Sports betting is difficult. As such, you really should seek out all the help you can get in order to turn a long-term profit. Betting promotions are one of the very best ways to not only help your money go further, but also generate bigger winnings.
Read on to discover everything you need to know about betting promotions in the UK right now. We’ll cover deals for both new customers and existing users, suggest plenty of great current special offers, and give you plenty more crucial information.
The UK’s Top Betting Promotions
- Bet365 – Bet £10 & Get £30 In Free Bets
- William Hill – Bet £10, Get £30
- Betfred – Double Delight and Hat Trick Heaven
- 10Bet – £50 Welcome Bonus
- 888sport – ‘Up for Eight’ Predictor Game
- QuinnBet – Create-a-Bet Welcome Offer
- Paddy Power – Paddy’s Rewards Club
- BetUK – Acca Club boosts profit 5 times weekly
- BoyleSports – £25 Bet Bundle Welcome Offer
- LiveScore Bet – Free to Play ‘Squads’ Game
How We Rank the Top Betting Promotions
There are literally hundreds of betting promotions out there at any one time in the UK. Keeping tabs on all of these can be difficult, which is why we not only track them, but review them too. Our analysis is done according to a strict set of criteria, with these being five key examples.
Value
This is the first thing we look at. Quite simply, are the rewards the user gets back worth the investment he or she makes to start with? Bet £10, Get £30 – for example – is a clear example of great value. A Bet £20, Get £10 deal – by contrast – wouldn’t be worth your time or money.
Clarity
Betting promotions should be explained as clearly as possible. Rather than attempting to trick them in any way, the bookie should always make the punter aware of exactly what they’re getting into. The clarity of the T&Cs is the most important factor, but the text explaining the deal should also be easy to understand. Any bookies providing step-by-step guides to their promos also get a tick in our book.
Flexibility
We understand that bookies can’t please everybody, but they should try to suit as many people as possible. This can be done in a few different ways, such as making several different payment methods eligible for a deal, or having fairly low qualifying requirements.
Size
This is a fairly obvious one. In short, the bigger a bonus is, the better. Given the choice between a ‘Bet £10, Get £20’ deal, and another promising ‘Bet £10, Get £30’, all bettors will naturally opt for the latter. As noted earlier though, the concept of ‘value’ should be kept in mind here, meaning the investment and rewards should be proportional to each other.
Overall Range of Offers
You certainly might sign up with a bookie just to use one of their offers. Some seasoned veterans simply go around different betting sites, triggering the welcome offers then never using the platform again. Most punters, however, will want to find a bookie they can use for the long-haul. In this case, you want to look not only at the headline offer, but at the other promotions backing this up. That’s why we’ve rewarded sportsbooks who not only provide big welcome offers, but also a solid range of deals to keep delivering value thereafter.
Different Types of Betting Promotions
Thanks to constant innovation in the industry, new types of betting promotions are being created all the time. That said, there are a few old classics which have proved popular with punters over the years, and continue to be widespread. These are the three most common types of betting promotions for new customers to a brand.
Bet X, Get Y
This is the most popular welcome offer in the UK, by a distance. That’s absolutely fine by us, as Bet X, Get Y deals (also called ‘Bet and Get’ promotions) are easy to understand, straightforward to use, and tend to deliver excellent value.
Bet X, Get Y deals have two main parts. The first is a qualifying wager, which must be placed according to certain rules (see our ‘Key Betting Promotion Terms and Conditions’ section, below). The second is – quite simply – getting your rewards. These will invariably come in the form of free bets, rather than cash. In a ‘Bet £10, Get £30’ welcome offer, for example, you must wager at least £10 up front, and will receive £30 in free bets as your reward.
| Bookmaker | Welcome Offer | Terms & Conditions | Go to Site |
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Bet £10, Get £30 | Use promo code ‘H30’ | Visit |
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Bet £10, Get £30 | Use promo code ‘30FB‘ | Visit |
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Bet £10, Get £30 | Min qualifying odds of evens | Visit |
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Deposit Match
While they’re more common in other countries, you can certainly still find deposit match deals in the UK too. These can actually deliver bigger rewards than Bet X, Get Y welcome offers, but do come with strings attached.
With these promotions, as the name suggests, your bookie will ‘match’ your first deposit as a free bet. The size of the match might be anywhere from 50% to 200%. With a 100% match, for example, you’ll get a £20 bonus if you deposit £20 initially.
The catch here is that you’ll often need to complete a ‘rollover requirement’. This means betting through your deposit and/or bonus amount a certain number of times before withdrawing any winnings.
| Bookmaker | Welcome Offer | Terms & Conditions | Go to Site |
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100% Match, Up to £100 | Rollover = 1x deposit amount | Visit |
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50% Match, Up to £50 | Use code ‘PLAY10’ | Visit |
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100% Match, Up to £50 | Rollover = 1x bonus amount | Visit |
Risk-Free Bet
While risk-free bets are significantly less common than Bet X, Get Y deals in the UK, they’re roughly as popular as deposit match promotions. Some of the biggest and best brands around offer these deals to new customers.
Risk-free bets basically insure your first wager on a new platform, or – in some cases – your first few wagers. If your eligible bet/s win, you keep your winnings as normal. If they lose then your stake will be refunded, and you can use it again on a different market.
| Bookmaker | Welcome Offer | Terms & Conditions | Go to Site |
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£40 Risk-Free Bet | Rollover = 3x bonus amount | Visit |
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£20 Risk-Free Bet | eWallet deposits are ineligible | Visit |
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£10 Risk-Free Bet | Use code ‘YSKAMR’ | Visit |
Pros and Cons of Betting Promotions
In sports betting, as elsewhere in life, there are both good and bad sides to everything. Even special offers, for example, have both their advantages and disadvantages, and you can check out some of the most important examples below.
Pros
- Make Your Money Go Further – This is the biggest advantage of betting promotions, by far. One way or another, they can help the cash you deposit into your betting account to last longer. This will most often be done by providing refunds, or dishing out free bets to be used instead of cash.
- Increase Your Profits – Special offers still don’t guarantee you’ll win wagers (see below), but will often give you greater rewards for doing so. This might be done via odds boosts, acca boosts, or various other kinds of offers.
- Help You Discover New Brands – By reading articles like this one, and seeing an eye-catching offer, you can learn about brands you’d never heard of before. Even if you only intend to trigger that brand’s welcome offer, you might take a shine to it and end up using it for the long haul.
Cons
- No Guarantees – Special offers can lull you into a false sense of security. Even if you use a Bet £10, Get £30 welcome offer, for example, there are no guarantees that either your £10 qualifying wager, or your £30 bonus, will actually result in any profits.
- Can Lead to Ill-Advised Wagers – If they’re only eligible on certain markets, betting promotions may lead you into wagering on certain sports or competitions which you wouldn’t otherwise care about. Naturally, this can result in lower-quality picks than normal.
Key Sports Betting Promotions Terms and Conditions
Essentially everything on a sportsbook comes with terms and conditions attached, and this is the case with betting offers too. The T&Cs for welcome offers can be divided into three key areas, as you can see below.
Getting Started
From the moment you start signing up to a new betting site, you must abide by certain conditions. You may need to enter a certain promo code, for example, during the registration process.
When making your first payment, you certainly need to be careful. A minimum deposit amount will be in place, and – while debit cardsfree are normally a safe bet – certain payment methods will be ineligible.
Qualifying Wager
You must place qualifying wagers for both Bet X, Get Y and Risk-Free Bet welcome offers, which will come with their own T&Cs. These will always include minimum requirements for both odds and stakes. In addition, you’ll usually need to both place and settle these wagers within a certain time frame after signing up.
Bonus Usage Rules
If you get free bets via either Bet and Get or Risk-Free Bet offers, using them is very straightforward. Even minimum odds requirements and market restrictions are pretty rare here. You must be careful to use your tokens before they expire, however, which is usually after seven days.
With Deposit Match deals (and sometimes with Risk-Free Bet bonuses), rollover requirements will be in place. This means you must bet through your deposit and/or bonus amount a certain number of times before you can actually withdraw any winnings. If an offer has a ‘3x deposit rollover’ requirement, for example, and you stick £10 into your account, you must bet through £30 before making a withdrawal.
Best Betting Apps for Betting Promotions
Many modern-day punters prefer to wager on their mobile devices, rather than on laptops or computers. If you fall into this category, you’ll find dozens of high quality betting apps to choose from, with almost all top brands providing standalone applications.
All of the usual betting promotions will also be available via a sportsbook’s mobile app, and triggering them works in exactly the same way. In certain cases, the bookie will even put mobile-only special offers in place, which can only be accessed via the app.
Below, you can check out three of our top recommendations for either mobile-only brands, or bookies which like to provide app-exclusive offers.
Top 3 Betting Apps for Mobile-Exclusive Offers:
Best Betting Promotions for Each Sport
Most modern-day betting sites will give you at least 20 sports to wager on, with some stretching this number up to 30 or more. Obviously some of these markets are more popular than others, and we’ve listed five of the biggest sports for special offers below.
Football Betting Promotions
Football is the biggest sport for online betting in the UK, and – unsurprisingly – sees its fairshare of betting promotions. Fans of football accas can benefit from both Acca Boost and Acca Insurance deals on Ladbrokes, and bookies like BetUK will provide boosted odds on certain football markets each day.
Certain brands (such as bet365) also put ‘Early Payout’ deals in place, which can actually count your wager as a winner long before the match is concluded. Look out for these and other promotions like World Cup betting offers on major tournaments and competitions.
Horse Racing Betting Promotions
Horse racing might only be the second-most popular online market to wager on, but it actually sees the highest volume of sport-specific special offers. One of the most common examples is Best Odds Guaranteed, which automatically gives you the Starting Price if it’s superior to your original Race Winner odds.
Extra Places is also very popular, and the likes of No Runner No Bet, Money Back if 2nd, and Faller Insurance can help to cut back on your losses. If you’re a fan of the ‘sport of kings’, we’d recommend checking out the following horse racing betting sites – QuinnBet, Betfred, or BoyleSports – for their promos.
Tennis Betting Promotions
Tennis enjoys near-universal coverage among sportsbooks. It doesn’t come close to approaching the betting volume of football or horse racing though, and – as such – sees far fewer specific promotions. That said, there are two deals on tennis betting sites that our experts recommend targeting.
The first is a tennis accumulator bonus, which can significantly boost your profits on successful multiples. The second is an insurance deal, which could be either in-play or pre-match. Both bet365 and William Hill have been known to offer each of these promotions, and 888sport often provide free bet offers for the slams.
Golf Betting Promotions
Golf also enjoys excellent coverage on modern-day sportsbooks. Much like tennis, it’s ayear-round sport, but one which also centers around a handful of big-time events. The promotion types are also similar to tennis, with insurance deals – particularly on multiples and outright each ways – being the most common.
Bookies like BoyleSports will also offer extra places on your each ways, while others – like NetBet – can give you early payouts if your golfer is leading at a certain point. William Hill, meanwhile, has been known to dish out a free bet if your chosen player scores an eagle.
NFL Betting Promotions
The NFL’s popularity for both watching and betting has grown rapidly in the UK. Bookies have been quick to notice this, and – alongside plenty of betting markets – you can also find a good selection of promotions on American football nowadays. The best sites of all are 888sport, bet365, and William Hill. Between this trio you’ll find free-to-play predictor games, acca bonuses, and early payouts when your chosen team goes ahead by a certain margin.
Are There Betting Site Promotions for Existing Customers?
We’ve generally focused on welcome offers in this article, as these betting promotions give out the biggest bonuses by a distance. The vast majority of bookies, however, will also provide ongoing promotions to reward their existing customers. You can check out some of the best examples below.
If you’re a fan of accumulator betting, Ladbrokes should be your first port of call. ItLadbrokes – Acca Offers
provides two main special offers for your accas – a boost and an insurance deals – which increase your winnings or reduce your losses respectively. Both apply to a wide range of sports, and have fair entry requirements. In addition, this is one of the few betting sites on which you can actually edit your accumulators while they’re in-play.
Player props are generally pretty tricky to win. If you still like to try your hand at themBetfred – Double Delight and Hat Trick Heaven
though, particularly for football, then we’d recommend Betfred. Place a First Goalscorer wager on any eligible game, and – if your chosen player goes on to score two or three total goals – your payout will be doubled or trebled respectively. There are no minimum requirements for odds or stake, and many of the top matchups in European football are represented.
Few betting promotions are as useful as the ‘early payout’, and Bet365 is the best bookieBet365 – Football Early Payout
around for this offer type. The headline deal is ‘2 Goals Ahead Early Payout’, which applies to Match Result singles on some of the biggest leagues around. If your chosen team goes up by two goals at any point in the game, your wager will immediately be paid out as a winner. Bet365 also regularly provides similar deals for both MLB and NFL matchups.
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Online Betting Promotions – Final Thoughts
As a punter, if you’re not using betting promotions then you’re simply not giving yourself the best shot at turning a long-term profit. It’s certainly worth your time, effort, and money to trigger our recommended welcome offers, and secure yourself some tidy bonuses.
After that, if the betting site has made a good first impression, we’d encourage you to keep using it not just for regular gambling, but for its special offers too. Use these promos in a smart way, and your potential for profits will increase dramatically.
