Sports bonuses are a big part of online sports betting. At any established US sportsbook, you will receive promotional offers and optional bonuses to give you a shot at hitting big money. But bonus cash is not the same as a sportsbook just giving away real money.
Real cash is money that you can cash out, send to your bank account, and do with what you will. Bonus cash is money that is locked, and you must clear the playthrough requirements to unlock that money. Whatever remains after you have cleared all wagering requirements becomes real cash, that is yours to keep.
Sports Bonus Terms and Conditions
All bonuses have terms and conditions, even at the best US online sportsbooks. The bonus conditions vary heavily on factors such as the monetary value of the bonus and what sports or types of bets the bonus can be used for. Bonuses can start as little as a $10 bonus bet up to a $1,000 welcome bonus and loads more. Generally, the bonuses you receive for signing up at a sportsbook are the biggest offers you can get, and from there on you will receive recurring offers.
Some bonuses are offered to promote a single sports event. Typically, in the days preceding the World Series, Super Bowl or the NBA Finals, sportsbooks offer great bonuses on the big games, to encourage bettors to spend more on the finals. They can also do this for college sports events, every week for the regular season of NBA or NFL, and for loads of other important sports events.
Then, there are bonuses that do not relate to a specific event, and can be used on any game or sports event that you want to bet on. These are good for bettors who want to dabble in niche sports betting or make inter-sports parlays, combining (for example) NFL, NBA and MLB games into one betting combination.
How Playthrough Requirements Work
Also called wagering requirements, playthrough requirements are the number of times your bonus needs to be played before it becomes legal tender. Some typical playthrough requirements are 1x, 3x, 5x, 30x, 35x and 40x. Higher playthrough requirements means you need to bet your bonus money more times to become cash. The smaller the playthrough requirements, the better for you, because it is easier to clear the requirements and unlock your returns.
1x or 3x playthrough requirements don’t sound that bad, as it means you only need to play your bonus money once or a handful of times, but when the requirements go up to 30x or higher, it is much harder to turn that bonus into real money. But fear not, at sports betting sites you generally don’t get such high playthrough requirements. The stricter conditions are generally applied at online casinos, and playthrough requirements are different at sweepstakes casinos (social casinos).
Typical Playthrough Requirements
Sports Bonuses: 1x
Social Casinos/Sweepstakes Casino Bonuses: 3x, 5x
Online Casino Bonuses: 30x, 35x, 40x
Casino games are a different world to sports betting entirely. For one, a $100 bonus can be spent to fund one hundred $1 spins on a slot machine, which the player can finish within 20 minutes (on autoplay on a fast spin setting). On the other hand, placing 100 bets would take even the most efficient bettor a good long while. Casinos just run differently to sportsbooks, as each game has different RTP, volatility and max payouts, whereas sports betting is all about probability and prices of the odds. Luck is definitely involved in both.
In terms of casino cash bonuses, if you have to clear a 30x playthrough requirement, it means you will have to spend the equivalent of 30 times the bonus
- You receive a $100 bonus with 30x playthrough requirements
- The $100 needs to be spent 30 times (in total, you bet $3,000)
- Once the 30x requirement is completed, the remainder of the bonus is unlocked (if there is any remainder after playing through 30x)
You need to basically win plenty, and keep staking the money until you have staked $3,000 from that $100 bonus cash. Again, these requirements are more straightforward to clear in casino games, and generally, sportsbooks don’t offer cash bonuses with playthrough requirements – they give you bonus bets. Back to playthrough requirements, at sportsbooks, the bonus conditions generally don’t require you to play your bonus numerous times. These bonuses have different wagering requirements relating to the type of bet, odds, and various other conditions that your wager must comply with.
Typical Wagering Requirements
Sports bonuses tend to come with similar terms and conditions at the top US sportsbooks. Playthrough requirements are not really applied, (which is what we mean when we say 1x playthrough – you just need to bet the money once), but your bet must qualify in order for the bonus to be used. If one of the conditions does not meet the requirements, then the bonus will not be applied.
This can happen in one of two ways. Either, you won’t be able to stake the bonus on your wager, or if your bet has settled but it didn’t meet the requirements, then the bonus will be rescinded on that wager, and you will receive the bonus back (if it hasn’t already expired).
These wagering requirements relate to the following aspects.
- The bonus stake is not yours to keep
- The time bonus is valid for
- Minimum odds/Maximum payout
- Constraints on parlay/round robin/system bets
- Only certain betting markets are accepted (limitations on player/prop bets)
- Hedge betting is forbidden
- Cashed out bets are not accepted
- Voided bets don’t qualify
- Pushed bets don’t qualify (in some cases, your bonus is lost)
- Only pregame (no outrights or live bets)
First and foremost, the bonus bet itself is not yours to keep. When you receive a sports bonus bet, it basically means your sportsbook will fund the stake on your chosen wager. When the bet settles, the stake will return to the sportsbook, and you will keep the winnings (if your bet won). Sportsbooks generally offer bonus bets, and casinos offer bonus cash or bonus slots spins.
When you receive your bonus, you should quickly check to see how long it is valid for. Sometimes, you only get 1 week, in which case, the weekend NFL games, or next round of English Premier League soccer fixtures may be just too far away in the future. Especially when we consider the possibility of a game getting delayed or canceled – resulting in a voided bet. Don’t play the long game here, it is better to find a wager that can settle in the next few days, and you can claim your reward nice and early.
As for the odds, sportsbooks generally require your wager to be at least -200 or longer. There may also be maximum constraints on the amount of money that you can win. Be sure to check these and make sure your bet qualifies. It leads onto our next topic, the usage of parlays or other multiple leg bets. In some cases, parlay bets may be allowed, but the sportsbooks may restrict round robins, teasers, system bets, and other betting combinations.
Matched betting, which is when you place a hedge bet against your bonus bet to guarantee a profit regardless of the outcome of a game, is strictly forbidden. Any operator that suspects you of hedging your bets or using an arbitrage betting strategy, can rescind your bonus and even go as far as to suspend your account or to ban you from the platform. If you get a bonus bet, you are not allowed to place a contrasting bet on the same line. Last but not least, you shouldn’t cash out your bonus bet. Cashed out bets are invalid, and therefore your bonus will be rescinded.
Rescinded bonuses are generally given back to you unless they have expired at that point.
How to Calculate your Wagering Requirements
One of best things any bettor could do is calculating the wagering requirements that come with your sports betting bonuses. It might seem very complicated on the surface, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a straightforward process.
One of the most common types of bonus offer you will receive from an online sportsbook is a free bet or cash bonus. Cash bonuses are given by sportsbooks to encourage players to continue betting more. Players will tend to sign up at an online betting site that have generous bonuses and promotions, but they won’t look at the details and requirements associated with those offers.
So, a 10x wagering requirement means the bettor has to bet ten times the bonus the sportsbook has given. The same applies for 25x, 30x and so on.
Best US Sportsbooks for Bonuses
Established sportsbooks are your best friends when it comes to sports bonuses. While there may be some offshore platforms that offer seemingly bigger bonuses or more lucrative offers, they usually come with stricter conditions. Don’t complicate your life, stick with a reliable US sportsbook that has clear bonus conditions.
These local operations also have bespoke US customer support, so you can reach out to an agent at any time to ask questions about the bonus. Beyond bonus bets, the sportsbooks also offer big welcome bonuses, regular odds boosts or parlay boosters, and a myriad of quality perks. They also have sportsbook referral programs so you can bring in friends to get more bonuses.
