This article is a bonus rollover strategy guide. Discover how to profit from a bookmaker bonus offer.
What is a bonus rollover offer?
A bonus rollover offer is simple. The bookmaker adds a bonus after your first deposit or qualifying bet.
You cannot withdraw the bonus straight away. You need to meet the bookmaker’s ‘rollover’ requirements first. Place a specific amount or value of bets to convert the bonus to cash.
How to profit from a bookmaker bonus
A bonus gets converted to cash after you either:
- a). Complete the wagering, or
- b). Lose all your bookie bonus to the exchange, i.e. “busting out”.
Let’s look at two different approaches to complete a bonus rollover offer.
Strategy #1 – complete the rollover
Mansionbet offers 50% bonus to £50 for new customers.
The rollover is six times deposit and bonus (£150 deposit + £50 bonus x 6 = £900).
- Register for a new account with Mansionbet.
- Click on the deposit button, enter code ‘MB50’ in the promotion code box. Then deposit £100 using a debit card.
- You’ll receive a £50 bonus.
- Change the odds display to decimal.
Find a good qualifying bet at Mansionbet (minimum odds 1.8). For example, the Match Odds market for Wolves versus Southampton.
Click on the relevant selection, which then appears in your betting slip. Enter your £150 stake (bet your £100 deposit and £50 bonus all in one bet).
Place a matching lay bet at Smarkets. The ideal lay stake is £147.62.
This gives £5.33 qualifying loss on your £150 stake.
If your first back bet loses: when the bet settles, you’ve lost your deposit and bonus in Mansionbet. That’s great – you’ve now finished the offer.
If the first back bet wins: you cannot withdraw your balance at Mansionbet yet. Repeat the bonus rollover process until you’ve bet a total of £900 at Mansionbet, or your balance is zero. You have 30 days to finish the rollover.
Using the above example, £900 of bonus rollover bets would lose £32 of the £50 bonus. So, you’d make £18 net profit.
You may find better odds than 1.86 back/1.91 lay. Look at horse racing close to the off and football close to kick off.
Let’s consider a different approach. If you have a large exchange bankroll, here is another strategy.
Strategy #2 – Underlay and hope to bust out
It’s tempting to use high odds for your first bet with the bonus. High odds are less likely to win at the bookie.
Then underlay (treat as if Stake Not Returned) at the exchange. You’re trying to lose at the bookie and win your exchange lay bet.
Let’s take an example of a £50 bonus with 6 times rollover.
Your first bet is at 7.0 back/7.2 lay odds:
- Place a £50 bonus bet at 6/1 (7.0) odds at the bookie.
- The standard lay stake at odds of 7.2 is £40.78 (at 2% commission).
But, if you lay £39 (underlay) this gives one of two possible outcomes:
- a). If your high odds bet wins: The underlay gives you enough bonus left to finish the rollover.
- b). If your high odds bet loses: You’ve finished the bonus offer. Your bonus funds ‘busted out’ to the exchange.
Bonus rollover strategy: useful hints
Check bonus terms before starting the rollover:
- a). Total rollover amount: A total amount of Deposit + Bonus. Bet this amount before your bonus is withdrawable.
- b). Type of bet: Do you need to place singles, doubles, or trebles to complete the wagering? What are the eligible and excluded betting markets?
- c). Minimum odds for each bet to count towards the wagering?
- d). Is there a maximum stake per bet that counts towards the rollover?
- e). Time restrictions: i.e. X number of days to complete the rollover.
- f). Maximum winnings cap: some bookies terms specify that you can win up to a certain amount from the bonus.
Try to retain as much of the original bonus amount as possible. Choose closely matched bookie and exchange odds.
Only use high odds if you’ve enough bankroll to complete the total rollover.
What’s the key difference between a bonus and a free bet? Most free bets are Stake Not Returned (SNR) on winning bets. Conversely, a Stake Returned (SR) bonus returns the winnings and stake on winning bets.
Matched betting with a bonus retains a high amount of the bonus value. A Stake Returned bonus means you don’t need to use high odds to extract a profit.