It’s pretty sweet that pretty much every sportsbook across the internet will give you a bonus simply for signing up and depositing funds into the book. Thanks to gambling search engine optimization and gambling social media marketing gurus, they pop right out at you when you do any search.
Whether it’s 10%, which is essentially the smallest bonus you can get, to 100%, which is one of the biggest, is always great to start your betting account when you are ahead.
But, as we all know, there is no such thing as a free lunch. The sportsbooks do give you a good depositing bonus to get started but there is something called a “rollover” that is attached with the bonus.
A rollover is essentially the amount of action – or times that you have to bet your funds – before you can withdraw money.
For example:
Say you deposit $100 into a sportsbook and they give you a 10% bonus with a 4 x rollover attached. That means you have to be both your $100 and the 10% ($110 in total) four times before you can withdraw your funds.
In this example, you have to bet $440 worth before you can withdraw.
So, say you bet $50 to win $50 on your first bet and you bet $20 and lose on your second bet. Now in total, you have bet $70 – or generated $70 worth of action – which means you now have to bet $370 before you can withdraw.
Some sportsbooks have higher rollovers (in some cases as many as 10 x) and some have lower ones. Clearly, it’s better to work with the sportsbooks that have lower rollovers because it means you can gain access to your money sooner.
So whether you're looking at horse racing betting odds or you want to bet some college football odds, take comfort in the fact that you get to start ahead of the game with a good bonus.