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13 August 2020 - 2:02pm

Deposit Bonus Calculator?

6 replies • Last post

I've thought about this for a while now and if it's technically feasible, but wouldn't it be cool if we could have a "deposit bonus calculator" on this site where you would enter information about a deposit bonus to help determine how difficult it would be to try and clear the playthrough requirements?

Inputs:
- Match percentage
- Wagering requirements (and if it's on deposit + bonus or just bonus)
- Deposit Amount
- Typical bet size
- Slot volatility (low/med/high?)
- RTP (not sure if this would actually play into anything)

Outputs:
- Playthrough required
- Likelihood of meeting playthrough before busting

Obviously the difficult part would be trying to figure out the likelihood since slots have such a high variance of results (this is where bet size vs playthrough would come into the equation), but given online casinos form their bonuses around making sure you usually go bust before meeting playthrough, there's gotta be a mathematical way to estimate this.

krcoolsongss
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13 August 2020 - 3:00pm
#1

It's an interesting thought.
I guess that the "Likelihood" would scare off most players if it is not high as 90% 🙂

If your tool can combine up to 5 games and 5 bet sizes, sort of, it would look more reliable.

auCL-Ed
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14 August 2020 - 1:55am
#2

We already do part of this in order to rank the bonuses you see on our pages that list them. Each bonus is assigned a score as part of a ranking algorithm and part of that score is the expected return of the bonus (along with other stuff like casino reputation). We do this to try to push bonuses with huge playthrough or bonuses from crappy casinos to the bottom where they belong. I guess we figured that most people wouldn't care or want to see that detailed info so we've never shown it. I've thought before that we could add some sort of signal to the bonuses like traffic lights or something just to give people an quick indication of whether the bonus is a good deal or not.

Of all those things you listed, RTP is probably the most critical thing. You want to play as high as possible RTP games as you can. If you want a quick guide to the value of any bonus you can check the info on our slot machine RTP page that you can find down the bottom under the heading Effect of RTP on bonus value. Actually I'll copy the important part here:

RTP value Break-even WR
98.0% 50xB
97.0% 33xB
96.0% 25xB
95.0% 20xB
94.0% 17xB
93.0% 14xB
Wager requirements vs RTP graph

What that shows is that if you can get a bonus with the wagering requirements lower than what is in the table then you have a mathematical advantage over the casino. Most modern slot releases these days from the leading developers are set to roughly 96%. So that is saying you need a bonus with wagering of 25xB or lower to be ahead. Casinos aren't stupid any more so that is pretty rare. But if you're able to find and play a game set to 97% or higher then you have a bit more leeway to play with. 97.5% is not unheard of and that means you can go up to 40xB. But of course that severely restricts your game choice and some casinos even rule out specific high RTP games from being played with a bonus for this reason.

In general, higher variance and higher bet sizes are better, at least until you hit a target balance that you are happy with or you bust. That may sound counter-intuitive but the reason is that you either hit a big win then reduce bet sizes and variance to try to lock it in or you bust and don't have to waste time finishing the wagering requirements. It is also why so many casinos have a bet size limit and even rules about reducing your bets after a big win.

The obvious takeaway from that is that almost all bonuses are not a good deal these days. When you factor in the punishing wagering requirements, the bet limits that are often hidden in pages of legalese, restrictions on the games you can play, and sometimes even caps on the amount you may withdraw, the vast majority are not worth the hassle. Personally I almost never claim a bonus any more.

I do like your calculator idea. I'll think on it.

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15 August 2020 - 1:35pm
#3

Thanks, Ed. That chart is very telling. Like you said, bet size and game volatility play a big role too. it's funny that bonuses basically give me an excuse to bet more "recklessly" because otherwise playthrough seems damn near impossible with so many bonuses being 30-40x D+B these days.

auCL-Ed
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17 August 2020 - 12:06am
#4

Yup 30x (D+B) is way too high, and obviously a marketing trick that sounds a lot better to a naive punter than 60xB which is what it would be at 100% bonus. That's why we always list the wagering here as only a multiple of the bonus. It gives a better indication of the true requirements and makes them all more easily comparable.

It also gets us the odd angry email from casino managers from time to time who insist that we should not be revealing the truth by converting the wagering requirements on their fool's gold bonuses.

If you want to work out the WR as multiple of the bonus yourself you can use this formula:

WRxB = (WRd + (WRb x B%)) / B%

where:
- WRd = wagering requirements multiple of the deposit
- WRb = wagering requirements multiple of the bonus
- B% = bonus percentage divided by 100

eg: if bonus is 200% with WR of 30x(D+B) then:
WRxB = (30 + (30 * 2)) / 2
WRxB = 45

eg: if bonus is 50% with WR of 20x(D+B) then:
WRxB = (20 + (20 * 0.5)) / 0.5
WRxB = 60

CL - klaw

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zaLambino
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23 August 2020 - 12:42am
#5

The only time I take a bonus with high wagering is if I just did a big withdrawal and still want to play to avoid playing my winnings back I instead take the biggest bonus I can find deposit min and play that instead of playing my last payout back

usButtBongoFiesta
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9 September 2020 - 8:25pm
#6

Unless the bonus is 300% or more 60x is almost impossible. Gotta hope you hit something big right off the top and then grind out the rest.