Playing for Real Money in 2023 – The Key Considerations
Posted by Harry Kane on Friday, January 28, 2022
While concepts such as social casino gameplay and accessing slots in ‘demo mode’ have become increasingly popular in recent times, it’s real money gambling that continues to drive the iGaming space.
This drives an increasingly lucrative market in the UK too, which generated total revenues of £6.4 billion in the year ending November 2022. While this highlighted a 6.2% decline when compared with March 2021, the iGaming GGY is 12.4% higher than the year ending March 2020.
This represents the real money betting market in the UK, which offers punters the opportunity to stake their cash in exchange for potentially sizable returns. However, there can be no doubt that staking your hard-earned cash also represents a significant risk and commitment, and one that needs to be given careful consideration before you proceed.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at three things to keep in mind before playing for real money and ask why they’re such important considerations when gambling online!
Wagering for Real Money – Risk vs Reward
Before we delve into the main considerations when betting for real money, it’s important to consider the relationship that exists between risk and reward. This is most difficult to judge in the iGaming and online casino space, where most verticals are dominated by games of chance where it’s hard to control and influence outcomes.
Take roulette, for example, where outcomes are generated on a completely random basis and there remain a variety of bets that you wager on. These include even money wagers such as odd and even (which pay out at a rate of return at 1:1) and single number bets (with odds of around 37/1 and a similarly expansive payout).
These are described as outside and inside bets respectively, with the former known to offer an improved probability and relatively nominal returns. Conversely, inside bets are less likely to come in and offer prohibitive odds, but they also come with significantly larger and more impressive returns.
This is why it’s important that you have a viable betting strategy (we’ll touch more on this later in the piece) and look to distribute your stake as effectively as possible across the roulette wheel. This focuses on minimising loss and optimising your chances of winning in real-time, ensuring that you bank a return on individual stakes and accumulate returns gradually over time.
In the case of sports betting, there’s a far greater opportunity to deploy skill and knowledge, while it’s a little easier to identify value in published odds and understand the relationship between risk and reward in more detail.
There’s even a formula to help calculate the implied probability of a particular outcome in sports betting, and while this could theoretically be applied to online casino wagering, there’s less opportunity here to leverage the knowledge and insight that you have about a particular sport or two competing sides. This formulate can be described as follows:
Implied Probability = [Denominator / (Denominator + Numerator)]x 100
You can utilise this to establish an implied probability of every particular outcome you bet on, which in turn enables you to calculate the risk/reward ratio in more detail and make more informed bet selections going forward. Similarly, you can tailor your stake in line with probability and potential return, so that you can make the most of your bankroll and minimise the risk of loss over time.
Generally speaking, it’s wise to increase your stake when betting on short-price favourites with a high implied probability of winning, as this will maximise returns without overly compromising your stake.
Conversely, you can decrease your stake when backing outcomes with longer prices and less chance of coming to pass, as the odds in play can generate a viable return even in instances where you stake a nominal amount.
The Key Considerations When Wagering with Real Money
At this stage, you should have an understanding of the variable relationship between risk and reward that exists across different betting verticals online. Now, it’s time to build on this knowledge base by appraising some of the key considerations when staking your hard-earned cash, so here are some of the most important to keep in mind:
1. Review the Return-to-Player (RTP) Rate
While you may have heard of the so-called “house edge” as a new player (with this referring to the total casino profit expressed as the percentage of a player’s original bet), you may not be familiar with the related ‘return-to-player’ (RTP) rate.
This describes the average amount that a player can expect to recoup for every £1 wagered, and the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) stipulates that operators must publish the RTP rate for every game listed on its site.
RTP rates must be published for each individual game by licensed casinos in the UK, so you can review these in detail and make informed choices about how you spend your money. For example, you may see that your favourite slot game has an RTP rate of 95% (which it typical of mid-variance games), while other titles may boast a corresponding rate of more than 96%.
The latter will deliver an average return of more than £0.96 for every £1 that you wager online, while the former will see you recoup approximately £0.95 for every £1 that you spend. While this difference may seem nominal, it can lead to incremental gains in instances where you play the same slot over an extended period of time.
Overall, popular low-variance slots tend to boast an average RTP rate of 96% or more, and in this respect, they can deliver a far better return than both medium and high-variance alternatives (the latter of which have an RTP rate of between 90% and 94%).
You should also note that some blackjack iterations have an RTP rate of in excess of 99%. This is largely thanks to blackjack’s status as a game of skill, where you can deploy strategy and numerical ability to increase your chances of winning. The number of decks in play may also be a consideration here, but incorporating games of this type into your daily routine can boost your returns significantly when betting for real money.
On a final note, you should also remember that you can calculate each games and verticals’ house edge simply by subtracting the published RTP rate from a value of 100%. So, if a slot has an RTP rate of 96%, the house edge in question here is 4%, and this should offer you further insight about the risk associated when playing online.
It’s important that you review all of this information when playing for real money, so that you can make an informed decision relating to both your stake and potential return on your bankroll.
2. Don’t Ignore the Impact of Casino Bonuses
While understanding that the games with the best RTP rate tend to offer the best value for money is an excellent starting point, you should also consider the impact of the welcome bonuses deployed by different casino operators.
For example, most contemporary offers tend to combine deposit matches with a predetermined number of free spins, the latter of which afford free gameplay on specific titles as chosen by the operator.
So, you should review the initial terms of welcome bonuses (and ongoing promotions as an existing player) when comparing the market, while identifying which offers can boost the real money gambling experience overall.
It’s also important to delve beyond the headline features of a particular welcome offer, as it’s the offer’s small print and unique T&Cs that will really impact on your iGaming experience as a player. The most important of these is wagering requirements, which are expressed as a multiplier of the total bonus value (usually excluding your cash deposit) and dictate how much you’ll have to play through before withdrawing any associated winnings.
For example, let’s say that you buy into a 100% deposit match offer at the minimum rate of £10. In this case, you’ll receive a £10 bonus with which to play, which is subsequently subjected to wagering requirements of 40x. As a result, you’ll have to play through £400 before you can withdraw your real money winnings, while the T&Cs will also dictate a timeframe in which these requirements will have to be met (usually between seven and 30 days).
It’s important to leverage this information to determine value, as while an offer may seem generous at first glance, it means little if the wagering requirement terms force you to spend outside of your means. So, review the information in detail to ensure that you can make an informed decision online!
Another key condition revolves around game weighting, which describes the contribution that specific verticals and games make towards fulfilling your wagering requirements. For example, most video slots will contribute 100% to these requirements, so every penny you wager through this vertical will inch you closer towards withdrawing your winnings.
Conversely, some iterations of blackjack and roulette will only contribute 10% towards achieving this objective, meaning that you’ll have to spend considerably more to unlock your cash winnings. This should be avoided at all costs, as it can make the initial value of the bonus disappear in a puff of smoke.
Overall, just take the time to review welcome bonuses in comprehensive detail before committing to one with real money, as this can save you both cash and time as an online gambler!
3. Make the Most of the Demo Mode
We’ve already touched on the idea of a demo mode, which is available at some casinos and enables you to trial a particular game without risking your hard-earned cash. Remember, a demo mode enables you to play a particular slot or game without having to stake your money, as you instead use vertical credit to sample the relevant gameplay and bonus rounds.
Of course, this option is usually exclusive to slots, while you’ll find that some operators don’t make it widely available within their games’ libraries. However, it’s still something that real money players should look to make use of, especially when they’re new to iGaming or trying out a brand-new game, even if it’s scarcely available and restricted to some verticals.
The reason for this is simple; as it provides a window of opportunity to test out viable betting strategies and set a betting limit that suits both the variance and the RTP rate. These two components are key to minimising loss and optimising your experience when playing slots, especially as video slots are essentially games of chance in which it’s impossible to directly influence outcomes.
Certainly, demo modes enable you to get to grips with the graphical layout and the number of paylines in play, as well as the betting range associated with the slot. As a result, you can begin to calculate your likely stake per spin and the potential rewards in play, while observing how bonus rounds impact on returns (in the form of increased wins or multipliers).
They also let you get to grips with the gameplay, which is important for casual gamers who want to enjoy their iGaming experience and may even want to sample themed slots with strong pop-culture references.
The Last Word
With each of these considerations, you can hopefully make the most of your real money bankroll and make informed decisions when choosing games and casino platforms.
Ultimately, each of these factors can deliver incremental gains in terms of minimising losses and optimising your chances of winning across a range of iGaming verticals, so following them closely and at all times will deliver the best possible outcomes when wagering online!