How We Analyse Sports Betting Bonuses

One of the many things we do at BettingTop10 is to compare and analyse the variety of different bonuses that you’re likely to come across, to help you determine which of them can provide you with the most value. Included in this analysis is an exploration of how sportsbook bonuses work, what they actually offer, how they are structured, key terms, and any potentially hidden rules such as rollover requirements, all of which is intended to help you use these promotional tools as effectively as possible.

We break down the main sports betting bonuses types, explaining them in detail and providing real-world examples to help you determine whether they will benefit you.

A welcome or sign-up bonus is one of the most common sportsbook bonus offers, generally coming in the form of extra funds or free bets for new customers. Typically, this type of bonus is triggered when you make your first deposit. Welcome bonuses look simple, but factors such as rollover requirements and wagering conditions can influence how quickly you can access winnings.

When considering the quality of a welcome bonus, these are the factors that we analyse:

Rollover requirement: Imagine you receive €20 in bonus bets, and place that on a €2 bet that wins, resulting in a €20 profit. Typically, however, you’ll have to bet that €20 again – called a turnover requirement, so we analyse these requirements to assess the quality of the bonus, focusing on how realistic the turnover is.

Minimum odds: Usually, your welcome bonus will have to be wagered on a market with pre-determined minimum odds – for example, the market may have to be paying at least €2, the same applies for turnover requirements, which we compare across sites for difficulty.

Time limit: Usually a welcome bonus will need to be used within a certain timeframe, typically ranging from a week to around a month, and we check whether the timeframe is practical.

Eligible markets: Often there will only be certain markets on which you can place your welcome bonus, so be sure to familiarise yourself with which are applicable, and we review how restrictive these markets are.

Here’s a real-world example. Say you initially deposit €100, and receive a 100% deposit match. You bet that €100 deposit match on a football team paying €2 to win, and they win. You’ll receive the profit only, not the stake, which will be equivalent to €100. You may then have to turn that over 2x, meaning you’ll have to bet a minimum of €200 before you can withdraw.

Free bets, as the name suggests, are free bet offers that you receive after fulfilling a pre-determined requirement, such as placing a bet on a particular market. When these are available, they will typically be automatically triggered when you bet on the relevant market. It’s important to understand the specifics of each free bet, because each bookmaker will have different regulations surrounding how it can be used, and when you can access any potential winnings. 

One of the first things that we consider when helping you evaluate the quality of a free bet offer is its specific wagering requirements; for example, there will often be a minimum stake on the relevant market, and a minimum odds requirements in order for the free bet to be made available to you. We also analyse whether you receive your stake back if your free bet wins, as well as how long you have to use the free bet after it’s given to you.

As an example, a promotion may dictate that if you place a bet on a specific event of at least €50, and on a market paying at least €1.50, you’ll receive a free bet equivalent to 50% of that bet. You then place that €25 free bet on another €2 market.  If your first bet loses and the free bet wins, your profit depends on whether the stake is returned: without stake return you end up with €25; with stake return you get €50.

The term risk-free bets essentially refer to bets for which you receive something back if it loses. Typically triggered when you place a first bet with a new betting site, these can come in many different formats, sometimes in the form of cash, other times bonus cash or tokens. These differences significantly impact how much value you can extract.

This is how we evaluate the quality of these promotions:

Refund format: If the refund comes in the form of cash, this is evidently much better value than if it’s in the form of bonus bets, which we weigh heavily when comparing offers.

Rollover on refund: Once you get this refund, you’ll generally have to roll it over; on occasions this will be just 2x, but others it could be up to 5 or 6x and we assess how demanding each rollover is.

Maximum refund amount: There will usually be a limit to the size of the refund available to you, which we factor into the offer’s real value.

Stake returned: If your refund is in the form of a bonus bet, if you bet on a winner with it you will sometimes receive the profit and stake, while other times you’ll only receive the profit, and we compare operators based on this difference.

Here’s a comparison example. Let’s say Operator A offers a risk-free bet with refunds as a bonus bet, and a turnover requirement of 4x. In contrast, the refunds from Operator B’s risk-free bet comes in the form of cash, with a rollover requirement of just 2x. If you receive €20 with Operator A, and place that on a €2 bet which wins, you’ll receive €20 back which you’ll need to bet with 4x. In the same situation, you’ll end up with €40 with Operator B, which you’ll only need to bet with twice.

The below table provides examples of these first three sports betting bonus types – though bear in mind, the nature of each of these bonuses can vary across bookmakers.

Reload bonuses typically appear as a reward for loyalty, offering customers who already have an account, a bonus for making a deposit. These appear periodically, but you will generally get a notification alerting you when your next deposit will trigger it. Given the varied nature of when these appear as well as the various rollover requirements, it’s important to understand exactly how they work.

We evaluate reload bonuses based on match percentage, maximum cap, payout format (cash vs. bonus), and rollover requirements. For example, a reload might match 50–100% of your deposit, up to a set maximum, and could be paid as either bonus funds or cash. Like welcome bonuses, we compare these factors to help you find the best overall value.

Let’s say your reload bonus is 50% of your next deposit up to €25, which you receive as bonus cash which needs to be turned over 2x at minimum odds of €2. You deposit €50, receive €25 in bonus cash, which you place on a €2 runner in a race which wins. You subsequently have €25 in real cash, but you need to bet this again before it’s

withdrawable. If you bet it on another €2 runner, your expected value would be around €12.50 (assuming you will win a €2 bet one out of two times).

Odds boosts are a type of sportsbook bonus that temporarily increases the odds on a specific market, giving the bettors the chance to win more than they would at the standard odds. The amount that your odds will be boosted varies across different bookmakers and different promotions, which is one of the reasons why it’s important to understand exactly how these bonuses work.  

These are the things that we analyse that can impact the quality of an odds boost promo:

Market restrictions: Typically, odds boosts apply only to certain markets, and this selection can be wide or extremely limited, we review how restrictive these markets are.

Minimum selections: For acca boosts, there is usually a required number of legs and minimum odds per leg, we check these conditions to gauge overall difficulty.

Maximum stake: There may be a maximum stake that you can place when using an odds boost, which can limit the amount of extra profit you can earn, we factor this cap into our value assessment.

Boost size: Some boosts increase odds only slightly (e.g., 1–2%), while others can reach 20%, we compare boost sizes across bookmakers to identify genuinely strong offers.

As a betting bonus comparison, imagine you place a €10 bet on a €3 runner, and have an available odds boost which boosts those odds to €3.10 – in this scenario your potential winnings go from €30 to €31. In contrast, for a larger bet, for example €50, on a €5 runner with an odds boost which takes this to €5.50, your potential winnings go from €250 to €275 – a much bigger increase than in the first example.

Some sites run ongoing cashback: you get back a set percentage of net losses during the promo window. This will be triggered by placing bets during this period, but it’s important to understand things such as cashback percentage and rollover requirements to understand the true value of these promos.

One of the most important things we consider when analysing these promos is what percentage cashback you’ll get, and what the maximum available is – for example, 10% cashback is clearly very different to 50%, while the maximum bonuses available can also vary dramatically. Be sure to check the time frame of the promotional period, while you should also be aware of what the minimum loss amount is to qualify for this promo is – typically, you won’t qualify if you make a profit during the promotional period.

As an example, a 10% cashback promo during a one-week period means that if you lose €200 in that period, you’ll receive €20 in bonus cash. A 50% cashback promo in the same situation would yield €100, which clearly dramatically increases your chance of making back some of your lost cash.

Below, we’ve compiled a quick checklist that you can use to help you determine the true value of a bonus.

Sports betting bonuses come in many different shapes and sizes, and while some offer plenty of value, others are not as useful as they initially seem. The utility of a bonus also varies a lot across different bettors depending on various factors, including the types of markets they bet on, and how often they bet.

Through our comprehensive analysis of each type of bonus, we’re able to not only determine the quality of a promotion, but also which bonuses are likely to be most useful to you, helping you to extract as much value as possible from these betting site bonuses.