See What Your Bonus Is Actually Worth Before You Claim ItA calculator that turns a deposit bonus’s percentage, wagering requirement, game weighting, and RTP into one number — the real expected value once the wagering is done, not just the headline match percentage
A “100% bonus” sounds like free money, but the wagering requirement attached to it has a real, calculable cost — every dollar you’re required to bet passes through the game’s house edge, and that cost comes out of the bonus’s actual value. This page explains the formula in plain terms and includes a live calculator: enter your deposit, bonus percentage, wagering multiplier, game weighting, and RTP, and it computes the required turnover and the bonus’s true expected value on the spot, entirely in your browser. Last reviewed September 2026.
Jump to: How the math works · The calculator · Reading the result · What it assumes · Glossary · FAQ
Four numbers turn into one honest answer
The wagering multiplier applies to either the bonus alone or the bonus plus your deposit, depending on the terms — this single detail can roughly double what you actually have to bet, so it’s worth checking carefully rather than assuming. Whatever that qualifying amount is, multiply it by the wagering requirement to get your target, then divide by the game’s contribution percentage, since a game that only counts 15% of each bet toward the requirement means you have to physically wager far more than the target figure to clear it.
Every dollar wagered has an expected cost equal to the game’s house edge — simply 100% minus the RTP. Multiplying that percentage by the actual turnover required gives the expected amount you’ll lose, on average, over the course of clearing the requirement.
Bonus amount minus expected loss gives the bonus’s true expected value — what it’s actually worth, on average, once the price of unlocking it is accounted for. This number is frequently smaller than the headline bonus, and for narrow-wagering or low-weighting offers it’s often negative.
This is the same simplified formula used by matched-betting and advantage-play communities to evaluate bonus offers, and it’s mathematically exact as a long-run average — but it comes with a real limitation covered in “What it assumes” below, so treat it as an honest planning estimate rather than a guarantee.
Run the numbers on an actual offer
Everything below runs locally in your browser as you type — nothing is sent anywhere.
What each number in the results panel means
A negative number doesn’t necessarily mean the offer is a scam — a lot of real bonus structures genuinely do work out negative once the full wagering cost is priced in, particularly at high multipliers or with reduced game weighting. It means the honest, calculated value doesn’t match the headline percentage, which is exactly the gap this tool exists to show.
What this calculator does and doesn’t account for
This formula is mathematically exact as an average across many attempts, but it assumes you’re able to complete the entire required turnover regardless of how your balance moves along the way. In reality, a real player can lose their balance down to zero before finishing the requirement — at which point they simply stop, never reaching the “average” outcome the formula describes. That risk grows with a higher wagering multiplier and with more volatile games, and it’s the reason the honest realistic outcome for any individual attempt is typically worse than the point estimate above, even when the math is followed exactly.
A few other things this tool deliberately doesn’t try to compute, shown as flags rather than folded into the number above, since doing them properly needs more than a simple average:
This calculator assumes a standard non-sticky, cash-equivalent bonus — one where the bonus itself becomes fully withdrawable once wagering clears. A sticky bonus never lets you withdraw the bonus amount at all, only winnings above it, which isn’t a single clean expected-value number the way a cash bonus is — that’s a different calculation this tool doesn’t attempt.
A cap on total winnings only limits the upside — it doesn’t change the expected cost of wagering — so it’s shown as a separate note rather than baked into the true expected value figure above.
If a time limit makes the required daily wagering pace unrealistic for your bankroll, the real value you can capture is lower than the math suggests. Separately, many bonuses set a maximum bet size while wagering is active and can void the entire bonus if it’s exceeded — a real, binary risk this tool doesn’t model, so always check that limit directly against the terms.
Terms behind the numbers
Questions about what the calculator shows
Because the percentage only describes how much bonus money you receive — it says nothing about how much you have to wager to unlock it, or what game you’re allowed to wager it on. A high multiplier, a deposit-inclusive wagering base, or a low game weighting can each push the real cost of clearing the requirement above the bonus itself.
No — it’s a long-run average across many attempts, not a promise for any single one. Real outcomes vary a lot due to normal game variance, and the formula doesn’t account for the real possibility of running out of balance before finishing the required wagering, which tends to make realistic outcomes worse than the point estimate.
Often, yes — including the deposit in the wagering base can roughly double or more the actual amount you need to wager compared to a bonus-only requirement of the same multiplier, since deposits are frequently equal to or larger than the bonus itself.
If a game only counts 15% of each wager toward the requirement, you have to physically bet roughly 6-7 times more money on it than you would on a 100%-weighted slot to clear the identical requirement — and each of those extra dollars wagered still carries the game’s house edge, multiplying the expected cost.
Not accurately. This tool assumes a standard non-sticky bonus where the bonus itself becomes withdrawable cash once wagering clears. A sticky bonus, where only winnings above the bonus are ever cashable, is a genuinely different calculation that a simple expected-value number doesn’t capture well.
Directly from the specific casino’s bonus terms and the specific game’s paytable or info screen — this tool doesn’t look those up for you, since they’re operator- and game-specific and change over time. It only does the math once you’ve found the real figures.
No. Every calculation runs locally in your browser with plain arithmetic — nothing you enter is transmitted or stored.
Wagering multipliers, weighting percentages, and RTP figures used as illustrative defaults reflect commonly-seen ranges as of the review date above, not any specific operator’s current terms — always calculate using the exact figures from the actual offer and game you’re evaluating.