A Guide to Rollovers, Playthroughs, Wagering etc

  • I’ve decided to write this guide with a view to linking back to it when forum members ask about how to do the various rollover offers available, as they seem to be the offer that trips people up the most these days. Anything I’ve overlooked please chip in.

    There are three rules for doing a rollover offer:

    1. Make absolutely sure you have read the T+Cs and know what is expected of you do successfully complete the offer.
    2. Make absolutely sure you have enough money to carry out ALL of the wagering you need to do to complete the offer. This means having enough money to cover EVERY SINGLE BET you have to make in the worst case scenario of every bet winning.
    3. Do not fall into the trap of believing that high odds do not win. They do, and you will suffer if your 10/1 no-hoper causes an upset.
    (4. The unwritten rule, don’t do winner! Unless you have unlimited cash and know how to do Accas)

    I’ll explain how to do the rollover offer with Bet365 as an example because its the easiest to do and therefore easiest to explain but the theory is the same with most rollover offers, minimum odds and timescales are usually the only difference. However please make sure you stick to rule No.1 and read the T+Cs. Its been ages since I did a sign up and the rules could well have changed. Do your own research, after all its your money, not mine!

    The T+Cs here are relatively straightforward, the ones we are interested in are:

    1.Make a qualifying deposit of £10 or more to qualify for a 100% matched amount as a bonus to bet with. Your qualifying deposit is your largest deposit (capped at £200) placed in the 7 days prior to you entering your Offer Code

    4.You must have settled bets to the value of three times your qualifying deposit (capped at £200) and bonus before making a withdrawal (subject to conditions 12 to 15 below).

    5.If the turnover requirements for this offer have not been met within 90 days of you entering your Offer Code any funds held in your bonus balance will be forfeited.

    9. If a withdrawal or transfer out is actioned:
    a) before you enter your Offer Code then any previous deposits will not count towards the initial qualifying criteria; or

    b) after you enter your Offer Code but before you complete the turnover requirements then any funds in your bonus balance will be forfeited and the offer will no longer be available to you.

    12.Any single bets placed at odds of less than 1/2 (1.50) will not count towards any turnover requirement. In multiple bets at least one selection must have odds of 1/2 (1.50) or greater to count towards any turnover requirement.

    13.Only bets placed on the first selection in any market/fixture combination, both pre-match and In-Play, will count towards any turnover requirements. Any subsequent bets placed on other selections in the same market/fixture combination will not count towards the turnover requirements. This term is applied in conjunction with the other restrictions. As an example, once you have qualified, a bet on Man Utd to beat Chelsea on the Full Time Result market at odds of 1/2 (1.50) or greater will count towards the turnover requirements, however a subsequent bet placed on Chelsea on the Full Time Result market in the same game either pre-match or In-Play will not count towards the turnover requirements. Where your first bet on any market/fixture combination is less than 1/2 (1.50), this bet and any subsequent bets on this market/fixture combination will not count towards any turnover requirements.

    I’ll explain these one at a time:

    1 Tells us what to actually do to get the bonus.

    4 This is the important one. It tells us that we need to rollover our deposit and bonus 3 times in order to withdraw and therefore complete the wagering requirements.

    In this case we can work out that the rollover required is deposit (£200) + bonus (£200) times 3.
    £200 + £200 x 3 = £1200. so we need AT LEAST £1200 in our exchange to complete this offer. (this is on top of the £200 we have put in the bookie) personally I’d have a couple of hundred more just in case.

    5 Tells us how long we’ve got to do the offer before they cancel it.

    9 The warning that we will lose our bonus if we try to withdraw before completing wagering requirements. Bear in mind that you won’t just lose the bonus, but all the money that you used to cover the bet from your exchange as well.

    12 This tells us the minimum odds we need to bet at to complete wagering. Usually a bookie will let you bet at lower odds but it won’t count towards wagering.

    13 Tells us that only the first bet on any market will count towards wagering (note, a “market” in this case means Team A v Team B OR correct score OR HT/FT etc. so you can bet on say team A to win, 2-1, and Team A/Team A in the same match and be ok. What they mean is you can’t bet on Team A and then lump on another bet on Team A as the second bet won’t count towards rollover.)

    With all that in mind we can make our first bet. Bet365 adds the bonus funds to your balance but doesn’t let you bet with them until your first bet has settled if I remember right, so the qualifying bet is just a straight-forward matched bet at 1.5 or above. Whether this wins or loses makes no difference to how to proceed, as you have ensured you have enough money to cover you as per Rule No.2 haven’t you?

    Your balance is now composed of the bonus and any winnings you have from the first bet. This is treated in exactly the same way as the first qualifying bet. This is because Bet365 expect you to rollover your balance 3 times instead of taking the stake money away from the freebet the way other bookies do.
    Almost all bookies either do Stake Not Returned (SNR) freebet style bonuses OR Stake Returned (SR) rollover type bonuses. The only exception I know of is BetVictor, who combine the two. In their case, a freebet appears on the betslip to tick, so we would use this bet as an SNR and then rollover the winnings at the minimum odds required.
    There are other types where the bookie will drip feed you bonuses as you bet, Unibet I think do this where they will have a bonus of say £90 and will give you it in 3x£30 steps. Again you would just keep betting at minimum odds until you get through. If all your bets lose then you will have to deposit more to keep going. This can be a problem if you are waiting for a withdrawal from the exchange to recycle into the bookie and you have a limited time to do it in, so probably best if you can cover the deposits without having to wait, but don’t depost the whole amount because if your first bet wins its quite likely you will now have enough to finish off.

    A quick rant on high odds.

    Its a particular bugbear of mine and has been the ruin of many a young padawan. HIGH ODDS DO WIN! Stop thinking that they will lose and your exchange will fill up with lovely cash. High odds are winning all over the place. There would be no gambling, no sport even, if the underdog didn’t win sometimes, what would be the point in competing if the big boys always thrashed everyone. Ask any England fan what they thought about the odds when they ran up against the mighty Iceland! Or what Leicester City thought about their chances of winning the premiership. Or even Donald Trump or Brexit.
    There is a more serious point with regards to matched betting, in that if you bet at high odds when attempting a rollover and it wins, you are very much worse off for two reasons. Firstly, the difference between the bookies odds and the exchange odds will usually be more, meaning a higher qualifying loss, and secondly you will have much more money sitting in your bookie that you can’t get at. Imagine a bet of £100 @ 1.6. if it wins you now have £160 in your account. You are £60 worse off than you started but you have done £100 of wagering and your exchange is still healthy because you followed rule No.2. Now imagine a bet of £100 @ 8. all of a sudden you have £800 in your bookie, £700 worse off! And you’ve still only done £100 of wagering! AND it now means you will have to do ALL of the rollover because even if all your subsequent bets lose you still have all the money needed to do the rollover in the account! AND you will lose more money trying to find good odds matches because you’ve got to get this damn money out somehow. AND you will now have to revert to lower odds to do the rest of the rollover anyway because your exchange has had a coronary! All the time there’s a small balance there’s a chance you could bust out without having to roll it all. After all, for every high odds win, there’s a low odds loss.

    Common Questions

    Q. Do I have to deposit more to complete rollover if I lost both bets?
    A. No, if the bets lose and your account is empty, you’ve been lucky and the offer is over.

    Q. What happens if I win the qualifying bet but lose the bonus part?
    A. Depends on the bookie, some (like 365) only apply the rollover to the bonus, other apply it to all the balance (and BetVictor apply a Stake Not Returned element as well!)

    Q. How much should I bet? £200 or 4 x £50?
    A. Depends again on the bookie and what the T+Cs say, but its also personal choice. There is a fear factor involved when you first start out so its human nature to not want to bet huge amounts of money even though the outcome will be the same. After a while you become acclimatised to it and don’t think twice about slapping £1000 on a horse, you just see the £3.59p profit it makes you! Lol You also need to make sure there is enough liquidity at the exchange for what you want to bet on, but it shouldn’t be a problem with big league football

    Q. I’ve accidentally done the Winner sign up, am I fucked?
    A. yup

    I hope this helps and good luck!

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    ncl888 0

    Hey deathstar, your guide is super helpful for newbie matched punters like me!

    So the key is to keep betting at low odds until my balance at Bet365 reaches 0 or when I have placed and settled £1,200 worth of bets at Bet365 whichever happens first – this is correct?

    So say if my bets at Bet365 keeps on winning and I still have money leftover after placing and settling £1,200 worth of bets at Bet365, as long as I have bet through £1,200 I will be allowed to withdraw all the money from my Bet365 account – is this correct also?

    Thanks!

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    deathstar 25

    yep spot on. There is a part of the members area that tells you how for you’ve got to go on the rollover, and as soon as you complete you will be able to withdraw.

    Of course, as long as you have a healthy bankroll there’s nothing wrong with betting at longer odds, but you run the risk of winning and have all your cash in the bookie rather than the exchange. The point is you don’t NEED to use high odds to extract the value like you do with a free bet, as the bonus funds are paid out with the stake value included.
    I only mention that because sometimes you can find better odds matches (and therefore lower qualifying losses) at slightly higher odds. so, for example tomorrows game Chelsea v man u, the lowest odds at the moment are for Chelsea at 1.91 and 1.97 at the exchange – a loss of £4, (on a £100 bet) whereas the draw is 3.6 and 3.6 so the loss is only £1.45. if the bet wins you’d end up with £360 in the bookie, but that would be something I might be willing to risk if there aren’t any better odds around.
    (there’s no reason to rush though, 365 give you 90 days to rollover.)

    HTH and good luck

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    ncl888 0

    Thanks for the tip deathstar, I know that to maximise these sort of offers we should underlay at the exchange. I understand when and how to underlay but don’t understand how much we should underlay by in order to maximise profit. Are you able to give me some tips on this?

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    ncl888 0

    Sorry about all these questions deathstar but I suppose one last important question for me is would I arouse any suspicions if I kept on betting with large sums of money (potentially £500+) to satisfy the wagering requirement quicker if my bets on Bet365 keep on winning?

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    deathstar 25

    underlaying is a matter of personal choice, its basically how much would you be willing to lose if the result went against you? BTW underlaying should not be used to make bad odds matches “better”, find better matches! or wait for some to come along. the problem with underlaying is you can get wrapped up in breaking even on the team you think is a dead cert to win only for it to end a draw and you lose £20+ when you could have guaranteed a loss of less than a fiver. 365 have some of the best odds out there so its not hard.

    The other point you mention is a tricky one, its not so much betting £500+ when you start its more about how your behaviour changes once the bonus has finished. No-one knows of course and bookies are a rule unto themselves, but I would think it looks very suspicious to smash through your balance when you do a bonus then revert back to £10 once its done. personally I think bets of £100 on footie rising to £200 on big games doesn’t seem that outrageous, and £50 on horses seems quite normal. (then again, I have been gubbed, so what do I know!)

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    arobbo70 4

    Just want to say great blog death star just a few questions if you don’t mind answering I’ve done the easy free bets and just about to start on some of the rollovers it is a bit confusing with all t+c I’m I right in saying that if your bookie account is empty on any of the rollovers then it is done meaning if your first bet loses and then your second does job done , 1 more question if you don’t mind it’s about the 32 red offer profit boost is states that it will boost your profit if your selection wins so if it doesn’t is that it your don’t get any of the £100 bonus thanks Andy

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    deathstar 25

    yes if your bets lose then the offer is over and you won’t have to rollover. they wouldn’t make you deposit more just to roll it over, because you would simply not go back. Some bookies only put the wagering requirement on the bonus funds as well, so if you win your first qualifying bet but lose your bet with the bonus funds you don’t have to roll over – but check the t+c’s on this!

    as for 32red, the offer has changed since I did it, so not sure what it is.
    There’s a thread here that might be of some use:
    hxxps://matchedbettingblog.com/topic/32redsport-welcome-offer-advice-100-profit-boost/

    (change the xx in hxxps to tt, the link without the edit goes to 32red)
    looks like its for in-play bets only, so probably be very poor odds matches

    HTH

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    Kat 0

    Hi,

    I am new to matched betting, been doing this for a month now and think I have hit my first snag, I hope somebody could advise me please? I have been reading this blog for a couple of weeks and think it’s great so hopefully someone with more knowledge than me can assist…

    I signed up to 10bet yesterday. Their welcome offer was stake a qualifying bet and when it settles they will give a 50% matched deposit up to £200, so I staked £400. The problem is the bet won so I now have £800 plus £200 bonus totalling £1000. I didnt realise from the terms but the winnings from the qualifying bet are tied in with the bonus now. I can’t bet just using the bonus funds on bets slips as their system always uses real funds over bonus funds first. Also any withdrawal requests will cancel the bonus. I’m now faced with having to bet £1000 to bet with the bonus funds, and even then it could win again. The total roll over is £3000! I tempted to just cut and take my loses on the qualifying bet, I layed obviously so it’s not too bad…

    Would anyone agree that is the best thing to do? I doubt I would even be in profit if I had to wager the full £3000?

    Thank you

    Kat

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    deathstar 25

    the question is – have you got enough money to get through the rollover? as its a bonus fund rather than a free bet offer you only need to bet through at the minimum odds required so although these bets will probably win, you won’t “win” as much as if a 7/1 longshot came in.

    I haven’t done 10bet yet so don’t know what their odds are like, but you should come out with £150ish as long as you have the cash to cover all the betting you’ve got to do.

    Good luck

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    Kat 0

    Thanks for your reply deathstar.

    I don’t think odds are great to be fair, don’t have exact numbers to hand as my spreadsheet is on home computer but on the qualifying bet I wanted to bet on less obscure markets so went for international football friendly. I lost £30 on on the £400 qualifying, so even if I get better odds for the rest (up to £3000) I reckon I won’t be much in profit if at all which is shame. I’ll have a check of potential bets tonight to see what the odds are like. I have a few grand float to play around with but don’t really want to risk winning/losing more and having to lay much more. This has been a big learning curve for me! I just thought it would been like the b365 where bonus and qualifying stake winnings were seperate …

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    Contes Azzurri 0

    (Rollovers, wagering, Bwin offer)

    Hello guys,

    I am very glad that I’ve come across this forum, its been very useful, thanks for everyone’s input.

    Relatively new to this, I’ve extracted all the non rollover bonuses and now moving onto the wagering ones. Deathstar, great explanation, much appreciated. I have a question regarding the strategy, will use the the Bwin offer as an example, this is the one I am starting on since it doesn’t require that much float….hopefully :))

    The offer at the moment is deposit 20, straight away you get matched with a 20 bonus so you have a 40 that you need to wager 5 times (200) in order to withdraw, at minimum odds of 1.7

    Once you make a bet thus going ahead with the bonus the 20 of your own first deposited money gets tied in until you hit the 200 mark then you can withdraw your deposit, bonus and winnings.

    I understand the logic of going for the low odds but as your first bet would it not be wise to wager on something with higher odds (I suggest 4, you’ll see why below) in order to increase your chances of winning on the exchange straight away and not being tied into the rollover.

    Here is an example:

    Qualifying (back) bet 40 at odds of 4
    Exchange (lay) bet 38.28 at odds of 4.2

    Putting this into calculator (as a qualifying bet, right?)

    Bookie Exchange Total
    If back (bookie) bet wins +120.00 – 122.49 = £ -2.49
    If lay (exchange) bet wins – 40.00 + 37.51 = £ -2.49

    Correct me if I am wrong but doesn’t this mean that if the exchange bet wins you get 37.51 in the exchange meaning a profit of 17.51 (37.51 minus your 20 deposit). And hopefully with the odds of 4.2 that is likely to happen.

    If it doesn’t (which of course could happen) then you have 120 + 40 in the Bwin account and you lost 122.49 on the float. You’ve already wagered 40 so you have to wager the remaining 160. You have the 160 in the account so then you do this at the required minimum odds of 1.7

    Qualifying (back) bet 160 at odds of 1.7
    Exchange (lay) bet 159.06 at odds of 1.73

    Putting this into calculator (once again as a qualifying bet, right?)

    Bookie Exchange Total
    If back (bookie) bet wins + 112 – 116.11 = £ -4.11
    If lay (exchange) bet wins – 160 + 155.87 = £ -4.13

    Outcomes and profits:

    Bookies wins – you have 160 + 112 (272) in the account you can now withdraw. You lost 122.49 on the exchange the first bet then 116.11 on the second bet (total of 238.6)
    Profit: 272 (what you have in the account) – 238.6 (exchange losses) – 20 (your first bet) = 13.4

    Exchange wins – you have 155.87 in the exchange account, you lost 122.49 on the first bet in exchange and you lost the 20 deposit in the Bwin account. 155.87 – 122.49 – 20 = 13.38

    So this means that if you win on the exchange the first time (hopefully) then you make a profit of 17.51 but if you don’t, then with just another bet you’ll make a profit of either 13.4 or 13.38 !

    I hope this is not the part where you check this and tell me I’ve messed something up )

    Slava

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    Contes Azzurri 0

    Hi Deathstar,

    When you get a chance could you run through my Bwin post on this thread just to make sure that I haven’t got it wrong?

    Thanks,
    Slava

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    coladuna 0

    Wish I read all this properly before I got greedy and cocky which made me lose over £1300. I was up £350 after doing a few sign ups and stupidly did the titanbet 200 offer which has the same t&cs as winners. Also made the stupid mistake of going for high odds which ended up winning. In the end, lost the 1300 odd I had in the bookies account.

    Absolutely devastated and trying to get back 1300 I lost feels like an impossible mountain to climb at the moment.

    Hope no one is stupid enough like me.

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    deathstar 25

    sorry to hear to coladuna, i’m sure you will be able to make that up in the coming weeks. lets hope some newbies read your story and don’t make the same mistake.

    @Contes Azzurri you can do as you say no problem. its a matter of personal choice really, the main thing you need to look for above everything else is the odds match between the bookie and exchange. i would certainly go for 4 and 4.2 over 1.6 and 1.8 for example. just make sure yo have enough money to cover all the bets you would have to make if every single bet won before you can withdraw.

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    coladuna 0

    @deathstar

    Thanks. It certainly was a lesson learnt the hard way. Any tips on how I would go about on my way to recovery would be much appreciated as I am a bit lost as to how I can make up for the losses other than by doing some small sign up offers, which won’t be nowhere near enough…

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