The trickiest aspect of getting your account set up at legal online sportsbooks for betting on MLB games actually has to do with the many bonuses offered by these services. As such, understanding MLB sportsbook bonuses is critical to your initial success. Even though their terms are always defined and advertised, most Internet betting shops won’t have a full, in-depth primer on exactly how their bonuses work. Fortunately, once you wrap your head around the rules, bonuses are as simple to understand as any other aspect of the sports wagering pastime.
When you sign up at a sportsbook for betting on MLB action (or refill your existing account with more funds), you’ll get the option to activate a number of different bonuses depending on your betting shop of choice. However, before you accept a given bonus, you need to be aware of the terms and conditions attached to that bonus, including its “rollover” requirement.
With sportsbook bonuses, rollover is always the main consideration. So what is rollover? Simply put, Rollover is a wagering limit based on your total betting handle, and it determines when you can cash out your winnings whenever part of your bankroll is made up of bonuses offered by your sportsbook. As such, understanding rollover requirements is absolutely critical before accepting any such offer, especially since you cannot cancel bonuses once they are activated.
Here’s how rollover works: Whenever you accept a bonus, it comes with a rollover requirement that is a multiple of whatever the full deposit (your investment plus the bonus amount itself) is nominally worth. As an example, let’s say your chosen MLB sportsbook has a new member reward that matches your deposit with a 50% bonus worth up to $500. To get the maximum $500 bonus, you’ve put $1000 of your own money into your baseball betting account. Adding the bonus to your deposit, you’ve now got $1500 to work with in your digital sportsbook wallet.
But there’s a catch: Once you’ve accepted a bonus, you can’t simply use that money, hit a bet right off, and claim your payout. This is because there is a rollover attached to the bonus. For the above example, let’s say the rollover is 10X. This means that before you can withdraw any winnings associated with that bonus, you must first play a total handle of 10 times the combined original deposit and rollover total, which is $1500. So, before you can withdraw any winnings from this deposit, you will have to wager 10x its full amount, or $15,000.
Holy moly! Why in the world would anyone accept any online sportsbook bonus with terms like that? Well, while $15,000 is a lot of money, the rollover is not as restrictive as it seems. That’s because rollover reflects the total amount you ever wager, added up. It doesn’t take into account wins or losses. In theory, you could take that $1500, make 10 $1500 bets (using your winnings on each successive bet to place the next one), and then withdraw your money. If you make a lot of $50 bets over the course of an MLB season, for example, you will easily rack up the required $15,000 handle to claim your bonus winnings.
For this reason, bonuses at Bovada, BetOnline, SportsBetting, and other top sites are only worth accepting if your intent is to remain an active member at the site for some time. If your intent is to instead place one or two MLB bets here and there to supplement your income, you will want to pass on these bonus promotions. In short, bonuses are not ideal for casual baseball bettors and are only profitable for those who wager frequently. Without understanding MLB sportsbook bonuses, a casual bettor might have to wait years before withdrawing his or her winnings!
Cash bonuses are infrequent (BookMaker offers the most cash bonuses of any major sportsbook), but when you can get them, they’re a good deal. Cash bonuses at legal MLB betting sites are credited to your wallet just like a normal cash deposit would be, adding to your bankroll’s total amount. This means that, when you wager, your bonus acts exactly like it’s your own money. The rollover requirements still apply, but cash bonuses are more profitable.
Consider this example: You have $500 in your account ($250 of your own money and $250 in cash bonuses). Browsing the books, you see a can’t-miss moneyline bet, like the Dodgers at -125 over the Marlins. You’re all in on Los Angeles, so you put $500 on the line to win $400. The Dodgers beat the Marlins, and your total payout is $900 (the initial wager plus the bet’s winnings). This is how normal betting transactions work.
When you sign up for betting on MLB action at your sportsbook of choice, most of the bonuses available will be of the “free play” variety instead of the above cash bonus type. Free play bonuses are accounted for in a different part of your sportsbook wallet, and wagering with free plays is slightly different than wagering with your cash balance.
Using the above example, you have $500 in your sportsbook wallet, but this time your totals are split between your $250 deposit and the $250 in free play bonuses you’ve earned. When you make a wager, you cannot combine these two amounts, and you must play out your free play balance first. Thus, your max bet on the Dodgers can only be $250, which draws from your free play holdings. At -125 odds, the Dodgers win and the bet pays out $200. With cash, your bookie would pay you that $200 in winnings plus your $250 initial wager for a total return of $450. However, with free plays, you do not get your initial wager back (because it was a “free play”), but your winnings do get transferred to your cash account, where you can then use them as normal.
Understanding MLB sportsbook bonuses is key for new bettors who wish to maximize their returns. If you’re in it for the long haul, most membership and deposit bonuses make good sense to accept. However, if you only want to bet on MLB baseball here and there over the course of the long season, you won’t realistically be able to withdraw any of your winnings or even recoup any part of your original real-money deposit.