Sportsbooks offer signup bonuses to draw you in - but those signup bonuses are often free money. Let's talk about how and why you can convert these offers to cash.

Note that sportsbooks are often changing their offers, and offers can be state-specific. Don't take any offer from any specific book mentioned in this article at face value. Offers could easily change between when we wrote this and when you're signing up!

Check out the OddsJam Promo Convertor tool to convert any bonuses! We support several bonus types, as of the writing of this article:

Read on to learn what each of these offers mean.

Some books offer what's called a "No Sweat Bet" for your first bet at that book, up to some max value. These offers are highly profitable and you should jump on them.

Let's say the offer was up to $1000 back. This offer is essentially saying if you place your first bet, for any value up to $1000, if that bet loses you get a $1000 bonus bet back. If you only bet $500, you'd get $500 back. And if you bet $1500, you'd still get $1000 back since $1000 was the max.

What does it look like to convert one of these bets?

Imagine we have a $1500 No Sweat Bet at BetMGM. Once again, do NOT assume this is their current offer. Please read their terms and conditions to validate this. The example below is for illustrative purposes only.

In the Promo Convertor tool your first step is to select your Sportsbook and Promo Type. In this case, our book is BetMGM and our Promo Type is No Sweat Bet. Then, input the max "No Sweat" bet amount

Now, how do we use this promotion? Let's walk through an example.

In the image below, we have a bet between BetMGM and DraftKings where you can convert the $1500 No Sweat Bet to an estimated $778 to $780 in cash. To do this, you're going to bet $1500 on the listed BetMGM bet and $5520 on the listed DraftKings bet. You're converting the $1500 to $51.88% of its face value.

Your immediate reaction might be that you don't have $5000+ to throw at one side of a bet - and you're not alone. If you have a bankroll below the suggested bet size, we suggest scrolling within the results to find a bet that requires a smaller bet size.

For instance, you might scroll and find this bet instead.

This bet requires betting $2150 on FanDuel and $1500 on BetMGM. That's a significant difference! The cost is that you're converting the promotion at a lower percentage of its face value (41.67%). When sports betting, you get out what you put in.

To see an explanation of how to convert a promotion, click into the bet to see a guide!

Let's talk through our example from before. We're betting $1500 on BetMGM for Adolis Garcia Over 0.5 Home Runs, and $5220 on DraftKings for Adolis Garcia Under 0.5 Home Runs.

If your No Sweat Bet wins...

We're taking two sides of the same bet on two different books. One of these outcomes is bound to happen, so one side of your bet will win and one side will lose.

If your No Sweat Bet (in this case, your BetMGM bet) wins...

And you're done! You're $780 dollars richer.

If your Hedge bet (in this case, your DraftKings bet) wins...

This case is a bit more complicated, and it's going to involve placing a second bet. Let's walk through it in detail.

So, we have -$271.76 in cash and a $1500 bonus bet. Now what?

So, you have a bonus bet. What does this mean?

A bonus bet is essentially a "free" bet where you get the profits of your winnings but not the stake. So for example if you bet $1500 on +100 odds using a bonus bet, you would only get your $1500 of profit back instead of your $1500 profit + $1500 stake.

In the Promo Convertor tool your first step is to select your Sportsbook and Promo Type. In this case, our book is BetMGM and our Promo Type is Bonus Bet. Then, input the Bet Amount equal to the face value of your Bonus Bet. In this example, our bet is $1500.

Once again, do NOT assume this is their current offer. Please read their terms and conditions to validate this. The example below is for illustrative purposes only.

Next, we convert this bonus bet by betting on two different sides of the same bet. Pictured below are a number of options from our Promo Convertor tool for converting this bonus bet. In this case, we'll use Brazil vs Costa Rica 2nd half goals (the bottom of the table).

Converting this bet is simple - place the bets as they're listed, with the listed amounts!

So in our example, we're betting our $1500 bonus bet on Under 0.5 2nd half goals at BetMGM. Note that you may need to specifically select your bonus bet within the sportsbook while betting and it may not automatically use that bonus bet.

Then, we bet $5310 on Over 0.5 2nd half goals at Caesars.

If your Bonus Bet (in our case, the BetMGM bet) wins...

If your Hedge Bet (in our case, the Caesars bet) wins...

And we're done! In one case we made $1,065, and in the other case we made $1,062.

A qualifying bet offer typically takes the form of "Bet $X, get $Y in site credit or a $Y bonus bet."

However, there are cases when your initial bet needs to win, and cases where the outcome of your first bet doesn't matter and you get the reward regardless. We'll talk about both scenarios here.

For instance, imagine that DraftKings offers the following signup bonus: Bet $5+, Get $150 in Bonus Bets instantly.

We would set up the Promo Convertor tool like the below - we select our book, we select the promo type, we input the bet amount, we highlight whether the bet needs to win or if we just need to place a bet, and then what the reward type and value are.

In our case, we're betting $5+ at DraftKings for a $150 bonus bet regardless of the outcome of the $5+ bet. Once again, do NOT assume this is their current offer. Please read their terms and conditions to validate this. This example is for illustrative purposes only.

Now, let's go about converting this bet. The top result in the Promo Convertor tool is a 7th Inning Total Runs market between FanDuel and DraftKings, for a Pirates vs Rockies MLB game.

In this case, if we bet $5 on FanDuel for Over 1.5 runs, and $10 on DraftKings for Under 1.5 total runs, we're guaranteed a profit because of the value of the bonus bet.

If your Qualifying Bet (in our case, the DraftKings bet) wins...

If your Hedge Bet (in our case, the FanDuel bet) wins...

For help converting your bonus bet, see the bonus bet section of this guide!

This scenario is slightly less profitable, but still very manageable. Let's walk through an example.

For instance, imagine that FanDuel offers the following signup bonus: Bet $5+, Get $150 in Bonus Bets instantly if your bet wins.

We would set up our Promo Convertor like so - make sure the selected "Outcome Needed" is Win!

So, how is the conversion different? The main difference is that we're going to use our promotion on the favorite instead of the underdog, and there's a much larger profit range depending on what happens.

In this example, we bet $5 on FanDuel which is a -200 favorite. We're betting on the Baltimore Orioles +1.5 Run Line.

We're hedging with $5 on the Phillies at a -1.5 Run Line.

If the Qualifying Bet (in our case, the FanDuel bet) wins...

If your Hedge Bet (in our case, the DraftKings bet) wins...

And we're done! Either way, we made a profit.

Site Credit can be easily confused with bonus bets, but there's a key difference - site credit can be thought of as actual money, but it's money you can ONLY spend at the relevant book. It can't be withdrawn. If you bet with it and win, you get both your stake and your winnings.

The most effective way to use Site Credit is to play through it with what we call a "Low Hold", which can be accessed both in our promo convertor tool as well as the low holds tool. Both functionally do the same thing.

So, how do you use site credit most effectively? You take two sides of the same bet and convert it to cash!

Imagine we had $100 of site credit at DraftKings. We'd set up our Promo Convertor like so, with DraftKings selected and using the Site Credit promo type.

The first bet we see is a 0% hold - the over and the under are +110 and -110 respectively. You can think of this like a 0% arb.

If your Site Credit Bet (in this case, DraftKings) wins...

If your Hedge Bet (in this case, FanDuel) wins...

A profit boost, often called an odds boost, is a promotion given to you by a specific sportsbook that you apply to a specific bet. Often this promotion will have specific terms and conditions so it's important to first understand what your promotion is. Conditions often cover things like minimum odds, what sport/game the bet has to be on, and what day the game must be.

So, how do we use these promotions? When we convert these promotions, we're essentially creating arbitrage where none exists by changing the odds of a given bet.

Imagine we have a 50% odds boost at BetMGM, but it can only be used on Baseball games today. There's a max bet amount of $50.

We'd set up our promo convertor tool like so:

What you're seeing in this top bet is the odds before and after the boost at BetMGM. We have a +210 bet at BetMGM and a -210 bet at BetRivers. This is two sides of the same bet, like an arb, but before the promotion treating this like an arb would not make you any money.

But that's where the promo comes in. Using the 50% profit boost brings the odds from +210 to +315. It added +105 to your bet. Now we suddenly have an arb...it's +315 vs -210.

Take both sides of this bet, and make sure you apply the promo to the bet. Remember - be extra careful not to risk any money before you confirm the bet is eligible for your promotion.

If your Promotion Bet (in this case, BetMGM) wins...

If your Hedge Bet (in this case, BetRivers) wins...

Profit boost promotions are free money - make sure you take advantage of them!