Best Betting Promotions

We’ve included absolutely loads of info on betting promotions on this page. It’s a pretty comprehensive effort, if we say so ourselves. At the end of the day, though, I expect most of you are just here hunting for the absolute best promotion you can get.

What is the best online betting promotion?

Well, that does depend on you - some people like free bets, others like enhanced odds or matched deposits. Horses for courses, init. Anyway, here are our editor’s picks for some inspiration:

Everyone’s gotta start somewhere, right? Right. Well that ‘somewhere’ that all new punters are starting at may as well come with a nice little sign up bonus!

New customer betting promotions are big business in UK online betting.

It’s such a competitive market that these operators really do need to dangle a big carrot to catch your attention.

These carrots can come in many shapes and sizes, but sign up free bets and matched deposit bonuses are probably the most common new customer promotions:

Bookies know that punters love free bets, so it’s no surprise to see so many new customer promotions offering them in one form or another.

Some bookies have ‘bet get’ promotions for new accounts (e.g., bet £5, get £30 in free bets), others may match your first bet with a free bet to the same value as your stake if it loses.

Another type of betting promotion which is often seen as part of a new customer welcome bonus is a matched deposit. Usually, the deposit is matched 100% and capped at a particular amount.

Several top online sportsbooks including 888sport are currently promoting matched deposit sign up offers:

New betting sites pop up in the UK all the time and, surprise surprise, most of them have some decent promotions on offer.

Some new bookies are nothing more than a flash in the pan, others are of a quality that shows they are here to stay.

One way for a bookie to display quality is the variety of promotions it has for key sports like football and horse racing, in addition to a simple and/or high-value sign up bonus.

• Enhanced Odds (Odds boost)
• Money Back
• Refer a Friend
• Loyalty/Reward Clubs
• Surprise Bets
• Competition Promos

It’s not just new customers that get to have all the fun with betting promotions.

Bookies work night and day to devise ways to differentiate themselves from one another, and that work often results in creative new promotions.

We’ll run through some of the favourite promotions as selected by Ryan, Ben, and the rest of the My Betting Sites staff. You can find these types of promos on all sorts of sports (we’ll look at football and racing-specific promotions later on):

Odds boosts - or enhanced odds - are a regular feature on many UK betting sites.

Odds boosts are a great way to squeeze out value from a bookie as you’ll be getting much closer to the true price with enhanced odds.

Whatever the main sporting events are on any given day, bookies often put together attractive odds boost promotions which could be for a single bet, combo, request-a-bet, or acca.

You’ll see this type of promotion all over the place. It’s especially prevalent on bets where a punter might come close, for example if one leg of a bet-builder or acca lets you down, or the horse you backed misses out by less than a length.

One of the best things about sports betting is how it can enhance the experience of watching sports with your friends (provided we’re all betting safely and responsibly).

That’s the sort of feeling bookies are aiming to get at with their Refer a Friend promotions. Both you and your friend can bag cash and other rewards if one of you encourages the other to sign up with your unique code.

Reward and loyalty clubs are the sorts of promotions that used to be the preserve of the high-rollers. However, they’re becoming increasingly popular at all levels now - mostly as a result of the brutal competition in the UK online betting market.

Betway, for example, runs a Free Bet Club promotion, where you’ll earn free bets each week if you meet certain wagering requirements.

If you’re the sort of punter that prefers to stick to just one or two tried and tested bookies, then picking one with a rewards program makes a lot of sense.

It’s not so useful if you’re happy to shop around numerous bookies every time you want to place a bet.

Granted, it’s a bit of a weird one to put in this list given that there’s only one online bookie in the UK that we know of that offers this, but it’s quite a quirky little promotion so we’ve decided to include it anyway.

One of Kwiff’s most notable promotions is their ‘get kwiffed’ odds boosts, where your winnings can get ‘supercharged’ (their words).

That’s cool, but it’s also fun that they offer what they call a ‘surprise bet’. This is essentially a free bet on a market chosen for you. That might sound a bit stupid, but it was actually pretty fun having a free hit on something I otherwise would have had absolutely no interest in!

The big sporting events are obviously always well-covered by the top UK online bookies, and that means more opportunities for us punters to take advantage of a nice little betting promotion.

Generally, you’ll have to wager a certain amount of money on the event in question, and you’ll be rewarded with something like a free bet, or money back if your stake loses.

Make sure you scrutinise those pesky T&Cs when going for event-specific promotions.

For example, sometimes the promo will only apply to bets placed before the start of the event and not in-play wagers.

• Best Odds Guaranteed (also a popular promo for greyhound betting)
• Extra Places
• Non-Runner No Bet
• Price Promise
• Grand National Promos

There’s arguably no other sport in the UK that’s so closely entwined with betting than horse racing.

The bookies have had decades (centuries!) of experience offering prices to punters at the races, and the online revolution has made Britain's top bookies even more competitive and creative.

Here’s a selection of the best horse racing betting promotions to look out for:

Best odds guaranteed promotions are a very common sight among the UK’s top online bookmakers.

The odds on any particular horse will shorten or drift from the moment the market opens until the stater’s signal.

That means if you back a horse before a race, your selection might actually start the race at a different price.

When a bookie offers ‘best odds guaranteed’, you are insured against a lot of this volatility as you’ll be paid out at either the odds you took or the starting price - whichever is better.

With some bookies, you can lock in a best odds guaranteed price as far in advance as the day before the race (at bet365, BOG is locked in as soon as the runners are confirmed). Here’s a list of the top online bookies offering best odds guaranteed and the times at which the promotion becomes available:

Best Odds Guaranteed Times

Extra places is a great little insurance promotion that’s regularly on offer.

Bookies running an extra places promotion will - as the name suggests - pay out extra places on each way bets.

For example, if the standard each way terms state that the bookie will pay out for three places, they might instead pay out the place part of your each way bet for four or more places.

These promos are often only available for selected races, so keep an eye out for when they pop up!

Paddy Power Extra Places

Paddy Power is red hot on promotions for all sports, and it’s miles ahead of most of the competition when it comes to horse racing too. Paddy regularly offers great Extra Places promotions.

You’re feeling smug with yourself because your dad’s mate (who’s constantly glued to the racing) has given you a tip for the 14:30 at Kempton. You’ve stuck a whole tenner on because you trust this bloke.

But then, disaster hits. News comes through that the overnight rain means the going is heavy and your dad’s mate’s tip has been scratched. What a waste of a tenner!

A non runner no bet promotion would have saved your dad’s mate from your ire in this situation: It means that if your selection doesn’t start, you get your stake refunded.

Betfair are among the big online sportsbooks to offer this promo on selected races.

Price Promise promotions are offered by bookies who want to show up the competition. Simply put, the bookie offering this promotion will honour the best price available across a selection of different bookies.

Bet365 is always good for a price promise promotion. Its horse racing price promise applies to any UK & Irish race shown on ITV Racing and Bet 365 will pay out at whichever odds were best across their own markets, Ladbrokes, William Hill, Paddy Power, Coral, Sky Bet or Boylesports.

The Grand National is comfortably the biggest race in the British horse racing calendar.

For whatever reason, it’s the only race that really garners attention from punters and non-punters alike who would otherwise never look twice at a horse race.

There’s almost always plenty of drama in this race, with so many runners entering in often dreadful weather conditions.

Bookies know this event is a huge draw for casual punters and that means they go in really hard on Grand National promotions to attract this custom. It’s a great time of year to pick up value bets.

• Early Payout
• Acca Insurance
• Acca Bonus

Football is what most of us in the UK like to bet on.

We’re football mad and there’s no cure.

Bookies are unsurprisingly on hand to assist with our enjoyment of the national obsession and plenty of them do a ruddy great job of providing entertaining and useful betting promotions to keep the ball in play. Here’s a run-down of some of the most common footy promos:

Imagine you’re sitting pretty with a bet on United to win with them 2-0 up after 70 minutes. They’re knocking it around at the back without any stress. The home support bellows “Olé!” at every touch.

However, the away team gets a scrappy goal back against the run of play and then United’s centre-back scores an inexplicable own goal 3 minutes from time to crush your bet.

No-one wants that. No punter deserves that. You’d already mentally spent your winnings!

Early payout promotions insure you against the gut-wrenching disaster that is a late comeback against your team.

With early payout on football, you’ll get paid out in full for your 1X2 bet if your team goes a certain distance ahead (usually 2 goals).

Early Payout Bookies for Footy

• Bet365 - 2 goals ahead
• Paddy Power - 2 goals ahead
• Betway - first goal wins on selected matches

Accas are a firm favourite among UK footy punters. They help make Saturday afternoons magical across the land, creating situations where die-hard Tourquay fans are cheering on a Burnley equaliser while simultaneously hoping Hamilton Academical concede.

Anyway, we’ve probably all been unlucky enough to pick a close-but-not-perfect acca that missed out by one goal in one game.

That’s where acca insurance comes in.

With acca insurance, you’ll not end up totally empty-handed if you suffer a near miss.

Instead, bookies with acca insurance promos often offer money back as a free bet, bonuses, or even cashback in these situations.

Ladbrokes Acca Insurance

With the Ladbrokes acca insurance promotion, you’ll get your stake back as a free bet up to £10 if one of your selections lets you down.

You’ll need to make at least 5 selections (each at odds of 1/10 or greater) at total odds of 3/1 or greater to qualify.

As if it wasn’t already sweet enough winning an acca, doing so with an acca bonus promotion on top truly is betting nirvana.

Acca bonuses are packaged in different ways by different bookies, but the general idea is that you can get treats like odds boosts on your accas, free bets if you win accas, and other goodies.

Bookies offering acca bonuses include:

	Up to 70% on football, tennis, & US sports
	Up to 77% profit boost on accas with 4+ legs
	Boost accas with 3+ selections
	Daily Acca Boosts
	Boostiton promo applies to all sports
	Up to 50% bonus on football accas

Free-to-play games have become much more popular in recent years. It’s hard to find the ‘no-deposit free bet offers’ that everyone seems to search for, but free to play promotions are a genuinely good way of getting the ball rolling without having to deposit any more cash.

Betway’s 4 To Win and 4 To Score promotions are two of the most popular free to play games, while Paddy Power’s Beat the Drop is fantastic, too.

Bookies with Free to Play Games

• Paddy Power - Beat the Drop, Skill Zone
• Betway - 4 to Win, 4 to Score, Prize Wheel
• 888Sport - Up for 8, 10K Drive
• William Hill - Scratch of the Day, Free or 4
• Ladbrokes - 1-2-Free, 5-a-side
• Coral - Racing Super Series
• LiveScore Bet - LiveScore Bet Squads
• Virgin Bet - Virgin Bet Fives

It’s not just sports bettors that can take advantage of regular promotions to boost their bankroll or insure themselves against losing bets. Online casinos also offer great promotions to new and existing customers.