Bonus abuse is the systematic use of a promotion outside the commercial intent it was designed for. In most cases it is not fraud in the criminal sense, it is the offer design being read more carefully than by whoever wrote it.
Recurring patterns:
- Multi-accounting: several accounts from the same individual or group capturing the same welcome offer.
- Low-variance play under rollover: clearing the requirement with near-zero exposure.
- Cross-operator hedging: opposite positions at different books, turning the bonus into near risk-free profit.
- Behaviour change at the end of the rollover: a completely different betting profile before and after the balance unlocks.
A single-threshold rule, same IP, same device, bet size, errs on both sides: it blocks legitimate players and misses organised groups. What works better is combining weak signals (betting-pattern similarity, signup timing sequence, payment-instrument graph) and, above all, fixing the offer design.
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