All of shrek's Comments + Replies

Yep, that makes sense, thank you. I agree with your calculation and the positive EV result in this example, and I agree you could construct other bets with different EV / risk profiles.

As @KaseyShibayama originally noted above, this isn't risk-free, so these "risk-free bet" offers differ from the deposit bonuses OP describes, where one gets "free bet" money immediately and can keep the original deposit money to withdraw without risking any of it.

I still think OP's example here isn't quite right, because you can't easily convert the $1000 of site credit to ... (read more)

Thank you, those examples make it much clearer.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your example above or @martin_glusker's comment about the free bets. As I understand Martin's comment, you don't get your free bet stake back, so if you bet on something extremely likely you'll just get the small winnings but not the notional value of your wager. For instance, if you bet on something at -1000 with $1000 of free bet, you're likely to win, but you'd only get $100 of winnings, not $1000 of stake plus $100 of winnings.

I can see how bets could be constructed that would recover more value using martin's link, but as ... (read more)

5[anonymous]2y
I think I understand your confusion @shrek. There are two stages: the initial risk-free bet and then then free bet (if necessary).  -- 1st bet, $1000 on +100 odds (50% implied probability) Win the bet: Payout is $2000 ($1000 stake, $1000 winnings) Lose the bet: Payout is $0 cash, $1000 free bet -- 2nd bet (only necessary if lost 1st bet), $1000 free bet on +100 odds Win: Payout is $1000 cash Lose: Payout is $0 -- The EV calculation is then: 0.5  x 2000 + 0.5 x ((0.5 x 1000) + (0.5 x 0)) = $1250 Thus we see that it is positive EV.  This can get much fancier, and you can optimize it for higher EV, lower risk, etc, but this shows the basic intuition. 

OP, could you elaborate on how exactly you ended up with $4400? It would be interesting to know the bets / payouts involved, as well as how much of your own money you had to temporarily deposit (you say $2000, but it seems like for each bonus in the screenshot it's necessary to deposit an amount roughly equal to the bonus amount).

Also, you say six bonuses and $5800, but I only count five and $4800 in the screenshot.

4
Robi Rahman
2y
Yeah, here are some examples. I was in NYC from 5pm Saturday to 7pm Sunday. I signed up for the BetRivers match promo. They asked me to verify my identity by uploading a photocopy of my driver's license (I used my passport, which was accepted). Upon depositing $250, they gave me $250 in matching funds. The soonest upcoming sports game was the Kansas City Chiefs vs the Buffalo Bills, which was at -110 moneyline odds (meaning the Chiefs were 55% favorites according to the sportsbook). FiveThirtyEight had them as 65% favored, so I bet on the Chiefs. They won, so I got a $200 payout. I withdrew $700 (my original $250, the matching $250, and the bet payout). If the Chiefs had lost, I would've withdrawn my original $250 and quit. Definitely don't gamble your own money, that's how they get you. I also used the Caesars promo to bet on the San Francisco 49ers vs Green Bay Packers game, that the total score would be under 47.5 and the 49ers would lose by less than 3.5 points. This required a $1500 deposit and no document verification. The final score was SF 13-10 GB so I won $3967. The total amount of money I had to temporarily deposit for these two was $1750. As you say, it's usually a deposit equal to the bonus amount. You can do them all serially if you only have $1500, or simultaneously if you have $6000 to spare and want to finish the process quickly. And you are right, I only screenshotted five; I'll edit that.

In this case BetMGM seems to be negative EV. In OP's example above, if the $1000 of site credit is only worth $800 or so, you have 1% chance of +$1000 and 99% of -$200.

Edit: bad arithmetic on my part here, it should be 1% of +$99000, for total EV +$792.

1
Robi Rahman
2y
It is not negative EV. You are either misunderstanding the offer or someone's example.