The wagering base: the clause, in plain English, with the arithmetic

The wagering base: what the multiplier multiplies

Read the wagering base before the multiplier. A multiplier on its own is incomplete information, because ‘ten times’ says nothing until you know which amount is being multiplied.

In a hypothetical bonus-only example, a £20 bonus with a ten-times requirement means £200 of qualifying turnover. Turnover is the total value of qualifying bets, and it is not a loss, a balance or an amount you can withdraw.

A wagering requirement is, in the Gambling Commission’s glossary, ‘any requirement that a consumer must make wagers totalling a particular value for funds to become withdrawable’. That definition names the wagering base only indirectly, because the particular value is set by the promotion.

Three other conditions can change the arithmetic more than the multiplier does. They are the contribution rate, the maximum permitted stake and the expiry period, and each one is read below.

Sources: Gambling Commission: glossary of terms; Gambling Commission: incentives response, proposal 1; Gambling Commission: promotions news release.

Clause 1 — the base: the amount the multiplier acts on

The wagering base is the amount the promotion multiplies. In the Commission’s glossary, a bonus is ‘any funds or equivalent provided by the operator and added to a consumer’s account from which the consumer can place wagers’.

A bonus-only base is therefore the credit alone. Other promotions set the base as the deposit, or as the deposit plus the credit, and the conditions have to say which one applies.

Take the hypothetical £20 bonus. If the base is the credit alone, a ten-times requirement is £200 of qualifying turnover, but if the base were a £20 deposit plus a £20 credit, the same multiplier would mean £400.

That comparison is the whole argument for reading the wagering base first. The multiplier did not change between those two readings, and yet the turnover doubled.

Sources: Gambling Commission: glossary of terms.

Clause 2 — the multiplier: what ten times turns £20 into

The multiplier is the number of times the wagering base must be staked. Applied to a £20 bonus-only base, ten times means £200 of qualifying turnover.

Read that figure as stakes placed rather than money lost. A £200 turnover can be reached through many small stakes or fewer large ones, subject to the maximum permitted stake condition.

The Commission’s consultation response states the final rule in one line: ‘Licensees must not: Apply wagering requirements to incentives, which require customers to play through bonus funds, over a maximum of 10 times.’

The same passage restates the definition for the avoidance of doubt: ‘A wagering requirement is where a customer is required to make wagers totalling a particular value for funds to become withdrawable.’

Sources: Gambling Commission: incentives response, proposal 1.

Clause 3 — contribution: why 10% means ten times the turnover

The contribution rate is the share of each stake that counts towards the requirement. It is set by game type, and a zero rate means a game makes no progress at all.

Work the £200 requirement through four rates. At 100%, £200 of stakes clears it, which is ten times the £20 base. At 50%, £400 of stakes is needed, or 20 times the base.

At 20% the figure is £1,000, which is 50 times the base. At 10% it is £2,000, or 100 times. At 0% no amount of staking moves the requirement, because nothing counts.

Contribution is not return to player, and the two are often read as though they were the same number. One decides how much you must stake; the other describes what a game returns over a very long run.

Sources: Gambling Commission: glossary of terms.

Clause 4 — the maximum bet and the expiry clock

Two further conditions can end progress early or void it outright. A maximum bet clause caps the stake permitted while a requirement is open, and a single stake above that cap can forfeit the bonus balance.

REDLINE. Any condition that voids a balance, caps a withdrawal or starts a period the reader cannot see belongs in this margin.

The expiry clock sets the period within which the requirement must be met. The conditions have to say what starts it, because a period that starts on credit is not the same as one that starts on the first qualifying stake.

The Commission’s glossary groups these under significant terms and conditions, which it describes as ‘the key restrictions which apply to a promotion’.

Sources: Gambling Commission: glossary of terms.

What changes on 19 January 2026

The Commission has capped the multiplier. Its news release states that ‘all changes will come into force on 19 January 2026’, and the consultation response gives the same date for this requirement.

The cap itself is ten. The response records the decision as ‘we recommend proceeding with Option B, to implement a maximum of up to 10 times wagering requirements within incentives’, after a consultation that offered one, five and ten times alongside a complete ban.

The reason is stated plainly in the same document. High value offers ‘are often constructed by applying high wagering requirements which could have negative and disproportionate effects on vulnerable adults’.

A second change lands on the same date. Gambling businesses ‘will be banned from offering potentially harmful offers involving consumers having to carry out two or more types of gambling, such as betting and playing slots’.

Sources: Gambling Commission: promotions news release; Gambling Commission: incentives response, proposal 1.

How to read a wagering base before you agree to anything

Here is the order to read a set of conditions in, and it is not the order the page usually presents them in. Each step is a question with a written answer.

If the conditions do not answer a step, record that as unstated rather than estimating it. An estimate written beside a real clause reads later as though the clause said it.

The steps below work one wagering base through the £20 example, so the arithmetic stays visible at every stage.

Sources: Gambling Commission: glossary of terms.

What a wagering base costs in stakes

Total the wagering base arithmetic before agreeing to anything. On the £20 example at a 20% contribution rate, £1,000 of stakes is required to produce £200 of qualifying turnover.

That is 50 times the base, from a condition that reads as ten times. The distance between those two numbers is the entire reason to read the base first.

Nothing here says whether a promotion is worth accepting, because that judgement is not this page’s job. It records what the conditions cost in stakes and what can void them.

The cheapest response to a wagering requirement is not to accept the promotion at all. If bonus conditions are keeping you playing longer than you intended, GamCare’s helpline is 0808 8020 133.

Sources: Gambling Commission: glossary of terms.

What the terms do not say

Three things are commonly left unstated, and each of them changes the arithmetic. The first is whether the base includes the deposit as well as the credit.

The second is whether a contribution rate can change while a requirement is open. The third is what happens to a partly cleared requirement if the account is closed.

We read the Commission’s pages rather than any operator’s conditions, so nothing here describes a named promotion. Where an operator’s wording is needed, that operator’s own page is the source, and the date we read it belongs beside the quotation.

Next step: put your own wagering base, multiplier and contribution rate into the calculator above. Was this useful, or did we get something wrong? Tell us and we will correct it.

Sources: Gambling Commission: glossary of terms; Gambling Commission: promotions news release.

Terms read 22 September 2026

Three Gambling Commission pages were opened on 22 September 2026, and each is listed below with the part of this page it supports. No operator’s conditions were read for this revision.

The arithmetic is ours and uses one hypothetical £20 base throughout. It confirms nothing about any real promotion, and it does not establish that a promotion is compliant or available to you.

Clause numbering here follows this site’s convention. Where a source does not number its conditions, we number by heading and say so, which is what the four clause headings above do.

Sources: Gambling Commission: glossary of terms; Gambling Commission: promotions news release; Gambling Commission: incentives response, proposal 1.