# Bonus bet

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Canonical: https://novigapi.com/learn/bonus-bet

A bonus bet is promotional credit from a sportsbook that you can wager but whose stake is not returned if the bet wins, so only the profit pays out.

```
bonus-bet payout if win = bonus x (decimal - 1); conversion rate = locked profit / bonus amount
```

A bonus bet, often called a free bet, is credit a sportsbook gives you as a promotion. You place it like any bet, but if it wins you receive only the profit, not the bonus amount. A $100 bonus bet at +300 pays $300, not $400. Because the stake never comes back, bonus bets are worth less than cash, and the best way to use them is on longer odds, where the profit is a bigger share of the payout.

## How it works

Bettors measure a bonus bet by its conversion rate: how much guaranteed cash it can be turned into, as a share of its face value. You place the bonus bet on one side and hedge the other side with real money at another venue, sized so both outcomes pay the same. Long odds convert better, because a bonus at +300 has much more profit to lock in than one at -200. Typical conversions on well-chosen long shots land well above half the bonus value.

## Worked example

A $100 bonus bet on Team A at +300 pays $300 if A wins. On Novig, Team B's Yes ask is 77%. Buy N contracts of B at $0.77 so both outcomes pay the same:

```
300 - 0.77N = N - 0.77N, so N = 300 contracts, costing 300 x $0.77 = $231
```

Converting a $100 bonus bet with a Novig hedge

| Outcome | Bonus bet | Novig hedge (300 at 77%) | Net cash |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Team A wins | +$300 | -$231 | +$69 |
| Team B wins | $0 | +$69 | +$69 |


The $100 bonus becomes $69 of guaranteed profit, a 69% conversion. The [bonus bet converter](https://novigapi.com/bonus-bet-converter) runs this for any price and also shows the best conversion across odds ranges.

## On Novig

Novig is a useful hedge venue for bonus bets because you buy at prices set by traders, and its percent prices make the sizing simple: the hedge cost per $1 of payout is the price itself. Place the hedge pregame on a game market where possible: per [Novig trading fees](https://docs.novig.com/api/concepts/fees) (checked 12 Nov 2026), game markets charge the taker fee of 0.06 x P x (1 - P) per contract only while the event is live. In the example, an in-game hedge would add 0.06 x 0.77 x 0.23 x 300 = $3.19 of fee. Check depth too: our `/orderbook/{id}` endpoint shows whether 300 contracts sit at the 77% ask. Novig's own promotions follow their own terms, which we do not cover.

## Common mistakes

- Using a bonus bet on a heavy favorite. A $100 bonus at -200 pays only $50 if it wins.
- Counting the bonus as cash in the hedge sums. The stake does not come back.
- Missing the terms. Many bonuses carry minimum odds, expiry dates and market restrictions.

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