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It’s the most wonderful time of the year, which means plenty of Christmas casino promotions are coming your way. Oh, and all the usual stuff of course - stockings, Slade’s terrible grammar, and wrestling tinsel off of cats.
We saw some cracking offers with promos such as casino Advent Calendars last year, so here’s hoping there’ll be similar bounties to claim this year. Good news: while Advent is already underway, there’s plenty of time left to capture a cracker-ing deal (sorry) - start with this possible £100 bonus at Bet365.
In short, they're offers that casinos introduce in December.
The longer version is, well, more of the same really. The basic principle is pretty simple: in order to tap into the festive good cheer, various casino operators launch a range of offers to hoour the holiday season.
Perhaps the most common of these offers is the Christmas advent calendar casino operators frequently provide; a relatively straightforward idea whereby you simply visit the site on each day of Advent and you'll be presented with a bonus offer to try. In most cases, the casino will place their Advent calendar front and centre on their site, so all you need to do is visit the homepage, click on the relevant section, and up pops the deal. You'll also find that, if you're on a casino mailing list, you'll be inundated with reminders about the online casino Advent calendar promotion that they are running - which, if a bit overwhelming, is at least a handy reminder not to miss a day.
Most operators tend to look for a bit of variety when selecting their Advent calendar offers, in the hope that every user will find at least a couple of gems are are applicable to their chosen preferences. In casino advent calendar 2018 and 2019 offers, we saw a good range from providers, with offers ranging from bonus spins, bonus cash after wagering a certain amount, matched deposit offers, random prize drops, and even extra loyalty or VIP points. Realistically, though, there's no limits to the scope of these deals, so if you decide to give an Advent calendar a try, expect to see a few surprises here and there too.
It's not just Advent calendar-style offers that fall into the classification of Casino Christmas offers. Other offers are similar to the bonuses and promos found throughout the rest of the year, but with a more "Christmas" spin. For example, it's not uncommon to see slot offers around this time of year that focus on the (seemingly endless number of) Christmas-themed slots. It's similar to how offers for Halloween-themed slots tend to appear around the 31st of October, or cutesy bunny slots become the focus around Easter - the actual offers themselves might be very similar to those found throughout the rest of the year, but the casino tips their hat at the relevant season and selects slots accordingly.
The Christmas promotions trend does tend to lean towards casinos predominantly, but there is hope for sports bettors with operators that offer both a sportsbook and a casino. You can sometimes that that combination operators will run an Advent calendar that provides offers across both areas, so some days you'll see a bonus spins or matched deposit deal for the casino, whereas the next day a bonus bet offer for the sportsbook will pop up. In our pick of the best Christmas promotions further down this piece, we'll highlight which operators are providing Advent calendars that cover sports and casino.
At Betting.co.uk, we know that promotions and offers can really help to enhance betting experiences - but we're also a big fan of encouraging our readers to do know their stuff. Jumping into a bonus just because it's a bonus is rarely the best way forward; it's always worth taking a moment to read through the terms and conditions before you decide to give it a try. Yes, T&Cs are boring and the legalese means you won't be in for the most exciting five minutes of your life as you scan through the info, but it's still an important step.
For one thing, reading the T&Cs means you'll know exactly how to qualify for the bonus offer found in a online casino Christmas promotion. Often, there's a minimum amount you'll have to wager, turnover requirements, or even a specific game or slot you have to use to qualify, so you need to know exactly what you're doing before you give it a go. No one wants to find themselves playing through a bonus spins offer, for example, only for their bonus spins to fail to materialise due to overlooking a quirk in the terms and conditions - a scenario that can be entirely prevented with a quick glance-through the basic terms.
What's more, reading the T&Cs provides the opportunity to evaluate if the offer is really suitable for you. Let's say, for example, you open up an online casino Advent calendar and up pops a bonus for use on table games. "Great!" you think, before taking a moment to glance through the details and remembering you're actually not that much of a table games fan, preferring slots. In such a scenario, you might be better off waiting for another day of the casino Advent calendar, which will hopefully produce an offer more to your liking; alternatively, you could decide to give it a try as you've always been curious about roulette or blackjack, and the offer means it could be worth now being the time to give them a try. Either way, you'll be making a well-informed decision rather than one based on the spur of the moment - and that's always a good thing.
So, now you've got all the background facts, you just need to know which of the seemingly endless number of operators that are running special promos throughout the month of December. Naturally, we've come to your aid by doing the research on your behalf, so here's our pick of the bunch...
We're big fans of NetBet here at Betting.co.uk; whether it's their cracking sports betting sign up offer or their well-designed and VIP-friendly casino, we feel this operator is something of an underrated gem on the UK market. We're therefore pleased to see NetBet are offering an Advent calendar for 2020; all you have to do is create an account (or use an existing one), log in, and then shake the snowball to see what's available that day.
A name like "32Red" makes it pretty clear that this operator is all about the casino (though they do offer a nice sports betting service too), so it's no surprise that we found a fantastic Advent calendar at their site. As with NetBet, you'll need to be signed in in order to play, but the Advent calendar works well and there's a few nice offers to be found - though be cautious, as all of the deals have a 24 hour expiry.
As noted above, combination operators often provide Advent calendar deals for both sports and casino - and Unibet is one such example. On the day of writing, we found a bonus bet offer for a Champions League fixture, but we've also seen casino promotions and even the occasional poker deal appear in recent years. As a result, if you're looking for a good mix of Advent calendar offers, Unibet is definitely one to watch.
There are a couple of bookmakers we want to highlight as having a strong reputation in providing Christmas promotions and whom we therefore believe are worth checking throughout the December period. The first of these is Betfair, an operator renowned for their provision of a range of bonus slot offers on a regular basis, and where we have previously found a range of Christmas-themed slot deals. These deals are usually fairly short lived, but checking the "Promotions" page of the Betfair casino just to see if there's anything available is definitely a good idea throughout December - especially given their standard, non-Christmas, sign up offer is a particularly impressive one.
Another operator we've seen feature Christmas-themed promotions in the past is Betway; a well-regarded provider with a great casino. There weren't any offers available when we checked, but Betway are known for their occasional deals, so we'd advise checking back to see if anything appears between now and Christmas Eve. And, like Betfair, they have a great casino sign up offer, so if you're a newcomer to the company, you might want to consider registering an account even sans-Christmas deals.
It wouldn't be a Betting.co.uk article without an inclusion of a few of our top tips, so let's jump right in...
Online casino Christmas promotion deals can absolutely be worth doing, and we hope the points above will provide that extra boost that ensures your December betting has a little extra festive fun this year!
For advice on online casinos and their fantastic bonuses offered throughout the rest of the year, be sure to take a look at our online casino with fast payouts and live casino bonus UK guides!
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