Understanding Wagering Requirements

A wagering requirement (sometimes called a "rollover" or "playthrough" requirement) is the multiple of a bonus you have to bet before you're allowed to withdraw any winnings that came from it. It's the single most important number on any bonus offer, and it's also the one most people skim past — so here's what it actually means, how to calculate it properly, and where the common traps are.

The basic calculation

A 30x wagering requirement on a €100 bonus means you need to place €3,000 in total wagers before you can cash out any winnings tied to that bonus. That's not €3,000 of losses — it's total stake across however many bets it takes, win or lose. If you bet €10 fifty times, that's €500 wagered whether every bet won, lost, or split.

The formula is simple: bonus amount × wagering multiple = total amount you must wager. The part people get wrong is the base of that multiplication.

Bonus-only vs. bonus-plus-deposit — the distinction that actually matters

Two operators can both advertise "30x wagering" and mean very different things:

• Bonus-only wagering: only the bonus amount is multiplied. A €100 bonus at 30x = €3,000 to wager.
• Deposit-plus-bonus wagering: your deposit is added to the bonus before multiplying. Deposit €100, get a €100 bonus, and 30x applies to the full €200 — that's €6,000 to wager, double the bonus-only version at the same headline multiple.

The advertised "30x" tells you nothing about which of these you're dealing with — you have to check the actual bonus terms, not just the number in the marketing copy. A 40x bonus-only offer is very often a better deal than a 20x deposit-plus-bonus one, even though the second sounds smaller.

Game weighting: not every bet counts the same

Most operators don't count every wager toward the requirement equally. Typical weightings:

• Slots: usually 100% — every euro wagered counts in full.
• Table games (blackjack, roulette): often 10–20%, sometimes 0%. A blackjack strategy with a low house edge is exactly the kind of play operators don't want counting at full weight toward clearing a bonus.
• Live dealer games: frequently excluded entirely, or weighted very low.
• Sports betting: usually only counts if the odds are above a minimum threshold (often around 1.80/-125), specifically to stop players clearing the requirement with near-guaranteed low-odds bets.

If you plan to clear a wagering requirement playing table games or betting on heavy favorites, check the weighting table in the bonus terms first — the effective requirement can end up several times higher than the headline number once weighting is applied.

Other conditions that change the real difficulty

• Time limits. Most bonuses expire — commonly 7, 14, or 30 days — and any unwagered bonus balance is usually forfeited when the clock runs out, along with any winnings still attached to it.
• Maximum bet size. Many terms cap the stake per bet while a bonus is active (often around €5–10). Exceeding it can void the entire bonus and any winnings, not just that one wager — so this is worth reading carefully if you're used to betting larger amounts.
• Maximum win / withdrawal cap. Some lower-wagering bonuses cap how much you can actually withdraw from bonus winnings, regardless of how much you technically won. A "10x wagering, max €100 win" bonus is a fundamentally different offer than "40x wagering, no cap" — which one suits you depends entirely on how you play.

A worked example

Say an operator offers a 100% deposit match up to €200, with 35x wagering on deposit + bonus, a 30-day expiry, and slots weighted 100% / table games weighted 10%.

1. You deposit €200 and receive a €200 bonus. Wagering base = €400.
2. Requirement: 35 × €400 = €14,000 to wager.
3. If you play only slots, every €1 wagered counts fully — you need €14,000 in slot stakes within 30 days.
4. If you play only blackjack at 10% weighting, you'd need €140,000 in actual stakes to hit the same €14,000 counted total — usually not realistic inside a 30-day window.

That single example is why "35x" alone tells you almost nothing — the base, the weighting, and the time limit together determine whether a bonus is actually clearable for how you play, and all three numbers should factor into whether an offer is worth taking.

The short version

Before judging a bonus by its headline wagering multiple, check: is it bonus-only or deposit-plus-bonus, what's the game weighting for how you actually play, is there a time limit you can realistically hit, and is there a maximum-win cap. The multiple by itself is the least informative number on the offer.