What is Bonus Hunting?

Bonus hunting is the practice of selecting promotions on the arithmetic of their terms rather than on the appeal of the offer, and playing them in whatever way the terms permit that maximises expected value. A bonus hunter reads the wagering requirement, the game weighting, the maximum conversion and the expiry before deciding whether an offer is worth taking at all, and most are not. It is not the same as bonus abuse, though operators sometimes treat the two as one. Hunting works within the published terms; abuse breaks them, most often through multiple accounts, or by using someone else's payment details. The grey area between the two is where the disputes live, and it is governed by the irregular play clause that nearly every bonus carries — wording that lets an operator withhold winnings for play which, while permitted by the letter of the terms, was plainly not their intent. Low-risk betting patterns that cover most outcomes are the classic example. What a player should take from this is less a strategy than a reading habit. The terms decide whether a bonus is worth anything, and the same headline percentage can be generous or worthless depending on figures printed below it. It is also worth knowing that operators track this behaviour and commonly respond by reducing or withdrawing offers to individual accounts, which is permitted and is not a penalty requiring a reason.