Recreational players lose longterm, so they are very valuable customers for any bookmaker, they make you the money. With very competitive odds, you attract some pro-ish players and they will just give you headaches and probably bad publicity. So what do you do ? You lower the odds to get rid of the pro players. But you can't lower the odds too much - they have to be good enough to keep the recreational players interested in betting with your company.

Those losing recreational players are not happy with losing of course, but they will always continue for either being addicted or just enjoying betting, without caring all too much about their losses. To keep them more happy/satisfied and give them some incentive to bet with you, you give them some candy. That is freebets, the price boost you were talking about, all these promos. Make them feel welcomed, take care of them, engage with them and they will be happy customers despite losing. For them it doesn't matter, where they lose their money - they will stay at the place, where they get the most candy. Give them a good customer support on top, a good UI (something which Sportsbet still lacks a bit imo) fast and reliable payouts (for their withdrawals that happen too from time to time) and you have a money (or BTC) printing machine.