Looking for the best bonus betting sites in the UK? With Betting.com, you will find a list of the betting companies we rank highest for bonuses. Compare the best bonuses here and get a good start with your betting journey.
Top 5 Bonus Betting Sites for the UK
I have looked at a range of online bookmakers in the UK and have analysed their best sports betting bonuses, looking at the amount on offer, payment methods available and conditions such as wagering requirements or minimum stakes. I looked into the most popular betting bonus and the latest betting bonus to be made available and then looked at the overall performance of the betting site. From this I have compiled a list of the five best bonus betting sites in the UK.
- Excellent bet builder
- Great coverage of football and rugby league
- Cash out available
Betfred have an excellent welcome bonus and a great selection of offers for existing customers. One of its best offers is Acca Insurance, where you can receive your stake back as cash if your accumulator of five or more legs is let down by just one selection. Another interesting offer is the double delight and hat-trick heaven, with the odds of your winning first goalscorer selections doubled and tripled if they go on to score twice or hit a hat-trick. Applies to pre-match fivefold+ football accumulators placed on selected markets in selected leagues. Applies to selected matches. Minimum odds per leg of 1/2. Cash refund paid within 24 hours, maximum £10. Does not apply to cashed-out or in-play bets.
- Best Odds for EPL
- Best Odds for UCL
- Great football and horse racing coverage, including daily specials
- A clean, professional website design and layout
- Multiple methods of customer support
BetUK provide a generous welcome bonus. Upon registration the site gives new customers a £30 bonus when they bet an initial £10. They are one of the best around for existing customer offers. They offer weekly ACCA boosts and always offer special promos ahead of events such as the Cheltenham Festival. There are also daily boosted odds on a range of sports, including a horse racing selection each day as well as a best odds guaranteed. T&Cs apply. New customers, Deposit & Place a Bet within 7 days, and settle a £10 minimum bet at odds of 4/5 (1.8) or greater, to be credited with 3x £10 free bets: 1 x £10 Horse racing, 1 x £10 Free Bet Builder and 1 x £10 Football. Stake not returned. Opt-in required. 7-day expiry. 18+ BeGambleAware.org.
- Trustworthy, secure and reputable bookmaker
- Good range of sports and markets covered
- Consistent and competitive odds
Coral offer new punters a good return on a low stake. The free bet comes as a single £20 bet, which for a low stakeis a good return. Coral has its Acca+ offer alongside their free-to-play football game where you must guess correctly four games of Coral’s choice.There is also a free to play racing game, where you have to try to predict a horse that will place in each of a seven race programme. In terms of free bets, it offers any punters who place three £5 in-play singles a £5 free bet. It also has all the standard existing customer offers in terms of extra-places and Best Odds Guaranteed. 18+. UK&IRE online only. Three in-play singles of £5+ qualifies for 1 x £5 in-play free bet, not valid on cash-out. Free bet credited upon placement of final qualifying bet, valid seven days. Offer valid once per day between 00.01 and 23.59. Restrictions may apply.
Unibet’s sign-up offer is a little different, rather than a set deposit amount triggering a free bet, they offer up to £40 back if your first sports bet loses, meaning that you have an almost risk-free bet. There are, however, wagering requirements. Unibet have an in-play bet club, offering customers the chance to receive a weekly £10 free bet. To qualify for this reward, participants must place a minimum of five bets, each valued at £10 or higher, on in-play bets with odds of evens or greater. The bookie offers free-to-play games, including the Champions League quiz. 18+ Full T&Cs apply. #BeGambleAware
| Top 5 Welcome Bonus Betting Sites for the UK: Did you know? |
| Coral’s Racing Super Series is a free to enter prediction game where you can win a share of £25,000 |
What is a betting bonus?
Many sports betting sites offer betting bonuses to attract players. Betting Bonuses allow customers to place wagers and win real money using the bonus rather than their own cash. They can also boost prices or give the punter the chance to play games which can be rewarded with real money. Betting bonuses can come in different forms such as risk-free games, free bets or boosted odds.
Are betting bonuses worth it?
Before choosing to receive a betting bonus, we recommend that you check the terms and conditions. Ask yourself if it is really worth receiving the bonus? The wagering requirement on the bonus can vary a lot.
We only select safe bonuses from betting sites with a UK licence
Here at Betting.com, we only work with betting sites that hold a licence from the UK Gambling Commission. This means that all of the betting sites featured on Betting.com are monitored and regulated and can therefore are a safe and secure place to play.
The most popular betting bonuses in the UK
The vast majority of UK betting sites will offer a welcome bonus linked to you making a deposit and/or your first wager. There are also a number of other popular bonuses, offers and promotions which can see punters rewarded with incentives such as free bets and boosted odds.
Welcome bonus
One of the main areas of free bets offered by online betting sites is their welcome bonus offers, also known as the new customer offer or sign-up offer.
New customer betting bonuses are one-time deals. They are a promotional tool that sportsbooks use to attract customers. They do, however, give real incentives that punters can put to use.
These new customer offers will vary – bet365, for example, offers a ‘Bet £10 Get £30’ deal, while Coral’s sign-up offer is a ‘Bet £5 Get £20’ offer credited as four smaller free bets.
The typical format involves a qualifying deposit, then a first qualifying stake on a sports bet which releases the free bet bonus. After that, most, but not all, are generally credited without any play-through requirements.
Many welcome offers in the UK are matched bet offers. You place a qualifying bet, and in return, a free bet credit to the value of your stake is received. Commonly for these types of free bet sign-ups, there won’t be a requirement of the initial bet winning.
Another type of welcome bonus is A Money Back Special, which gives a direct stake refund as a free bet or cash if a bet covered by such a promotion loses. On the downside, you don’t get any form of bonus if the qualifying bet settles as a win.
Check out our best welcome bonus page.
Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG)
Best odds guaranteed is one of the stronger promotions that UK sportsbooks offer customers.
They take your bet on a horse or greyhound and if the starting price (SP) is bigger than when you placed the bet, they will pay you out at the larger odds if it wins.
Most online bookmakers have this offer available all year round.
Free bets for existing customers
Free bets are where a bookmaker will give customers a certain amount of money to bet with. These are usually on new customer offers, but are also given to existing customers. The free bets are usually £5 or £10 and they’ll have the same rules as the normal free bets you get, in that you need to use them within a certain time frame, they are excluded from cash-out and they do not form part of the winnings.
Ladbrokes have recently given out £1 free bets to all existing customers ahead of a big weekend of sports. Customers could simply log in to their accounts and claim the free bet bonus. Another variation of a free betting offer is getting rewarded for placing a particular bet. An example is to place a ‘Top Run Scorer Bet & Get A Free Bet’ when betting on cricket.
Enhanced odds
On of the most common existing customer offers is enhanced odds, also known as boosted odds and odds boosts. If the odds for a favourite are short, bookies may boost them to encourage more punters to wager on the event.
While these are a common or the biggest bookmakers, William Hill and bet365 are two of the best. William Hill offer enhanced odds on football, horse racing and accumulators as well as regular “epic odds”, which have recently been evens on likely events such as England scoring against Italy. Bet365 also regularly offer boosted odds.
Free-to-play games
Some bookmakers have some great options for customers such as free-to-play games. These are really good for punters as there’s no reason to deposit or place any money on a bet to play them and they can have some really big prizes. Coral and Ladbrokes both have football predictor games where you can win free bets and, in some cases, real cash. Coral also have their Racing Super Series where you have to pick a horse to finish in the top three in seven races, usually all from the same meeting on a Saturday. It is free to enter and you can win real money.
Money-back specials
Bookies will often look to money-back specials for big events as is often evident during the biggest sporting events , especially with horse racing and football.
It could be as simple as a bookmaker offering customers the opportunity to bet on a specific race or something to happen in a football match and then giving them their money back if it doesn’t happen.
Acca Boosts and Insurance
Accumulator offers come primarily in formats – a boost or one-leg insurance. The boost is based on a win bonus for a winning bet. For example, bet365’s Soccer Accumulator bonus pays out up to a 70% win bonus on a successful acca. The amount of the win bonus will be linked to how many legs are in your successful acca.
Acca Insurance applies to accas that fall short by one leg. Meet the qualifying requirements of an acca, and if it is let down by one leg only, you will get your stake back. For example Betfred’s Acca Insurance, where they will refund in cash an acca of at least five legs that lose by one leg.
Loyalty Bonuses (for existing customers)
Among other betting offers that bookmakers give is the Loyalty Bonus. These are situations where the bookmaker credits you a free bet bonus for placing a qualifying bet over a set promotional period.
Several bookies have an acca club or a free bet club which gives rewards for wagers placed during a particular qualifying period.
Refer a friend bonus
Some bookmakers will have a bonus for referring a friend. You can get free bets or real cash once a friend that you recommend signs up and makes a certain amount of wagers. Unibet and SpreadEx are two of the UK bookies to offer this.
What to look for when choosing a betting bonus?
It is important to point out that not all bonuses are good and that some have excessively high wagering requirements. Another thing that might be worth checking is whether a bonus is available if you choose a specific payment method. Hopefully you will be able to see which bonuses fit with your betting habits the best so you can get the most from them.
Always read terms and conditions
Don’t forget to read the terms and conditions of the bonus. How many times must the bonus be converted and at what odds? Reading terms and conditions is a vital part of using all areas of a betting site.
What are wagering requirements?
A majority of betting bonuses are subject to a wagering requirement. A wagering requirement is a condition that comes with several bonuses you find online. It describes how much money you need to bet on the betting site before you can withdraw any winnings from your betting bonus.
Minimum and maximum bet
What is the maximum and minimum amount you must bet or deposit to receive the bonus? Often a minimum or maximum amount is specified for the bonus.
What is the validity period of the bonus?
Betting bonuses will usually have a validity period. If you do not have time to use or convert the bonus within the specified time, you will lose it.
Deposit Method Restrictions
Some payment methods are not covered by bonuses. Skrill is an option that rarely gives a betting bonus.
How do the turnover requirements work?
A wagering/turnover requirement is the number of times that a customer must play through the sum of deposit made and issued bonus, to be able to withdraw the winnings. The wagering requirements may differ depending on the offer and should be checked before participating in a promotion.
If a betting site has a wagering requirement of 6 times (bonus and deposit) at odds of 1/2 or higher, this means that you must wager a bonus of £10 , as follows: 6 x (10 + 10) = £120. If only the bonus is to be converted, the formula is: 6 x 10 = £60.
Betting bonuses – Important things to consider
Here are some things you should consider before accepting a betting bonus:
- Check terms and conditions for the bonus
- Compare different bonuses
- Consider whether it is worth receiving a bonus
- Always play on a betting site with a UK licence
Remember to play responsibly. Never play for more money than you have. Set a weekly/monthly budget to keep track of your gambling.
Check out the best betting sites in the UK at Betting.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
A welcome bonus is an additional bonus awarded to players when they register with a betting site. Welcome bonuses are ultimately only positive for players, but always be sure to read the bonus's Terms and Conditions to understand what applies before a withdrawal can be made with the bonus money.
It is very simple. The betting sites want players to be attracted to them, and use their services and place bets with them. A welcome bonus is a way to attract new customers to register with the betting company.
Obviously it depends on the offer but usually the answer is no and you can use an existing customer offer on a daily or a weekly basis.
This is an aspect of betting worth looking out for as many existing customer offers require you to opt in when on the site to unlock their existing customer offers. Most bookmakers will prompt you to opt in to this so that you don’t forget and won’t miss out on qualifying for your free bet.
Chris is a former athlete and a qualified PE teacher. He is a keen football fan, watching many matches at different levels throughout the season, and enjoys following many different sports. With betting and sports sites, he has a keen eye for detail and can to highlight positives and negatives for users. His experience in sport as a performer, teacher, writer and fan allows him to see things from many different perspectives.
