Matched Betting Casino Offers – Wagering Explained

5 min read

Andrea

15 Jul 2026

For anyone new to Matched Betting casino offers, wagering is one of those concepts it’s really important to get your head round.

Fortunately it’s one of those things that seems more complicated than it is!

What Is Wagering?

Wagering is the act of spending (or betting) money – be it your own money or bonus money - on an online slot, or a casino game like roulette, blackjack or bingo.

If we take a typical online slot with a ‘spin bet amount’ set to £1, each time we spin the slot we will be wagering £1.

If we click ‘spin’ on the slot 10 times we would then have wagered £10.

If we’d clicked 25 times, we would have wagered £25, if 50 times then £50, and so on.

It doesn’t matter if we are using our own money or bonus money, or if we win on a spin or not – these things don't influence the total amount that we have wagered.

Only the number of spins/bets we do and the amount of money we stake per spin/bet influence the total amount wagered.

Here are a few different example scenarios to emphasise this point. In every scenario we have a starting cash balance of £5, and we have to do £5 worth of wagering (either with cash or a bonus)

Spin Bet Amount, Number of Spins and Wagering

Spin Bet Amount x Total Number of Spins = Total Amount Wagered

When using £1 spins it’s quite easy to understand that we have to complete 5 spins to wager a total of £5.

But how many spins would be needed if we were betting 20p per spin instead? To work this out we divide the total wagering amount by our spin bet amount.

£5.00 divided by £0.20 = 25 spins

What if we were betting 10p per spin?

£5.00 divided by £0.10 = 50 spins.

Wagering Your Own Cash to Unlock a Bonus (or Free Spins)

With any offer, it’s important to ALWAYS read the terms and conditions.

(If you’re an Outplayed member and you're ever unsure of whether an offer is worth doing, ask in the Facebook Group or in the relevant section on the forum BEFORE depositing or attempting the offer!).

If an offer says ‘Deposit and Wager £5’ to receive a reward, then to trigger the offer you must first deposit £5+ and wager the specified amount.

If the offer just says ‘Wager £5’ to receive a reward, you don't have to deposit if you’ve already got cash in your balance!

This is the case even when you have a cash balance that’s smaller than the total amount you need to wager.

You might be able to complete the necessary wagering with that balance alone. You could start the wagering, and only have to make a deposit if you lost your cash balance.

In this scenario, the £5 wagering was completed without any need to deposit.

However, if we had a cash balance of just £2 and lost on our first two spins, resulting in a £0 balance, we would have to deposit a bit more cash in order to complete the remaining £3 of wagering.

Long story short...when the terms state only ‘Wager’ don’t assume you need to deposit too – it might not be necessary.

Bonuses with Wagering Requirements

We often get casino bonuses that have wagering requirements attached to them.

A wagering requirement is the number of times you must wager the bonus before it becomes withdrawable cash.

In our example scenarios (3 and 4) the £5 bonuses had 1x wagering.

This meant we had to wager the total bonus amount just once before any winnings would turn into cash. If we did 5 x £1 spins, the £5 wagering would be complete.

In scenario 3, we won on some of the spins, so once the last spin was complete, any winnings transferred to our cash balance.

In scenario 4, we didn’t win anything while wagering the bonus, so our cash balance stayed the same.

What if our £5 bonuses had 2x wagering though?

We would have to wager the bonus amount twice before any winnings became withdrawable cash.

To work out the wagering amount we multiply the bonus amount by the wager requirement. In this example it would be:

£5 x 2 = £10

For example, we have to complete 10 x £1 spins to complete a total of £10 of wagering with our £5 bonus.

Scenario 7 gives an idea of what this could look like.

In Scenario 8, we don’t win much on our first few spins, so we ‘bust out’ of our bonus. This means we lose our bonus before we could complete the required £10 of wagering.

Here, after Spin 7 we would stop playing because we’ve lost our bonus. We don’t want to start playing with our own cash!

You will see bonuses with varying wagering requirements on them.

Here are a few more examples with the Total Amount that we need to wager calculated for them too.

In general:

- The lower the wagering requirement the better the bonus is for us, as it's more likely we can turn the bonus into cash.

- The higher the bonus wagering requirement the more likely we are to ‘bust out’ and not make anything.

Free Spins with Wagering Requirements

This is one to watch out for – don’t assume when you see ‘free spins’ that they are completely free spins. Sometimes they come with wagering requirements too!

How do wagering requirements on free spins work?

Well, the wagering requirements are applied to any winnings from the free spins. It's not uncommon to come across offers including free spins where a wagering requirement is attached to any winnings before you can withdraw them. For example, stake £10 to receive 100 free spins with 10x wagering.

Win just £1 from the free spins and you would need to wager £10 before you can make any return.

If you won £20 from the free spins, you would need to wager £200 before you received any withdrawable cash. That's quite a bit of wagering!

General Tips For Handling Casino Offer Wagering

Always double check the wagering terms of any offer you receive. If you are unsure whether an offer is worth doing, please ask in the forum or Facebook Group for help before attempting the offer alone!
Before starting an offer, decide what spin size you are going to use and how many spins you'll need to complete. In our offer guides we usually try to recommend the best spin bet amounts to use (as well as the best slots and games).
When you start an offer keep track of the spins (or bets) you’ve done! You don't want to wager more than you have to! If there's a lot of wagering to do on a slot, you can use auto-spin with some casinos. Just be careful to keep track of this too.
1 x wagering requirements are the best, followed by 2x, 3x and so on. The larger the wagering requirement, the harder it is for us to make a return.
Completely free spins with no wagering requirements? Completely free bonus cash with no wagering requirements? Always use these freebies – you never know what you might win!

Advanced Wagering Strategies for Matched Betting Casino Offers

The general consensus is to use minimum bet stakes (with maximum lines) when completing wagering. This is the strategy we recommend in most of our guides on Outplayed, as it minimises the effects of variance in your results.

There are also now more advanced wagering strategies available, mainly thanks to the development of a nice piece of software called the Casino Simulator. This tells you when it might be worthwhile deviating from minimum stakes. If you’re interested in learning more about the Casino Simulator and advanced wagering strategies we’d recommend having a look at our Diamond Membership Level.