If you want to bet on sports you can either find a local bookmaker, or, alternatively, open an account, known as a sportsbook, with an online betting site. This is the easiest and most convenient way if you want to place a bet on your favourite sport but you need to make sure that you join a reputable site as, unfortunately, there are a lot of scams on the net.

Many online sportsbooks promote themselves by offering a bonus offer for new members, usually in the form of free bets. However, whilst bonus offers are heavily advertised, they invariably come with conditions, namely the rollover, which is often buried in the small print.

So what is a rollover? In layman’s terms it is the amount that somebody needs to bet before they are entitled to withdraw the bonus offered to them by the sportsbook. To understand why these conditions are in place, it is important to understand this from the position of the online bookmakers themselves. They are commercial organisations with shareholders to satisfy. They are not charitable bodies offering free bets out of a sense of philanthropy. They offer bonuses in order to attract and, hopefully, retain, new customers. If they simply offered a free bet with no strings attached, customers would just open an account, make a deposit, claim their free bet, and then close their account again. The rollover is their means of stopping this happening.

The concept is best explained by way of an example using the online sportsbook Bovada, and one of their offers which, for those account holders who have obtained the Gold Level Rewards, is 10% on deposits of over US $300. In other words, a bonus of US $30 is on offer. But it is not as simple as that. Reviewing Bovada’s terms and condition, the following two clauses appear: “required rollovers are 3-time for 10%”, and “rollover required” is on deposit only. Cutting through the legalese what does this all mean?

Taking the second clause first, it means that the rollover itself is only applied to the initial deposit of US $300 only. This is important because some sportsbooks might phrase the stipulation as “rollover required on deposit plus bonus”, which, in this case, is US $330.

The relevance becomes clear when the first clause and the phrase “3-time” is explained. What this means is that a multiplier effect is being applied by the bookmaker, so the gambler must wager three times the deposit of US $300 before they can withdraw the bonus. This means, in reality, that they must place online bets of US $900 before they can cash out (and US $990 if it were a deposit plus bonus offer).

(It should be noted that, in terms of the amount wagered, winnings bets usually count as much as losing one’s when it comes to the rollover threshold.)

Every online sportsbook has their own rollover requirements when it comes to bonuses, so make sure you fully understand what their terms and conditions are, and how they are applied. If you are still not clear having read the small print, ring up the sportsbook organisation itself, and get them to explain it to you. And, if you are still not satisfied, try another firm

Just remember there are few things in life that are really free – and a bonus offered by an online bookmaker is not one of them!