One of the most common type of slot machine offers are “free spins” offers.
The return to player percentage (RTP) is an important factor when doing slot machine offers.
RTP is another way of describing the house edge. If the slot machine has a RTP of 95%, then this means that for every €100 played, 95% will be paid back to the players and the casino will earn €5.
It is possible to reduce the variance so you will get closer to or equal the expected value. You can reduce the variance by playing a very small stake, or the minimum stake possible in the offer you’re doing. For example, by playing 400 spins at €0,25 on a slot machine, you minimise the variance (and as such the risk) compared to playing 100 spins at €1. The first option will take up more of your time though.
Hence, when you do slot machine offers it is always recommended to do “min stakes and max lines”. This basically means to play the lowest stake possible with the maximum amount of win lines. Win lines are the lines on a slot machine that will pay out a win.
Slot Machine offers
Before starting a slot machine offer it is important to calculate the expected value. You can read the guide “Is a casino offer worth doing?” to get some background on commonly used terms and the Expected Value (EV).
Most likely the terms & conditions of the slot offer will tell you which slot machine you have to use to qualify for the bonus. However, you are normally free to choose the slot machine you like for wagering the bonus amount. If this is the case, you should choose the slot machine with the highest return to player (RTP) percentage to increase your profit.
Here is an example of a slot offer.
Play €20 to get a €5 bonus with a x5 wagering requirement.
We must play through €20 worth of spins in order to qualify for the bonus. Then we must play through €25 on a slot machine to turn the bonus into cash.
Assuming the slot machine has a RTP of 95%. We can expect to lose €1 from the qualifying spins. Playing through the bonus (with the same RTP of 95%) we can expect to lose €1,25. The Expected Value is €5 – €1 – €1,25 = €2,75. Hence, as the expected value is positive, we should do the offer.
For exact information on RTP on different slot machines look here:
https://www.trickybet.net/betting/slot-rtp-percentages/
You can quickly calculate the Expected Value of slot machine offers using this calculator:
https://www.trickybet.net/betting/ev-calc/
You can work out the value of free spin offers here:
https://www.trickybet.net/betting/expected-value-free-spins-slot-offers/
If the Expected Value is positive, then the offer is worth doing. If the EV is negative, you should ignore the offer and look for another one.
Free spins
If you are given some free spins (without first having to wager any of your own money) you should always use them.
Free spins are actually risk free and you may get lucky and hit a jackpot.
Just make sure you read the terms & conditions as some casinos will require you to play through any winnings a number of times. So, if you for example win €1 from the free bets and there is a wagering requirement of x5, you will need to play another €5 before the winnings can be withdrawn. However, if you lose the €1 you just won, you will not have to play through the full €5.
Sport and casino combination offers
An interesting variation of a casino offer is when a bookmaker mixes a sport and casino offer. I have seen a number of variations, but the two main ones are where you will get free spins or a casino bonus if you place a sport bet of €x. The other variation is where you have to play through €x in the casino to get a free sports bet.
These types of offers are great as we don’t have to worry about the variance on the sports bet. Before placing the sports bet, we know the outcome from the Oddsmatcher. From a qualifying bet we would expect a loss of around 5%. Hence, the RTP is around 95%. Similarly, we would expect a return of around 75% from a free bet. Bearing these two figures in mind, we can calculate whether a particular combination offer has a positive Expected Value.
Here is an example.
Bet €20 to get a €5 casino bonus with a x 10 wagering requirement.
From the qualifying bet we would expect to lose around 5% so that would be €1. We have to wager through €50 to turn the casino bonus into cash. If playing Blackjack, we expect a total profit of €3,75, as Blackjack has a RTP of around 99,5% (when following the basic Blackjack strategy). The calculation is as follows:
Qualifying loss: €1
Expected loss from casino bonus: €5 x 10 (the wagering requirement) is €50. The RTP is 99,5% or €49,75. Therefore €50-€49,75=€0,25
Total profit: €5 – €1 (from the qualifying bet) – €0,25 (from the casino bonus wagering) = €3,75.
