19 and in some cases 21 or 24 to claim and redeem a casino welcome bonus.

How to Play Through a Bonus?

Now that you know what bonus terms and conditions you can expect, it is time to discuss how you can play through them in the most hassle-free way possible.

As you will have to meet the wagering requirements of an online casino to withdraw the winnings made with your bonus, it is always good to know what strategies you can deploy to achieve just this.

The easiest way to play through a casino welcome bonus is by playing slots. The reason for this we already briefly discussed in the section above. Wagers and bets on slots often count in full for the so-called ‘’bonus playthrough’’.

But, there is a hidden trick online casinos don’t want you to know! Luckily our casino experts are seasoned online gambling fanatics and have found out all the tricks already so that you don’t have to.

The trick to playing through the wagering requirements of casino welcome bonuses is to play extremely low volatile slots only. The reason for this is that low volatility slots don’t pay big compared to other slots, but rather often.

You can use this constant stream of small winnings to your advantage. You simply use these winnings to keep wagering or betting and racking up the total amount wagered. Examples of great slots with extremely low volatility are NetEnt’s Starburst, 10 Swords by Push Gaming, Dr. Jekyll Goes Wild by NetEnt, Thunderkick’s Esqueleto Explosivo, Mr. Holmes and the Stolen Stones by Yggdrasil, and Thunderstruck 2 by Microgaming.

Welcome bonus Casinos Canada FAQ

As our experts receive a lot of questions about Canadian casino welcome bonuses via email and we want our comprehensive guides to be as inclusive as possible. We decided to take the time to answer the most frequently asked questions about Canadian casino welcome bonuses below.