Sometimes in football, the match that you’re betting on is about what comes next rather than what’s happening there and then. If you watch a Champions League qualifying match, for example, the game itself is interesting enough but getting into the competition proper is what matters the most for players and fans. Likewise the road to a competition such as the World Cup is filled with plenty of fairly pointless matches.
You might want to bet on the match you’re watching, but at the same time it’s difficult to be too heavily invested emotionally when you know that there’s something bigger further down the line. Wouldn’t it be nice if, like the teams themselves, you felt like you were involved in something bigger? That your bets were contributing to a journey further down the line? That’s what SportNation were thinking about when they developed their most recent promotion, the World War Chest.
What’s the Idea?
The thought process behind this offer is actually remarkably simple. For every bet that you place on World Cup 2018 qualifying matches, a portion of your stake will be put towards bets that you’ll place in the future on the World Cup proper. If this sounds good to you then you can opt-in to the promotion via your SportNation account.
As is common with these sorts of offers, there are a number of disclaimers involved that I’ll explain in more detail here. As you’d expect, these include things such as the type of bet that you’re placing, how much you’re betting and a maximum limit in terms of how much you’ll be able to set aside.
What Bets Are Valid for This Offer?
You can bet on any of the following markets if you want a portion of your stake to be put towards your war chest:
- 1×2 Match Result
- Both Teams To Score
- Anytime Goalscorer
- First Goalscorer
- Correct Score
- World Cup Accumulators
Just to clarify, though, those bets have to be placed on World Cup qualifying matches in order for them to count towards this offer. If you place a both teams to score bet on a random international fixture that’s nothing to do with FIFA’s most prestigious tournament then it will just count as a straight bet.
How Much Is Put Towards Your World Cup War Chest?
As I mentioned earlier, it’s only a portion of your stake that will go towards your World Cup War Chest. The natural question, therefore, is ‘how much?’ The answer depends on the type of bet you’re placing, as this handy table explains:
| Type of Bet | Percentage of Stake Added |
|---|---|
| 1X2 Match Result | 0.5% |
| Both Teams to Score | 1% |
| Anytime Goalscorer | 1% |
| First Goalscorer | 2% |
| Correct Score | 2% |
| World Cup Accumulators | 2% |
Betting Restrictions
There are some restrictions to the way the bets work, which I’ll explain now. For starters, the accumulators have to have odds of 2/1 (3.0) or greater to count toward this offer and every leg of the acca has to be on a World Cup qualifying match.
When it comes to what you place the bet with, it’s cash only. If you use a previously awarded free bet token then your bet will stand but it won’t count towards the offer, so no part of the stake will be put towards your total. Likewise, bets placed with bonus funds won’t count either.
You can go for either pre-match bets or bets placed in-play. What you can’t do, however, is something that normally goes hand-in-hand with in-play betting, which is cash out your bet. Any straight bets that you place need to have minimum odds of 3/5, which is 1.6 in decimal.
How Do the Bonus Funds Work?
Your bonus funds will be added to your account on the 7th of June 2018. You’ll then have until the 15th of July to meet the rollover requirements before you’ll be able to withdraw anything. As far as said rollover requirements are concerned, you’ll need to turn your bonus money over seven times their value at odds of evens (2.0) or greater.
Once those bonus funds have been turned over the correct number of times, you’ll be able to withdraw the funds as well as any winnings into your bank account. I mentioned that there’s a limit on how much you’ll be able to get in terms of bonus funds and that is £10,000 per customer.
Is It Worth Doing?
The answer to the question of whether or not this offer is worth your time will really depend on how likely you are to bet on both the qualifiers and the tournament proper itself. For lots of punters, the reality is that qualifying matches are only interesting if they feature the team that you support. If you’re English, for example, you might not be keen on watching Greece versus Croatia’s qualifying match.
If, however, you’re the kind of football fan that likes to watch every match you can find or, at the very least, likes to take an interest in as many matches as possible, this offer is perfect for you. It presents you with the opportunity to get some bonus funds that you can use to bet on matches you were going to bet on anyway.
The only thing you’ll need to consider is the rollover requirements. They’re actually not bad when compared to some other companies that have similar offers, but if you prefer to place small wagers with low odds and withdraw any winnings as soon as you can then this promotion might not be for you.
On the other hand, if you tend to reinvest the winnings that you drum up then this is the ideal offer. Essentially you will be reinvesting your bonus in order to meet the rollover requirements.