How to read bonus terms
A welcome offer usually has a headline along the lines of "100% up to SEK 500". What you actually get is decided by the terms under the headline. Here we go through the four terms that are almost always there.
One bonus per operator
Under the Swedish Gambling Act a licensed operator may only offer a bonus on the first occasion you play. That means one welcome offer per operator. No recurring bonuses and no loyalty schemes with bonus funds. An operator offering more than that either lacks a Swedish licence or is breaking the law.
Wagering requirement
The wagering requirement says how many times the bonus amount must be staked before the money can be withdrawn. A 6x requirement on a SEK 500 bonus means you must stake SEK 3,000 in total. Every bet counts, whether it wins or not. Some operators calculate the requirement on bonus plus deposit, and then the total is twice as large.
Minimum odds
Only bets at odds equal to or higher than the minimum count towards the wagering requirement. If the minimum is 1.80, a bet at 1.50 does not count. The higher the minimum odds, the greater the risk in each bet that counts.
Validity
Validity is how long you have to meet the wagering requirement. When the time runs out, the bonus funds disappear, and so does anything you played up with them. A low wagering requirement with a short validity can in practice be harder to meet than a higher requirement with a long one.
Maximum stake
Most offers limit how much you may stake per bet with bonus funds. The idea is that the requirement should not be met with a single large bet. Bets above the limit often do not count, and at some operators the whole bonus is forfeited.
A "risk-free bet" is not risk-free
Offers of the "risk-free bet up to SEK 100" kind mean the stake is refunded if the first bet loses. The refund is almost always paid in bonus funds with their own wagering requirement, not in cash. So the stake is not risk-free. It is exchanged for a new bonus with terms.
Want to see how the terms differ between operators? Compare bonus terms in the table.