“250% up to $1,500” is not a rate. It is three bonuses added together with the three deposits left out. FXRate puts the deposits back. It reads the terms of each deposit as the casino states them, works out what has to be paid in to collect every cap, and prints the match rate on that money next to the one on the banner. Four numbers, computed the same way on every package, with “not stated” wherever a term is missing. Nothing is estimated.
Why the sum on the banner is not a rate
A single deposit match is honest arithmetic: 100% up to $500 means a $500 deposit becomes $1,000. A welcome package stacks several of these and advertises the sum of the percentages and the sum of the caps. The sum is real. What it hides is that each cap sits on its own deposit, and the deposits do not add up the way the percentages do.
Take 100% up to $500, then 50% up to $500, then 100% up to $500. The banner says 250% up to $1,500. Collecting the full $1,500 takes $500 on the first deposit, $1,000 on the second (a 50% match needs twice the money to reach the same cap) and $500 on the third: $2,000 in. The package pays $1,500 on $2,000, which is a 75% match. Not 250%. The second leg is doing most of the work on the banner and least of the work in the account.
The four numbers
Every welcome package on FreeExtraChips carries one line in the same order. Each number is a function of the terms listed on the bonus pages and nothing else.
| Number | How it is computed | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Advertised | The casino’s own headline when it states one; otherwise the sum of the match percentages and the sum of the caps across the legs. Free spins are counted here and nowhere else. | What the banner says. |
| You deposit | Per leg, cap ÷ match rate, rounded up to the cent; then the sum. A leg whose minimum deposit already exceeds that figure is priced at the minimum; a leg whose cap needs more than the maximum deposit is priced at the maximum, with the bonus it actually yields. | What you must put in to collect every cap in full. |
| Effective | Total bonus at the caps ÷ total deposit, as a percentage. | The real match rate on the money you put in. |
| Turnover | Per leg, wagering multiplier × its stated base: the bonus alone, or deposit plus bonus; then the sum. | The stake you must place before anything can be withdrawn. |
Two packages, worked by hand
The first is the package above with 35× wagering on deposit plus bonus. The second is three identical legs of 200% up to $2,000 with 30× on deposit plus bonus — the kind of package whose banner reads 600% up to $6,000.
| Leg | Terms | Deposit | Bonus | Turnover |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 100% up to $500 | $500 | $500 | $35,000 |
| 2nd | 50% up to $500 | $1,000 | $500 | $52,500 |
| 3rd | 100% up to $500 | $500 | $500 | $35,000 |
| Package | Advertised 250% up to $1,500 | $2,000 | $1,500 | $122,500 |
Effective 75%. The line on the bonus page reads: Advertised 250% up to $1,500 · You deposit $2,000 · Effective 75% · Turnover $122,500.
| Leg | Terms | Deposit | Bonus | Turnover |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 200% up to $2,000 | $1,000 | $2,000 | $90,000 |
| 2nd | 200% up to $2,000 | $1,000 | $2,000 | $90,000 |
| 3rd | 200% up to $2,000 | $1,000 | $2,000 | $90,000 |
| Package | Advertised 600% up to $6,000 | $3,000 | $6,000 | $270,000 |
Effective 200%. Three legs at the same rate add up without a trick: the banner is big and the money is big in the same proportion. FXRate does not penalise a large package. It penalises a headline that counts percentages the account never sees. The two packages look alike on a banner and are 125 points apart in the cashier.
Reading rules
The numbers are only as good as the terms, and terms go missing. These rules decide what happens then. They are applied by code, identically, to every package.
- Cap not stated. A leg without a stated maximum bonus cannot be priced. It is shown in the ladder at its minimum deposit, for scale, and left out of every total. The package line then reads “not stated” for the deposit and the effective rate.
- Match not stated. A deposit the casino promises but whose terms it does not publish appears as “terms not stated”. The package is counted as having that many deposits; nothing is filled in for it.
- Deposit limits. Minimum and maximum deposits bound the deposit that reaches the cap (see the table above). Both cases are flagged under the ladder.
- Wagering. No multiplier, no turnover. A multiplier without a stated base (bonus, or deposit plus bonus) gives no turnover either, because the two bases differ by the whole deposit. A stated multiplier of zero is read as no wagering requirement and prints a turnover of zero.
- Free spins. Counted in the headline, never priced. A spin has no stated cash value until it has been played, and any figure put on it would be a guess.
- Currencies. Legs stated in different currencies are not summed. The line shows percentages only.
- Expired legs. A leg whose listing has expired stays in the ladder, labelled, so the package still adds up; the casino page stops showing a package whose first deposit has expired.
- Rounding. Deposits round up to the cent (you cannot deposit less than the cap needs). Percentages are shown whole. Totals are computed before rounding.
What FXRate is not
- Not an expected value. FXRate makes no assumption about return-to-player, game choice, bet size or how long anyone plays. It is arithmetic on the terms, which is why two readers get the same number and why a casino cannot dispute it without disputing its own terms.
- Not a ranking. No score, no stars, no “best package”. The four numbers are shown and the reader compares.
- Not advice. A package with a low effective rate can still be the right one for a player who was going to make one deposit anyway and take the first leg alone; the first leg is priced on its own line for exactly that reason.
- Not an FXCheck™ signal. Whether a bonus actually paid is a separate question, answered by player reports, and the two are never blended.
Where it appears
On the page of every bonus that is a leg of a package: a band under the headline with the four numbers, the ladder of deposits with the calculation per leg, the current leg marked, and a note for every rule that applied. On the casino review page: one card per package, above the active bonuses, so a reader sees the package before the parts. On the bonus cards across the site: a pill with the effective rate on the first-deposit card and the position (“deposit 2 of 4”) on the others.
Where the terms come from
Each deposit of a package is either a bonus listed on FreeExtraChips, read live from its listing, or a set of terms the desk entered for a deposit the casino describes but does not list separately. The membership of a package is set by the desk; when the casino’s own bonus description names a multi-deposit package, the desk is prompted with the deposits and terms the text states, and nothing is written without a stated figure. Terms are never inherited from a sister brand or filled from a category norm. A package is recomputed on every page view, so a change in a listing changes the line the same minute.
Verify it yourself
- For each deposit, divide the cap by the match rate: $500 at 50% is 500 ÷ 0.5 = $1,000. That is the deposit that reaches the cap.
- Add the deposits. Add the caps. Divide the second by the first: that is the effective rate.
- For turnover, multiply the wagering requirement by its base for each deposit (bonus, or deposit plus bonus, as the terms say) and add them up.
- Compare with the line on the page. Where the page says “not stated”, the casino has not published the figure you would need; that is the finding.
The numbers today
Live from the package tables, over the packages shown on the site right now. “Priced” means every match and cap is stated, so an effective rate exists.
| Welcome packages tracked | 54 |
| Casinos | 54 |
| Deposits across them | 189 |
| Packages priced | 19 |
| Median advertised match | 250% |
| Median effective match | 63% |
| Median ratio, advertised to effective | 4.0× |
| Priced packages with an effective rate below 100% | 15 |
| Priced packages at 50% or less | 2 |
| Widest gap seen | 17.7× |
Versioning
The rules on this page — the four definitions, the treatment of missing caps, deposit limits, wagering bases, spins and currencies — are versioned. The current set is v1.0, published October 2026. Changes are documented here before they take effect, so any line on a bonus page can be traced to the rules that produced it.
FAQ
Why not account for RTP and compute what the bonus is really worth?
Because that number depends on the game, the bet size and the player, and three calculators will give three answers. FXRate stops where the casino’s own terms stop. The effective rate is a property of the offer, not of the player, and it is the same for everyone who reads it.
Can the first deposit alone be better than the whole package?
Often. In the first worked example the first leg is a 100% match and the package is 75%. The ladder prices each leg separately for this reason: a reader who intends one deposit should see the first leg’s own numbers, not the package average.
Why are free spins in the headline but not in the numbers?
A spin is a stake the casino places for you on one game at one bet level, and its value is whatever that spin wins. There is no stated cash amount to add to a cap. Counting the spins keeps the headline faithful to the banner; pricing them would be an estimate, and the line carries none.
Why “not stated” instead of a typical value?
Because a typical value would be a number FreeExtraChips made up and the casino never published. A missing cap is information: the package cannot be priced because the casino has not said how much it pays. The line says so and stops.
Can a casino change its FXRate?
Yes, by changing its terms. The line is recomputed from the listing on every page view. A casino that raises a second-deposit match from 50% to 100% sees its effective rate move the same day the listing is updated; a casino that only changes the banner sees nothing move.
What if a listing is wrong?
Then the line is wrong, and the fix is the listing. Write to the editors with the clause and the page; corrections are acknowledged within 48 hours and the recomputed line appears as soon as the listing is corrected.