Bonus bets are a crucial part of the online betting experience. If you are browsing through different sportsbooks, you will come across multiple offers, as each operator strives to win your custom and also retain their existing users.
With bonus bets becoming increasingly prominent and available, it is essential to understand how to convert your promotions to boost your bankroll and maximize any bonus opportunity. Bonus bets typically can’t be withdrawn directly; however, you can convert them into real cash with the correct strategy. This is where the bonus bet conversion process comes in.
This guide walks you through the process step by step, maximizing the amount of real cash you can keep and minimizing risk.
Step 1 – Understanding Bet Rules
All bonus bets will come with their own individual terms and conditions. It is vital that you read these carefully, as you don’t want the bonus to expire or find that it doesn’t cover a market you are particularly interested in. The most important things to look out for in a bonus’s terms and conditions are:
- Minimum odds requirement: Some bonuses will state that they have a minimum line, such as -200 or longer.
- Stake not returned: Some bonus bets will only pay out the profit and not the stake.
- Expiration date: Bonus bets typically expire after seven days. We have lost count of the number of times we’ve seen users complain online that their bonuses disappeared from their betting accounts, and most of these are due to them expiring. Please check and double-check when your bonus bet expires.
- Eligible markets: There may be some bet types that are excluded from the bonus, such as props or live bets. Additionally, you may not be able to use the bonus on specific sporting events.
Presuming that you can just use your bonus on any market and it will remain in your account until you decide to use it can ruin the conversion value. That is why having a clear understanding of all of the rules around your bonus bet is so important.
Step 2 – Choose the Right Odds
Choosing the right odds plays an essential role in any betting strategy, and the same is true for bonus bet conversion. To maximize a bonus bet conversion, it is in your interests to search for longer odds. For example, odds in the range of +400 to +600 are right in the ‘juicy’ range. This is especially pertinent for bonus bets where the stake isn’t returned, as the higher odds will maximize your potential payout.
The longer odds improve conversion rates when you are hedging bets. For example, a $100 bonus bet at +500 returns $500 profit if it wins, not $600. Ideally, you always want to find the best prices when you are betting, as if you feel a sportsbook has undervalued a certain outcome, if your bet wins, you will win more.
The same applies to bonus bets. Always strive to find the best prices.
Step 3 – Placing Your Bonus Bet
With every top sportsbook offering welcome offers to entice you to sign up, take some time to decide which bonus bet will be best for you. Or, you could sign up at multiple sportsbooks and claim all of the different bonuses. There is nothing stopping you from doing that. If you do sign up for several new accounts to claim the bonus, just make sure you remember when they expire so you don’t lose them. I know from experience that sometimes you can forget how many accounts you have created, and when you come to use that ‘bet $5 get $200 in bonus bets’ offer, it has gone.
When your account has been verified, it is time to use your bonus bet on the sportsbook. Let’s say the bonus bet amount is $100, and you use it at odds of +400. This will give you a potential profit of $400 if you win. At this stage of the process, your aim is not to gamble, but to hedge. This is where the other accounts you may have created will come in handy for the next step.
Step 4 – Hedge Your Bets
Once you have placed your bet as outlined in the step above, the next stage is to place a wager on the opposite outcome at another sportsbook. This will guarantee you a return in some form regardless of the outcome.
Example:
- Bonus bet: $100 at +400 on Kansas City Chiefs
- Hedge bet: $320 at -400 on New England Patriots
This works because if the Chiefs win, you will get your profit as usual from the bonus bet. If the Pats win, you will get a profit from the hedge bet. We must say that you will naturally lose some value doing this, but most of the bonus amount converts to real money.
Step 5 – Use Hedging Calculator
We would advise you to use a hedging calculator to determine how much you need to maximize your profit or your bonus bet conversion rate. Using a calculator will give you the exact hedge size instead of guessing.
We have a free hedging calculator for bettors to use, which works out the lay and back price and how much you need to lay to guarantee a certain profit. There are some conversion rates to bear in mind and how good they are:
- 65%-75% = average
- 75%-85% = good
- 85% and above = excellent
It is unlikely you will see a rate of 85%, but we have seen it occasionally. Most tend to come in at the 65% to 70% range.
Step 6 – Wait For Bets to Finish
Once you have placed both your bonus bet and hedge bet, wait for the events to settle naturally and do not cash out. While we love cash out as a feature, doing it in this scenario will typically harm your conversion. Once the bet has settled, one bet wins, and the other loses. Because you have bet on both outcomes, you are left with a profit in your bank account.
This profit is now eligible to be withdrawn as real money. You can now withdraw the funds or, if you have now got the taste for hedging, use it to hedge another bonus. There is also the option of rolling it on for low-risk bets.
More serious or professional bettors usually recycle converted funds to unlock more promos. This is an efficient way of doing it, but it requires a lot of time and knowledge of how the markets work.
Can you use Parlays to Convert Bonus Bets?
Parlays are a very popular bet type due to their high potential payouts from smaller stakes. They are very challenging to win, but lots of bettors, like us included, enjoy building a multi-leg wager covering different sports and games. The good news is that some sportsbooks also allow bonus bets on parlays.
As we’ve said, one of the reasons to use your bonus bet on a parlay, if allowed, is that they come with higher odds with smaller variance. They also sometimes have better conversion rates. We wouldn’t rely on parlays; they are a complex bet type, and if one leg loses, the whole bet is a write-off, but they do give you another option for your bonus bet.
We would also recommend you use parlay builders or optimizer tools to help you with building your parlay bets.
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Converting Bonus Bets
The first thing to avoid when converting your bonus bet is using short odds. For example, odds of -110 are too short for this strategy to be viable. We can’t stress enough how important it is for this to work for the odds to be favorable. Other things to avoid include:
- Using the same sportsbook to hedge your bets.
- Ignoring market restrictions or limits that have been set by the sportsbook.
- Cashing out early, potentially missing out on value.
- Forgetting the stake is not returned on your bonus offer.
Every little bit helps to keep your bankroll ticking over nicely, and avoiding the above pitfalls can improve your conversion by 10-20%.
Summary
The bonus bet conversion process is not complicated, and it can help you turn bonus bets into withdrawable cash. By hedging your bets correctly, you are locking in a return, and that is valuable in sports betting. As you start doing this more regularly, bonus bet conversion will become a big part of your overall betting strategy. Just make sure to follow the steps correctly, avoid the mistakes, and see those bonus bets turn into real money.
