What is rollover in sports betting, bonus rollover explained

Weather you are new to sports betting or you have accounts with multiple online bookmakers, the question of the rollover is bound to come up and it will come up sooner rather than later. In this article we will explain you what is the rollover, when it comes to sports betting and what to look for when dealing with the bookmakers' rollover requirements. The question about rollover comes up as soon as you open an account with one of the top bookmakers and it's time to take advantage of the betting site's bonus offer. This is where one usually finds the rollover requirements and starts to wonder, what is rollover? The bookmakers, for some unknown reason, don't really take time to explain it. Here we will give you the answers.

What is “rollover”?

Understanding rollover is not hard t all. In simple terms, the rollover is a wagering requirement imposed by the online bookmaker and associated with a bookmaker bonus offer. It simply shows you the amount you need to bet before your bonus becomes eligible for withdrawal. It always takes the form of multiples and will be noted by the betting website on its bonus terms and conditions. Let's look at some examples and you will instantly understand how simple it really is. For example, let's say that an online bookmaker is offering £100 match bonus when you deposit £100 in your betting account and the terms and conditions state that before you can withdraw your bonus you must complete a 5x (five times) rollover the deposit plus the bonus. Now, to someone who bets online for the first time, rollover means nothing. But in the above example, it simply means that before the player could withdraw the bonus, he or she must place wagers in the total amount of £1,000. How did we get to this number? The 5x rollover on the deposit and bonus could be written simply as a mathematical equation, i.e. 5x(£100+£100)=£1,000. As you can see, understanding rollover is very simple. Most of the time (unless noted otherwise by the bookmaker), you will simply multiply the rollover by the sum of bonus and deposit. An example when you do differently is, if you get a free bet by the bookmaker, in which case you simply multiply the free bet amount by the rollover, since there is no deposit involved.

Now that you know what rollover means in sports betting and how to calculate it and turn it into actual monetary value, let's make a few points. First, you must understand that when we mention wagering requirements, it simply means the amount that must be wagered, not lost. In other words, if the rollover shows that the wagering requirement is £100, it just means that you must place bets worth £100, how many bets or how many losers – it doesn't matter. For those of you who have played at online casinos, the rollover is just like the playthrough requirement the casinos put on their bonuses.

And if you asked yourself why isn't the wagering requirement simply stated as £1,000 (taking our example above) instead of 5x rollover, give yourself a high-five, you are thinking. The simple truth is that most of the bookmaker bonuses are fluid and are calculated as a percentage of your deposit, rather than a fixed amount. Therefore if the book offers a 100% bonus with 5x rollover, the wagering requirement will be dependent on the amount you deposit. For example, if you deposit £50 and get £50, the amount you must bet before withdrawal will be just £500, since 5x(50+50)=500, unlike the previous example, where it is £1,000. Of course, if we are talking about a free roll, let's say £5 free bet, then the bookmaker could simply state the amount you need to wager, but most of the online bookmakers still use rollover, but more for continuity and avoiding confusion, rather than for any special reason.

We have the rollover explained, but how about comparing the rollovers? How do you decide which rollover is good and which rollover is too high? Most bettors agree that any rollover 5x and under is a good bonus offer. Some bookmakers go as low as 2x rollover on their promotions, but those are hard to come by. On the other side, 10x rollover is very high and some bookmakers have the audacity to require players to complete rollovers as high as 15x, at which point it's never worth to take the bonus, the requirements are simply impossible to complete. Therefore look for five times and under.