Best Betting Promotions

Punters often take advantage of enhanced odds, and the likes of Paddy Power and Ladbrokes are great for this.

In the UK, free bets are the most popular types of betting offer that users can receive. They can pop up on sites like Bet365, which occasionally offer in-play free bets when you place a pre-match wager on a certain game.

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In a statement that will shock absolutely nobody, every betting promotion is predominantly a good one! 

However, there are a couple of things to look at before taking advantage of a bookies' promo:

• Is The Promotion Easy To Claim?
  The best promotions require no effort to claim, such as Money back if 2nd to the SP Favourite or Bore-draw Refund, if 0-0. These promotions automatically apply to qualifying bets and will pay out accordingly, once the event has ended.

• Minimum Selections, Odds Or Stakes?
  Some promotions stipulate wagering requirements, such as the number of selections for Acca Insurance, minimum odds for Bet Builder insurance and a min/max refunded stake on Money-back offers. Always check the T&Cs to make sure you understand the promotion.

• Is This The Right Offer For Me?
  In sports betting, knowledge is power, so stick to your strengths and don't chase a promotion just because it looks good. If the betting promotion enhances your regular betting pattern, that is the one to go for!
  

Bookmakers are quite creative with betting promotions, constantly pushing for fresh ideas to provide players with the next big thing!  

A prime example was the Bet Builder, which began around 2018 as a "special" here and there before becoming one of the most popular bet markets, with insurance and money-back offers very much "de rigueur" across UK bookies. 

Currently, betting promotions can be split into a few groups, including Free Bets, Enhanced Odds, Insurance, Boosts, Money Back and Early Payout, while Bet Clubs have exploded onto the scene over the last few years too.  Read more below:

Many betting sites offer free bet promotions, in which if you wager a certain amount, a free bet after the placement or settlement of your initial stake is awarded. In some instances, the free bet is only given if the bet loses. In others, it is given regardless if the bet wins or loses.

A regular example of free bets being given is when there are several big sporting events on over the course of a weekend. Bookmakers will try to encourage bets on a less popular market, such as boxing, by rewarding a free bet on a big Premier League match taking place the next day.

Free bets can also be handed out to players personally, via email, phone, and text, as a reward to loyal customers. 

BetVictor and Coral are two of the best betting sites for free bet promotions. As you may have seen advertised on TV from time to time, they sometimes give existing customers free bets without even having to place a qualifying bet.

Paddy Power also rewards customers with no deposit free bet promotions occasionally - such as a free bet on the opening race of the Cheltenham Festival or a free bet builder bet on the big football contest of the day.

While spontaneous free bet promotions are always well received by punters, there are also a number of ongoing deals that allow users of certain betting sites to claim free bets on a regular basis.

These "bet clubs" reward players for making a specified amount of bets within a seven-day period and can be based on singles, accas and bet builders. Arguably the best exponent of this is Sky Bet Club, which allows players to choose the reward they wish to earn, keeping it fresh and fun.

Enhanced odds have become so common among UK betting sites now, with many of the top UK bookmakers offering north of half a dozen odds boosts on every major football match.

Each of the betting sites that offer enhanced odds may call them different things depending on how they want to market them. Betway is known for its 'Betway Boost' section, while VBet simply goes for 'Boosted Odds' and on ZetBet you can 'Boost your Zet Bets'.

Most enhanced odds betting promotions have the markets set by the bookmaker, but some bookies allow users to choose which odds they want to boost.

Best Bookies for Enhanced Odds

1. BetVictor - Boosts every day on football and racing
2. Ladbrokes - Choose what you want boosted
3. Unibet - 'Uniboost' for racing
4. Paddy Power - Earn 'Power Up' odds boosts
5. Betway - Betway Boosts section
6. Sky Bet - Best for football price boosts

As well as boosting regular bets, many of the top bookmakers offer enhanced odds on pre-made bet-builders too, with BetVictor once again leading the way, with its "Bet Builder Boosts", with many others offering enhancements on these bets, boosting the odds still further.

This type of betting promotion is often specific to football but some betting sites open it up to all sports. With Acca insurance, you get your money back, usually as a free bet, if one leg of your accumulator lets you down.

An exception to the usual Acca insurance format is Betfair's Acca Edge, which allows users to get a cash refund if one pick lets them down but the odds are reduced in this instance.

Ladbrokes is considered one of the best betting sites for accumulators because as well as the Acca insurance, you can also get an Acca boost and edit your accas if you wish.

In the case of Ladbrokes, the Acca insurance promotion is eligible on the following football markets - Match Result, Both Teams to Score, Match Result and Both Teams to Score, Correct Score, and Total Goals Over/Under.

Each Acca insurance promotion will have different minimum odds requirements, and while most require 5+ selections, this is not the case with every promo.

Landing an accumulator is hard enough, so you want to be paid properly when you do manage to pull one off. That is why Acca bonus or Acca boost betting promotions are loved so much by punters.

Acca bonus and Acca boost mean pretty much the same thing, but there are some small differences. Usually with an acca bonus, you get your extra winnings as a percentage of your usual profit, and they can sometimes be paid as free bets. This is available when placing three or more selections, usually starting at 5% and increasing with each added selection..

An acca boost, as offered by Ladbrokes and many others, usually involves the odds being boosted before you place your wager, and it is always paid fully in cash.

Generally, players are required to pick three selections (a treble) at least to qualify for the boost, with the option available to select on the betslip. There are some limitations depending on the bookmaker, with one available boost per day or several available per week, while all bookmakers will have a maximum bonus amount that can be won, regardless of the winnings.

Mr Play calls their version of this offer 'PlayBoost', and with this, you can boost your winnings up to 77%, while bet365 offers up to 70% as a bonus, with a cap of £100,000.

Sky Bet Acca Freeze

A more recent addition to Acca bets is Sky Bet's Acca Freeze option, which allows players to take the current score of any game on a football accumulator bet and "freeze" the result. 

This is particularly handy when picking a tough selection that could go either way, but with Sky Bet, if that selection takes the lead, you can freeze that result and count it as a winning selection.

This is limited to five uses per week and once per acca, with a minimum of 5+ selections on full-time results bets only.

'Money back' covers a rather wide scope of online betting promotions, and various betting sites implement them in a number of ways.

Within football betting, certain promotions allow you to get your money back if the game finishes 0-0 (Bet365) or if your team concedes late. Paddy Power often offers money back if a certain team wins or a particular player scores in a selected match, while QuinnBet offers crossbar insurance, injury time goal insurance and red card insurance on various football markets.

Horse racing is the other sport in which you will see a lot of money back betting promotions. 

Bookmakers have steadily gotten more creative with their promotions and some have now become a staple across the majority of sports betting sites, with money back available if a horse falls or fails to start (quinnbet), finishes 2nd or is beaten by a length of less (Boylesports).

Other, less common options available include "fail to finish" which includes jockeys being unseated or if the selection is pulled up and "finishing 2nd, 3rd or 4th to the SP favourite (Betfred)". 

It's always worth keeping an eye on several big brand bookies when it comes to money back promotions as they vie for your custom in this busy landscape.

Early payout is not necessarily one of the most common betting promotions, but it is certainly among the very best. 

Paddy Power and Bet365 have offered this promo to football bettors and the premise of it is that your pre-match football selection is marked as a winner if your team goes two goals up at any point.

The match-winner market is the only one that is eligible, and it may only be available for certain leagues, so be sure to check the terms.

Football is not the only sport in which you can get an Early Payout betting promotion. Betway have had a "You Lead, You Win" offer for the NBA and for the PGA Tour, while Bet365 have Early Payout for MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA, Rugby and Euro Basketball.

The world's most popular sport, football, is of course surrounded by a lot of betting promotions. Many of the promos listed on this page are applicable to football betting, while some are in fact only relevant to this particular sport.

Most enhanced odds offers that you see on betting sites will be for football, and the same can be said for accumulator promos.

Top betting sites such as Betway, Paddy Power, and Bet365 have outstanding football betting offers on a day-to-day basis, but it is good practice to take a look at a few different bookies to potentially get that little bit more value out of your bets.

Best Football Betting Promotions

1. Free bets
2. Enhanced odds
3. Money back
4. Acca insurance
5. Early payout
6. Acca boost

You won't have to look very hard in order to find the football betting promotions with each online bookmaker, as they will usually be displayed quite a lot across the site and at times in TV advertising.

Enhanced odds can often be found when you click into a game, while more longstanding offers such as Acca insurance or 2-0 Early Payouts may be promoted within the football betting section itself.

Early Payout

Some bookmakers have started offering "early payouts" on football bets if a side goes two goals up. This is currently available with Bet365, Paddy Power and Sky Bet.

Once a two-goal margin has been achieved, the match result is instantly confirmed on players' bets, regardless of the outcome of the remainder of the contest. This applies to singles, accas and bet builders for bet365 and Sky Bet customers, with accas at Paddy Power not included.

Sky Bet also offers another instant payout option with accumulators. if all of your selections are winning at half-time in an acca bet, players will be automatically paid out regardless of the result at the end of 90 minutes. This is a great bonus for those who like to place Saturday afternoon accas.

Bet Builder Bonus

Bet Builders have come on leaps and bounds, with a massive number of markets to bet upon pre-match and now some are starting to provide bonus winnings on top of a payout, via a price boost option.

Bet365's "Winnings Boost" promotion allows players to enhance their odds on a minimum 3+ selection bet builder with odds of at least 1/1 (Evens). If the bet qualifies, players can select the Winnings Boost option on the betslip. There's a maximum stake limit and a fixed boost percentage, but overall this is a great option for football betting fans.

Alongside football, horse racing betting promotions are among the most common and popular deals on UK betting sites.

Free bets, enhanced odds, and money back specials are as prevalent within horse racing betting as they are for football betting, but there are some other promos that are exclusive to racing.

Extra Places Betting Promotions

When you bet on horse racing, you can place each-way bets, meaning that half of your stake goes on the horse to win, and the other half on the horse to place, i.e. finish in the top two, three, or four places depending on the size of the race.

While the standard place payouts are the top two places in races with 5-7 runners, three places for more than 8 runners, and four places for 16+ runners, extra place betting promotions allow punters to take advantage of more favourable each-way terms, and increase their chances of securing a return on the place part of their each-way wager.

One of the best exponents of this is Boylesports, who regularly offer at least eight extra place races or more, each and every day on UK and Irish racing.

Expand Your Extra Place Options Even Further!

As well as specific extra place races offered, several bookmakers also offer users to add extra place options in a race. Bet365's "Each-Way Extra" and William Hill's "Pick Your Places" promotions, let backers add an extra place to a race, with odds reduced accordingly.

This is great for those looking to back long-odds runners, but also for those looking to gain an angle on the bookie, even if it means a reduced payout when successful.

Best Odds Guaranteed Betting Promotions

Racing betting odds fluctuate a lot on the day of a race, and the Best Odds Guaranteed promotion eliminates some of the risk of taking a price that is a lot shorter than the starting price of a particular horse.

If you back a horse on the morning of a race at 3/1, but by the time the race starts in the afternoon it has drifted to 5/1, you will be paid at 5/1 if it wins.

Most betting sites implement this promotion for UK & Irish horse racing, while some also include international meetings and greyhound racing.

On each betting site, there is a set time from which racing bets are eligible for Best Odds Guaranteed. With some it can be as late as 10am, others are 8am, but with Bet365 you can place your bets the night before and still qualify, as long as a fixed price is offered.