Free Bets & Betting Offers UK

Bonuses, promotions and free bets are an essential part of the sports betting experience. The competition between different bookmakers is severe, so they are doing their best to impress the punters with generous offers. However, there are so many promotions that new players might get confused. In this article, we will present you with a comprehensive review of free bet offers and other promotions, give useful tips on how to find and use them and more. Stay tuned, and don’t miss the details!

Best Free Bets & Betting Offers in the UK

The most popular type of promotion is a free bet. These free bets in the UK can be seen almost everywhere. They work as follows: you get a bet of a fixed amount in your betting slip and can choose one of the available betting markets to use it on. In case your prediction is correct, you will get only the winnings, not the initial sum of the free bet. For example, winning a free bet with a value of 100 pounds placed on a 1.5 odd will bring you 50 pounds to your balance.

The most important part of any promotion of this kind is the terms it is offered at. Promotions that at first glance seem to be the best free bets available may turn out to be not so worthy after discovering the bonus conditions. The list of terms you should be especially careful about includes wagering requirements, expiration dates, sports, markets and odds allowed for betting on, maximum winnings and others.

Moving back to the main topic of this article, you would probably be surprised to know that there are five different kinds of free sports bet offers you can encounter at different bookmakers. Understanding how each of them works is important for making an informed decision, so in this section, we will present you with a detailed review of all five options.

No Deposit Free Bets & Free Betting Offers

This category freebets is probably the rarest one. As their name implies, they are provided without you having to make a cash-in. These bonuses may be presented as a loyalty reward or as a giveaway promotion. However, in case the bookie offers such no deposit bonuses to every player on their platform, you should pay special attention to the terms of the promotion. Most likely, it will have conditions that are hard to comply with. Otherwise, it would be a money giveaway, which is a rare thing for a bookmaker to do.

Free Bet Insurance

Insurance free bet promotions work slightly differently from regular free bets. Instead of granting you a reward, they are used to cover potential losses from your bet. For example, you can ensure your £50 bet, and in case it fails, you will get your £50 back to your account balance. These promotions are typically used as bet sign up offers, giving a new punter a chance to make a mistake without losing their funds.

Free Bet Welcome Bundles

The least popular type of bonus is a welcome bundle. These are stacks of several free bets typically offered for depositing a sum stated in the bonus terms. In general, it is almost exactly the same as the previous type of free bet bonus, but you get several bets of smaller values.

As we have already mentioned, the terms and conditions behind almost any promotion are more important than the face value of the bonus. Knowing all the details about terms will prevent you from missing the popular pitfalls that some bookmakers use to make their offers seem valuable. After reading this section, you will learn all the important conditions, allowing you to immediately recognize such pitfalls and other significant terms.

1. Bonus code

Let us start with the basics. A popular condition for many promotions is a bonus code. To activate such a promotion, you will need to find a bonus code online and use it in the corresponding section of the bookmaker’s site. In case you notice a field for bonus codes in your sportsbook, try looking for new offers online.

2. Minimum Deposit to activate the free bet bonus

This condition is a lot more popular than the previous one. Almost every bet bonus comes with a requirement to deposit a specific sum. Therefore, you will not be able to claim a £50 free bet by depositing £10, in case the conditions declare the minimum deposit sum of £50.

3. Minimum qualifying odds

While the previous term is usually stated right next to the sum of the free bet offered, the minimum qualifying odds are usually located in the depths of the T&C’s documents. It is usually used as a pitfall we have mentioned in the introduction of this section. Qualifying odds are the minimum odds you can use your free bets on. The main idea behind this promotion is to limit the players from placing free bets on low odds and winning easily. In most cases, the qualifying odds range from 1.5 to 1.75. However, the best free bet offers won’t have this condition at all, allowing you to choose the odds yourself.

4. Expiration dates

Some free bookie bets come with expiration dates. If not used within the specified term, they are deducted from your account. Make sure to learn the expiration term beforehand in order not to lose your free bets.

5. Specific sports or events

In some cases, a bookmaker will limit your choice of sports and events in the terms and conditions behind their free bets offers. Sometimes, this term is used for bonuses linked to major events like the World Cup, but you should still be careful around this condition as some bookies don’t show it on the promotion page.

6. Geographical Restrictions

This restriction comes from the local legislation. As you probably know, offering free bets online is illegal in some countries. Therefore, the bookmakers have to limit the regions in which such promotions are available. This information is always listed in the T&C’s document, but if such bonuses are illegal in your country, the sportsbook won’t let you activate them anyway.

How to Spot a Good Free Bet Sign Up Offer

We have partially discussed this issue already, but we would still like to outline some other points regarding finding the best sign up offers. In this section, we will cover the three most important conditions you should look at.

The Wagering Requirements

Wagering or playthrough requirements are the downside of most generous offers. In a nutshell, playthrough requirements force you to make several additional bets before you are able to withdraw. For example, while grabbing a free bet of £50 with wagering requirements of x5, you will need to place bets for a total of £250 before being able to cash out.

Note that this is the total sum of your bets, meaning you don’t have to reach a balance of £250 or lose £250 to meet these requirements. Wagering requirements may also have minimum qualifying odds stated in the T&C’s, in order to prevent you from placing low-risk wagers to meet the requirements.

How to Withdraw Free Bet Winnings

Cashing out your winnings from free bets is actually pretty simple, especially if you have read the previous sections of this article. In case you meet all the bonus terms, such as wagering requirements, you only need to have the desired sum available on your balance to cash it out. The process is not different from a regular withdrawal, so you will need to visit the cashier, select “Withdraw”, choose a cash-out method, enter the desired amount and confirm your request.

Now that you know all about free bets, it is time to have a brief overview of the other betting offers in the UK. There are several types of promotions that you may encounter, so let us describe the most popular ones.

Odds Boosts

Promotions boosting your odds are a bit less common than freebets in the UK, but you may still encounter them on popular sites. As the name implies, after using such a promotion, you will be able to place a wager and have your betting odds increased. For example, instead of having odds of x2, you will have odds of x4 after activating such a bonus. The only drawback of these offers is the limitations in the choice of sports and betting markets.

Money-Back Offers

Cashback is a popular way to reward the punters. They are rarely presented as parts of sign up offers and are typically a recurring promotion or a loyalty reward. In most cases, you will simply get a percentage of your deposits or total wagered sum back to your balance. At some sites, the cashback comes with no wagering requirements, making it a decent offer.

Acca Insurance

A bonus ensuring your acca bet is a great way to increase the chance of winning it. Such bonuses typically work as follows: in case one of your predictions in an acca bet fails, it will still be counted as winning.

Competitions

Tournaments are a great feature offered at some sites. They vary a lot across different bookies, but in most cases, they are a great way to socialize on the platform and challenge other users in pursue rewards. The tournaments typically have public leaderboards that represent the results in real-time. Such competitions are usually limited by sports, and the placement is calculated by the number of winnings or the highest successfully predicted odds.

Special Offers

Special offers are the time-limited promotions that are sometimes introduced at sportsbooks. They are usually linked to major sports events and allow you to benefit from placing wagers on these events. These are typically the most generous bookie offers as they are available rarely.

Games & Giveaways

The last type of UK bet offers we are going to review are giveaways. The conditions may vary a lot, but in general, these are the opportunities to win major prizes available for all punters. They may be presented in the form of a game, but they almost always have some requirements for participating. For example, a bookie may offer a giveaway of £100,000 in the form of a lottery, but in order to get a chance of winning, you will need to place a wager of at least £100.