Bonus Value Calculator
What a bonus is really worth in £ after wagering — the expected cost of clearing the requirement at the stated RTP, subtracted from the bonus amount.
Expected real value of this bonus
£30.00
- Total wagering required
- £500.00
- Expected cost at 96% RTP
- £20.00
- Bonus amount
- £50.00
Estimates based on the figures you enter and the stated RTP. This is information, not gambling advice, and no outcome is guaranteed. 18+ only — BeGambleAware.org.
A bonus is only worth its headline figure if clearing it were free. It is not: every pound you stake carries the game's house edge. This tool subtracts the expected cost of the required playthrough from the bonus to show what the offer is realistically worth.
The formula, in full
Expected cost equals total wagering multiplied by one minus the RTP. Expected value equals the bonus minus that cost. Nothing more complicated is happening, and no assumption is hidden in the code.
Worked example: a £50 bonus at 10x requires £500 of stakes. On a 96% RTP slot the house edge is 4%, so £500 of turnover costs £20 on average. The bonus is therefore worth roughly £30 in expectation. Change the RTP to 92% and the same offer costs £40, leaving £10. Change the multiplier to 35x, as offers were before the UK cap, and the cost reaches £70 — more than the bonus itself.
That last case is the one worth understanding, and it is why the tool prints an explicit warning rather than a polite zero. Some offers, on the numbers in their own terms, cost more to clear than they pay out.
What expected value does and does not tell you
Expected value is an average over a very large number of bets. Your actual session will not land on it. Slots in particular have high variance: you might clear a requirement well ahead of the average, or lose the balance long before you finish. The number here is a way to compare offers on a consistent basis, not a forecast of your evening.
It also ignores the possibility of busting out. If your balance hits zero before the wagering is complete, the remaining requirement is irrelevant — you simply lost the deposit. Higher-variance games make that more likely, which is one argument for clearing playthrough on lower-variance titles even though the expected cost is identical.
Finally, it assumes you play the RTP you entered. The same slot title frequently ships in multiple RTP configurations, and operators choose which one to deploy. The figure in the game information panel on the site you are playing at is the only one that applies to you.
Why wager-free offers score so well
Set the multiplier to zero and the expected cost collapses to nothing — the bonus is worth its face value because winnings are paid as withdrawable cash with no playthrough attached. That is the whole argument for wager-free promotions, and it is why we treat 0x as the benchmark the rest of the market is measured against.
PlayOJO is the clearest UK example: every bonus the brand runs is wager-free, and its OJOplus cashback credits to a withdrawable balance in real time at 0x. Where other operators run wager-free offers we list them with the same scrutiny, and any figure we have not confirmed from the operator's own terms is shown as being verified rather than guessed at.
Cashback is the other structure that survives this calculation well, provided the cashback itself is paid as cash. Cashback paid as a bonus with its own wagering requirement is a different and considerably weaker product, and the terms will say which it is.
Comparing two offers properly
Run both through the tool with the RTP of the game you would actually play, then compare the expected values rather than the headline amounts. A £25 wager-free offer routinely beats a £100 bonus at 10x once the cost is priced in, and the smaller offer carries no maximum bet rule and no conversion cap either.
Then apply the terms the calculator cannot model. Maximum conversion truncates your upside. A short expiry raises the chance you never finish. A high minimum deposit changes how much of your own money is committed. None of those improve an offer, so a bonus that already looks marginal on expected value rarely recovers once they are added.
| Offer structure | Total wagering | Expected cost | Expected value |
|---|---|---|---|
| £50 wager-free (0x) | £0 | £0 | £50 |
| £50 at 10x bonus only | £500 | £20 | £30 |
| £50 at 10x on deposit + bonus (£50 deposit) | £1,000 | £40 | £10 |
| £50 at 10x, 10% game weighting | £5,000 | £200 | Negative |
A note on how we use this ourselves
Bonus fairness is 20% of our scoring model, and this calculation is part of how we arrive at it. An offer with a low multiplier, a clear significant-terms line, no punitive conversion cap and a sensible expiry scores well. A headline-heavy offer whose expected value is thin or negative scores badly regardless of how large the number in the advert is.
The output here is an estimate based on figures you supply, and it is information rather than gambling advice. No calculation makes a bet a good idea, and none of this changes the fact that the house edge is designed to win over time.
FAQs
Why does the tool say a bonus is worth nothing?
Because the expected cost of the required wagering, at the RTP you entered, is greater than the bonus itself. We floor the headline figure at zero but print the shortfall in full, so you can see how far underwater the offer is rather than being shown a flattering number.
What RTP should I enter?
The one shown in the game information panel at the casino you are playing at. 96% is a reasonable default for UK slots, but the same title is often deployed at different RTP settings by different operators, and live and table games differ again.
Does this account for game weighting?
Not directly. Work out your true stake total in the wagering calculator first, divide it by the bonus to get the effective multiplier, and enter that figure here. On 10% weighting the effective multiplier is ten times the advertised one, which usually pushes the value negative.
Is a positive expected value a reason to take the bonus?
It is a reason to prefer one offer over another if you were going to play anyway. It is never a reason to deposit more than you planned, and it does not mean you will finish ahead — variance dominates any individual session.
Why do wager-free bonuses always come out on top?
Because there is no required playthrough, so there is no house-edge cost to subtract. The bonus is worth its face value, and winnings are withdrawable cash rather than funds locked behind a turnover condition.
Bonus value FAQs
How is expected bonus value calculated?
Total wagering (bonus × multiplier) is multiplied by the house edge (100% minus RTP) to estimate the cost of clearing the requirement, which is subtracted from the bonus amount. It is an average before variance, not a guarantee.
Can a bonus be worth less than nothing?
Yes. With a high multiplier or a low-RTP game, the expected cost of wagering can exceed the bonus itself — the calculator flags this in amber rather than hiding it.
Which RTP should I enter?
The RTP of the game you would actually play, from its in-game info panel. Operators can license the same slot at several RTP levels, so check the panel rather than a review.