A Guide to Free Betting

Avoid the Confusion of Free Online Bets

Free bet offers are a common tactic used by pretty much every online bookmaker to entice new customers to sign up to their sites. We’ve picked out 8 of the most commonly used free betting terms here in our guide so that you can use it as a reference point as you make your way through the promotions.

There are so many different promotions and offers available, however, you can simplify them into the main categories of matched free betting, no-deposit free betting, risk-free betting and hidden free betting.

Some of the more attractive free bet offers have extensive terms and conditions which can make it difficult to take advantage of these particular promotions, so make sure to read and understand how the T&Cs work before claiming. Sometimes you may also have to place a number of additional bets or rollover the balance a number of times before you can take advantage of the offer, so it makes sense to double check how the deals work.

The 8 Types of Welcome Offer

• Matched Bets – Get your first bet matched (doubled).
• Deposit Bonuses – Get a bonus on top of what you deposit.
• No-deposit Free Bets – Get a free bet just by opening an account.
• Risk-free bets – Make a bet and if you lose, you’ll get the money back as a free bet.
• Bet X, Get Y Matched Bets – Get your first bet matched by 200 or 300%.
• Hidden Free Bets – Free bets hidden as increased odds or certain outcomes.
• Structured Free Bets  – Get a matched free bet after each of your first few bets.
• Tiered Matched Bets – Get a free bet based on the average or total of your first few bets.

Most of the free bets offered today fall into the matched bets, or bet x, get y categories. Not many companies use hidden free bets. The only bookmaker that currently does is 888sport which offers it as Treble odds on you first bet.

Essentially, here, you will get 3x the money back than you would have otherwise (if you bet wins, of course!). In contrast to a traditional matched bet, you’ll just double your money back if your bet wins.

Free Betting Terms & Conditions

Each of the free bets above will have special terms and conditions for you to claim them. We go through a number of these T&Cs in our detailed guide here.

Make sure you read each one carefully before claiming the free bets, as some are easier to claim than others.