This will likely be the easiest and shortest article you read in our “How To” section. In the sports betting industry, there are several different termsbettors use to reference placing a bet. The focus of this article will be the term “wager”.

Across the Board (Win/Place/Show): This is a combination of the Win, Place, and Show wagers. If you bet a horse 'across the board' you are effectively betting him to Win, Place, and Show. If the horse wins, you collect on all 3 bets. If the horse comes in 2nd, you collect the Place and Show payoffs. The Facts about Amendment B – Sports Wagering. Until May of 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal sports betting ban, Nevada was the only state that offered legal, regulated single-game betting on both college and professional sports. This is the biggest betting trend today. There are 1000+ events in Real Time with our premium live wagering system. Bet while the game unfolds!

What Does Wager Mean?

Don’t over think this one. A wager is just a slightly fancier way of saying the word bet. Nothing more, nothing less. When you wager on something, you are always risking a certain amount of money – or anything else for that matter (i.e. case of beer) – on the outcome of an game or event that hasn’t yet happened.

The most important thing to consider when wagering on anything is the rules of the wager. For example, a casual bettor will place a wager on a baseball game without knowing the full extent of the rules and what happens to the wager when a rain out occurs or there is a pitcher change before the game starts. Understanding how your wager is won and/or lost is vital to becoming a knowledgeable handicapper.

What Can I Wager On?

If you have a few bucks laying around and are really serious about investing it in the sports betting world and trying to turn a profit, there is a plethora of betting options at your disposal. The purest and simplest form of wagering is on the money line option. You must simply pick who you think is going to win the game or event. Other options include point spread bets, totals, run lines in baseball, puck lines in hockey, multi-bets such as parlays and teasers, prop bets, and future bets that could take months or even years to be decided.

How to Make the Perfect Wager

This is almost a trick question. Most amateur bettors would classify a perfect wager only as a wager that makes them money. However, this isn’t the case. A perfect wager is one in which the potential reward exceeds the risk involved. This means that over the long term, if you make solid wagers that minimize risk, you should likely turn a profit. A perfect wager can be aided by a little luck, bad or good calls from the refs, or other unexpected circumstance such as an injury to an opponent, but it doesn’t mean you should rely on these things when finalizing your bets. Sportsbooks are built and funded by bettors who do not know how to make a good wager. If everyone was an astute handicapper, the sportsbooks would be out of business.

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With the online gambling marketplace becoming so competitive, it is perhaps no surprise that gambling sites use clever marketing ploys in order to entice new players their way.

One of these tactics is through seemingly generous sign up or welcome bonuses, which grant new players a host of free bets or cash bonuses for opening an account with them. These can take the form of matching your first deposit with free cash, free bets when you stake X amount, or even just free money – no questions asked.

That sounds pretty good, what’s the catch?

The only fly in the ointment from a punter’s perspective is wagering requirements.

What are wagering requirements?

These are essentially the hoops that you will have to jump through in order to get your hands on your bonus and any winnings that come from it. This is generally known as the ‘play through’, and will state how much money you need to stake in order to activate your bonus and profits.

Luckily wagering requirements, or play through, is always low for sports bonuses and free bets.

The majority of wagering requirements are also accompanied by a list of terms & conditions as long as the Magna Carta too, so it pays to become acquainted with these as they will outline exactly what you need to do to secure your bonus or free bets.

How Do They Work?

Some examples:

So let’s say that your chosen a deposit bonus which has granted you a welcome bonus of 100% up to £200. Thanks very much!

But there’s a clever bit of wordplay here when you look closely: up to. So it could well be less. This amount is directly linked to your first deposit amount so if you only fund your account with £10 you only get a £10 bonus.

This will all be outlined in those pesky T’s & C’s, so do take the time to check.

To be able to withdraw your bonus if you deposited £50 these are the requirements you’d need to meet:

Sun Wager Betting

• You are given a £50 bonus
• A stipulation of 3x deposit + bonus amount wagering requirement is in the T&C’s
• You will thus need to stake a total of £300 to release your bonus cash.
• Any winnings and your bonus will then be transferred to your account balance and you can withdraw or continue betting.

When you look at it that way, it’s not surprising that some people get a little annoyed with welcome bonuses as they’re not always as they seem on the surface. Are they a scam? No but you do need to do your homework.

The 3x wagering requirement is obviously a hugely favourable one for the player, and in most cases will be a lot higher – casino bonuses for example are usually between 20x and 50x.

Tiered wagering requirements

Sometimes a gambling site will offer what is known as a tiered wagering requirement, which is a staggered collection of payments. An example might be:

In this example, even though the tiered wagering requirements make it seem slightly different, the ultimate bottom line is that you need to wager a grand total of £500 within two months of opening your account in order to access your £100 worth of total bonuses.

And whilst this will make it ‘more affordable’ for you, e.g. playing in installments rather than all at once, at the end of the day the financials are still the same.

Wagering Requirements: An Overview

Wager Betting

Hopefully this has given you an insight into the sometimes murky world of wagering requirements, which are a bit of a pain after being promised such a great deal by your casino or bookmaker.

But it makes business sense for an online gambling platform to do this; to entice new customers but to protect themselves financially. It is a perfectly legal and above-board way of generating new custom.

As the old saying goes ‘only fools rush in’, so do take the time to read the terms & conditions as specified by your provider. The wagering requirements will be clearly stated here, and ultimately it is your responsibility to understand the implications of accepting a sign up bonus or offer.

Betting Wager Meaning

Unsurprisingly, many of the complaints that casinos and bookmakers receive are from customers who claim they didn’t know about any wagering requirements, and want their bonus cash pronto. Well, they should have read the T’s & C’s then….

Wager Castle Betting

As soon as you sign up for a new account, you have accepted the terms of the sign up offer. There’s no going back now.

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