You may have heard this term, specific to the online sportsbooks and betting websites, namely “rollover”, and it’s only natural to immediately google the word to find out what it means. As luck would have it, you ended up here, where we will explain rollover, what it means and how it pertain to online sports betting.
Even though the term is closely associated with sports betting, one would never hear it outside the Internet, for example, this would never be mentioned at the Vegas sportsbooks, since it is elusively related to bonus offers. Read on, as we explain rollover at the online sportsbooks.
[alert variation=”alert-info”]What is rollover?[/alert]
Simply put, “rollover” is a wagering requirement that comes attached to a bonus offer at an internet sportsbook. Let’s dive a bit deeper to see what exactly this means.
All sports betting sites these days offer some kind of bonus for their customers, whether it would be a welcome bonus for new players or a reload bonus for current customers. Started as a way for the gambling websites (not limited to sports betting) to attract customers and to distinguish their company from others, the bonuses, especially the welcome bonus, i.e. those given to new customers when they open a sportsbook account for the first time, have become a must with all online sportsbooks. And while all of those bonuses are considered an equivalent to real money and they can be withdrawn, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that there should be some method to prevent fraud. Namely, one could simply deposit, get the bonus and then request a payout, without placing a single bet.
This is where the rollover requirement comes into play. Basically, the sportsbook attach a predetermined amount of wagers one must place, before one can request a payout of the bonus money received. This protects the sportsbooks from fraudulent players, while at the same time it gives them the opportunity to offer this type of promotion to both new and existing customers.
[alert variation=”alert-info”]How rollover works?[/alert]
So, one may immediately ask: “How does the bonus rollover work at the betting sites?”. Fair question, let’s look at how does the rollover work. First, we should note that the rollover is tied to a particular bonus offer. In other words, different bonus offers will have different rollover requirements, even when they are at the same betting website. With this in mind, let’s see how the rollover is calculated by using a fictitious example:
Let’s say that an online sportsbook is advertising a welcome bonus of 100% match up to $500 with 10x rollover deposit + bonus. Now, let’s briefly discuss what those numbers mean. The “100% match” means that the bonus is dependent on a deposit and the sportsbook will match that deposit. For instance, if you deposited $100, the sportsbook will automatically add another $100 to your bankroll. Next, the “up to $500” means that the maximum amount you can get for free is capped at $500, so if you were to deposit $600, even though the bonus is 100% match, because of that cap, you would get only $500 extra as a bonus. And finally, we get to the meat and potatoes of the offer – the 10x rollover.
Now, in this example, there are two parts we need to look at, when we talk about the rollover requirement. The first is the “10x” part, read as “ten times” and not “ten eks”. This shows you the size of the rollover, in this case ten times. That is directly related to the second part, which is “deposit plus bonus”. At this point, some of you may have already guessed how the rollover works, but let’s explain and calculate. In a nutshell, the online sportsbook is saying that this bonus comes with the requirement that you place wagers in the amount equal to or greater that ten times the amount of the deposit and bonus combined. For example, if we were to deposit $100, we would end up with another $100 in free money, for the total of $200. With a 10x rollover, we must wager 10 x 200 = 2,000, i.e. $2,000 worth of bets, before we can withdraw our winnings. As you can see, calculating the rollover is not really all that hard, if you know basic math, you can calculate the rollover requirement in a second.
Of course, this was just a made up example, to help you understand how does the rollover work. In our example, for instance, the percentage matched (100% match) is a bit on the high side (good for the player), while the rollover at 10x is a bit high (bad for the player). Most legit sportsbooks wouldn’t offer a bonus like this. Let’s look at the current bonus offer for new customers at Bookmaker, our top rated sportsbook, as a real-life example. Currently this betting site is offering new players 25% cash bonus up to $500 with 8x rollover deposit + bonus. As you can see, the match percentage is not as high as in our made-up example, but the rollover is lower, at just 8 times deposit plus bonus. Coincidentally, this online sportsbook also offers an alternative bonus, which reads as follows: 50% match up to $500 with 15x deposit + bonus rollover. In this case, the match amount is higher, but so is the rollover requirement. One can decide which promotion they would prefer, depending on how much they plan on betting. If you are in for the long term, let’s say the football season, you would be better off taking the highest match bonus (with the highest rollover), since over the long run, the rollover requirement would be easily satisfied.
[alert variation=”alert-info”]Rollover: Things to consider[/alert]
Now that you know how the rollover works and you can calculate it, there are a few things one should consider, not only when calculating the rollover, but when comparing bonus offers among different sports betting websites. The first point is that some bonus offers will come with a rollover requirement based on just the bonus amount, while others will have the bonus+deposit as a base for the rollover. It is rare to see a rollover requirement attached only to the bonus amount, but not unheard of. Clearly in this case, all things being equal, having the requirement based only on the bonus amount is the much better deal, compared to one encompassing both the deposit and bonus. Alas, the online sportsbooks would seldom run such promotions.
Another factor to consider is the “wager”. Experienced bettors already know this, but if you are new to the online sportsbooks, or sports betting in general, keep in mind that “wager” only means the amount you risk for the bet. It has nothing to do with winning or losing the bet. For example, if you placed bets worth $500, that amount counts towards your rollover, even if all the bets are winners (or losers). To some of you this may seem as unnecessary explanation, but you would be surprised how many people mistaken the wagering requirement as either winning or losing a bet, and get discouraged looking at the bonus offers.
And finally, keep an eye on alternative bonus offers. As with the example of the Bookmaker bonus we gave earlier, some sportsbooks will give you the option to choose among different rollover levels for the same promotion. On one side, that would give you more free money to bet with, but on the other – it will increase the rollover. One should make sure they understand how the rollover works beforehand, so they can compare and decide which bonus offer to accept.