Free Bets

Free Bets Explained

If you're about to claim your first free bet offer, our “free bets explained” guide should help you understand all of the different types of new customer offers that bookies offer.

Once you’ve read our guide it should be easier for you to compare the free bets that bookies offer new customers and claim the right bonus for your style of betting.

Types of Free Bets

In a way to stand out from other bookies free bet offers for new customers, there are various naming conventions for the types of free bets that bookies offer.

Some bookies call them free matched bets, while others call them deposit match offers but they all usually let you place a bet using credit that the bookie adds to your account.

Free bets can be awarded as free bet vouchers, codes or tokens and are what bookies credit to new customers accounts that can be used instead of your own money when betting.

Here’s a list of the most popular free bet types:

Free Matched Bets

This type of free bet is the one that kicked it all off when bookies started operating online and wanted to attract new customers and is still very popular to this day.

Bookies that offer free matched bets are basically saying that if you signup as a new customer, they’ll match the value of the first bet that you place with them with free bets of equal value.

bet365 are a bookie that’s traditionally offered free matched bets to new signups in the past.

The way these free bet offers have worked in the past was that you joined and deposited anything that you want, and then decided what your first bet was going to be.

Let’s say that you decided to back Harry Kane as First Goalscorer in his next match and used the money in your account to bet £20 on the market.

And then as soon as the bet’s settled and also irrespective of if you won or lost your bet, the bookie would then credit your new account with a £20 free bet.

Most bookies also require that you use your free bet within a certain number of days which can range from 7 days right up to 28 so check the free bets terms and conditions carefully.

One of our favourite matched bet offers is bet365's free bet offer for new signups, but instead of getting free bets, you get Bet Credits that match your first settled bet instead.

Deposit Match Offers

Although not as common, deposit match offers are fairly similar to free matched bets but instead of your first bets value dictating the free bets amount, it’s your first deposit.

Bookies that match deposits are essentially saying that they’ll match the first deposit that you make as a new customer, with a free bet of equivalent value.

Betfred have favoured deposit match offers to attract new customers in the past.

The way the Betfred free bet offer used to work is once you’d registered as a new customer, they would take note of the value of the first deposit that you make into your new account.

They would then send you an email with a code for a free bet that matches your first deposit. This code can then be entered into their Betslip which lets you place the free bet.

Most deposit match offers come with some limitations and in Betfred’s case, it’s that the value of your first deposit had to be between £10 and £100.

The plus side to this type of free bet offer is the fact that you get to choose the value of the free bet that the bookie has to give you which is perfect for a wide range of betting budgets.

Double/Treble Offers

The competition for bookies to acquire new customers has increased massively over recent years and so they’ve come up with a new type of free bet offer.

It’s basically a deal where the free bet that new customers receive is 200% to 300% of the value of the first bet that you place.

Bookies offering this type of deal for new customers are basically saying that they’ll give you free bet that’s worth double or treble what you first bet.

William Hill were one of the first to offer this type of free bet offer and only required you to bet £10 in order to recieve £30 in free bets!

The William Hill free bet offer was also split into 3 separate £10 free bets totalling £30 which now seems commonplace with similar new customer offers.

Getting three £10 free bets instead of one worth £30 is actually a good thing for punters as it gives you three chances of winning and not just one.

Staged Free Bets

There are also a small number of online bookies that require new customers to place a series of bets before any free bets are released.

These types of free bet offers usually take the average stake from your first five or ten bets as a basis for the value of your free bet.

One bookie that’s offered this type of deal in the past is SportingBet.

The SportingBet free bet offer in question was worth up to £50 and was split into three separate stages as detailed below:

STAGE 1: Bet £10 for a £10 free bet.

STAGE 2: Place five more bets for a free bet matching your average stake (max £20).

STAGE 3: Repeat stage 2 for another £20 free bet and £50 in total.

To be honest we’re not really fans of new customer offers that are split over many stages as they seem overly complicated to us.

When most bookies offer a more simple new customer offer it’s hard to see how making an offer so convoluted will attract new members.

No Deposit Free Bets

Free bets that don’t even require that you make a deposit or place a bet with a new online bookie in order to receive them are extremely rare - but they do exist!

To claim a “free bet, no deposit offers” you usually just need to signup as a new customer with an online bookie on order to receive the deal.

Obviously you can’t have previously signed up with the bookie, and they usually need your credit card details, but this is usually for payouts.

Although not a traditional bookie, spread betting experts Sporting Index have been known to offer a £100 free bet to new customers without requiring a deposit.

The Sporting Index free bet offer is about as good as it gets as it essentially lets you experience betting on their website with their money!

Although they're quite rare, no deposit free bet offers are a great way of seeing if you like betting at a new bookie without using any of your own money what-so-ever.

What's the Point of Free Bets?

So even after you've read all about the different types of free bets that bookies offer, a lot punters will still be asking themselves; what the point of of free bets actually is?

Well, as previously mentioned, bookies offer free bets to both new and existing customers, which basically means you'll receive bonus betting funds, that you can use to bet on various events.

As you can see from the list above, there are also many different types of free bets available when betting at a new online bookie, so what is the point of free bets?

One explanation for their existence is that the online betting arena has become extremely saturated over the past few years, with more and more bookies launching into the marketplace.

Traditionally the online betting industry was retained by a handful of bookies, but the options for punters have massively increased, and therefore it’s become increasingly more competitive.

Bookies must now proactively acquire more bettors in order to maintain grow profits.

This has meant that bookies must provide punters with something of value, especially if they want to continually attract new players to join and use them as their primary betting account.

You’ll find that most online bookies offer free bets in an attempt to attract new customers, and will then continue to provide ongoing betting offers and free bets to regular punters.

What's the point of Free Bets for Punters?

Apart from being able to place a bet using your online bookies money instead of your own, what the point of free bets is for bettors is crucial to the type of free bets that you claim.

Each bettor will have specific betting requirements when choosing free bets to claim; such as searching for the best football ACCA free bets or horse racing related free bet offers.

A lot of the ongoing free bet offers are pretty comparable as they've all got a value.

The value of a bookies free bet offer can easily determine which bookies punters open an account with, and the highest value could easily sway them to join a particular one.

In saying that however, we can’t underestimate the importance of the ongoing free bets.

If punters are sport specific bettors, bookies must ensure that they offer a comprehensive range of free bets that cover a wide range of sports and markets in order to create loyal bettors.

There are numerous types of free bets that you can claim from bookies including:

• New account free bets.
• Matched free bets.
• Initial deposit free bets.
• Enhanced or boosted odds free bets.
• Event specific free bets.
• Free bets for loyalty.
• Free bets for referring friends.

It’s important when bettors are looking for a new bookie to have an account with, that they look as the full range of betting offers that are available once you become a member.

Yes the initial free bet on offer when you signup may be great, but will that bookie offer enough free bets to ensure that you can get the most from continuing to bet with them?

What's the Point Of Free Bets For Bookies?

Loyalty levels in betting have decreased, mostly due to bettors looking to claim free bets from other bookies, a possible side effect of the number of bookies in the industry has increased.

Therefore, bookies must offer free bets to customers who open new betting accounts with them.

They use this tool as one of the mains way in which to entice potential punters to open a new online betting account with them instead of one of their many competitors.

Once bettors go through a signup process, the chances are that they'll be more inclined to use the bookie as a regular betting option - unless they get swayed by a new free bet offer!

Usually once you've joined a new bookie, they'll start to offer you lots of free bets, ongoing promotions and loyalty programmes to keep you betting with them over a rival bookie.

The more regular a punter bets with a specific bookie and the more engaged they are with them, the more likely they are to remain loyal to that bookie - the main point of free bets for bookies!