Bonuses, special sweepstakes, drawings and a host of other promotions have proven to be a constant for New Jersey’s online gambling sites as a way to keep players excited and engaged. While those promotions are always in play, there is one time when many sites go that extra mile to attract players.

Namely, when you first sign up to play online at a specific site.

Every site in New Jersey—not to mention Nevada and Delaware—offers a welcome package, which usually comes with a free bonus and a special deposit match.

But for some sites, that deposit match can be a pretty hefty gift to players.

What’s a deposit match? Let’s use Betfair.com as an example. Betfair offers the largest deposit match in New Jersey at up to $1,500.

Open only to new players, Betfair will match your first deposit to the site with bonus dollars. If your initial deposit is $50, you’ll get an additional $50 in bonus dollars. If the deposit is $843, you get $843 in bonus dollars and so on until you reach $1,500.

There are wagering requirements on the bonus dollars, of course—on Betfair.com you have to wager 20 times the bonus before the money can be withdrawn. Meanwhile, you can keep playing with any winnings from the bonus dollars.

Basically, bonus dollars are free bets. If you win, you’ll be able to cover the wagering requirements. If you lose, well, it was a free bet to begin with.

Other notable first deposit matches in New Jersey are:

GoldenNuggetcasino.com – Matches any first deposit over $30 up to $1,000. The wagering requirement is 5x deposit + bonus.

Palacasino.com – Matches your first deposit to $500. The wagering requirement is 10x the bonus.

888poker.com – Matches your first deposit up to $888. For online poker sites, the welcome bonus is tied to earning status and loyalty points. 888poker releases $10 increments of your bonus as you play and earn status points. The bonus is then treated as cash.

Most remaining deposit matches range from $100 to $300. While they all carry wagering requirements, the idea is to give the new player a nice bankroll to get started.

Hard to see the downside in that.