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You’ll encounter the phrases “rollover” or “playthrough” when you take advantage of sign-up bonuses at sportsbooks. For example, books may promise to match your initial deposit up to a certain limit, such as $500.
Once this bonus money hits your account, you can’t immediately withdraw it, however. You must bet the bonus funds a certain number of times—called the rollover or playthrough requirement—before you can withdraw any winnings.
While most of the best online sportsbooks only require you to bet the bonus funds once before you can withdraw winnings, some make you bet it as much as 2 times, 5 times, or even 20 times first.
For example, if a sportsbook has a playthrough requirement of 5x and you receive $100 in bonus funds, you would have to bet $500 worth of it before you can withdraw any winnings.
The lower the playthrough/rollover requirement, the better.
Rollover Requirement Example
The FanDuel sign-up bonus used to be a No Sweat First Bet Up to $1,000 and it came with a 1x playthrough requirement.
If you lost your first $1,000 bet, FanDuel refunded you in $1,000 of bonus bets. But you can’t simply withdraw the bonus bets, you had to wager them one time before you can withdraw any winnings.
For example, you could wager the entire $1,000 of bonus bets on a single game. If you win, you can then withdraw the winnings. If you lose, you’re out of luck and would have no money left in your account unless you initially deposited more than the cap of the bonus, in which case you would just be left with whatever amount you deposited over the cap.
Playthrough Requirement vs Rollover Requirement
Playthrough requirement is a synonym for rollover requirement. Different books name it differently but it’s the same thing.
Either way, you’ll need to place wagers to claim a bonus. No bettor can simply deposit money then cash out the book’s bonus into their bank account—that would be far too easy and the books would be giving away free money at that point.
