With Cheltenham sign up offers, you want tried and test promotions for the Festival from trusted and licensed online bookmakers. That’s what it is all about. Here, we have tested the best Cheltenham new customer offers for those bettors looking to join a sportsbook that they haven’t had an account with before.
With so much top-quality horse racing on during the Festival, this is the perfect time to register with bookies you haven’t experienced previously. Get the lowdown on all the top Cheltenham new account offers today. The welcome bonuses discussed here don’t cater for existing customers, but you will find all sportsbooks have something for you too.
We all look to maximise our potential Cheltenham Festival winnings when the big meeting comes around. We take you through how to choose the best sign-up offers in advance of the March spectacular.
There are various ways to compare the value of different Cheltenham sign-up offers. Firstly, the obvious – how much is offered? A deposit match up to £100 for example sounds like a lot compared to a couple of free £10 bets but there is more to any offer than that.
You also need to think about how expensive an offer is. The more you have to put in, allied with any strict wagering requirements, the more expensive a deal becomes.
Another thing that affects the value of Cheltenham welcome offers is the minimum and maximum bets allowed. A bet boost offer for example may give you 10/1 on a favourite, but if the maximum bet is £5 you may not find it worthwhile.
Whenever you see Cheltenham sign-up offers advertised on bookmaking sites, the main T&Cs must be included. Treat these only as a headline.
We recommend that, as boring as it sounds, you always read the terms in full. It doesn’t take long and they are genuinely important so you don’t miss something that stops you cashing out.
Go to the bottom of any offer description and click the link for the ‘full terms and conditions’. If you have any difficulty at all in understanding the terms, always go to customer services with your questions, preferably by live chat.
All sports betting punters have their own needs when it comes to bonuses and ongoing promotions. Likewise, most bookies on the market offer very different Cheltenham welcome offers.
For those looking to bet on Cheltenham Festival races, look for promos featuring the following:
There are some sportsbooks that have recently launched that could potentially have some of the best Cheltenham new customer offers out there. With these, just like established online bookmakers, there are pros and cons too. On the plus side, you probably don’t have an account with newer bookies, but the drawback is they don’t have the reputation behind them that the big boys do. These two Cheltenham new account offers are worth looking at, though:
A sportsbook mobile betting app offering from betting exchange Smarkets, SBK is at the cutting edge of internet gambling. They promise new features all the time, so that may include the streaming of live horse races you want to bet on like the Cheltenham Festival in future. While it isn’t clear if they intend on having specific promotions and deals for existing customers when this rolls around, there is a welcome bonus available.
This is a £20 risk free bet. Sign up to SBK, then deposit at least £20 via your debit card, Trustly or a bank transfer and place a qualifying bet on the sportsbook. If this happens to lose, then you will have your stake refunded in full up to £20 in cash.
In order to withdraw rebated funds, you must then bet the value of your qualifying deposit again. Without doing this within the promotional period, which appears to be seven days, you could lose the rebate.
Avoid using PayPal, prepaid cards or other eWallet services when depositing as these aren’t eligible payment methods. These SBK terms and conditions are pretty straightforward. If your first bet loses, it’s great to get another go at finding a winner. Should you back one straight away, however, you don’t actually get anything for joining.
As GatoBet only currently has US horse racing markets available, there aren’t yet any promotions for existing customers that apply to Cheltenham. This also means that streaming UK and Irish horse racing meets like the Festival aren’t available either. They do have a welcome bonus, though, which it a bet 10 get 30 deal for new customers.
Register and use promo code GATO, then deposit at least £10 via all accepted payment methods other than Skrill and place qualifying bets to the value of £10 or more to get a £30 fee bet token. You must place this bonus all in one go on the same bet at minimum odds of Evens (2.00).
There are 10x wagering requirements that apply to any winnings made on the free bet before it will be converted to your real money balance. The bonus and winnings made from it expire after five days. There is a maximum conversion amount of £30 applying to this offer.
These terms and conditions are quite tricky. You do not have much time at all to clear the wagering requirements, and there is no real incentive to find a winner at big odds from the free bet as this makes your task of playing through the rollover very difficult.
While BetDukes don’t yet have any live streams for horse racing in the UK and Ireland, or regular Cheltenham Festival promotions for new customers, they do have a bet 10 get 10 welcome bonus. Register and deposit £10, using any payment method other than Skrill, then place £10 in qualifying bets to receive a £10 free bet. You are allowed to place several bets to unlock the bonus.
The £10 free bet must be wagered in full, however, on sportsbook markets with minimum odds of 1/2 (1.50). If you wager wins, you must bet the value of the winnings 10 times before bonus funds can be withdrawn. The stake is not returned with any winnings. You only have seven days to bet the bonus and meet these wagering requirements or they will expire. There is a maximum conversion amount of £20 between bonus funds and you real cash balance.
Meeting the terms and conditions attached to the BetDukes welcome offer is fairly difficult. A large win on your £10 free bet may make it tough to clear the wagering requirements in the seven-day timeframe. However, this could work well during a potentially busy period such as the Cheltenham Festival.
Even the best Cheltenham sign up offers have pros and cons to them. This is because the leading online bookmakers all take different approaches with their available welcome bonuses. This is to suit the different types of bettor they hope to attract. Here are the top five Cheltenham new customer offers out there:
Even before any Cheltenham-specific offers come through to us, top bookmaker Ladbrokes offers a welcome deal useful for horse racing punters.
Ladbrokes’ Bet £5, Get £20 deal is a popular one. Here’s how the promotion breaks down:
If you want to play some really small bets to spread your initial stake around, then Ladbrokes allows your £5 qualifying bet to be spread among several bets. As long as the £5 is reached cumulatively, your free bets will be on their way.
£20 doesn’t sound like a valuable new customer promo but in this case, there are two major positives:
Both ends of this deal, the cost and the potential benefit, are very attractive. Save joining until you have some upcoming bets in mind, as you will have seven days to use the 4 x £5 free bets up after you qualify.
As an online only bookmaker, 888Sport are a product of the internet revolution. They offer live streaming on all UK and Irish horse races, including the Cheltenham Festival. There are also a number of related promotions for existing customers such as the 4/1 Winner deal, which provides you with one daily bonus of a £5 free bet token when you back a horse and it wins at odds of 4/1 (5.00) or greater.
Among Cheltenham sign up offers, 888Sport has one of the best with a bet £10 get £30 plus £10 basino bonus welcome offer. Just make a minimum deposit of £10 via an eligible payment method (not PayPal, Paysafecard, Skrill, Muchbetter or Neteller) after registering, then place a qualifying bet to receive £30 in free bet bonuses. Your first bet of £10 with a real money stake at minimum odds of 1/2 (1.50) qualifies, provided you place it within 30 days of signing up.
Within 72 hours of this settling, you get your free bet tokens which then expire after seven days. Avoid Virtual sports and permutation bets for this offer, and don’t cash the qualifying bet out. These terms and conditions are pretty easy to meet, and you can even place straight single line accumulators so long as they meet the minimum odds requirements. Once you have opened an account with this bookmaker, don’t hesitate to take advantage of other 888Sport Cheltenham offers, such as enhanced odds, non runner no bet, and best odds guaranteed.
Similar to other Cheltenham new account offers, Betfred have a bet 10 get 30 welcome bonus. They also have live streaming for all horse racing from the UK and Ireland including the Festival when you place a bet on the race. There are other promotions that apply to Cheltenham too, such as extra place races and the Free Bet if Second offer. Betfred have also gone non-runner no bet on certain Festival races before any other online bookmaker for those looking to make ante post wagers.
Their sign up offer requires you to use promo code SPORTS60 during registration. Now, deposit at least £10 via an accepted payment method and bet that amount at minimum odds of Evens (2.00) on Betfred sportsbook markets. Provided this is settled within 60 days and you confirm participation in the welcome bonus via SMS text message validation, you then receive £30 in free bets that expire after a further seven days.
Prepaid cards and eWallet services cannot be used as payment methods to get this offer. Other Betfred platforms such as Totepool, Virtual, Bingo, Casino, Games, Lotto, Numbers and Poker cannot be used to place a qualifying bet. These terms and conditions are simple enough to meet. You also get 60 free bet spins that have their own requirements for the Casino. There is plenty of Betfred Cheltenham offers available for bookmaker’s customers – check them out on our website.
The sportsbook attached to Grosvenor Casino lets you bets and watch on all UK and Irish horse racing action, so you can stream the Cheltenham Festival through it. There may also be some promotions around the event available to all customers nearer the time. As Cheltenham new customer offers go, theirs is somewhat unique in that you can boost the odds to double the original price on your first bet.
Once you have signed up to Grosvenor Sport and made a deposit of at least £10 via an eligible payment method, you have 60 days to use the Odds Boost token awarded on a bet of £10. If you choose to bet each-way, then the maximum you can put on is a unit stake of £5 (£5 for the win part and the same for the place part of the wager). If you stake less than £10 on a single sportsbook bet, then you forfeit the rest of the bonus. It must be wagered all in one go.
Avoid Neteller and Skrill when depositing as these options cannot be used to get the offer. Extra winnings are paid as cash if your bet is settled as a winner. The terms and conditions with Grosvenor are very clear and easy enough to meet. Doubling the odds on your first bet could be very rewarding if you pick out a big price Cheltenham Festival winner.
At SportNation, there is no live streaming of horse racing events available, but their Pick a Pony promotion is open to all customers and may be running during the Cheltenham Festival. Their welcome bonus is a 100% matched deposit bonus up to £100. This sounds great, but there are some significant terms and conditions relating to this new customer offer that you need to be aware of.
Register and make an eligible deposit while using promo code SNWEL100 to have the value of it matched up to a maximum of £100. You must then playthrough 8x the sum of the deposit and bonus on sportsbook bets at minimum odds of 3/5 (1.6) within 90 days to free up the bonus funds for withdrawal. Winnings with free bet tokens is capped at £2,500. The maximum contribution to the wagering requirement per bet placed with bonus funds is £50. Multiple bets in the same market do not qualify for clearing these.
While there is no mention of certain payment methods being ineligible to receive the offer, the terms and conditions compared to other best Cheltenham sign up offers are actually pretty difficult. If you went for the maximum bonus here, then you would have to gamble £1,600 in 90 days to meet wagering requirements.
As you can see above, there are various types of Cheltenham new customer offers available out there. Some are specific to the Festival, while others are bet and get style promotions. There are so-called risk-free bets, first deposit bonuses and even odds boosts too. It is worth looking at each of these, and their advantages and drawbacks, in more detail:
Arguably the best Cheltenham sign up offers are ones which concentrate on the Festival itself. Online bookmakers will put these out there in the days leading up to the meeting. These usually involve a fancied runner at massively enhanced odds like the price boosts discussed below. The obvious upside to specific Cheltenham new account offers is their direct relation to the Festival. Such promotions are tailored specifically for the action taking place here. While upsets do happen at Cheltenham, the bookies are usually feeling generous and include the banker horse each day in their welcome bonus. On the downside, however, there is only value in these if you actually fancy those horses. There is always the possibility that a favourite will lose, and you can only stake small amounts due to restrictions. Festival deals have lots going for them, though, even if they are designed for the wider public watching Cheltenham rather than regular horse racing bettors.
A good example of bet and get new customer offers is 888Sport highlighted above. Here, things are kept fairly simple. You sign up, make a deposit, place a qualifying bet and then receive the bonus. There will be time limits attached to the bonus, and not all payment methods will be eligible for the offer, but you should find yourself pretty unrestricted on the type of qualifying bet you place and what you can use the bonus on. Minimum odds requirements do exist, which may be a downside to some, but these are usually pretty reasonable. Ideally, you want to be at least doubling your money on a bet anyway, so odds-on prices being incompatible isn’t as bad as it first appears. The simplicity of bet and get deals make them one of the best Cheltenham new customer offers you can get.
A particularly good offer used at Cheltenham is the ‘Bet Through the Card’ promotion.
Most punters want to be involved in every race at the festival, such is its importance to racing. Doing that can be dangerously expensive however if we get it wrong. Using a Bet Through the Card deal however allows you to play in all seven races much more safely.
Here’s how to use a Bet Through the Card offer.
Bookmakers will likely advertise the chance for punters to place a bet on the first race of the day. This may be for £10, £20 or another pre-determined amount. After that, you get a free bet (e.g., for £5 or £10) on every other race of the day on the same card.
All you need to do at this point is tick the option to use your free bet on each subsequent race, once you have placed the qualifying bet on the opener.
Punters who want to bet on each race but don’t watch to stretch their budget should certainly use this offer. If the opening bet wins, subsequent wins are all bonus successes.
The bookmakers will of course hope that your first bet loses. That may not put paid to your day if subsequent free bets win, though winning your real money bet guarantees profit for the day.
A first bet insurance works on the principle of giving you a second chance. SBK and Paddy Power both have new customer offers of this type. If the first bet you place qualifies for the insurance and loses, then you get your stake back as cash or a free bet and get to have another go. The drawback here is that if your qualifying bet wins, you actually don’t get any bonus at all for signing up. It has become something of an industry expectation for new customers to have some incentive to join a sportsbook. That isn’t there in the event you back a winner with a first bet insurance. Those promotions which don’t return your stake to you as cash but as a free bet actually never refund your stake, because winnings made off the free bet don’t include this in the returns.
With deposit bonuses, you get bonuses matched to a certain maximum value of the amount deposited. That is how the SportNation offer detailed above works. That is not usually the end of it, though, with terms and conditions giving rollover equating to several times the value of the deposit, bonus, sum of deposit and bonus, or the amount won with the bonus to be wagered within a certain timeframe. These can quickly leave you needing to bet large sums and making many wagers to try and clear. That is an obvious downside, as it puts you under pressure. You may end up betting more than you are comfortable with, and there are limits to each contributory wager so you can’t clear the rollover all in one go. Deposit bonuses are sadly not as attractive as other Cheltenham new customer offers may be.
Increasing the odds you get on any bet is a welcome addition to wagers. Enhanced odds and price boosts work in exactly the same way. Some paying the additional winnings on a bet in cash, while other provide free bets on top of what you have won. Grosvenor Sport is a good example of this type of offer. Getting something extra is only a plus. More cash in your account balance is what every bettor wants, while free bet bonuses mean you don’t have to risk further capital when making your next wagers. The only downside to these is the size of the stake. Online bookmakers will limit how much you can put on a price boost. It may be £10, or even £20 if you are very lucky but no more than that. There may also be maximum daily winnings caps to consider if you do win big too.
Even the best Cheltenham sign up offers have terms and conditions attached to them. You need to know these, so you there is no doubt what is required to get the most out of your bonus. Take all of these into consideration:
Minimum Deposit
Minimum Odds
Minimum Bet
Validity Period
Payment Options
Most online bookmakers still prefer your debit card over perpaid cards and eWallet services
Getting the maximum benefit from the best Cheltenham new customer offers is the message we have tried to hammer home here. Whatever type of welcome bonus is available, it needs to work for you. If there are large wagering requirements, for instance, attached to a deal, then you may need to look into this in the days before the Festival rather than joining a sportsbook during it. This is because it may be more difficult to fulfil the terms of the offer after Cheltenham is over and there is less quality horse racing on. Any welcome bonus that puts you under pressure with short timeframes might serve for during the meeting, though. The rest of the time, this probably isn’t the best.
Sticking to Cheltenham sign up offers that keep things simple is sound advice. Bet and get promotions rarely have anything nasty lurking in their terms and conditions, as compared to a deposit bonus. Risk-free bet promotions are only worth looking at if you aren’t sure the horse you fancy will win. Having confidence in the conclusions you have made before betting is important, especially on horse racing as competitive as the Festival. You also have to weigh up whether waiting until Cheltenham is nearly upon us is the right time to be betting in the first place.
While there are going to be more promotions for both new and existing customers immediately before and during the Festival, online bookmakers will have adjusted the odds they offer accordingly. Sometimes, the value in betting on these races can only be found in advance in the ante post mark. Lookout for non-runner no bet promotions from January onwards for Cheltenham in March. These promotions will return the stakes you place to you in the event that your fancied horse doesn’t run in that particular race. There’s a trade-off between getting good odds and the wealth of bonuses available later.
Terms attached to offers vary from bookmaker to bookmaker. Always look out however for any wagering requirements/rollovers, what the qualifying bet terms are, minimum/maximum bets and pay outs as well as time limits.
Yes. Bookmakers will limit offers to one per household/IP address, but you may grab deals and open accounts with more than one firm.
Often, yes. For example; a 100% match bonus up to £100 means that even if you put in more than £100, you will still only receive that amount as a bonus. If there is a wagering requirement, you will need to satisfy this before being able to withdraw winnings as cash.
Each offer has its own merits. Free bet offers and those offering boosted odds for Cheltenham runners work very well for the festival.
Bet Through the Card offers aren’t yet confirmed for the 2023 Cheltenham Festival. When we know more, we will fill you in.
Harvey Mayson has worked as a horseracing writer, blogger and tipster for several of the UK’s leading bookmakers and numerous other specialist racing sites. Harvey has great knowledge of horse racing history and was the author of the Paddy Power Cheltenham Festival and Aintree Grand National blog for three years. Harvey’s blog at the Cheltenham Festival in 2014 included a 100,000-1 ante-post four-timer while he correctly forecast the first four winners on Grand National day in 2015. He also tipped three Grand National winners in a row and eleven consecutive winning nap selections.