FREE bets, are exactly what you would think from the name. This is a bookmaker giving you a free chance to win a low stakes wager. They come in a variety of formats, from sign up offers to rewards to cashback, and they can often be combined with other kinds of gambling offers as well.
This piece will cover all that, from how they work to what kind of terms you can expect to find attached (if any) and what makes a really good free bet promotion. Plus, how to make the most out of them for potential value once you do decide on a particular offer. Which probably means not betting on Leamington FC. The Brakes are currently without a manager and dead last in the National League.
What They Are, and How You Get Them
There are plenty of ways to get free bet offers at UK bookmakers right now. They include:
· Simply signing up to a new site for the first time
· Depositing for the first time
· Depositing a certain amount
· Rewards after making a certain amount of bets or activity in a month
· Daily free prize wheels with free bets are increasingly common at UK sites
· Email offers for signing up to marketing lists
For the dedicated bettor who is willing to put in the legwork to find them all, there are a lot of free bet offers out there on the market. There are 175 licensed sports betting operators in the UK, and almost every single one of them will always have multiple free bet offers available that change regularly. However, that means competition and not all free bet offers are built the same.
Of course there’s no substitute for actually browsing these offers yourself and comparing the various options with up-to-date examples. Reading articles and guides will only get you so far before the time comes to choose. For that, you can find a list of bookmakers online where offers are compared in one place and reviewed individually. Easy.
Be Aware of Terms and Conditions Before Jumping In
There can be big differences in how each offer works mechanically, beyond the core concept of a free wager. The size of the offer is one thing, but factors like odds boosts, wagering requirements, time limits, available markets and even more all make a difference.
For example, you might prefer a £5 free bet with no strings attached on sign up – one and done, you win cash or you lose for free. Or you might be the kind of gambler that doesn’t mind depositing £10 and being limited to a certain sport or having a time limit, in return for a larger free bet of say £20.
In recent years there has been some crackdowns in various American states on sportsbooks – as they’re called across the pond – using phrases like “risk free” and “no risk” in promoting these offers. Because when there’s terms and conditions attached, any money you win but aren’t allowed to withdraw straight away is potential profit that you can go on to lose. Over in the UK, bookmakers have generally stayed away from those terms anyway and usually stick with free bets.
However, the terms are still important. If the casino doesn’t make its bonus terms clear, they may have something to hide! Some things to look out for include:
· Wagering requirements
· Maximum win cap (if any)
· Time limits
· Limitations to certain bets types, matches or sports
How to Use You Free Bet for Best Value, Or Fun
If you’re being serious about it, you should approach your free bet in the same way you would any other sports bet. Look for good value, take your time (where available) and try to pick a bet where you might have an edge on the market with the maths or your sports knowledge.
If you’re going to be regularly trying to grind out advantages through free bets, setting up a separate, dedicated email address just for bookmakers’ emails is a good shout. This means you’ll never miss out on personalized or event-based free bet offers – and if you don’t want to look at gambling offers for a bit just sign out of that that email account.
You should also be aware that if you are one of the rare people who systematically and regularly win reasonable amounts from free bets, there is a possibility bookmakers will stop sending you them or even block you from free bets altogether – so don’t go overboard.
If that all sounds like a lot of work, you could simply smash your free bet on a speculative accumulator. Combining multiple bets into one makes an unlikely result, but the potential payouts are much bigger. And as you’re not actually risking your own money in the first place…
Lastly, there is such a thing as matched betting, which can get maximum advantage out of free bets by essentially using multiple different sites’ offers and a betting exchange to cover all the bases on a wager. However, these are increasingly difficult to do, can be controversial and, while low risk, in the time it takes to grind out reasonable money you’d often be better served financially getting a normal job.
Article written by Jack Harris
