Here's how we find out about welcome bonuses

Let us explain why welcome bonuses can be complicated

Let's get straight to the point and say that one welcome bonus looks like this:

• 100% up to USD 1,000 with x35 wagering requirement

You might think that you deposit 200 USD, get 200 USD in bonus from the casino, and then have to play for 7,000 USD (200 x 35). But no, it doesn't have to be that simple. Hajper, for example, whose welcome bonus is featured in the image at the top of this page, communicates "3X deposit up to 3000 USD". The tricky part here is that they count your own deposit, not just the bonus money. Does it sound confusing? We'll explain.

When it says 100 percent up to 1,000 kronor, the amount refers to bonus money. So you can receive 1,000 kronor in bonus money, not the total amount you have to play with (which would be 2,000 kronor). What Hajper does in their example is to include your own deposit, which most casinos do not do when communicating their bonus. In Hajper's case, the bonus is 200 percent up to 2,000 kronor, so if you deposit 1,000 kronor, you will receive 2,000 kronor in bonus money, for a total of 3,000 kronor to play with.

• The amount of money in a welcome bonus refers in the vast majority of cases to the bonus money.
• The wagering requirement can refer to the bonus amount, or both the bonus amount AND your own deposit.
• There may be additional conditions that limit how you may use the bonus money you received from the casino.

When it comes to the wagering requirement, some casinos, such as Casumo, deceive by writing x30. In reality, you have to wager both the bonus money AND your own deposit 30 times with them. There is absolutely no reason for you to wager your own deposit more than once, and the reason Casumo (and some other casinos) do this is because x30 looks better than x60.

In addition to the wagering requirement, there may be other conditions as well. It is common, for example, that you can only bet a maximum of 50 kronor per round while playing with a welcome bonus. Or that there are a number of games that are not valid with bonus money. When it comes to... free spins In welcome bonuses, they have their own wagering requirements based on the amount you win from them.

This is what we did when we found out about the bonuses

We've tracked down the welcome bonus at all 35 casinos currently at saferonlinegambling.org. This is how we proceeded:

• We started by surfing to each casino and checking the rules and conditions. Then we downloaded them for each casino.
• We read through all the terms and conditions (so you don't have to) and highlighted the information related to the welcome bonus.
• We created a mathematical formula (Actual Bonus Value, FBV) to calculate how much the welcome bonus was actually worth, and we included these factors:
• We ran these variables through our formula.
• We assumed that we always deposited USD 1,000, unless the bonus offered less than that, then we deposited the amount that gave the maximum bonus.
• Our formula FBV shows the true value of the welcome bonuses (not the same as how much you are expected to win).
• We have ranked the casinos based on FBV and awarded stars corresponding to the result.

The formula is not perfect

Although turnover requirements and RTP are two important factors, there are even more factors that come into play. One example is how casinos handle bonus money. Some casinos combine your cash balance with the bonus money, so when you spin for ten kronor on a slot, five kronor is deducted from your cash and five kronor from the bonus money. Other casinos allow you to play with your own money first, and only when it runs out do you start playing with the bonus money.

Some casinos are generous and make the wagering requirement start counting when you play with your own money. Others are more stingy and at these casinos, the wagering requirement starts ticking only when you have played up all the cash and start playing with the bonus money.

• FBV does not take into account how the casinos handle bonus money.
• FBV thus does not give an exact and perfect value.
• However, FBV still gives you a good indication of the value of a welcome bonus.

We work according to capacity, and in the future it is not impossible that we will add more factors to our formula.

Summary of test results

Based on the results, there is a huge difference between different welcome bonuses. Some casinos offer no bonus at all, but most at least have a welcome bonus as an option. We can also note that casinos like Betsson and LeoVegas still have their tiny bonuses from the period when the government introduced temporary restrictions due to the pandemic.

Ranking	Casino	FBV	Cut	Terms	Stars	T&C
1	Come On!	USD 1,208.10	USD 275.33		5
2	Hype	USD 744.86			4,5
3	No Account Casino	USD 739.14			4,5
4	Speedy Casino	USD 739.14			4,5
5	Mr Green	USD 589.21			4
6	William Hill	USD 589.21			4
7	Rice	USD 470.77			3,5
8	Chance	USD 415.22			3,5
9	Fun Casino	USD 397.50			3
10	Faster	USD 372.28			3
11	Bethard	USD 304.37			3
12	Frank & Fred	USD 267.88			2,5
13	Video slots	USD 249.95			2,5
14	Prank Casino	USD 246.25			2,5
15	Betsafe	USD 230.44			2,5
16	SlotV	USD 172.41			2
17	Casumo	USD 137.74			2
18	Betsson	USD 97.52			1,5
19	Maria Casino	USD 97.24			1,5
20	Major player	USD 97.24			1,5
21	ScandiBet	USD 97.10			1,5
22	Pop	USD 95.82			1,5
23	Unibet	USD 94.05			1,5
24	LeoVegas	USD 92.72			1,5
25	PlayOJO	USD 91.25			1,5
26	Jalla Casino	USD 49.25			1
27	Lucky Casino	USD 49.25			1
28	Spin Casino	USD 45.79			1
29	Vera&John	USD 19.99			1
30	Play	USD 9.74			1
31	Duelz	USD 0			1
32	Guts	USD 0			1
33	Guts Xpress	USD 0			1
34	Pronto Casino	USD 0			1
35	Voodoo Dreams	USD 0			1