A sticky bonus is credit you are allowed to bet with but never allowed to keep. It sits in your balance, it is real for the purposes of staking, and it vanishes at the moment of withdrawal.
Do the arithmetic
You deposit $200. The sticky bonus is $200. Your balance reads $400, and you can bet all of it.
You clear the wagering and your balance is $900. You withdraw.
The operator removes the $200 sticky bonus. You receive $700.
Now the losing case, which is more common. Your balance falls to $150. That $150 is bonus money in the ledger's eyes long before it is yours — most sticky terms deduct from cash first, so your real position is worse than the number on screen suggests.
Sticky vs non-sticky
| Non-sticky | Sticky | |
|---|---|---|
| Bonus withdrawable after wagering | Yes | Never |
| What you keep on a $900 balance | $900 | $700 |
| Typical wagering | Higher | Lower |
| Typical marketing | "100% bonus" | "100% bonus" |
Both are advertised with the same words. The difference is a single sentence in the terms, usually phrased as "the bonus amount is not withdrawable and will be deducted from any withdrawal request."
The phantom variant
Worse still is the phantom bonus: the sticky amount is removed the instant you request a withdrawal of any size, even a partial one, which means you can never bank a profit and keep the bonus playing. Some terms remove it if you withdraw anything, resetting the promotion entirely.
If the sticky nature is not stated on the promotional page — only in a linked terms document — we catalogue it as an unfair term.