
With the next Cheltenham Festival just over the horizon, you’ll find promotions aplenty among online bookies right now – but which Cheltenham sign up offers are best?
Well, I’d say any half-decent bonus should be easy-to-claim, with no fiddly activation steps required. Equally, worthwhile bonuses ought to deliver more than just one bonus bet, because Cheltenham’s a huge event with a lot of races, right? And finally, the offer’s wagering requirements shouldn’t be over-the-top, either. Here’s five bonuses that fit the bill.
Requirements (WR): | - |
Min. Deposit: | £25 |
Cashable: | Yes |
Min. Odds: | 1/2 |
Requirements (WR): | - |
Min. Deposit: | - |
Cashable: | Yes |
Min. Odds: | 1.5 |
Requirements (WR): | - |
Min. Deposit: | £1 |
Cashable: | No |
Min. Odds: | 1.40 |
Requirements (WR): | - |
Min. Deposit: | £10 |
Cashable: | No |
Min. Odds: | - |
Every year in March, the quaint English spa town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, undergoes something of a transformation. In short, it becomes a horse betting paradise.
If you’re reading my guide here, you probably knew that already, right? But did you know that during the run-up to this four-day racing Festival, you can get your hands on some of the best deals on betting sites year-round?
The “greatest show on turf”, as they call it, features 28 races, and pretty much any bookmaker that offers horse racing among its sports usually unveils a special promotion to celebrate it.
You can expect to see the following kinds of Cheltenham betting sign up offers and bonuses promoted:
Type of bonus | How it works | What to watch out for |
---|---|---|
Free bet offers | With or without a deposit, the bookie will grant you a free bet at Cheltenham – but there will be caveats. | Wagering requirements usually apply and you’ll need to use your free bet within a set time limit, too. |
Matched deposit bonuses | You’ll need to deposit above a qualifying amount, then the bookie will “match” that amount with a percentage bonus. | Wagering and time limitations, again… |
Risk-free bet insurance offers | You’ll need to make a cash bet at Cheltenham first, then the bookie will grant you a free bet token if it goes south. | Yep, it’s time and wagering T&Cs here, too. |
As I said already, some bonuses will be better value than others – which is why you need to compare the market. Or of course, you can rely on yours truly to do that for you.
You came here looking for the hottest Cheltenham sign up offers, and I’m about to deliver. I’ve hunted high and low, compared bookies far and wide, and I’m certain the following brands have the absolute best bonuses right now:
There’s good news and there’s bad news about the latest Bwin sign-up promotion. On the positive front, all players in eligible regions will qualify for an awesome back up bet.
The bad news? At the time of writing, this deal is only applicable for football betting meaning that you won’t be able to use it on all of those horse racing odds, meaning this isn’t, strictly speaking, a Cheltenham sign up offer – although we’re pretty sure that Bwin will have something like this the next time that the event rolls around.
Having said that, Bwin is a great betting brand and certainly shouldn’t be overlooked. I mean, the quality of that bonus alone is hard to match, right? Elsewhere you’ll find a quality horse racing betting service that covers all major races in the UK and Ireland as well as an impressive coverage from all over the world. Bwin also serves up impressive odds for over 30 other sports, and you’ll find that you are given a legal, safe and fair way to play at the UK Gambling Commission licensed bookie.
Betfred is one of many big-name bookies getting in on the Cheltenham hype. Right now, they’re advertising a special welcome bonus where eligible players can land up to £40 in bonus bets – and all you need to do to activate it is drop a small deposit and make a cash bet of £10.
Like all the best bonuses, there are T&Cs in force. For example, you’ll need to make your initial deposit using a debit card rather than an e-wallet, and your free bets must be placed at odds of 2.0 or greater and within seven days of claiming. Aside from that, this is a fairly no-nonsense bonus fronted by one of the best-respected brands in online betting. Great stuff.
Bet365 apparently got the same memo – because their latest bonus is eerily similar to Betfred’s offering. Here, you can claim £30 worth of free bet tokens when joining Bet365 for the first time and betting at least £10 of your own cash up-front.
I’m featuring it on this list of the best sign up offers for Cheltenham because, while it’s not a horse betting bonus specifically, it offers you total freedom to play your free bets on any sport you please - racing included. Later down the line, you can also enjoy odds boosters across more than 20,000 different events with this betting brand, which I think’s just grand.
So, what kinds of Cheltenham sign up offers do these guys have up-for-grabs, then? Well, Unibet has gone for a slightly different approach for Cheltenham this season. Rather than a free bet bonus, they’ve decided to put out a risk-free bet insurance-style offer of the kind I talked a bit about earlier.
Register with Unibet and you’ll qualify for up to £40 back in bonus bets if your initial cash wager misses the mark. The bonus is available to anyone 18+ and based in eligible regions, and the brand offers some incredibly user-friendly Android and iOS apps if you fancy a flutter from your phone.
BetVictor’s latest and greatest bonus bundles together free sports bets and free spins at selected casino games. The first part of their Cheltenham sign up offer is worth up to £40 in free bets on horse racing or any other sport you fancy. The second part will net you 50 free spins on Fishin Christmas Pots, an admittedly rather weird Santa-inspired slot machine.
On the racing front, you’ll need to put down a minimum cash wager of £10 to qualify, and can then play through your £40 free bets on any sports odds of 2.00 or more. There isn’t much else to worry about here, making this no-frills offer ideal for less-experienced bettors, to be fair.
As I keep saying, some bonuses are simply better than others. But how do you spot what’s hot and what’s not? Well, I’d always advise you to keep your eyes peeled for:
This sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many bettors overlook this one. You see, unless you’re dealing with a specialised horse betting bookie, most platforms have insanely broad sport ranges, and their latest bonuses won’t always offer free horse racing bets - they could be casino-only, or restricted solely to rugby, for example.
This sucks, I know, but there’s an easy-enough way around it – any sign up offers around Cheltenham season advertised by reputable brands should have crystal-clear T&Cs just a click away from their ads. So, take some time out to read these before claiming, or simply fall back on me to recommend Cheltenham-friendly bonuses right here on the banners on this page.
Now, all bonuses come with wagering requirements, and many impose time limitations on how long you’ll have to play through your free bets, too, as you might’ve spied earlier in my mini bookmaker reviews.
The same applies to Cheltenham sign up offers – especially any that might be available on a no deposit basis. Generally speaking, if the bonus is “free” or easy to access, wagering requirements are likely to be higher-than-average, and time limits stricter, too. Sometimes, you might even have to play through your free bets the very same day you claim. To avoid unnecessarily restrictive terms, I’d advise looking out for offers that advertise:
Full disclosure: the online betting market goes a bit bonkers around Cheltenham betting season. You’ll see bonuses promoted left, right and centre – so of course, you need to be extra-cautious to ensure you’re only eyeing-up those advertised by trusted bookies.
Naturally, all the betting platforms you’ll see me whittling on about on my site have already been vetted for their trustworthiness, but if you decide to go looking elsewhere, make sure you only pay attention to brands that have:
It’s the season to bet on horses, as we’ve seen with all the great bonuses I’ve been talking about here.
But before you sink your teeth into any of the above, or any other Cheltenham-friendly bonuses you’ve spotted elsewhere, it’s essential to double-check that both the bonus (and the brand offering it) are legit, fair and, of course, worth your while. Oh, and don’t forget that the bonus itself should be easy-to-claim, without too many finicky rules, too. That’s about all, folks.
Bet365 and Unibet are worth a look. Check out my reviews of each here at Betting.co.uk.
Sure, just so long as they’re licensed where you live. Take a look at my series of guides right here at Betting.co.uk for more advice on this subject.
I’d check out Betfred and BetVictor, but in my Cheltenham guide, you can get the lowdown on all of today’s hottest horse betting brands.
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