I seem to remember eToro always "gave" some amount of money to "play" when you brought your own. You could never withdraw that as it was meant for "playing" only. Yeah i know it sounds like a Casino for some reason, but the "game" is like "trading" with forex, stocks, other assets like metals, oil, and even some crypto. It has a term "cfd" or whatever.
Its a promotion to get you hooked to their site. Are you sure those "$100" aren't really for "playing" inside eToro? You can probably NOT withdraw that...
No idea, and not going to find out. But if I understood posts above correctly, the $100 is hard money, and you get it in Bitcoin, the rest of the fee is waived if you sign up for eToro.
Essentially: $299 ticket becomes $100 if you sign up for eToro, and then you get back the $100 in BTC.
So, it's "free" in terms out outlay (cept like I said you lose on fees heh).
All brokers give you a practice account. that's your play money. You normally can use it to play the contests though and best performers get moneh. Not sure it's ever been done with Bitcoin, but I wouldn't be surprised if so. They just make more money from losing traders.