The Standard has pulled together the best free bet offers currently available at UK betting sites. We’ve sourced the top bonuses from all the big names in betting, and some lesser-known operators too, reviewing each in turn to help readers find the best free bet offers for them.

A lot goes into our rankings of free bet offers and below are some of the criteria we use when reviewing a free bet promo.

UKGC license: We only recommend betting offers from bookmakers licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. The UKGC enforces fair play, data security and responsible gambling standards, and has the power to fine or even remove an operator’s license if they don’t comply. Offshore or unlicensed sites aren’t regulated by the UKGC and do not offer the same protections.

Welcome offers and ongoing free bet promotions: Most online bookmakers offer a welcome bonus, with the availability of additional free bet promos increasing around major events, such as the World Cup. We look beyond the headline offer and check qualifying stake, minimum odds, market restrictions, winnings caps and expiry windows to make sure the offers provide fair value.

Market depth: A top bookmaker offers a wide range of free bet offers on several events, from the most popular betting sports like horse racing and football, down to the more niche sports. We look at whether a bookmaker is offering markets before an event, what markets they have for individual fixtures and how many options in-play bettors have once the action starts.

Mobile app: Apps are now the preferred option for most punters. We go in depth on iOS and Android ratings for apps before embarking on first-hand testing to assess loading speed, navigation and overall stability. It’s no good having a top betting offer if the app or mobile site doesn’t function well.

Site usability: We examine whether the desktop versions of a betting site are quick, clean and easy to navigate too. A poor user experience can cause us to swerve recommending a free bet, even if the offer is good on the face of it.

Safer gambling tools: UK-licensed bookmakers must offer deposit limits, session limits, reality checks and self-exclusion. These tools should be easy to find and easy to activate, and staff should be trained to recognise problem signs. It’s important to stay in control even if you’re only intending on using free bets as they can become addictive.

Paddy Power regularly having more betting offers than rival online bookmakers. The welcome offer yields £50 in World Cup free bets when bettors sign up and wager a minimum of £10.

Free bets are also dispensed via Paddy’s Rewards Club. Customers must place five £5 bets in a week to qualify for this free bet club, which will be added to a user’s balance and can be used on any sport.

Paddy Power’s Wonder Wheel, where punters can spin to win prizes including free bets, can be played once daily for free with no deposit bet required.

Paddy Power will also regularly run money back specials or bet-and-get free bet offers during the major sporting events, such as the Cheltenham Festival or international football tournaments like the World Cup.

The Sky Bet welcome offer is as close as a bettor can get to earning free bets that are actually free, with only a 5p qualifying wager required after registration to release £30 in free bets.

Sky Bet run a free bets club where customers can claim a free bet once per week by wagering £30. Rewards are unlocked the following Monday and bettors can choose the type of free bet they want to receive.

Regular money-back offers are also available to racing bettors, with stakes returned as a free bet if a horse fails to win or finishes in the top four but not first. These are available at a wide range of meets on the calendar, including major festivals like Cheltenham.

Coral are a high street bookmaker with deep racing roots, and for low-stakes racing bettors, they can secure £30 in free bets by signing up and wagering £5. The free bets are split into £5 tokens, four of which can be wagered on any sport, while the remaining two are tied to bet builders.

The six £5 tokens give punters flexibility to spread the value, though the 7-day expiry is on the tight side.

Coral free bets for existing customers come mainly through their free-to-play games. The Rewards Shaker can be used once per day for free and hands out cash, free bets and free spins with no qualifying bet needed, and the Rewards Grabber guarantees a prize on every entry, free bet tokens included.

Coral also run bet builder refund promotions on big televised football fixtures, refunding losing first bet builders as a free bet. They rotate by match, so the promotions page is worth a quick check before staking on any major game.

Arguably the biggest name in online betting, bet365 has sadly scaled back its welcome offer, with new customers now entitled to up to £30 in free bets.

Bet365 will treble any amount between £5 and £10 that a new customer deposits and wagers as part of the flexible bet365 welcome offer, while qualifying wagers can be placed at odds of 1/5, the shortest odds of any major bookie.

Bet365 runs money-back as a free bet promotions for major football games in the Champions League and World Cup, but those offers are infrequent, with the operator preferring to focus on other promos.

They put together some of the biggest boosts available at UK betting sites, with their World Cup offers particularly impressive, while 25 per cent winnings boosts for football and racing bet builders are common.

The Betfred sign-up offer will see punters receive £50 in free bets after a £10+ qualifying cash bet is placed at odds of evens or greater.

The welcome offer is split into three £10 free bet tokens for use on any sport, and two £10 free bet accumulators.

Betfred will return a bettor’s stake as a free bet on losing football bet builder bets in certain competitions, often capped at a £5 free bet but occasionally rising to £10.

The Acca Flex promotion returns stakes as a free bet if one leg of an accumulator doesn’t win, while Betfred are known for running bet and get offers during Grand Slam tennis tournaments.

The free-to-play football score predictor game, Beat Fred, can also offer free bet prizes.

The Betfair welcome offer is suited to bettors who prefer to wager on multiples, be that accumulators, bet builders or other system bets.

Betfair awards new bettors £30 in free bets to use on multi bets on any sport when they sign up and wager £10 on the sportsbook.

The unique aspect of Betfair is that one login gives users access to a fixed-odds sportsbook and a betting exchange. The Betfair Exchange is the biggest in the UK, boasting the most liquidity in its markets.

There is a bet £10, get £10 welcome offer for the Betfair exchange, but it doesn’t offer the same value as the sportsbook sign up bonus.

There are separate free bet offers for the exchange and sportsbook, although punters more familiar with the latter may want to read up on how a betting exchange works before embarking on any promotions.

Betfair have a track record for running free bet promotions in and around major sporting events, such as an international tournament or Cheltenham Festival. However, there are very few permanent free bet offers, with refer-a-friend and the free-to-play Prize Machine the only potential avenues to a free bet.

William Hill are one of the most well-established high street bookmakers in the UK and the William Hill welcome offer is a tried and tested bet £10, get £30 in free bets deal.

Qualifying bets need to be placed at odds of 1/2 or greater, which is below the industry average for free bet offers, and the free bet tokens can be wagered on any sport.

William Hill free bets for existing customers are a little bit harder to come by, but they do run free bet promotions around big racing meetings, such as Royal Ascot and Cheltenham.

Free bet offers from Hills tend to be personalised to each bettor and the range in rewards can be large, going from 50p to £50 depending on the user.

What William Hill lack in free bets, they make up for with other types of betting promotions, such market-beating odds boosts for football, highly competitive odds for racing and free-to-play games with huge cash prizes.

BetMGM are of the newer brands on this list. The welcome offer hands new customers £40 in free bets after a £10 qualifying stake, split four ways into two £10 bet builder tokens and two £10 standard sports tokens.

BetMGM free bets for existing customers come mostly through the free-to-play games Golden Spin and BetMGM Prize Wheel. These two games can be played once per day with a guaranteed prize, including a free bet. However, bettors don’t get to choose their reward, which could be a profit boost token or a casino bonus instead.

We like the daily profit boost tokens BetMGM supply to racing bettors, while there’s an acca bonus scheme that delivers up to a 200 per cent winnings boosts on successful multiples.

Tote are something of a niche bookmaker given they specialise in pools betting with a focus on horse racing. However, they are also one of the best betting sites for free bet offers, which cover both their pool betting operation and their fixed-odds sportsbook.

The Tote welcome offer includes £40 in free bets, split 50:50 between Tote credit and free sports bets. A £10 deposit and £10 qualifying bet on either a racing pool or sports wager is required to unlock the welcome bonus.

For racing punters, there’s the Stayer’s Club, where bettors can receive up to £10 in free bets each week by placing six or more wagers of equivalent value. Tote also have an excellent track record for money back specials at the big meeting, where they’ll refund stakes if a selection finishes second or third.

For sports bettors, they can claim a £5 free acca bet weekly by wagering £25 or more on multiples. They also run regular free bet offers on football, golf and rugby league.

Ladbrokes’ sign-up offer requires a qualifying £5 cash bet, and rewards bettors with £30 in free bets, split into 4 x £5 free sports bets, 1 x £5 free football bet builder & 1 x £5 free racing bet builder.

There is also acca insurance on offer. If exactly one leg of a customer’s accumulator lets them down, Ladbrokes will refund the stake as a free bet.

The offer only applies to your first accumulator of the day, though, and must be at a minimum odds of 1/10.

Ladbrokes also offers the free-to-play 1-2-Free game, where customers predict the correct scores of three football matches within 90 minutes for a chance to win a share of the £10,000 prize pot in free bets. Punters can only enter once a week.

There are several ways to unlock free bets on betting sites. Here are some of the more common promotions bettors will find:

Bet and get: The most common type of welcome offer. Place a qualifying cash bet and receive free bet tokens on settlement. Occasionally, the qualifying bet will need to win to unlock the free bets.

Money back special: This offer involves punters betting on a selected event and getting their stake returned as a free bet should their initial wager lose. For racing offers of this type, a bettor’s selection may need to place but not win to earn a refund.

Free bet clubs: A type of loyalty programme. If bettors meet a certain weekly requirement, such as wagering a minimum amount in a week, they can earn free bets in return.

Deposit match: This would see the bookmaker match your first cash deposit with free bets. This type of free bet offer can occasionally carry wagering terms, with bettors needing to wager any winnings from the free bets before it can be withdrawn as cash.

It’s vital to read the terms and conditions of any free bet offers as they often contain important information on how to unlock the bonus and what it can be wagered on.

Some of the language in those T&Cs can be a little unusual for those unfamiliar with the world of online gambling. Here’s our guide to the most common betting terms used in free bet offers.

Wagering: Most commonly used when claiming any casino bonuses, wagering has crept into sports betting as well. Wagering requirements refer to how many times a bettor must wager any bonus funds before they become eligible for withdrawal. Readers can find out more about wagering requirements on our dedicated page.

Tokens/credits: Most bookmakers will divide the total free bet amount from a welcome offer into smaller denominations, referred to as tokens or credits. Bettors may need to select these tokens on a betslip to use them when placing a wager.

Qualifying bet: The wager a punter must place to unlock the free bets. Make sure to check the minimum odds and bet type required, if specified by the bookie.

Minimum odds: Betting sites often set a limit on how low the odds can be for a qualifying bet. The bet must have equal or higher odds than the specified minimum, so if it the T&Cs state a qualifying bet must have odds of 3/1 or greater, a wager placed at odds of 2/1 will be deemed ineligible and may invalidate the offer.

Maximum winnings: Some bookmakers put a limit on how much bettors can win from a free bet or offer. These are most common on accumulator boosts. Bookmakers will payout to the limit, but won’t go over it if a winning bet exceeds that amount.

Void bet: A void bet is one that is cancelled and your stake is returned, usually because the event didn’t take place. Any qualifying bet that is voided won’t be considered eligible for a free bet offer.

The majority of welcome offers from betting sites follow a familiar pattern. Here’s a general overview of how to unlock free bets that come as part of a sign-up offer.

Most major UK betting sites offer free bets as part of their new customer welcome promotions, and these will often be available through their apps.

Qualifying stakes and relevant terms and conditions vary by operator. Always remember to check that your betting app is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission before signing up.

Free bet stakes are not returned with your winnings, only the profit is withdrawable.

For instance, using a £10 free bet on a winning selection at odds of 3/1 would return £30, rather than £40.

No deposit free bets exist in the UK market but are exceedingly rare and will often offer much lower value than those that do require a deposit.

All offers featured on this page require a qualifying deposit and bet, as is standard for highest-value deals.

In most cases, a bettor must first complete a qualifying step, such as depositing a certain amount in their account and placing a bet at particular odds.

They then receive free bet credits in their account, which can be used on select markets without risking their own money.

If the bet wins, the bettor gets to keep the profit but not the stake.

Most bookmakers apply no wagering requirements at all on betting offers, though it’s commonplace to have wagering requirements on online casinos.

Make sure to read individual terms and conditions before signing up.

A number of betting apps in the UK offer at least £10 in free bets. For example, new customers of William Hill can download their app, register and place a £10 bet and they’ll be rewarded with three £10 free bet tokens if they meet the qualifying criteria. Always check the terms before diving in.

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