How to read and understand Terms and Conditions

I have been an advantage gambler for quite some time and much of the time I spent looking for good opportunities were in the terms and conditions (T&C) of the online betting sites and the promotions they had to offer. I would actually venture to say that most of the time were spent going through them and checking if the offer was any good or not.

It has become harder and harder to find such good offers, and it seems more and more rules and restrictions have been put in place in the T&C at the betting sites and the offers they promote. You need to be very careful when coaming through the legal stuff and make sure that you understand every rule put forth else you might have your bonus offer removed, or even worse have your winnings confiscated.

I have seen plenty of threads pop up lately where players complain that their winnings have been taken away after the fact because they haven’t checked the T&C properly (or at all). Do not be that guy.

This articles aim is to teach you how to read the terms and conditions of bonus offers, some basic jargon used, so you can avoid having a great winning day turn into a sore losing one.

Why are the Terms and Conditions necessary?

This might seem clear to some, but why they are so long and complicated is probably not something which is obvious to all. They are basically put in place so that the betting site that are offering them are not being taken advantage of. If a gambling site is offering €100 to everyone that creates an account and there are no restrictions put in place then you are gonna see plenty of people just signing up and take the free money.

The example above might seem like a fantasy as no one in their right mind would have offered something like that, but back in the early days of online gambling the competition was quite fierce among the online casinos and some offered the most amazing deposit offers with barely any restrictions. These were abused quite badly (by yours truly included) until they had to pull the offer and most of the time went out of business at the same time.

Now mostly the legit online bookmakers are left standing and they understand that you need restrictions put in place to be able to offer free money to people. It cannot be fully free, some action is needed to compensate the house for offering you money.

Example of T&C: Bet365 Open Account Offer

Instead of babbling on and on about what the terms and conditions are we should rather get down to business and take a look at an example.

To give you a feel for and some meat on the bones we decided to go through the terms and conditions attached to the Bet365 Open Account Offer. This is a bonus offer for new accounts that can receive a 100% deposit bonus on their first deposit. Sounds great, and it is, but there are plenty of conditions you need to meet and terms you need to adhere to. Let’s get down to it:

Terms and Conditions

1. Simply states the minimum amount you need to deposit in order to qualify for the 100% matched bonus. Also state that you have a time frame to make a larger deposit if you want to.
2. Notes the maximum amount you can receive on your first deposit offer.
3. How you will receive your bonus. After you have entered your bonus code you need to turn over the bonus amount one (1) time to get it credited to your account. If you deposited €50 and received a €50 bonus, you need to place bets worth of €50 in total to have it released.
4. Statement of how you can release your bonus in order to withdraw it to your personal bank account. This can be done after you have turned over your bonus AND deposit amount three (3) times. So for a €50 deposit and a €50 bonus means you have to place a total of €300 in wagers.
5. The time you have to meet these requirements.
6. A date where the validity of this offers end. Usually with these types of offers (general ones) this is simply a placeholder and they get renewed before this ends.
7. A list of countries which residents this offer is available to. Because of different laws and some countries prone to bonus abuse, only a handful of countries can take advantage of this offer. This will vary between betting sites.
8. The offer code needs to be used within 7 days of your first qualifying deposit, just a reminder that you can’t wait with this offer until you please.
9. A very important condition regarding withdrawal when your offer is open: you are allowed to withdraw money before you have entered the offer code per (a), but you need to make another qualifying deposit.

   However, if you withdraw money after you have entered the offer code, but before you have completed the turnover requirements Bet365 will revoke your bonus. It does not say anything about winnings, but the common practice is to claim them as well.

10. States that you can only work on one bonus at a time. If a reload offer should become available to you, remember that you need to clear your first offer first before you can take advantage of the other as well.
11. You can also only receive one opening offer. If you take this you cannot get any other opening account offers they might offer you, or vice versa.
12. The bets you place need to be on odds of 1.50 (or -200 or 1/2) or higher. This is to refrain players from placing high probability odds games to just safe their bonus in. You can have these in a accumulator, as long as at least one bet is 1.50 or higher in odds.
13. You cannot place two bets on opposite sides to clear the bonus. Only the first wager will count. So if you place a bet on Manchester United to win over Chelsea, then place a bet on Chelsea to win over Manchester United (in the same match), then only the first bet will count towards the rollover requirement.
14. A list of bet types that are not allowed given the high chance of abuse that comes with these types of bets.
15. Cashing out your bet (Bet365 feature) will have it not count towards the wagering requirement.
16. This is a term that is put in place to give Bet365 the right to void and cancel bonus offers for people they believe are abusing their offer.
17. Maybe a controversial statement, but Bet365 is only offering odds to recreational players, not those that are professional. If you are making winning bets, you will be shown the door pretty quickly. Better head over to Pinnacle Sports if you fit this bill.
18. Simply stating that you can only claim this offer once per household, so no making accounts in your father, mother, daughter, brother, uncle, dog and whoevers name.
19. This looks like a term that gives them the right to outright steal your money and it kinda is, but no one is gonna use this for no good reason and risk having their reputation tarnished. None of the great betting sites will use this to only save a few hundred euros when they are making millions a year. This is put in place so in case something happens that they didn’t think of as abuse before the fact they are still going to be able to revoke the users bonus well within their right.

Plenty of obvious terms here, but also some that may be new or unclear to you guys. This is just an example of a T&C document for a bonus offer, and as you might discover is that they are for the most part easy to understand and make sense if you take your time to read them before claiming a bonus.

I have never had any problem with any casino over the years, even when it was quite clear that I were abusing their bonus offer by simply depositing money, playing through the requirements and cashing out. As long as you follow their rules and don’t make too much of a ruckus they will allow it more often than not.

What to check for and common pitfalls

Many of the T&Cs you will encounter should look about the same, but the points that differ is important to look for. Here is a quick list over what you need to look for:

• Max bonus amount – How much can you receive from the bonus offer?
• Eligibility – Is your country restricted or is it an account specific offer?
• Requirements – What is needed to get the offer, release it and make it available for withdrawal?
• Odds and markets – What odds and/or markets are restricted for this offer?

Common mistakes

It is very important to not issue any withdrawals prior to completing any turnover requirements. The common practice among betting sites is that an attempt of withdrawing funds before this time is up is looked upon as an attempt to abuse their bonus offer. A good rule of thumb is finish your rollover requirement before you try to withdraw any funds.

Betting on the wrong markets or playing on games that are restricted is another common way people get their winnings and bonus money voided. Make sure that your market of choice is actually allowed before you go ahead with your playing.