Deposit match playthrough: what the rollover actually costs

A "playthrough requirement" (also called a rollover or wagering requirement) is the amount you have to bet, in total handle, before a deposit match's bonus bets unlock. It's usually expressed as a multiple of the deposit or the bonus itself — 1x, 5x, 10x — and it's the main reason a "100% match up to $200" rarely turns into $200 in your account.

What playthrough actually requires

Say a book offers a 100% deposit match up to $200 with a 5x playthrough. You deposit $200 and get credited $200 in bonus bets, but they're locked until you've wagered $1,000 in total ($200 x 5) with real money. Every dollar of that $1,000 is a bet you're placing anyway, win or lose, just to clear the requirement.

That's different from a straight win-rate hurdle. Playthrough counts handle, not profit or wins: a $200 bet that loses still counts $200 toward a $1,000 requirement, same as a $200 bet that wins. The number only cares how much you put at risk, not how it turned out.

Why the multiple is the whole story

A bonus bet pays only the winnings, never the stake, so the $200 you eventually unlock isn't worth $200. Converting bonus bets by hedging at long odds typically locks in 70 to 80% of face value, so call the $200 in bonus bets worth $140 to $160 once you do that work. That part of the math doesn't change with the rollover multiple.

What does change is the cost of getting there. If you have no edge and bet through the requirement at a typical -110 price, you're a break-even bettor paying the book's vig on every dollar wagered: a $1 bet at -110 pays $1.909 on a win, so betting $1 through at even odds loses 1 − 0.5 x 1.909 ≈ 4.5 cents on average. Multiply that 4.5% by the total handle the playthrough requires, and the rollover's cost scales directly with the multiple:

• 1x ($200 handle): about $9 in expected vig. Net value of the match: $140 to $160 minus $9, or roughly $131 to $151 — about 65 to 75% of the $200 banner number.
• 5x ($1,000 handle): about $45 in expected vig. Net value: roughly $95 to $115 — about 47 to 57%.
• 10x ($2,000 handle): about $91 in expected vig. Net value: roughly $49 to $69 — about 25 to 35%.

The match's banner size never changes. What changes is how much of it survives the bets you're required to place to get it. A 10x requirement can leave you with barely a quarter of the headline number, closer to what a no-sweat bet is worth than to an actual $200 credit.

If you can find an edge, the rollover costs less

The 4.5% figure assumes you're betting blind at a fair coin-flip price with no edge, which is the worst case, not the only one. If you can clear the requirement on bets where the fair price with the vig removed is better than what you're paying, the rollover costs less than that, and can even turn positive.

Take the same 5x, $1,000-handle example. A 2% edge across that handle is worth +$20 instead of -$45 — a $65 swing just from where you place the required bets. Finding real edges large enough to clear is work, not a guarantee, but it's the difference between treating the rollover as a tax you pay and as a chance to add value while you pay it. Either way, spread the handle across single bets rather than parlays: parlay vig compounds with every leg, so the same dollar of required handle costs more to clear in parlay form than as straight bets at the same prices.

What to check before you deposit

Rollover terms are where deposit matches hide most of their real cost, and they vary by book and change often, so confirm the specifics on your book's current terms page rather than assuming — the terms worth checking on any promo go beyond the multiple alone:

1. The multiple. 1x and 10x are both common; the number alone tells you most of what the match is worth.
2. What counts. Some books exclude bets below a minimum price (often favorites shorter than around -300), and some don't count parlays or same-game parlays toward the requirement at all.
3. The deadline. Playthrough usually has to finish inside a set window, commonly somewhere between 30 and 90 days. Miss it and the unplayed bonus, and sometimes the deposit match itself, can be forfeited.
4. Where the money sits. Ask whether the requirement counts bets from your cash balance, the bonus balance, or either; some books only let real-money wagers count toward it, which changes how you should sequence your bets while you clear it.

A deposit match is one of five common promo shapes; it's usually the one with the largest headline number and the largest gap between that number and what you actually collect, because the rollover is a cost none of the others carry. Work out the multiple and the vig before you count on the banner figure.

Only bet where it's legal for you, and only with money you can afford to lose. You must be 21 or older.