How You Should Be Using Bonus Bets

Transcript

Bonus bets—okay, this is a question we get a lot, and the answer might surprise you.

So with bonus bets, you should be exclusively using those on moneyline underdogs, long shot odds, or two-team parlays. And I know that sounds like just some degenerate advice, but the thing about bonus bets is that you don't get the stake back—meaning the money you put into the bet is not part of the payouts.

That small detail makes all the difference in the world. And when you do the math, you'll see why the strategy for bonus bets is completely different than when you bet with your own cash.

When you get a bonus bet, most of us don’t want to cash out until we get the same amount back or more in withdrawable cash. So let’s say you have a $25 bonus bet and you bet it on a -110 bet. If you had used your own cash, you’d be walking away with $47.73—your original $25 (the stake) plus your $22.73 in winnings.

When you use the bonus bet, you’re only walking away with the $22.73 in winnings. So you decide to bet it again, and let’s say it wins again. Now you’re walking away with $43.

Here’s the problem though—would you rather have a $25 two-team parlay that pays $43, or that same exact bet that pays $66? You’d obviously want the second bet, right? Because you bet it all twice, you effectively made the two-team parlay.

Remember, all parlays do is automatically roll over all of your winnings into the next bet. The difference with bonus bets is that they take away the stake after the bet is won, so you get the full buying power of a parlay. Which means, in this example, you get $47 rolled into that second bet instead of $22.

This is why the payout is so much better. But what if you just want to do a single bet? It’s still in your best interest to go for the long-shot odds—because on average, you’re going to win more money.

If we convert the odds into implied probabilities, we can walk through this. So let’s take three bets: a -200, a +100, and a +200 bet, and convert them into their implied probabilities.

Let’s say we get 100 $1 bonus bets. If we only bet them on -200 bets, that means that 70% of the time we’re going to win $0.50, and 30% of the time we’re going to walk away with nothing. Which means we have an average of $0.35 won.

If we do the $1 bet at +100, we win $1 50% of the time, for an average of $0.50 won.

And if we do the +200 bet, we win $2 30% of the time, for an average of $0.60 won.

So no matter how you split it, going for the long odds is always going to be in your favor when you’re using bonus bets—because you don’t get the stake back, and that completely changes the strategy.

All right, if you like this kind of educational content, feel free to watch the series below. We go through all the betting basics—talking about how lines are made, things to watch out for from the app standpoint, dispelling myths, and much more.

We’re constantly updating videos in this series, so hope that helps—and as always, good luck.