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UK casino bonus maths · explained

A £100 bonus is not £100. The terms decide what it is.

Wagering requirements turn a headline number into a piece of arithmetic: a multiplier, a base and a pile of play. This page walks through the sums a typical UK welcome offer actually asks for — in pounds you can check yourself.

See offers with their terms on casinowizard.com Start with the worked example

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Offer, anatomised

  • Headline bonus£100
  • Deposit required£100
  • Wagering35×
  • Applied toBonus only

Play required£3,500

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Fig. 01

What the 35× multiplies

The same multiplier can point at two different bases — and the difference is double.

Multipliers of 30× to 40× are common on UK welcome offers, and most of them apply to the bonus alone. But not all: when the terms say the multiplier applies to deposit and bonus, the play required doubles while the headline stays identical. The base is the first thing worth finding on any offer page.

A casino table in close-up: a stack of green chips, the ace of spades and a marked betting box on green felt
Plate 01 Where the offer lands: a felt table, a stack of chips, and a terms page nobody reads first.
Figure 01 — The same “35×” can mean £3,500 or £7,000 in play. The base decides.
Fig. 02

Weighting: why not all play counts the same

Every bonus page carries a small table that decides how much of each stake goes towards clearing the offer. Typical values look like this:

Typical weighting table on a UK welcome offer
Game typeTypical weight£100 staked counts as
Slots (most titles) 100% £100
Live casino games 20% £20
Table games 10% £10
Jackpot games 0% £0

The practical consequence: at 20% weighting, clearing the same £3,500 of bonus wagering on live games would take £17,500 of staking. This is why the weighting table matters as much as the multiplier — and why some games can extend an offer far past what the headline implies.

Slots sit at the top of the table on most offers, and the games that count most are usually the ones with the lowest published RTP in the lobby. Read the two tables together, not one at a time.

Rows of slot machine screens glowing in a dimly lit casino hall, showing spinning reels and orange status lights
Plate 02 The games that count at 100%: fast, steady, and priced into the maths above.
Figure 02 — £3,500 of play is not £3,500 of clearing. The weighting table decides.
Fig. 03

A worked example, in pounds

Take the most common version of the offer and carry it all the way to the end. Every number below is the sort of figure printed on real terms pages.

Put plainly: the average outcome of clearing this offer once is a modest loss, not a payday. That is not a reason to avoid every bonus — it is a reason to do the sum first. Lower multipliers, higher-RTP games and bonus-only bases all move the number, and a few offers genuinely clear in positive territory.

Two honest caveats. First, RTP is a long-run average: any single session is spread across a very wide range of outcomes, and yours will be one of them. Second, these figures describe the offer’s arithmetic before any of the clauses in the next figure get involved — one broken rule can move the number to zero.

Figure 03 — A worked example using typical values. Your result will vary; the arithmetic will not.
Fig. 04

The five clauses that can void the whole offer

Wagering maths only matters if the bonus survives. These are the clauses that most often end an offer early:

01

Max bet while wagering

Usually capped at £5 per spin or bet. A single oversized wager can void the bonus and anything won from it, even if the rest of the play was spotless.

02

Expiry window

Seven to thirty days is the common range, counted from the deposit or the bonus credit. Unfinished wagering simply lapses — along with the balance attached to it.

03

Maximum win cap

Some terms cap what a bonus can ever pay, converting a big win into a fixed figure. The cap is usually a small multiple of the bonus itself.

04

Restricted games

Certain titles count towards wagering not at all — or are barred entirely while a bonus is active. Playing them can pause or cancel the offer.

05

Payment restrictions

A handful of deposit methods exclude you from bonuses. The exclusion is usually listed in the terms, in the smallest type on the page.

Figure 04 — Five clauses, each capable of moving the value of the offer to zero.
Fig. 05

Reading a bonus page in five passes

Before accepting any offer, find each of these on the terms page. It takes a couple of minutes and it settles the arithmetic:

  1. 1

    The base

    Does the multiplier apply to the bonus, or to deposit and bonus together?

  2. 2

    The weighting table

    Which games count at 100%, and which are excluded completely?

  3. 3

    The maximum bet

    The cap while wagering is active, and whether it resets after the bonus clears.

  4. 4

    The clock

    How many days to finish, and whether it starts at deposit or at credit.

  5. 5

    The win cap

    The largest amount the bonus can convert into, before any withdrawal.

A person at a desk working through printed terms with a smartphone, a pen and a calculator beside the papers
Plate 03 Two minutes with the terms page settles every figure on this page.
Figure 05 — Five passes; the numbers are all on the terms page.

The house edge is fixed. What you stake is not.

Bonuses change the shape of the arithmetic; they never change the maths underneath it. Set a limit before you play, and keep it there. Free, confidential support: begambleaware.org · gamstop.co.uk · 18+ only.

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Slot reviews, RTP figures and casino comparisons — with the conditions laid out before the headline.

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Bonus questions, answered briefly

Is a bonus ever free money?

Almost never in the way it sounds. Until the wagering is finished, the bonus is a balance you play with, not cash you hold — and the play it demands has its own expected cost. A few offers do come out ahead on paper; the sum tells you which.

Why do slots count at 100% and other games at less?

Slot play is fast and carries a known, steady margin, so it counts at face value. Table and live play move slower and carry a slimmer margin for the operator, so the same stake counts at 20%, 10% — or nothing at all.

What happens if I bet more than the maximum while wagering?

The terms usually allow the bonus, and anything won from it, to be voided. One oversized spin can end the whole offer, and bet histories are checked before withdrawals, so the clause is enforced in practice as well as in print.

Does the deposit have to be wagered too?

On many offers, no — the multiplier applies to the bonus alone. On others it applies to deposit plus bonus, which doubles the required play while the headline stays the same. Check which base the terms name.

Can I withdraw before finishing the wagering?

Usually you can withdraw your own deposit, but doing so normally cancels the bonus and everything won with it. Some operators lock the whole balance until wagering is complete. Either way, stopping early has a defined cost, and it is worth knowing in advance.

Who publishes this page?

This page is published by Alakazam Media BV, which runs CasinoWizard.com. The company record — address, registration and VAT — sits in the footer’s company block below.