Now that we’ve got the Asian handicap explained and the cover spread explained, it’s time for us to move onto the rollover. Competition between bookmakers is fierce and every one of them wants you to register and get your valuable betting cash. To sweeten the deal, bookies load their sites with promotions, all offering you incredible welcome bonuses, risk-free betting, extra bets, bonus bets… basically, they want you to think you’re getting something for nothing. But, when it comes to bonuses, things aren’t as wonderful as they first seem. Welcome to the world of the sportsbook rollover bonus. With our rollover betting tips, we’re going to answer your questions, we’re going to show you just how do sportsbook rollovers work and help you decide whether or not to take that bonus.
Every single bonus and promotion offered by any online bookmaker has a set of rules attached. They’re called the wagering requirements and are fully spelt out for you in the small print of the terms and conditions. And if you don’t fully understand just how these essential wagering requirements work, you’re not going to be able to take full advantage of the bonus, and might even lose any winnings you make from the bonus!
But, with our rollover betting tips, we’ll take you through the ins and outs of rollover bonus jargon, help you understand how do sportsbook rollovers work, and make sure you’re in a great position to not only take the bonus, but also get hold of all those lovely bonus winnings!
When you take a welcome bonus or any bonus, you may see in the small print that there are wagering requirements. This is the rollover in sports betting. Essentially, you’ll see that any bonus has a number attached, always as some form of multiple; it might be 5x rollover, 10 times rollover, maybe even 50x, but it means the same thing, the rollover number is the number of times you need to wager the bonus cash you’ve taken before any winnings generated by that bonus cash are freed up and available for you to withdraw.
Let’s say you’ve seen great looking bonuses at betting sites with a 5 pound deposit that offer you a 100% matched first deposit welcome bonus up to £100. So, for every £10 you deposit, the bookie gives you £10 to use as you want. Right? Well, not necessarily. If you look at the terms of the bonus, you may find there’s up to a 30x rollover attached.
What this means is that, were you to deposit the minimum £10 to get £10 bonus, you need to wager 30x that bonus of £10 (that’s £300 of your money!) before any winnings from the bonus £10 are available to withdraw. If you max out the bonus and deposit £100 to get £100 in bonus cash, you’d need to wager £3,000 of your cash!
Now you see why the rollover bonus figure is so important, especially when you consider that 30x rollover isn’t the highest we’ve seen!
Sadly, it’s beyond the scope of this rollover explained article to give you a definitive answer as to which bookmaker out there has the best rollover in sportsbook betting when looking at their bonuses. The reason we can’t give you a definitive best bookie in our rollover betting tips is because all bookmakers change their bonus offers regularly and each new bonus may well have a different rollover.
What we can do, in our rollover explained guide, is to take you through the various factors that you need to consider when taking a bonus, including what restrictions the bookmaker might try to place upon you. We can also give you not only our advice on an ideal set of rollover requirements but give you some rollover betting tips about the best ways to ensure you always fulfil the requirements so you can get hold of all those lovely winnings!
Yes, looking through the terms and conditions of every bonus you’re considering is essential, but don’t just stop when you get to the rollover bonus figure. When it comes to the rollover in sports betting, the vast majority of them have extra restrictions to consider.
A bonus usually has a time limit for you to meet the rollover requirement. This can be, in our experience, as short as 3 days and as long as 30 days. And that makes a huge difference to your sportsbook rollover strategy. For example, if you’re playing with a 10 times rollover for a £20 bonus and generally bet about £100 a week, your normal betting pattern would mean you’d take two weeks to clear the wagering rollover requirement. So, taking anything less than a 14 day rollover time limit would need to be carefully considered. Rushing your betting to clear rollover in a short time limit is a guaranteed way to make poor betting decisions and end up losing cash!
The other main thing to consider with your sportsbook rollover strategy is any odds restrictions. You’ll often see bookmakers specify that only bets above certain odds count towards the rollover. The higher these odds, the more restrictive and difficult it is to really use the bonus effectively. It’s the bookies’ way to stop you backing favourites with your bonus cash. As a general rule, anything over odds of 2/1 (3.00) is, in our view, far too restrictive on your betting. At that point it doesn’t matter how great the rollover is or how long you have to reach the rollover. The odds are simply against you.
Other restrictions exist, including some bookies who enforce a policy of no withdrawals for a certain number of days after the time limit has expired, and even some bookies who have a cap on the winnings allowed from your bonus.
Sometimes a deal can simply be too good to be true. And there are, definitely, times when that is true of some of the deposit bonus offers advertised by online bookmakers. The figures you can, potentially, get in bonus cash are huge. But, before taking them on, you really need to stop and think – can you afford it?
By that, of course, we mean can you fulfil all of the rollover requirements. Can you afford to bet the rollover amount? Can you bet the rollover amount in the time limit given? And can you make good bets if you are limited to high odds to qualify toward the rollover amount?
All of this depends on your position, of course, but whether you’re a £10 per week bettor or a £500 a week high-roller, it’s always worth doing the maths. What’s the point of taking a £600 bonus at 10x wagering requirement and 7 day time limit when that would mean you’d need to wager £6,000 in a week? Far better for both the £10 a week bettor and the high roller to limit their bonus. Take just £10 perhaps, that would mean you’d only need to spend £100 in the week to fulfil the rollover wagering requirements.
Or, perhaps you should just ignore the bonus altogether? It’s far better to ignore the bonus if taking it would either force you to overspend on your betting budget or would prove practically impossible to fulfil the rollover conditions!
In terms of the rollover explained, there are the three factors to take into account; the rollover multiple (2x, 3x, 5x, etc,), the time limit on fulfilling the requirements, and any minimum odds that contribute to the wagering requirements.
Obviously, the ideal combination of these will depend on your particular betting patterns and budget. If you bet around £10 a week, your requirements are far different to those who regularly bet £100 or more per week. However, the one principle to stick to is this; no matter how tempting the bonus seems, always calculate how much it’s going to cost you and how long it will take you to spend the wagering requirement. Also never, ever commit to spending more than you can afford to lose.
However, as a general rule, we say nothing above 5x should be really considered, although real high rollers might consider 10x if they can afford it. Similarly, we’d always say that you should be completely ignoring bonuses with time limits of less than 30 days and odds restrictions above 2/1 (3.00).
For more advice on betting techniques, take a look at our corner betting and double chance betting guides!
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