Given that football is far and away the most popular sport to bet on in the UK, it attracts some of the country’s
best betting bonuses
by association alone. Bookies roll out signature deals to incentivise more bets on the beautiful game, so it’s
always
worth exploring the various football betting offers that become available season after season.
Of course, experienced bettors should be familiar with the different deals available for online football betting. But if you’re dipping your toe in the market for the first time, it’s worth gaining a grasp of the main types of bonuses and how they work. With that in mind, we bring you a comprehensive guide to football betting offers, including a helpful comparison chart and impartial pros and cons.
If you’ve yet to join one of the UK’s
best online bookmakers, you’re well placed to take advantage of some of the web’s most powerful football betting promotions. It’s no secret that
online sports betting sites with the best bonuses
tailor them for new customers, eager as they are to bring more members aboard.
Of course, “welcome offers” is really an umbrella term for the various promotions aimed at encouraging prospective new customers to sign up and stay engaged. You’ll encounter lots of different variations at football betting sites across the UK, with brands constantly looking to one-up each other with the most attractive new offers.
Examples of typical football betting site welcome offers in the UK include:
| Type Of Football Betting Offer | Key Football Betting Details | Football Betting Tips Advantages | Football Betting Tips Disadvantages |
| Matched Deposits | A deposit-match bonus is when a bookmaker matches whatever you pay into your new account, be it £10 or £100.
For example, you might see a football betting site offering a “100% deposit-match bonus up to £1,000”, meaning they’ll match what you pay in up to £1,000 in free bet credit. | Increase your betting power
Choose a deposit to suit
Flexibility in how you use the bonus | Free bet credit will have a wagering requirement |
| Bet & Get Deals | Arguably one of the most popular football betting site sign-up deals in the UK, “bet and get” promotions require you to wager a certain amount to receive a sum of free bet credit in return.
For instance, you might see a bookie offering a “bet £10, get £50 in free bets” promotion. | Get bonus credit to bet with
Flexible ways to use the bonus
Easy bonus terms to understand | Strict conditions to qualify for the free bets |
| Back-Up Football Bets | Another popular type of football betting bonus, back-up bets are exactly what they sound like. Here, you’ll receive a refund if your initial bet loses up to a certain amount, hence the “back-up” element.
Note that your refund is awarded as free bet credit, which must be wagered again before it can be withdrawn (meaning you could still lose). | Bet with confidence
Perfect for beginners
Receive a refund on your initial wager | You can still lose money |
| Free Football Bets | Some bookies like to keep things simple to attract new football bettors on board, and so they offer free bets when you sign up and deposit a certain amount.
This differs slightly from “bet and get” deals in that you’re awarded a fixed free bet, rather than free bet credit to do with what you will. In other words, you’ll need to use the free bet as a single wager, usually on a specific football fixture or market. | Easy to understand
Simple to make use of
Little decision-making required | Strict qualifying criteria |
| No Deposit Welcome Offers | No-deposit promotions may be popular, but they’re not as readily available at football betting sites in the UK as you might think. That’s partly down to the fact that these deals are now heavily regulated, with strict rules governing how and where they can be used.
Still, it is possible to find no-deposit bonuses on football betting sites, and they do carry the benefit of allowing you to try out a bookmaker before committing any cash. | Test a new betting site without making a deposit
Great for experimenting with different wagers
No long-term commitment | Heavily regulated in the UK |
That’s by no means an exhaustive list of the various sportsbook welcome offers you can claim as a British football bettor, but it should give you an idea of the type of deals available. Check out our
online gambling guides
to learn more about sportsbook sign-up bonuses and how they work.
Once you’ve joined a sportsbook and exhausted your welcome bonus, you might think that’s it on the free bet front. But no. Bookies often dish out free football bets to both new
and
returning members, so you’re incentivised to stick around and continue filling out those bet slips.
Football betting free bet promotions often crop up on an ad-hoc basis in the football season or during tournaments. For example, it may be that a bookie is looking to drum up custom ahead of a marquee fixture (like the FA Cup Final), or that it has recently launched a new type of betting feature that makes it easier to
calculate betting odds, and is celebrating by offering free bets to long-standing members.
Whenever and wherever they become available, free bets can typically be used on predefined fixtures only, and at set odds. That’s why it’s important to check the bonus T&Cs carefully, so you know the type of odds you’re looking for.
Free bets: Pros and Cons
- Available to new and existing bettors
- Offered on a regular, ad-hoc basis
- Perfect for placing a bet on specific games
- May have tricky qualifying criteria
Remember us mentioning that football betting sites are eager to retain existing members? Well, “reload” bonuses are among the most effective promotions for ensuring that. These football betting promotions effectively incentivise you to deposit more funds into your account, with free bets when you pay in a predefined sum.
Reload bonuses on football betting sites in the UK tend to take several forms, but most share similarities with the matched deposits described earlier in our guide. For instance, you might find a “50% reload bonus up to £250”, meaning you would receive £125 in free bet credit if you deposited the full £250. These deals tend to have low minimum deposit requirements (typically from £10), so they can be a powerful way to keep your sportsbook account fully stacked.
Note, though, that as with welcome deposit-match deals, any free bet credit you receive will not be withdrawable. Instead, you’ll need to wager it a certain number of times before it becomes eligible to cash out.
Reload bonuses: Pros and Cons
- Boost your bankroll by making a deposit
- Matched deposits and free bets available
- Available on a surprisingly regular basis
- Wagering requirements may apply
You don’t need us to tell you how popular accumulators are in football betting. Most guides listing football
betting tips in the UK
discuss the appeal of accas, with multi-leg wagers and bet builder features being especially popular for football betting.
Bookies recognise that accas have downsides, so, it’s not uncommon to see brands offering “acca insurance” promotions, which are designed to protect your winnings should one of your legs fall at the final hurdle.
There’s nothing more frustrating than when you’re on the cusp of closing out a footie acca, only for a team to score in extra time, effectively ripping up your (until-then) winning multi bet slip. Acca insurance offers are designed to safeguard against such eventualities, so you can build ever-more-ambitious accumulator bets with added confidence.
Acca insurance: Pros and Cons
- Safeguard your accas
- Minimise the impact of a single losing leg
- Refunds available as free bet credit
- Accas carry more risk in general
Odds boosts are a popular type of football betting offer you’ll find at most UK bookmakers. These unique promotions go by several different names, including “enhanced odds” and “price boosts”, but they all work in exactly the same way.
The premise of an odds boost football bonus is simple: a bookmaker “boosts” the odds attached to a specific football betting market, so you get a better return if you win. Here’s an example to show how enhanced odds football promos work in practice…
- Let’s say Leeds United have 2/1 odds of winning their next game against Sunderland in the EPL.
- The bookmaker boosts the odds to 5/1.
- Now, if you win a £10 bet, you would receive £50 in winnings as opposed to £20.
That’s a quick overview of how boosted odds work in football betting. While there’s no guarantee of winning, a well-timed and carefully chosen boosted football bet can significantly enhance your potential returns. By keeping an eye on the latest football betting offers and utilising available football betting bonuses, you can make the most of these promotions.
We recommend combining boosted odds with smart strategies and tools to track the best opportunities for maximising your bets and taking full advantage of football betting offers.
Odds boosts: Pros and Cons
- Higher potential returns
- For new and returning members
- No extra outlay
To keep existing customers happy, some bookies offer cashback deals on football wagers. These football betting offers work by awarding you a portion of your total betting losses back as free bet credit, often at the start of a new week.
Let’s say you wagered £100 on football over a single weekend but failed to win a single bet (ouch). Where there’s a cashback offer in place, you would receive a percentage back of this £100 as free bet credit, which will be added to your account automatically when the current cashback period draws to a close.
So, taking the £100 as an example, let’s say your chosen bookmaker offers 5% cashback on all football betting losses. When Monday rolls around (or any other day when cashback is rewarded), you’ll receive £5 in free bet credit, with the funds added directly to your bankroll ready to be wagered again.
The great thing about cashback deals is that, with certain bookmakers in particular, the percentage of cashback you receive can grow depending on things like your betting activity and loyalty level. So, 5% cashback could become 10% cashback, further softening the blow of any future football betting losses.
Cashback offers: Pros and Cons
- Soften the blow of betting losses
- Mitigates some of the risk
- Enjoy free cash or bet credit
While we’ve provided a full list of
football For UK bettors looking to make the most of their wagers, the key takeaway is simple: always read the fine print before claiming any football betting bonuses. No football betting offer in the UK comes without terms and conditions. Even the best promotions, as recommended by our football experts, include important rules you should know before getting started.
To help you navigate safely, here’s a clear outline of the most common T&Cs we encounter when reviewing football betting offers, so you can claim your bonuses with confidence and avoid any surprises.
If you’re looking to qualify for a “bet and get” promo or many other types of football betting bonuses, you may need to fulfil a minimum odds requirement as part of your qualifying wager. For instance, a bonus may have minimum odds of 2/1, so you would need to find a market that meets this requirement to place your qualifying bet. If you’re struggling to find the right markets, our
UK betting odds comparison
guide may be able to help.
💳 Payment Method Restrictions
We’ve previously outlined the various
UK betting payment options
that you can use to wager on football fixtures, and there’s certainly plenty to choose from. But did you know that when claiming certain football betting bonuses, you may not be able to use your preferred payment methods? Bookies often require you to use specific payment methods to qualify for free bet promotions; in our experience, you might not be able to use the likes of PayPal and similar services, primarily for anti-fraud reasons.
Time is not on your side as a football bettor who’s looking to take advantage of a welcome bonus or comparable deal. Typically, you’ll need to activate a bonus within a set period (say, within 48 hours of creating your account), and then you’ll have a few days to use the bonus and satisfy the wagering requirement, too (often 7 days based on our experience). Make a note of these timeframes in your calendar; otherwise, things could get away from you, and you could wind up missing out on the bonus you spent so long searching for.
The big one. Wagering requirements are attached to the majority of football betting deals, so you need to understand how they work. Essentially, a wagering requirement tells you how much you’ll need to bet to release the winnings attached to a bonus. They’re usually written as a multiplier, e.g., 1x wagering requirement or 10x wagering requirement.
🏦 Keep the Winnings, Not the Stake
This is definitely a T&C worth remembering when accessing free football betting bonuses online. Let’s say you’re looking to claim a “bet £10, get £40” football betting bonus; once you’ve fulfilled the wagering requirement, you’ll only be able to bank the winnings made from the bonus part, not the £40 free bets. This is true of most football betting offers we’ve encountered in the UK, so it’s worth bearing in mind.
While Betting.co.uk is jam-packed with top sports betting sites that we’re happy to vouch for, the following two brands are killing it with their current football betting promotions.
You’ll find key details about their latest football betting deals in the banners around this page, but in the meantime, let us introduce you to the various offers they have available.
BetMGM - Bet & Wager £10 To Get £40
BetMGM UK: Pros & Cons
- Wide range of casino games
- Great collection of live casino games
- Great selection of sporting events
- Comprehensive sports betting markets
- Mobile app available
- Small selection of payment methods
BetMGM
have arrived on the UK scene in the past couple of years and have already made quite an impression as one of the best sites for casino games. Under the same ownership as LeoVegas, this giant US gaming brand have certainly gone the extra mile when it comes to establishing themselves as one of the best online casino's UK in a short space of time.
There is a casino section at BetMGM with some quality welcome offers and bonus deals. However, this is all about sport and football in particular. The BetMGM welcome offer of Bet £10 & Get £40 is very popular.
New customer will need to deposit and wager £10 on any sports market. Once that qualifying bet has been settled, 4 x £10 free bets will be credited into the punter's betting account.
The free bets will be distributed as follows: 2 x £10 free bet builder bets, 1 x £10 free bet on football and 1 x £10 free bet on horse racing.
Kwiff - £30 In Free Bets When You Bet £10
Kwiff UK: Pros and Cons
- Excellent mobile betting app
- Generous welcome bonus options
- Great live betting features
- Limited payment method choices
Kwiff seems to have been around for longer than they have. Maybe that is because they offer quality welcome deals and are a very trustworthy casino and sports betting site.
The online sports offer at Kwiff will see new customers get £30 in free bets once they have deposited and wagered £10. The free bets will be distributed as three separate bets. The first one will be a £10 free bet on football, 1 x £10 free bet on racing and 1 x £10 on a sports acca with a minimum of four selections.
You can make deposits using the available debit card options. The options include MasterCard and Visa. We were surprised that Kwiff did not have a lot of e-wallet options, although that has improved slightly in recent months. Trustly is one of the e-wallet options available, along with PayPal, Payz and AstroPay.
Dabble - £10 In Free Bets No Deposit Required
Dabble: Pros & Cons
- Unique social features with Copy Bet and Banter
- Bet £10 to receive £10 in Free Bets For new bettors
- Fast app with a great layout
- Regular boosts and promos for existing users
- No desktop betting available
Dabble
are going large when it comes to online sports betting, and their welcome bonus is evidence of that. A lot of UK online bookmakers like to go big with their bonus deals, but Dabble are offering a very rare type of offer.
No deposit bonus offers are quite rare in the UK, with only a handful of betting sites offering them. So for Dabble to use a no deposit deal as their actual welcome offer, this shows they mean business.
New customers are encouraged to sign and register a new account to receive £10 in free bets without making a deposit. A sports bet with odds greater than 1/2 needs to be placed inside seven days of registering, and the £10 free bet will be placed into your account. When it comes to placing bets, Dabble is really only a mobile app. It has a website on your desktop but it directs you to download the Dabble mobile app.
With football betting odds, the app will display a wide range of markets for the matches being played each day.
We’ve covered enough information to cover a football pitch as part of our in-depth guide to football betting promotions, so we hope it’s proven useful. The great thing is that, since football is such a popular sport to bet on in the UK, you’re guaranteed a rolling line-up of ever-changing deals and promotions, regardless of the bookmaker you ultimately choose to bet with.
While welcome bonuses are obviously the strongest football betting deals to watch out for in the UK, cashback, free bets, and odds boosts for returning users are also super valuable. Just make sure to read the T&CS of any bonus you’re hoping to claim carefully, as things like wagering requirements could trip you up faster than a well-timed tackle. Take a look at what football betting offers are available this weekend with our
Premier League football offers and deals page.
That’s a wrap on our guide to football betting offers for now. Be sure to check out the banners around this page for more of our recommended football betting bonuses. Alternatively, if you’re looking for more from Betting.co.uk – including our comprehensive guide to the
best online casinos in the UK
– use the nav bar above to continue exploring.
You can definitely take advantage of football betting offers, as most of the UK’s licensed sportsbooks provide free football bets. These football betting deals are popular among punters looking to claim exciting football betting bonuses on their favourite teams.
Not necessarily. The availability of football betting offers depends on the specific deal and the bookmaker promoting it. When available, we always include promo codes alongside our featured football betting bonuses to help you make the most of these football betting deals.
It’s a tough choice, as there are plenty of football betting offers available. At the moment, we recommend Betano and Betfred for their football-specific promotions, competitive football betting bonuses, and wide range of football betting deals across various markets.
