This is the section most players skip, and it is the one that determines whether an offer is worth anything. So let us work through it with actual figures rather than talking in abstractions.
You deposit 200€ and activate the 100% match. Your balance shows 400€ in playable funds. The 35x requirement applies to deposit and bonus combined, so 400 × 35 = 14,000€ in cumulative stakes before the bonus portion becomes withdrawable.
Read that number correctly, because the intuitive reading is wrong. It does not mean losing 14,000€. It means cycling that amount through slots, where every spin returns some proportion of what you staked and that return gets staked again. At 1€ per spin you are looking at 14,000 spins across several sessions. Demanding, certainly. Impossible, no.
Why not every game moves the counter equally
Here is the detail that changes everything in practice. Slots contribute at 100%: one euro staked equals one euro of progress. Live dealer tables and table games contribute at a heavily reduced rate, commonly around 10%. Spend an evening on blackjack with an active bonus and your counter advances ten times more slowly than it would on slots.
Which raises an obvious question. If live play barely counts, why would a live-focused player ever take a deposit bonus? They should not, and that is exactly what the dedicated live cashback is for. It sidesteps the contribution problem entirely: no wagering, no multiplier, just a percentage of losses returned directly. The money is available immediately.
Choosing between cashback and a match bonus
The right answer depends on your monthly budget, not on which promotion advertises the larger figure.
Suppose you set aside 50€ a month for gaming. A 520€ bonus remains theoretical: you will never work through 14,000€ of wagering at that pace, and those funds will never convert into money you can withdraw. Cashback, carrying no requirement whatsoever, returns something real to you every single week.
Now suppose you deposit substantial amounts and play slots consistently. The 100% match is straightforwardly the better mathematics: it doubles your working capital, and the play volume you generate naturally covers the requirement within a matter of weeks rather than years.
Same two offers. Opposite conclusions. The variable is you.