5 Free Spins No Deposit: What UK Players Actually Get in 2026

The headline offer looks generous. Five spins, no deposit, keep whatever you win. In practice, five spins on a 10p stake line is a 50p shot at a prize, and the average return on a mid-volatility slot sits somewhere near 96%, which means the mathematical expectation of that free gift is roughly 48p before any wagering requirement touches it. That is the honest starting point.

None of this makes the offer worthless. A no deposit bonus is the cheapest way to test whether an operator's registration flow, KYC checks and withdrawal desk actually work before you commit a single pound of your own. Treat it as a free trial with a small cash prize attached, not as a route to a payout.

What follows is a practical breakdown of how these offers are structured across the UK market in 2026, which operators still run them, what the terms really cost you in time, and why offshore brands can afford to be far more aggressive than their UK-licensed competitors.

How 5 Free Spins No Deposit Offers Are Built

A five-spin welcome gift is almost never a standalone product. It is the front door of a funnel. The operator pays an affiliate or buys paid search traffic to put that offer in front of you, and the five spins exist to convert an anonymous visitor into a registered, verified, depositing customer. Everything downstream is designed around that single conversion event.

Spin value matters more than spin count. Five spins at 10p each is 50p of stake. Five spins at 50p each is £2.50. Same headline, five times the exposure. Always check the coin size before you judge an offer, because a 10p spin on a low-volatility Pragmatic Play title behaves nothing like a 50p spin on a Hacksaw Gaming release.

Game restriction is the second variable. Most operators lock the free spins to one specific slot, often a NetEnt or Microgaming title they are promoting that month, which means you cannot choose a game with a higher RTP. If the nominated slot runs at 94.2% instead of 96.5%, you have quietly lost 2.3 percentage points of expected value before you even start.

What Does "No Deposit" Actually Mean?

It means you do not fund the account to trigger the spins. It does not mean the bonus is free of conditions. Registration, email verification and in most UK cases full identity checks still apply. The spins land in your account, you play them, and any winnings convert to bonus credit subject to a wagering requirement that is typically between 20x and 65x.

Here is the calculation that matters. Win £5 from five spins, face a 40x wagering requirement, and you must stake £200 before that £5 becomes withdrawable cash. On a slot with 96% RTP, the expected loss across £200 of staking is £8. Your £5 bonus is mathematically gone before you finish. That is not a scam, it is arithmetic, and it is why the industry can afford to hand these out.

Some operators now use a "winnings cap" instead. You win £5, the cap is £20, and anything above that is stripped at conversion. Others combine both. Read the bonus terms page, not the marketing banner, because the banner is written by the acquisition team and the terms are written by compliance.

Which Operators Still Run These Offers in 2026?

The UK-licensed pool has shrunk considerably since the Gambling Commission tightened bonus rules. Under the current regime, operators cannot make a bonus the dominant feature of a landing page, cannot use the word "free" without qualification, and must show the significant terms alongside the headline claim. That has pushed many brands toward deposit-match offers instead.

Among the names still active with genuine no deposit or low-deposit spin gifts, the picture looks like this. MrQ has built its entire brand around no-wagering bingo and slot rewards, which is a genuinely different model. PlayOJO runs a similar no-wagering philosophy on its welcome rewards. Gala Bingo and Foxy Bingo frequently use free spin bundles as acquisition tools for their bingo rooms rather than their casino lobbies.

On the offshore side, the aggression is far higher. Roobet, Gamdom, Mystake, NineWin, Donbet and Rainbet operate under Curaçao or Anjouan licences and can offer larger spin counts, lower wagering and faster crypto withdrawals because they are not bound by UK advertising rules. They are also not covered by UK dispute resolution, and your money is not protected by any UK compensation scheme.

The Marketing Economics Behind Enormous Offshore Bonuses

Why can an offshore casino hand you 100 free spins when a UK-licensed brand struggles to justify five? The answer sits in three numbers: cost per acquisition, average customer lifetime value, and the regulatory overhead that sits between them. UK operators carry a point-of-consumption tax of 21% on gross gambling yield, plus affordability checks, plus advertising restrictions, plus a levy that funds research, education and treatment.

An offshore operator pays none of that. No 21% tax, no levy, no mandatory affordability checks at the £100 or £500 thresholds, no requirement to contribute to GambleAware. Their cost per acquisition on a paid social or streamer campaign can be a fraction of a UK brand's, which means they can spend ten times as much on the welcome offer and still hit the same margin.

The trade-off lands on you. Offshore bonuses often come with lower wagering, which is genuinely better, but they also come with no UK dispute mechanism, no protection under the Financial Ombudsman, and withdrawal processes that depend entirely on the operator's goodwill. If a Curaçao-licensed site decides your winnings are void, your realistic recourse is a complaint to a regulator on a Caribbean island with a processing time measured in months.

What Is the Real Cost of a "Free" Bonus?

The cost is your data, your time, and the probability of converting into a depositing customer. An operator handing out 5 free spins is acquiring an email address, a verified identity, and a marketing consent for a cost typically between £15 and £60 depending on the channel. That is the acquisition cost, and it is paid because a fraction of those registrations will deposit.

Industry benchmarks put the registration-to-deposit conversion rate somewhere between 15% and 35% for a well-run no deposit offer. If 1,000 people claim five spins at a 25% conversion rate, 250 deposit. If each depositor is worth £180 in net revenue over their first year, that is £45,000 of value against an acquisition spend that might total £25,000. The maths works, which is why the offer persists.

Your side of the ledger is simpler. You spend 10 to 20 minutes on registration and verification, you receive roughly 50p of expected value from the spins, and you take on the risk of being marketed to. That is a fair trade only if you were going to consider the operator anyway.

Are Offshore Bonuses Worth the Risk?

Sometimes. If you are comfortable with the legal position, understand that offshore sites are not UK-regulated, and accept that your deposits sit outside UK protection, the terms are frequently better. Lower wagering, higher spin values, crypto withdrawals in under an hour. The honest framing is that you are trading regulatory protection for better commercial terms.

What you should not do is treat an Anjouan or Curaçao licence as equivalent to a UKGC one. It is not. The UK Gambling Commission requires operators to segregate customer funds, participate in a dispute resolution scheme, and submit to regular audits. Offshore regulators vary enormously in enforcement capacity, and some have no meaningful complaints process at all.

For a five-spin trial, the risk is negligible because you are not depositing. The moment you consider depositing real money, the licence question becomes the single most important thing on the page.

How to Extract Maximum Value From Five Free Spins

Five spins is a small instrument, but there are still ways to get more out of it than the average claimant. The first is timing. Operators frequently run enhanced spin offers around major sporting events, Christmas, and the launch of a new slot from a major provider like Evolution or Pragmatic Play. Waiting for a 10-spin or 20-spin version of the same offer costs you nothing.

The second is game selection, where permitted. If the terms allow you to use the spins on any slot, choose the highest RTP title available. A 97% RTP slot versus a 94% slot on a 50p spin is a difference of 1.5p in expected value per spin, which compounds across the wagering requirement that follows.

The third is wagering strategy. If you win £8 from five spins and face a 40x requirement, you need £320 of staking. Playing low-volatility slots at minimum stake extends your bankroll and gives you the best chance of clearing the requirement without busting. High-volatility play on a small bonus balance is a fast route to zero.

Which Slots Give the Best Return on Free Spins?

RTP is the only reliable guide. NetEnt's Blood Suckers sits at 98%, which is among the highest available, though it is rarely included in spin offers. Pragmatic Play's Gates of Olympus runs at 96.5%, and Microgaming's Immortal Romance at 96.86%. These are meaningfully better than the 94% to 95% titles that populate most promotional slots.

Volatility matters just as much when you are clearing wagering. A high-volatility slot like Hacksaw Gaming's Wanted Dead or a Wild can pay enormous sums but will frequently eat a small balance in a dozen spins. For clearing a £5 bonus with a 40x requirement, low or medium volatility is the rational choice, even if it is less exciting.

Check the max bet rule as well. Most bonuses cap your stake at £5 per spin while wagering. Breaching that cap can void the entire bonus and any winnings attached to it, which is the single most common reason players lose a bonus they had already cleared.

What Are the Most Common Bonus Terms That Catch Players Out?

Wagering requirements are the headline, but the traps sit in the detail. A "max bet" clause of £5 per spin will void your bonus if you exceed it. A "max win" cap of £20 means anything above that is stripped at conversion. A "game weighting" rule means slots contribute 100% to wagering while table games contribute 10% or nothing at all.

Time limits are the quiet killer. Many bonuses expire in 7 to 30 days. If you claim five spins, win £10, and forget about the account for a month, the bonus and its winnings are gone. Set a reminder the day you claim.

Payment method restrictions are the last trap. Deposits via Skrill, Neteller or PayPal are frequently excluded from bonus eligibility. If you fund an account with an e-wallet and then claim a deposit bonus, you may find the bonus is void before you have spun once.

UK Regulation, Player Protection and the Legal Position

Every operator advertising to UK customers without a Gambling Commission licence is doing so illegally, and that includes many offshore brands you will see promoted on streaming sites and social media. The 2005 Gambling Act, updated by the Gambling Act 2025, gives the Commission powers to block unlicensed sites and pursue operators through the courts. It does not stop you from signing up, but it does mean you have no UK legal protection if something goes wrong.

For UK-licensed operators, the rules are strict. Bonuses must be presented fairly, significant terms must be shown with the headline offer, and customers must be able to withdraw winnings without being forced through unreasonable verification loops. The Commission has fined multiple operators in recent years for misleading bonus advertising, with penalties running into the millions.

The practical effect for you is that a UK-licensed five-spin offer is more honest, more clearly described, and more likely to pay out without argument than an offshore equivalent with a bigger headline number. That is not a moral point, it is a regulatory one.

What Protections Do UK-Licensed Operators Have to Provide?

UK-licensed operators must segregate customer funds from company operating capital, which means your balance is protected if the company becomes insolvent. They must participate in a recognised alternative dispute resolution scheme, typically eCOGRA or IBAS, which gives you a route to escalate a complaint that the operator refuses to resolve.

They must also comply with the Commission's social responsibility requirements, including mandatory interaction triggers, affordability checks at set thresholds, and access to self-exclusion tools. Offshore operators are not bound by any of this, and many offer no meaningful responsible gambling infrastructure at all.

The trade-off is real. A UK-licensed operator will ask you for more documents, will cap your bonus more aggressively, and will not offer the 200% match you see on an offshore site. In exchange, you get a regulated counterparty and a complaints process that has teeth.

Responsible Gambling: Age, Helpline and Self-Exclusion

Gambling in the UK is legal only for those aged 18 or over. If you are under 18, no operator, licensed or offshore, should accept your registration, and using a parent's details to sign up is a criminal offence as well as a route to losing any winnings.

If gambling stops being entertainment, help is available. The National Gambling Helpline is operated by GamCare and is free to call on 0808 8020 133, 24 hours a day. GamCare also runs an online chat and forum service for anyone who wants to talk through their situation without picking up the phone.

For a hard block across every UK-licensed operator, use GAMSTOP, the national self-exclusion scheme. Registering with GAMSTOP prevents you from opening or using accounts with all UK-licensed sites for a minimum of six months, and the block can be extended. It does not cover offshore operators, which is one more reason the licence question matters.

Set deposit limits before you play, not after. Every UK-licensed operator is required to offer them, and a limit set at registration is far easier to live with than one set at 2am after a bad session.

Frequently Asked Questions About 5 Free Spins No Deposit

Can I really win real money from 5 free spins with no deposit?

Yes, but the amounts are small. Five spins at 10p to 50p each produce an expected return of roughly 48p to £2.40 before wagering. Any winnings convert to bonus credit subject to a wagering requirement, typically 20x to 65x, and a max win cap of £20 to £100. Realistic outcomes are a few pounds, not hundreds.

Do I need to deposit to withdraw winnings from no deposit spins?

Usually yes. Most operators require a minimum deposit, often £10, before processing any withdrawal, partly to verify your payment method and partly to satisfy anti-money laundering rules. Some also require you to complete the wagering requirement on the bonus before the withdrawal option unlocks. Check the terms before claiming.

Are no deposit free spins offers legal in the UK?

Yes, when offered by an operator holding a Gambling Commission licence. The bonus must be presented with its significant terms, and you must be 18 or over. Offshore operators advertising to UK customers without a licence are acting illegally, though the Commission's enforcement focuses on the operator rather than the player.

Which is better, 5 free spins no deposit or a deposit match bonus?

It depends on your intent. No deposit spins let you test an operator at zero cost and carry no financial risk. A deposit match gives you a larger balance but requires you to fund the account and typically carries the same or higher wagering. For a first look at an unfamiliar brand, the spins are the lower-risk entry point.

Why do offshore casinos offer so many more free spins than UK sites?

Because they carry far lower regulatory costs. No 21% point-of-consumption tax, no mandatory levy, no affordability checks, no UK advertising restrictions. That lets them spend more on acquisition offers. The trade-off is that you lose UK fund segregation, UK dispute resolution and access to GAMSTOP protections.

What is the catch with a "no wagering" free spins offer?

There is usually still a max win cap and a minimum deposit requirement before withdrawal. No wagering means your winnings convert to cash without a staking requirement, which is genuinely better, but the cap of £20 to £50 still limits your upside. MrQ and PlayOJO are the clearest examples of this model in the UK market.

How long do I have to use my free spins?

Typically 7 to 30 days from the date the bonus is credited, though some offers expire in 48 hours. The spins themselves often must be used within a shorter window than the winnings they generate. Diarise the expiry the day you claim, because unused bonuses are deleted without notice.

Do free spins winnings count toward responsible gambling limits?

No. Bonus funds and free spin winnings sit outside your deposit limits because you have not deposited. That is precisely why they can be dangerous for anyone with a developing problem, since they extend playtime without triggering the safeguards that deposit-based play would. If you find yourself chasing free offers across multiple sites, that is a signal worth taking seriously.

Five free spins will not change your financial year. What they can do is give you a zero-cost look at how an operator handles registration, verification and support, which is genuinely useful information before you decide whether to deposit.

Claim them, read the terms, use them on a high-RTP slot if the rules allow, and set a reminder for the expiry date. Then walk away unless the operator has earned your trust on its own merits.

If the offer leads you to a site without a UK licence, weigh that carefully, because the better headline terms come with real trade-offs in protection.

Gambling is entertainment with a negative expected return, not an income strategy, and anyone aged 18 or over who needs to talk things through can call the National Gambling Helpline free on 0808 8020 133 or register with GAMSTOP for a six-month block across all UK-licensed operators.

Comparing the Best 5 Free Spins No Deposit Brands for UK Players

The UK market rewards patience. Rather than chasing the loudest banner, it pays to know which brands consistently deliver on their spin offers and which ones bury the catch in paragraph nine. The list below reflects operators that either hold a UK licence or are openly offshore, with the distinction stated plainly so you can make your own call.

MrQ stands out because its rewards carry no wagering at all, which is unusual for a UK-licensed brand. PlayOJO follows a similar no-wagering philosophy and lets you withdraw winnings from free spins without a staking requirement, though a minimum deposit of £10 usually applies before any cashout. Both are worth testing with the smallest possible commitment.

Gala Bingo and Foxy Bingo lean on their bingo heritage, using free spin bundles to pull players into their rooms rather than their casino lobbies. That means the spins often come with bingo-specific conditions and shorter expiry windows, frequently 7 days. Read the room rules before you assume the spins behave like standard casino credit.

Among offshore names, Roobet, Gamdom, Mystake, NineWin, Donbet and Rainbet offer bigger spin packs and lower wagering, but none hold a UK licence. They operate under Curaçao or Anjouan authorisations, which means no UK fund segregation and no access to GAMSTOP. Treat their offers as commercial propositions with real regulatory trade-offs, not as free money.

How Do UK-Licensed and Offshore Spin Offers Compare Side by Side?

The gap is wider than most players expect. A UK-licensed brand typically offers 5 to 50 spins with wagering between 20x and 40x, a max win cap of £20 to £100, and a clear complaints route. An offshore brand might offer 100 to 200 spins with wagering of 25x to 45x and no cap, but with no UK dispute mechanism behind it.

Spin value is where the offshore advantage shows most clearly. A UK offer at 10p per spin gives you 50p of exposure on five spins. An offshore offer at 50p per spin gives you £2.50 on the same count. That is a fivefold difference in expected value, and it is funded entirely by the regulatory costs the offshore operator does not pay.

The honest summary is that offshore terms are often better on paper and worse in practice if anything goes wrong. A withdrawal dispute with a UK-licensed operator escalates to IBAS or eCOGRA and usually resolves within weeks. The same dispute offshore may simply go unanswered.

Which Providers Power the Slots Behind Free Spins?

The provider behind the nominated slot tells you a lot about the expected value. Pragmatic Play and NetEnt dominate promotional slots because their titles combine recognisable branding with reliable RTP figures, usually between 96% and 96.5%. Microgaming and Play'n GO fill the second tier, with Immortal Romance and Book of Dead appearing in spin offers year after year.

Evolution dominates the live casino side, though live games almost never qualify for free spins because they cannot be automated at the same scale. Hacksaw Gaming and Nolimit City occupy the high-volatility end, and while their titles occasionally appear in spin promotions, the variance makes them a poor fit for clearing a small bonus.

If the terms let you choose, pick a slot with a published RTP above 96% and low volatility. If they do not, at least check the nominated game's RTP before you claim, because a 94% promotional slot quietly erodes the value of every spin you take.

Claiming, Verifying and Withdrawing: The Practical Steps

The registration flow is where most players lose interest, and it is also where the operator learns the most about you. Expect to provide your full name, date of birth, address and email at sign-up, then a proof of identity and proof of address during verification. UK-licensed operators must verify you before your first withdrawal, and increasingly before your first deposit.

Verification is not a formality. A driving licence or passport covers identity, and a bank statement or utility bill dated within the last three months covers address. Uploads are usually processed within 24 hours, though weekends can stretch that to 48. Getting this done before you claim the spins saves you a delay later, when you actually have winnings to withdraw.

Once verified, the spins are typically credited automatically or after a single click in your account. Use them within the expiry window, track your wagering progress if there is a requirement, and keep your stakes under the max bet limit. The single most common reason players lose a cleared bonus is a stake that crept above the cap during a hot streak.

How Long Do Withdrawals Take From Free Spin Winnings?

UK-licensed operators must process withdrawals within a reasonable timeframe, and most complete them in 1 to 3 working days once verification is done. E-wallets like PayPal and Skrill are usually fastest, often within 24 hours. Debit card withdrawals typically take 1 to 3 days, and bank transfers can stretch to 5 working days.

Offshore operators vary enormously. Crypto withdrawals through Roobet or Gamdom can clear in under an hour, which is genuinely faster than any UK-licensed equivalent. Traditional bank withdrawals offshore can take a week or more, and some operators apply manual review to first withdrawals that adds further delay.

The catch with crypto is that you are converting to a volatile asset, and the value can move against you between withdrawal and conversion. For a £20 free spin win, that volatility is trivial. For anything larger, it is a real consideration.

What Documents Will I Need to Provide?

Three documents cover almost every case. A government-issued photo ID for identity, a utility bill or bank statement dated within 90 days for address, and sometimes a screenshot or statement from your payment method to confirm ownership. Some operators also request a selfie holding your ID, particularly for larger withdrawals.

UK-licensed operators are required to verify your identity before you can withdraw, and the Gambling Commission expects this to happen before deposits in most cases. Offshore operators have no such obligation, which means they may ask for nothing at all, or they may ask for everything at the exact moment you try to withdraw. The second scenario is the more common complaint.

Keep your documents ready and current. An expired passport or a utility bill from four months ago will stall the process, and during that stall your bonus may expire. Verification is boring, but it is the difference between a smooth cashout and a frustrating one.

Can I Claim More Than One No Deposit Offer?

Yes, though each requires a separate registration and a separate email address, and operators actively cross-check against shared fraud databases. Claiming the same offer twice from one operator will result in both accounts being closed and any winnings voided. That is standard anti-abuse practice, not a grey area.

Claiming offers from different operators is entirely legitimate, and it is how many players sample the market before committing. The practical limit is your own time. Each registration and verification takes 10 to 20 minutes, and each bonus carries its own expiry clock, so three or four concurrent offers is manageable while ten becomes a full-time job.

Watch for group ownership. Several UK brands share a single licence and back-office, which means a bonus claimed at one may disqualify you at a sister site. The terms usually state this, though rarely in the headline.

Reading the Small Print: Terms That Decide the Outcome

Bonus terms are the contract, and the marketing banner is not. Every significant condition must appear alongside the offer for a UK-licensed operator, but "alongside" can mean a footnote in 8-point type. The four terms that decide whether a bonus is worth claiming are wagering, max bet, max win cap and expiry. Everything else is secondary.

Wagering is expressed as a multiple of the bonus amount, not the deposit. A £5 bonus with a 40x requirement means £200 of staking, not £200 of deposits. Confusing the two is the most common misreading, and it leads players to vastly underestimate the work involved in converting a small bonus into cash.

Max bet is the term that voids the most bonuses. A £5 cap sounds generous until you realise that a single spin at £10, even by accident, can void the entire bonus and any winnings attached to it. Some operators apply the rule strictly, others apply discretion, and you have no way of knowing which until it happens.

What Happens If I Break a Bonus Term?

The bonus and any winnings derived from it are typically voided, and in serious cases the operator may close the account. A single accidental stake above the max bet is usually resolved in your favour if you contact support immediately, but the operator is under no obligation to do so. The terms are the terms.

Deliberate abuse is treated differently. Multiple accounts, false details, or coordinated bonus hunting across a group of brands will result in permanent exclusion and forfeiture. Operators share data through industry fraud-prevention networks, so getting flagged at one brand can follow you across several.

If you believe a bonus was voided unfairly, escalate through the operator's complaints process first, then to the relevant dispute resolution scheme if you get no satisfaction. For UK-licensed operators, that is IBAS or eCOGRA, and their decisions are binding on the operator. Offshore, your options are considerably thinner.

Are Free Spins Ever Genuinely Free?

They are free in the sense that no deposit is required to receive them, and they are not free in the sense that they carry conditions, data costs and conversion friction. The expected value of five spins at 10p on a 96% RTP slot is 48p. That is the honest number, and it is worth claiming only if you were going to engage with the operator anyway.

The value rises sharply when the offer includes no wagering. A no-wagering spin offer means your winnings convert to withdrawable cash without a staking requirement, which turns a 48p expected return into 48p of actual expected cash. That is a meaningful difference, and it is why no-wagering brands command a premium in the UK market.

What free spins are not is a strategy. No bonus structure changes the house edge on the underlying game, and no amount of bonus optimisation turns a negative-expectation activity into a positive one. The spins are a trial, and a trial is worth exactly what you learn from it.

How Do I Spot a Misleading Spin Offer?

Three signals give it away. First, a headline that says "free" without a visible wagering figure in the same view. Second, a spin count that is high but a spin value that is never stated, which usually means 5p or 10p. Third, terms that cap winnings at a figure lower than the expected return on the spins, which makes the offer effectively worthless.

A fourth signal is a licence you cannot find. Every legitimate operator displays its licence number and regulator in the footer. If you cannot locate it within 30 seconds, treat the offer as unverified and proceed with caution, particularly if you intend to deposit.

The best offers are boring to read. Clear wagering, stated spin value, stated cap, stated expiry. If the terms page reads like a sales pitch, the offer is probably weaker than the banner suggests.

What Should I Do After Using My Free Spins?

Check your balance and your wagering progress immediately. If you have winnings and no wagering requirement, request the withdrawal straight away and complete verification if you have not already. If there is a wagering requirement, decide whether clearing it is worth your time before you start, because a £5 bonus with a 40x requirement is rarely worth the £200 of staking involved.

If the answer is no, close the bonus and move on. There is no penalty for declining a bonus you have not used, and no obligation to chase a requirement that will cost you more in expected loss than the bonus is worth. The operator will not mind, and your bankroll will thank you.

Finally, take stock of whether the operator earned a deposit. Registration flow, support responsiveness, verification speed and the clarity of the terms all tell you something about how the site will behave when real money is involved. Five spins are a small gift, but the information they reveal is worth considerably more than 48p.

The Bottom Line on Five Free Spins No Deposit

Five free spins with no deposit is a legitimate, low-value acquisition tool that costs you nothing but a few minutes and an email address. The expected return is measured in pence, the wagering requirement usually erases it, and the real value is the free look at how an operator treats its customers before you commit a deposit.

UK-licensed operators offer smaller, more honest versions of the same deal, backed by fund segregation, dispute resolution and GAMSTOP coverage. Offshore operators offer larger spins and lower wagering, funded by the regulatory costs they avoid, at the price of UK protection. Both are valid choices, as long as you know which one you are making.

Claim the offer, read the terms, use the spins on a high-RTP slot if the rules allow, and set a reminder for the expiry. Then decide, on the evidence, whether the operator deserves a deposit. That is the whole strategy, and it is a better one than chasing the biggest headline number on the page.