New customer free bets in Great Britain for 2026: the cost behind the headline

Updated October 2026

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The current data is as of 27 October 2026, and the licence and offer claims were checked against the Gambling Commission’s public register. A free bet is a credit the bookmaker issues instead of cash. It looks like a gift; on most British sign-up offers the gift runs out within seven days, the stake does not come back with a win, and the bookmaker keeps its margin on every market the free bet can be used on. The rest of this page is what follows from that: which rules the Gambling Commission now enforces, what the offer really costs the punter who claims it, and which of the ten licensed bookmakers in the comparison below make that cost easier to read and which make it harder.

The rules the Gambling Commission now enforces on every sign-up offer

The Commission licenses the whole commercial market under the Gambling Act 2005, which covers England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland runs on a separate older law, so a “GB licence” regulates Great Britain and Northern Ireland only by extension when its operator happens to take bets there; in writing, a British licence is a British one. Since the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014 any operator whose remote facilities are used in Great Britain needs a Commission licence wherever it is based. A Curaçao, Maltese or Gibraltar licence is not a substitute at the point of consumption, and an unlicensed site in Britain commits an offence under section 33 of the 2005 Act, which is aimed at the operator. The reader who lands on an unlicensed site does not commit a criminal offence by betting there; what they lose is the consumer frame: no GAMSTOP, no approved dispute-resolution route, no British redress if funds are withheld, and no protection from the bonus cap and the vulnerability check covered below. The Commission lists every licensed brand on a public register, searchable by business name, trading name, domain or account number; that register is the whole test of whether a brand is licensed, and the ten bookmakers reviewed further down are holders of a remote general betting standard licence for real events.

Two pieces of new law changed what a sign-up offer can do in Britain. From 19 January 2026, the Commission’s promotion rules cap wagering requirements on bonuses at ten times. A £10 bonus that used to demand £500 of qualifying bets at 50x now demands no more than £100. Mixed-product promotions, that is, an offer that asks the customer to gamble on two or more product types in one go, for example “bet on football to get free spins”, are banned outright. Whether the cap applies to free bets that carry no wagering condition is not established; the safer reading for a punter is that a free bet whose only condition is expiry and minimum odds sits outside the cap, while a free bet bundled with a casino credit or a loyalty requirement almost certainly does not. From the same date the Commission’s LCCP requires the marketing itself to be socially responsible, not aimed at under-18s, and never to put someone who is or seems to be under 25 at the centre of the message. The whistle-to-whistle television ban, a five-minute window before and after live sport before 9pm, is an industry code, not law, and racing is exempt.

Two other rules shape the experience of opening an account. A customer cannot deposit, gamble or claim a free bet until name, address and date of birth have been verified; that has been the case since 7 May 2019, and it is the reason licensed sites ask for documents before a welcome offer is credited. From 30 August 2024, a financial vulnerability check fires once deposits minus withdrawals cross £150 in a rolling 30 days; it is a public-record check (bankruptcy and county court judgments, for example), not an income or credit-reference check, and is run by the operator. A heavier check, the financial risk assessment that the press calls an affordability check, has been announced in a staged plan and carries no start date, so it is not yet live. The operator’s own safer-gambling tools — deposit limits, loss limits, time-outs, GAMSTOP self-exclusion — sit alongside these.

No statutory cap on stakes in sports betting exists. Operators set their own maximum stakes and may restrict a customer, and a bookmaker can refuse to take a bet at any price. The duty on betting winnings in Britain is zero; General Betting Duty is the operator’s tax on gross profits and stands at 15% until 1 April 2027, when a new 25% rate begins for remote betting, with remote bets on British horse racing and the channels in betting shops staying at 15%. Whether operators pass duty on through tighter odds is not established, and it is wrong to say the player is charged duty.

Responsible gambling, written as a part of the offer, not a footnote

A sign-up offer and a self-exclusion register are the same decision two years later if the offer is taken in the wrong frame. Every bookmaker named below is a GAMSTOP member, and GAMSTOP is the national multi-operator online self-exclusion scheme that the Commission makes mandatory for online operators. The minimum exclusion is six months, and the longer periods are one year, five years, or five years with auto-renewal; after the minimum period the exclusion stays in place for a further seven years unless the customer asks GAMSTOP to remove it. GAMSTOP covers sites and apps, and a separate service handles betting shops. The other tools the Commission expects every operator to offer are deposit limits on a fixed time frame, loss limits, time-outs, reality checks, and access to the help lines listed below. Some of these are compulsory and some are operator-set, but the operator’s own terms page is the place to find what is on offer in practice.

Help is one search away. GamCare runs the National Gambling Helpline. GambleAware funds treatment and information. The NHS runs specialist gambling clinics, and Gamblers Anonymous runs meetings across the country. These are the routes that exist independently of the operator, and the value of using a GB-licensed bookmaker is partly that these routes are wired into the experience: deposit limits, time-outs and GAMSTOP are all reachable from inside the account. The reader who wants none of that, and would rather a bet be a bet, can read on knowing that the cost below already accounts for it.

What a free bet is worth in money, not in marketing

A free bet is a token, not a cash credit, and the distinction is what the marketing tends to blur. Three conditions almost always apply, and each one changes the value.

The first is whether the stake is returned with a win. On the Sky Bet welcome offer the free bet is non-withdrawable and the stake does not come back; the same holds for the Dabble and the 10bet sign-up credits, and for the Spreadex fixed-odds free bets. Where the stake is returned, the bet is a stake-back offer and is closer to cash; where it is not, the bet is a stake-not-returned offer, and the value to the punter is the profit only, on a stake that is gone the moment the bet is placed. The Sky Bet tokens, for example, are issued as three £10 free bets after a £5 deposit and a 5p first bet at odds of 1/1 or greater, and a winning free bet pays the profit on top of a stake that the bookmaker never returns.

The second is the minimum odds. A free bet usable only at 1/2 (1.50) or higher is a different product from one usable at 1/5 (1.20) or higher, and a bookmaker’s choice of minimum is a choice of which markets the bet is allowed to land on. BoyleSports’ Acca Insurance requires a minimum stake of £5 at minimum odds of 1/2, and the free bet refund expires in seven days. Unibet’s welcome offer demands a deposit and a first sports bet of £20 or more at minimum odds of 2.0 (1/1) before the £40 in free bets credits. QuinnBet’s free bets are usable on any market at 1/2 (1.5) or greater, with maximum odds of 50/1.

The third is the expiry. Seven days is the rule rather than the exception. Sky Bet’s free bets run for thirty days, which is generous; the Unibet, Coral, BetUK and Spreadex offers run for seven. A free bet that expires before the weekend it was meant for is the commonest way an offer becomes worthless: the punter runs out of events, the bookmaker’s minimum-odds condition narrows the list further, and the token is removed from the account with the winnings on it forfeited.

The fourth is the wagering condition, where one exists. Betway’s free bets carry 1x wagering at odds of 1.75 or higher, which means the stake-equivalent in free bets has to be turned over once before the winnings can be withdrawn. The Commission’s 10x cap on bonus wagering does not bite on a 1x requirement. The bigger bite is on offers that ask the punter to turn a bonus over ten times, because the wagering volume forces bets into thinner markets where the bookmaker’s margin is wider. The expected cost of clearing a bonus scales with that margin, and the section on cost covers the arithmetic.

The fifth is the qualifying bet. A bookmaker that asks for a £20 first bet at 1/1 is screening for the kind of punter who plans to bet anyway; one that asks for a £20 bet at minimum odds of 2.0 is asking for the same. The Dabble “Bet £10, Get £10 in Free Bets” structure is the same screening, and the £5 deposit and 5p bet on Sky Bet is the lightest of the bunch. Sporting Index’s offer is the most complex of the ten: a £10 fixed-odds bet at minimum odds of 1/2 unlocks three £10 fixed-odds free bets, three £5 Total Goals spread bets, three £5 Winning Favourites spread bets and a £1 Race Index spread bet, with the qualifying bet not placeable in play and not cashable out. The wider the unlock, the more the punter should be sure they want all of it.

The sixth is the market restriction. Sky Bet free bets are usable only on single or each-way markets, not on multiples and not on virtuals. BetUK’s four £10 free bets are pre-allocated: two football accumulators of 4+ selections and two multiples of 2+, valid for seven days. QuinnBet allows straight accumulators but excludes Trixies, Patents and Yankees. The bookmaker is telling the punter where the bet can land, and the punter who wants to back a six-fold acca with a free bet is reading the wrong page.

The last is the stake-not-returned arithmetic, which is the single most-misread number on the page. A £10 free bet at 1/1 (2.0 decimal) that wins pays £10 in profit, not £20. The bet is worth the profit, and the expected value of a single free bet at fair odds is the stake times the decimal odds minus one, divided by the decimal odds, and the market’s payout share. On a two-way market at 1.90/1.90, the payout share is one over one-ninetieth plus one-ninetieth, which is one over roughly 1.0526, which is 0.95, or 95%. The free bet is worth £10 multiplied by 0.9, the decimal odds minus one, divided by 1.9, then multiplied by 0.95. That works out at about £4.50 on average, which is the cost in expected profit of a fair coin flip on a free bet. The same free bet at 2/1 (3.0 decimal) is worth about £4.74. The same free bet at 5/1 (6.0 decimal) is worth about £6.33. The headline number on the offer is the value at the start; the realised value depends on the market the punter picks.

Payments, payout speed and the rule that bans the credit card

The Commission has banned credit cards for gambling in Great Britain since 14 April 2020, and the ban extends to credit-card-funded payments through an e-wallet, so a deposit funded by a credit-card top-up to a PayPal-style wallet is not a way around it. The ban is in LCCP condition 6.1.2, and it covers all licensed remote and non-remote operators. Debit cards, bank transfers and instant bank transfer schemes are not covered by the ban, and the result is that every sign-up offer in the comparison is funded by one of those, with a bookmaker-by-bookmaker variation in the rest of the cashier. LiveScore Bet, for example, takes debit cards from Visa and Mastercard, plus Apple Pay, PayPal, Pay by Bank through Open Banking and Revolut Pay; Coral lists Apple Pay, Visa, Visa Electron, Mastercard, Revolut Pay, Google Pay, TrueLayer, Earthport and Trustly. The two are not the whole market, and the punter who relies on a particular e-wallet should check the operator’s own payments page before opening the account.

Payout speed is set by the operator and by the payment method, and the Commission has not set a universal minimum. Withdrawals back to a debit card typically clear inside one working day once the operator has approved them; withdrawals to a bank transfer via Open Banking can clear in minutes; withdrawals to an e-wallet can be near-instant on the operator’s side but depend on the wallet’s own rules. The identity check that runs before the first deposit is the same check that runs before the first withdrawal, and a punter who opens an account with one set of documents and then changes bank details can expect a further check, and a further wait, on the first withdrawal. Source-of-funds questions at higher spend are normal under the anti-money-laundering rules and are not a sign that anything is wrong.

The credit-card ban is the rule the offer itself depends on. A sign-up offer funded by a credit card is one the bookmaker cannot legally honour, and the punters who try it find the deposit reversed and the offer not credited. The same is true of an offer credited to an account that is later flagged for source-of-funds issues; the offer is removed, the free bets are voided, and the deposited stake is returned. The punter who reads the small print of the welcome offer finds the bank and the card that funded the qualifying bet named in the eligibility list, and the punter who does not is the one whose account is closed before the free bet is used.

The strategic question a free bet is asking of the punter

A free bet is a token the punter spends on a market that is, in expectation, slightly worse than 100% because the bookmaker’s margin sits inside every price. The strategic question is which market to spend it on, and three rules of thumb are worth writing down. The first is that the closer the price to 1/1 (2.0), the more the free bet is worth on a two-way market; the further the price drifts, the more the value rises, but the punter is now placing a bet on a longer-odds outcome. The second is that the bet belongs on a market where the punter’s own estimate of the probability is at least as confident as the market’s; the margin is a tax, and the way to outrun a tax is to be right more often than the bookmaker thinks. The third is that the bet should not be split across two markets; a £10 free bet at 1/1 spent on one event is worth a touch more than two £5 free bets at the same price, because the bookmaker’s margin is applied once and not twice.

These are not predictions, and a prediction of who wins is the one thing a betting guide cannot honestly give. A reader who treats any of the rules above as a way to win the bet is reading a marketing page; a reader who treats them as a way to spend a token they were going to spend anyway is reading a cost analysis. The difference between those two readings is the difference between a free bet that is worth its face value and one that is worth the £4.50 the maths gives it.

Where the free bet can and cannot be spent: sports and tournaments

Every bookmaker in the comparison takes bets on football and horse racing; most take bets on tennis, cricket, golf, rugby, darts, snooker, US sports and motor sport; some, like Spreadex and Sporting Index, take spread bets on indices that look nothing like a sporting event at all. The free bet is a separate question, and what the free bet can be spent on is set by the offer’s small print. Sky Bet free bets are usable on single or each-way markets, not multiples, and not virtuals; BetUK’s are pre-allocated to football accumulators and multiples; QuinnBet allows straight accumulators but not combination bets like Trixies, Patents and Yankees.

Football is the deepest market on every British bookmaker, and the Premier League, Champions League and the European Championship sit alongside the domestic cups as the four pillars. Horse racing sits on a separate licensing and duty track, and Best Odds Guaranteed is the rule of thumb: a punter who backs a horse at 6/1 and the starting price returns 10/1 collects at 10/1, and the bookmaker eats the difference. The Premier League has voluntarily withdrawn gambling sponsorship from the front of matchday shirts from 2026/27, with sleeves and hoardings still permitted; that is a club decision, not a law, and the rule a punter sees is unchanged.

The bookmakers that run betting exchanges, principally Betfair, take bets on a back-and-lay model in which the punter can both back and lay outcomes, and the backer’s stake is held by the exchange rather than by the bookmaker. Spread betting is a different product, run by Spreadex and Sporting Index in this comparison, in which the stake is multiplied by the difference between a quoted spread and the realised outcome; losses can exceed the deposit, and the FCA regulates financial spread betting while the Commission regulates fixed-odds and non-financial spread betting. The two are run on different licences, with different complaints routes, and a reader who confuses the two is the reader the small print is written for.

How the ten licensed bookmakers in the comparison compare

The table below sets the licence beside the welcome offer’s headline terms, the way a reader can check the licence on the Commission’s register, and the kind of punter the offer suits. Every operator in the table is a holder of a remote general betting standard licence for real events in Great Britain. Several brands can run under one licensee, and the table keeps the brand on top so the punter can find it in the register; Coral, for example, is operated by LC International Limited, the same licensee that runs Ladbrokes, and the table keeps the brand on top because that is the name on the welcome offer. Where a figure is not in the operator’s own terms, the cell is left blank rather than guessed; the punter who needs the number finds it on the operator’s terms page.

The spread above is wider than a casual reading of the welcome banners suggests. The Sky Bet offer is the lightest in qualifying-bet terms but the most restrictive in market terms, and a punter who backs multiples is on the wrong side of the small print. The Unibet offer is the most generous by total token value, but the £20 qualifying bet and the 2.0 minimum odds narrow the field. The 10bet offer is the only one in the table that pays a cash bonus rather than a free bet token, and the cash bonus is the form the Commission’s 10x wagering cap bites on; the punter who accepts a 100% cash bonus is taking on turnover, and the section on cost covers the arithmetic. Betfair is the only bookmaker in the table that runs an exchange alongside its sportsbook, and a punter comparing the back-and-lay model with the fixed-odds book needs a different mental model. Sporting Index and Spreadex are the two spread-betting brands, and the punter who picks one of them on the strength of the welcome offer is taking on a product where losses can exceed the deposit.

Sky Bet — the lightest qualifying bet, the most restricted token

Sky Bet is operated by SBG Sports Limited, holder of Gambling Commission remote licence 067370-R-341330-005. The welcome offer is £30 in free bets, issued as three £10 tokens after a £5 deposit and a first single or each-way bet of at least 5p at odds of 1/1 or greater. The 5p bet is the lowest qualifying-bet amount of any of the ten offers, and a punter who wants the welcome offer and has no intention of betting anyway can claim the tokens at minimum cost. The tokens are non-withdrawable, the stake is not returned, and they expire thirty days after crediting, which is the longest in the table. The restriction that matters is the market one: the tokens are usable only on single or each-way markets, not multiples and not virtuals, and the punter who wants to spend them on a five-fold acca is reading the wrong offer.

The Sky Bet product range runs through the parent company, and the same wallet carries casino, bingo and pools; a punter who uses Sky Bet’s casino is using a different licence category, and the welcome offer’s eligibility list excludes casino play. The bookmaker is a long-standing Commission holder and a member of GAMSTOP, and the safer-gambling tools are wired into the account. For a punter who prefers singles and each-way bets and has thirty days to use three £10 tokens, this offer is a straightforward choice. If your betting style involves multiples or short-priced favourites, these tokens are not the right fit, and an alternative offer from the table may be more appropriate.

Copybet — the acca specialist with a daily boost on top

Copybet is operated by Copybet UK Limited, holder of Gambling Commission remote licence 053774-R-330743-010. The brand’s headline feature is its Acca Booster, which pays up to 100% in cash on accumulators of three or more selections, and a Daily Profit Boost of up to 15%. The welcome offer is not the headline; the long-running product is. A punter who backs accumulators and is happy to take a cash bonus on the win, rather than a free bet, is the punter Copybet is built for, and the cash bonus is the form of offer on which the Commission’s 10x cap on wagering bites.

The punter who reads the small print of the Acca Booster finds the cap on the boost and the minimum-leg requirement, and the punter who reads the Daily Profit Boost finds the cap on that as well. Copybet runs the betting intermediary licence for its exchange, and the same brand covers both products. The verdict for an acca punter is that the boost structure is the reason to be on the platform, and the welcome offer is the entry ticket. The verdict for a single-bet punter is that the boost structure is wasted on them, and the welcome offer alone is the reason to look elsewhere.

Betfair — the exchange and the sportsbook in one wallet

Betfair is operated by PPB Counterparty Services Limited, holder of Gambling Commission remote licence 039439-R-319330-013. The brand runs both a sportsbook and a betting exchange, and the punter who opens a Betfair account gets both. The sportsbook side offers in-play betting, Bet Builder, free live streaming of UK and Irish horse racing and football in the app, and a 90 Minute Payout market that settles a football bet as a winner if the backed team goes two goals up. The exchange side offers back and lay on the same events, with the punter’s stake held by the exchange rather than by the bookmaker.

The welcome offer on the sportsbook is operator-set and not given in the table; the punter who wants the headline number finds it on the brand’s homepage. The exchange commission is set by Betfair and is lower for active users; the punter who lays bets to scalp the bookmaker’s offer is reading a different page. The verdict for a punter who wants both products in one wallet is that Betfair is the only one of the ten that offers the combination, and the convenience is the reason to take the offer. The verdict for a punter who wants only the sportsbook is that another brand in the table has a more generous welcome offer.

Geoff Banks — the small-field book with ante-post depth

Geoff Banks is operated by GB Sports Advisors Limited, holder of Gambling Commission remote licence 054095-R-330366-010. The app is published by GB Sports Advisors Ltd and offers live in-play prices and ante-post prices on future events. The brand is a smaller operator than most of the table, and the welcome offer is operator-set. The punter who follows horse racing and greyhound racing ante-post markets, where the price is set months ahead of the event and the bookmaker’s margin is wider, is the punter Geoff Banks is built for, and the depth on the ante-post board is the reason to take the offer.

The small-field nature of the brand is the trade-off. A punter who wants the deepest in-play football book and the most aggressive welcome offer is reading the wrong row of the table. The verdict for an ante-post punter is that the offer is worth claiming and the book is worth opening; the verdict for an in-play football punter is that the offer is the only reason to be here.

Unibet — the long-running brand with a £40 headline

Unibet is operated by Platinum Gaming Limited, Gibraltar, holder of Gambling Commission remote licence 045322-R-324275-019. The brand has traded since 1999, and the welcome offer is “Get £40 in Free Bets when you bet £20”: a deposit and a sports bet of £20 or more at minimum odds of 2.0 (1/1), with the free bets issued for new GB customers using a debit card or instant bank transfer, expiring within seven days of issue. The £40 headline is the joint-highest in the table, and the £20 qualifying bet is at the higher end.

The product range runs through Unibet TV, in-play betting, Bet Builder, daily Uniboosts, Best Odds Guaranteed on horse racing and Cash Out on thousands of markets. The punter who values a long-running Commission holder and a deep in-play book with cash-out availability is the punter Unibet is built for, and the welcome offer is the entry ticket. The verdict for a punter who backs short-priced favourites and is not going to place a £20 bet at 1/1 is that the qualifying condition is the wrong shape. The verdict for a punter who would have placed a £20 bet at 1/1 anyway is that this is the welcome offer to take.

Sporting Index — the spread-bet welcome with a fixed-odds unlock

Sporting Index is operated by Sporting Index Limited, holder of Gambling Commission remote licence 027343-R-308898-011. The welcome offer is the most complex of the ten: a £10 fixed-odds bet at minimum odds of 1/2 unlocks three £10 fixed-odds free bets, three £5 Total Goals spread bets, three £5 Winning Favourites spread bets and a £1 Race Index spread bet. The qualifying bet cannot be placed in play and cannot be cashed out early. The unlock is wide, and the punter who wants the spread side of the book has to take the fixed-odds side as well.

The spread side of the book is the reason a punter opens a Sporting Index account. A spread bet is a bet on whether a number, the total goals in a match or the finishing position of a favourite, is higher or lower than the quoted spread, and the stake is multiplied by the difference. Losses can exceed the deposit. The verdict for a punter who wants spread betting on football and horse racing is that the welcome offer is the entry ticket and the spread book is the reason to stay; the verdict for a punter who only wants fixed-odds is that the offer is over-complicated and another row of the table fits better.

BetUK — the four-token football book with a 7-day clock

BetUK is operated by LeoVegas Gaming PLC, holder of Gambling Commission remote licence 039198-R-319450-029. The welcome offer is four £10 free bets after a £10 deposit and a sports bet within seven days of registering, with the four tokens pre-allocated to two football accumulators of four or more selections and two multiples of two or more, valid for seven days, with opt-in required. The pre-allocation is the shape of the offer, and the punter who backs football accas is the punter BetUK is built for.

The seven-day window is short, and the pre-allocation rules out singles and each-way bets. If you regularly back football accas and can manage to use four tokens within a week, this is a suitable offer. Those who prefer singles will find these tokens less practical, making a different row in the table a better match.

10bet — the cash bonus with a 10x ceiling

10bet is operated by Blue Star Planet Limited, holder of Gambling Commission remote licence 043173-R-322899-023. The welcome offer is a 100% bonus up to £50 for UK sign-ups, paid as a cash bonus, plus daily free bets and free spins. The cash-bonus form is the one on which the Commission’s 10x wagering cap bites: a £50 bonus at 10x wagering requires £500 of qualifying bets, and the punter who does not turn the bonus over loses it. The expected cost of clearing the bonus scales with the bookmaker’s margin on the markets the qualifying bets are placed on.

The product range runs through daily free bets and free spins, and the latter is a casino product that the mixed-product ban would not allow to be a condition of the betting offer; the punter who reads the small print finds the betting and the casino bonuses on separate terms. A punter comfortable with turning a £50 bonus over ten times within the given timeframe will find this offer worthwhile. If you would prefer a standard free bet over a cash bonus, another option from the table is likely to be a better fit.

Dabble — the £10-for-£10 with a 7-day clock

Dabble is operated by Dabble Sports UK Ltd, holder of Gambling Commission remote licence 065677-R-340363-005. The welcome offer is “Bet £10, Get £10 in Free Bets” on a first deposit for new customers, with minimum odds applying, a seven-day free bet expiry and the stake not returned. The £10 headline is the lowest in the table, and the qualifying-bet terms are the simplest. The punter who wants a one-token welcome offer with no casino spin and no acca insurance is the punter Dabble is built for, and the seven-day expiry is the constraint.

The product range runs through a social betting feature where punters can follow other users’ bets, and the social side is the differentiator. For those seeking a simple £10-for-£10 deal with a seven-day window, this offer is a solid choice. If you were hoping for a larger £40 headline, you might prefer a different offer from the comparison table.

LiveScore Bet — the payments book with a flexible cashier

LiveScore Bet is operated by LiveScore Betting and Gaming (Gibraltar) Limited, holder of Gambling Commission remote licence 056859-R-332720-005. The brand’s differentiator is the cashier: it accepts debit cards from Visa and Mastercard, plus Apple Pay, PayPal, Pay by Bank through Open Banking and Revolut Pay. The punter who uses Apple Pay or Revolut Pay on a daily basis is the punter LiveScore Bet is built for, and the cashier is the reason to take the offer. The welcome offer itself is operator-set and not given in the table; the punter who wants the headline number finds it on the brand’s homepage.

The product range runs through the LiveScore network, with the score-tracking app feeding into the betting app and the same wallet covering both. The verdict for a punter who uses one of the listed payment methods and wants the LiveScore network is that the offer is worth claiming; the verdict for a punter who uses a different e-wallet is that the cashier does not fit, and another row of the table fits better.

What a sign-up offer really costs in expectation

A welcome offer is a marketing expense on the bookmaker’s side and a marketing incentive on the punter’s side; the cost is what the punter pays in expected return on the qualifying bets. The arithmetic runs through three numbers: the qualifying-bet turnover, the bookmaker’s margin on the market the bets are placed on, and the value of the free bet the offer credits. On the Sky Bet offer the qualifying bet is a 5p bet at 1/1 (2.0), the turnover is 5p, and the expected cost of the qualifying bet is the margin on a single market at 2.0. On the Unibet offer the qualifying bet is a £20 bet at 2.0, the turnover is £20, and the expected cost is the margin on the same market multiplied by £20. The free bet that the offer credits is the second half of the equation: a £10 free bet at 1/1 (2.0) on a market with a 5% margin is worth about £4.50 in expected profit, and the offer is worth the value of the free bet minus the cost of the qualifying bets.

The general rule: the more the bookmaker asks of the punter in qualifying-bet turnover, the more the offer is worth only if the free bet is generous enough to outrun the cost. A 100% cash bonus up to £50 at 10x wagering is worth the bonus amount minus the expected cost of £500 of qualifying bets, which on a market with a 5% margin is £25 of expected cost, leaving a £25 headline offer with a £25 cost and a net value of zero before the time spent clearing it. The punter who reads the small print finds the wagering factor, the minimum odds and the time limit; the punter who does not is the one whose bonus is removed when the clock runs out.

The rule of thumb: take the free bet over the cash bonus when the bookmaker offers both. A free bet at stake-not-returned terms is worth the profit, and the value scales with the decimal odds; a cash bonus at 10x wagering is worth the bonus minus the cost of clearing it, and the cost scales with the margin. The Sky Bet £30-in-free-bets offer is a clearer pound-for-pound product than the 10bet 100% up to £50 cash bonus, because the qualifying bet on Sky Bet is a 5p stake and the qualifying bet on 10bet is the £50 deposit.

Frequently asked questions

What is a free bet?

A free bet is a token the bookmaker credits to the punter’s account instead of cash. It is usable on a market the bookmaker chooses, at minimum odds the bookmaker sets, and it expires on a date the bookmaker names. The stake is usually not returned with a winning free bet, so a £10 free bet at 1/1 returns £10 in profit, not £20. The token is a marketing credit, and its realisable value is the expected profit on the market the punter spends it on, which is the stake times the decimal odds minus one, divided by the decimal odds, multiplied by the market’s payout share.

How does a free bet work in practice?

The punter opens an account, verifies their identity, makes a deposit with a debit card or bank transfer, places a qualifying bet at the minimum stake and minimum odds the offer names, and the free bet is credited once the qualifying bet settles. The free bet then has to be used on a market the offer permits, at minimum odds, before it expires. The bookmaker settles the winning free bet as profit only, and the stake is removed from the account.

What is the maximum wagering requirement on a betting bonus in Great Britain?

The Gambling Commission has capped wagering requirements on bonuses at ten times since 19 January 2026. A £10 bonus that demands £500 of qualifying bets at 50x is no longer permitted; under the cap no more than £100 of qualifying bets is required. Mixed-product promotions, an offer that asks the punter to gamble on two or more product types in one go, are banned outright from the same date. Whether the cap applies to free bets that carry no wagering condition is not established, and the punter who wants certainty reads the offer’s own terms.

What do minimum odds and the wagering requirement mean in a sign-up offer?

The minimum odds are the shortest price the qualifying bet, and in some cases the free bet itself, can be placed at; a bookmaker that names 1/1 (2.0) is screening out the punter who backs heavy favourites, and a bookmaker that names 1/2 (1.5) is taking a wider field. The wagering requirement is the number of times the bonus, or in some cases the bonus plus the deposit, has to be turned over in qualifying bets before the winnings are withdrawable. The Commission’s 10x cap is on the wagering requirement, and the punter who reads the small print finds the wagering factor, the minimum odds, the time limit and the eligible markets in one place.

Why is the stake of a free bet not paid back with the winnings?

A free bet is a marketing credit, and the bookmaker treats the stake as the cost of the marketing. The punter who backs a £10 free bet at 1/1 and wins collects £10 in profit, not £20 in return, because the £10 stake is the bookmaker’s money and is not part of the return. The distinction is what makes the offer cheaper for the bookmaker than a stake-back offer, and it is the distinction the marketing tends to blur. The punter who reads the small print finds “stake not returned” or “SNR” in the offer’s terms, and the punter who does not is the one who expects £20 in the account and finds £10.

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