In February of 2022, MLife made some drastic changes to their rewards program and was renamed to MGM Rewards. Certainly, not all of the changes were good as it seems like all revolutions of this sort benefit the casino. However, one change was positive, and that is the closer marriage of BetMGM to the MGM Rewards system. Prior to 2022, one needed an MLife card to open a BetMGM account, but bets didn’t help you accrue any points. Thankfully, this has all changed!
What Is MGM Rewards?
MGM Rewards is the loyalty program for over twenty-five casino properties across the globe. With a strip of hotels that occupy the south strip in Las Vegas, MGM resorts are a popular destination for tourists. Their rewards program is, arguably, the best one in Nevada and it is certainly the one I use most often.
The MGM Rewards program is broken down into five different tiers:
There is a lot more to this program that I won’t get into on this post. Slot dollars, Holiday Gift Points and Freeplay® are all part of the MGM Rewards system. However, since one can’t get any of these credits from sports betting alone, I will ignore it for purposes of this blog. For more information on the MGM Rewards program, one can go to the MGM Rewards Loyalty Program page to see all the current benefits.
There are two parts of the program that I will put into focus: Tier Credits and MGM Rewards Points. The tier system at MGM has some very good value, especially at the higher tiers so any gains there are meaningful. With MGM Rewards Points, users can redeem 100 for one dollar worth of goods throughout any of their casinos.
What Do I Earn With Each Sports Bet at BetMGM?
Like many rewards programs, MGM is not very forthcoming with their formula that converts bets into MGM Rewards points. They did release a few examples that at least give us a blueprint to try and reverse engineer their formula. First, on a $100 straight bet at +100 odds, the bettor will receive twenty tier credits and MGM Rewards Points. Further, they note that this is the minimum amount of points that will be received on bet. It is assumed that the bettor will get more credits and points with longer odds bets. Second, on a $100 parlay bet at +300, the bettor will receive eighty tier credits and MGM Rewards Points.
In practice however, I noticed that this wasn’t at all the case. During a recent trip to Nevada, I did some testing to see if I could reverse engineer how the program paid out MGM Rewards points and tier credits. The results were much different than previously thought. In short, there was no difference based on the type of bet and it seemed as though tier status was paid out at a $100 to 1 ratio and MGM Rewards Points at a $200 to 1 ratio.
How Much Value Do I Earn at MGM Rewards With Each Bet?
Using the rules from the MGM Rewards program, I built a calculator to estimate the amount of points that one would receive with each bet. To use the calculator, place bet type, the bet amount and odds of the bet and the system will output the estimated value of points.
The “Total Value in Credits” section in this calculator is the estimated additional value for each bet. To calculate this, we need to know what each point is actually worth in terms of the tier credit system and MGM Rewards point system.
We know that every one hundred MGM Reward points equals one dollar. That conversion is really easy. Valuing tier credits is always a little bit harder. As a rough estimate, I put a value on becoming a Platinum member at $1,000. Between the airfare, free cruise and award dinners, this is a good rough estimate of the value. Consequently, this means that each tier credit is worth about a half a cent.
Final Thoughts
The extra edge for a standard even odds bet thus comes in at 0.3%. This value is certainly on the higher end compared with all the other rewards programs. For parlays, this value comes in even higher. Our algorithm certainly isn’t perfect as there were a lot of assumptions that had to be made. However, I think that we know enough to be able to say that there is excellent value in the BetMGM to MGM Rewards conversion.