Bonuses and Wagering Requirement

Thanks to the many leading online casinos, the online gambling industry is rapidly expanding. The demand for online games is on the rise as more and more players opt for this type of entertainment. It is no surprise that this is the case since online casinos offer a number of advantages. Without doubt, one of the best things about these casino websites is that they feature various types of bonuses, some of which are even exclusive to online users. If you take advantage of these special deals, you will be able to enhance your gambling experience significantly and have a great time without even having to leave your home.

Thanks to the available bonuses the online casinos offer, you can enjoy your favourite game for much longer. In addition, in skill-based games such as blackjack, in order to manage to apply your strategy correctly and make a profit, you need to be able to stay long enough in the game until a winning streak occurs. At first glance, all types of bonuses seem like nothing but a brilliant way to boost your casino balance. However, this is not always the case as every available bonus has wagering requirements which determine to a huge extent whether it is truly beneficial or not.

Types of Casino Bonuses

Since online casinos offer various deals and bonuses to allure as many players as possible, it is no wonder that there are several types of bonuses available in almost every casino website. Even though every online casino features exclusive promotions and bonuses, there are several types which are universal as they are offered by almost every casino website. They include Welcome Bonus, No Deposit Bonuses, High Roller Bonuses, Refer-a-Friend Bonuses, Regular Bonuses, Preferred Payment Bonus and others. Generally speaking, there is a suitable bonus for all types of players, regardless of their betting habits and gaming style.

Welcome Bonus

The Welcome Bonus or otherwise known as Sign-up Bonus, is undoubtedly the most widespread type of bonus. As its name indicates, this bonus is available exclusively to new players when they join the casino platform for the first time. In order to be able to take advantage of it, you are required to make a deposit whose minimum amount is usually set in advance. Depending on the terms and conditions of the bonus, it can apply either only on your first deposit or on your first three or four deposits.

This type of bonus is usually shown in percentages along with the maximum amount you are able to get from it if you manage to meet the set requirements. For instance, some online casinos offer a welcome bonus of 100% up to £300, meaning that if you deposit £100, the casino will give you the same sum as a bonus. This type of bonus is also known as a Match Bonus due to the fact that it matches the amount of your first deposit.

No Deposit Bonus

Another very popular type of bonus that is offered by various online casinos is the No Deposit Bonus. As its name hints, in order to take advantage of it, you aren’t required to make any deposit. The amount of these free funds depends on the casino of your choice, but in general it is much smaller than in the welcome bonus since you don’t have to deposit any money. Thanks to this type of bonus, you are given the opportunity to try the respective online casino and determine whether it suits your needs or not without risking your own funds.

High Roller Bonus

It is fairly easy to guess the meaning behind this type of bonus as its name is quite transparent. In general, it is suitable for players who have the means to deposit a substantial amount. Usually, the required amount is around £1000-£1500 and in some cases, it is worth investing so much money as later on the same sum is added to your casino account. If you are an avid player whose betting style is more extreme, this bonus is a great way to double your initial funds.

Refer-a-Friend Bonus

With this type of bonus, the online casinos aim at promoting their website and attract more players. If you invite a friend who is willing to register and make a deposit at the respective online casino, you will be rewarded with a particular amount. This way, you have the opportunity to not only play a casino game with your friends but also get some money for doing so.

Bonuses for Depositing with Certain Payment Methods

Bonuses are sometimes offered for depositing with specific payment methods. Some online casinos prefer to process players’ funds, for one reason or another, by using a particular payment solution. As a result, they encourage their customers to deposit with the respective payment method by offering them a bonus. Therefore, it is a good idea to check these payment methods beforehand to decide whether they correspond to your individual needs.

Regular Bonuses

Some online casinos offer bonuses on a regular basis, meaning that at a particular time every week or month you are able to take advantage of them. Furthermore, if you are a regular customer, the chances that you will be sent special offers on your email regularly are quite high. In general, the more you play real-money games, the more you will be eligible to exclusive bonuses. For the players who frequently place substantial bets, most online casinos organize special events and VIP programmes as a gesture of appreciation.

Wagering Requirements

As already mentioned, every online casino bonus has wagering requirements, also known as playthrough or turnover requirements. The terms and conditions of the respective bonus are an important aspect you should always consider before you opt in for any promotional incentive. Wagering requirements vary, depending on the online casino and the type of bonus.

Remote gambling operators impose them to protect themselves against bonus abuse and bonus hunting. With no wagering requirements in place, there would be nothing to prevent players from claiming bonuses and withdrawing them immediately after redemption without placing any real-money wagers.

Some bonuses are cashable but only after you have met their wagering requirements. Others still have a playthrough attached to them but can only be used for betting purposes and are impossible to withdraw. In some cases, before you can use your bonus, you are required to wager the deposit amount as well as the bonus amount. It is indicative that such strict conditions render many bonuses disadvantageous to players.

Therefore, it is really important to consider the playthrough requirements in advance. For instance, if the playthrough of a particular bonus is set at 30x and the bonus amount is £150, you are required to wager the bonus value 30 times before you can withdraw it. From this, it follows that the lower the wagering requirements, the better for the player.

Calculating the Playthrough of Deposit Match Bonuses

Calculating the amount of money you must wager to release the free credits from your bonus balance is a matter of simple mental calculation, at least in most cases. Several factors bear consideration, including the playthrough, the bonus amount, and whether the triggering deposit is included in the wagering requirements.

What follows is an example from the UKGC-licensed 32Red Casino which currently offers a 150% bonus match on first deposits. Kudos to the operator for laying out the terms attached to its welcome offer in a clear and unambiguous manner, which is not always the case with some other casinos. Let’s unpack the other conditions related to the welcome bonus in question.

• First deposits qualify for a 150% bonus match capped at £150.
• Wagering requirements of 50x are attached to the bonus amount only.
• Slot, slingo, scratchcards, and keno contribute 100% to clearing the wagering.
• Players must use their welcome bonuses within one week of qualification.
• The minimum qualifying deposit for obtaining the bonus is set at £10.

The deposit amount is not included in the wagering requirements in this case, so you can calculate your playthrough by using the following formula:

Assuming you trigger the bonus with a minimum deposit of £10, the total amount you must wager to clear the playthrough will be equal to £750 (£15 x 50). A £50 deposit qualifies for a £75 bonus, in which case you must wager £3,750 (£75 x 50) in total before you can request a withdrawal. Players who obtain the maximum bonus of £150 with a £100 deposit must place £7,500 (£150 x 50) in bets to meet their wagering requirements.

This playthrough might seem difficult to clear but this should be no issue for customers who play regularly. We would like to point out that the above calculations are applicable to bets placed on games with a 100% contribution to the playthrough.

Online slots, keno, slingo, scratchcards, and other instant win games typically all belong to this category but you better double-check the game weightings when playing at a different casino. The calculations will run differently when you play games with a lower weighting as you shall see shortly. The formula is slightly modified when the playthrough includes the triggering deposit.

Here is a hypothetical example of how the calculations will run if triggering deposits are added to the equation. The turnover is again set at 50x. Assuming a player has triggered a 150% match bonus with a £10 deposit, they must spend £1,250 (£15 + £10) x 50 before they request a withdrawal, or else the online casino will forfeit the bonus credits. Respectively, a higher deposit of £50 will trigger a £75 bonus, in which case the overall amount required to clear the playthrough will jump to £6,250 (£75 + £50) x 50.

Calculating the Playthrough of Free Spins Bonuses

Free spins are commonly awarded to online casino players, either individually or as part of the welcome bundles. This type of bonus provides customers with the opportunity to test new slot releases in a risk-free manner but is not associated with a specific cash amount. Wagering requirements are again in place but the playthrough multiplier applies only to the winnings players have generated with their free spins. It makes sense players must use a different formula to calculate the amount they must wager to turn over the winnings from their bonus balance.

By means of example, we shall assume you claim a bundle of 10 free spins on NetEnt’s Starburst slot. You play through your bonus rounds and are lucky enough to generate £25 in winnings. To convert the profits into cash, you must bet them 30 times over. The total amount you must wager would be equal to £750.

Game Weightings

As we previously noted, not all games have an equal contribution to the playthrough. Known as game weighting, this is another subtlety you should take into account so that you can play the games that will help you clear the playthrough quickly. All this valuable information is included in the terms and conditions of the respective bonus.

The game weighting bears consideration because it impacts the overall amount you must bet to convert your bonus into cash or betting credits. The lower the weighting, the more wagers you must place to turn your bonus over. Remote gambling operators tend to attach higher playthrough contributions to games that carry greater house edges, and vice versa.

The games that yield minuscule house edges gravitating around half a percent or less are sometimes completely excluded, and either have zero contribution to the playthrough or are prohibited to play with active bonuses. It all depends on the policies of the respective gambling operator. The table below contains the playthrough contribution percentages of the different categories of games available at 32Red and 888casino.

Let’s back our example up with some calculations that hopefully will make things easier to comprehend. The simplest way to determine how these reductions will affect the wagering requirements is to first calculate the overall playthrough on games with full contribution, i.e 100%. We already did this for 32Red, so we shall use the figures from our original example where players must wager £7,500 to clear the 50x wagering requirements of a £150 welcome bonus.

To figure out the amount you must wager on games with lower weightings, we must divide the overall playthrough of full-contribution games by the reduced percentages expressed in a decimal format. As you can see below, the amounts you must turn over are significantly higher when you play low-contribution games at 32Red.

• £7,500 / 0.5 = £15,000 for house-banked poker
• £7,500 / 0.1 = £75,000 for French roulette, pontoon, baccarat, etc.
• £7,500 / 0.2 = £37,500 for other roulette games
• £7,500 / 0.02 = £375,000 for All Aces video poker, Atlantic City Blackjack, Casino Hold ‘Em, etc.

As the calculations above indicate, there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell to clear the wagering requirements of your bonus while playing games with a 2% contribution. Few, if any players, can afford to pour £375,000 into an online casino within such a short timeframe. From this perspective, playing slots is the best course of action for those who intend to claim online casino bonuses.

Calculating the Value of Online Casino Bonuses

Seasoned players often hunt for offers that yield higher value and typically identify them by looking at the attached terms and conditions. This enables them to determine whether they can profit from or break even with a given bonus. The house edges of the games also bear consideration and the bonuses must be cashable rather than sticky. You can use the following formula to establish whether the bonus you are interested in offers good value.

Let’s assume you have claimed the £150 bonus at the casino from our original example where you must wager £7,500 on online slots, keno, or scratchcards to fulfil the playthrough requirements. Your calculations will run as follows: Break Even Point = 150 / 7,500 = 0.02. You can convert the result into a percentage by multiplying it by 100.

It follows that you must play slots or keno games that yield a house edge of no more than 2% (98% RTP) to break even with this welcome bonus. The rest of the games that qualify for bonus play must carry even lower house edges for you to break even under these bonus conditions. Here are the exact figures we arrived at:

• House-banked poker: (150 / 15,000) x 100 = 0.01 x 100 = 1%
• French Roulette, pontoon, baccarat, etc: (150 / 75,000) x 100 = 0.002 x 100 = 0.2%
• Other roulette games: (150 / 37,500) x 100 = 0.004 x 100 = 0.4%
• All Aces, Atlantic City Blackjack, Casino Hold ‘Em, etc: (150 / 375,000) x 100 = 0.0004 x 100 = 0.04%

Assuming you are reluctant to go through these mental gymnastics, you can always skip on the maths and use a bonus value calculator like the one featured in the screenshot below.

Other Bonus Terms to Consider

Bear in mind that most bonuses have limited validity and are removed from players’ accounts after expiration. Players who fail to meet the wagering requirements within the designated timeframe will have their bonuses voided. Welcome offers are restricted to one bonus per customer, account, email, residential address, and IP. Players who violate this rule are typically labelled bonus abusers and are disqualified from further participation in promotions.

Most online casinos also restrict customers to one active bonus at a time, meaning that you cannot claim multiple offers at the same time. Restrictions are imposed on the maximum amounts customers can bet while playing with a bonus. Placing higher wagers than what is allowed normally leads to bonus forfeiture.

Last but not least, certain deposit methods are sometimes excluded from bonus redemption. The casino will not credit the free monies to your account if you have deposited with a disqualified payment solution even if you have met the minimum deposit requirements. In the case of 32Red, only new players who deposit with debit cards are eligible for welcome bonuses.

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