Cheltenham Festival 2021 is just around the corner and you don’t want to miss this Betfair Exchange free bet offer! Place £20.00+ in Exchange bets across UK and Irish racing each Saturday and get a £10.00 free bet to use on the Cheltenham Festival. Translated into matched betting terms, this gives us a guaranteed profit of £35.00 and here’s how…
Key terms
- Bet £20.00+ on UK or Irish horse racing each Saturday.
- Saturday 13th February 2021.
- Saturday 20th February 2021.
- Saturday 27th February 2021.
- Saturday 6th March 2021.
- Saturday 13th March 2021.
- Applies to single bet stakes of £20.00+ or a number of smaller bet stakes totalling £20.00+.
- Applies to Exchange bets only (odds of 1.50+ for back bets).
- If you place lay bet(s), your liability will be considered as the stake.
- Maximum free bet of £10.00 per qualifying day.
- Free bets awarded on Monday 15th March 2021, valid on Exchange markets.
- Betfair Rewards ‘Basic’ customers are excluded from this promotion.
Qualifying bets
If Betfair is your primary exchange, you don’t need to think about this offer too much. Just place your horse racing lay bets as normal and provided you have total liabilities of £20.00 or more each Saturday, you’ll qualify for the respective free bet.
If Betfair isn’t your primary exchange, you can place qualifying back bets like any other ‘Bet & Get’ offer and lay them at another betting exchange.
If you’d like more information about qualifying bets and how they work, please see my qualifying bets guide.
We can calculate our lay stakes using my Matched Betting Calculator.
Aim to lose no more than £1.00 on each of our qualifying bets
So, we’ll lose a total of around £5.00 in qualifying for our 5 x £10.00 free bets.
Free bets
Our 5 x £10.00 free bets will be credited at 10:00 on Monday 15th March 2021. The free bets will be valid only on Exchange markets and will expire at the end of the Cheltenham Festival on Friday 19th March 2021. Free bet stakes will not be included in any winnings.
Using straightforward matched betting, we should be able to convert our free bets into 80% cash, so £40.00. If we take into account our total expected qualifying loss of £5.00, this gives us an overall guaranteed profit of £35.00 on this Betfair Exchange offer!
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Andy
Guest userAnybody tried upping their package from basic to get this offer? Would that make you eligible?
Matt
1531That’s covered in the first paragraph of the terms Andy.
If change from ‘Basic’ to ‘Rewards’ or ‘Rewards+’, you will be eligible to qualify on any promotional day that occurs after the date of change.
Andy
Guest userThanks Matt 😀
Andy
Guest userDo I actually have to place the bet on each Saturday or can I place the bet on a Friday but on a Sat race for example?
Matt
1531You should be fine to place it on a Friday Andy. This is from the terms…
Applies to UK and Irish racing bets that settle on the dates stated above.
Applies to bets placed after the 48 hour declaration stage on each individual weekend.
bettingbitz
34Isn’t it easier just to concide with other offers and let the lay stakes add up? As long as the liability is > £20?
Matt
1531Yes if Betfair is your main exchange, that’s definitely the way to go. Apologies, I should have added a note to that effect.
Al
Guest userHas anybody’s promo page updated to show a free bet earnt?
Kieran
Guest userHi,
Just checked the ‘free bet pot’ for this offer on Betfair and it says Zero. This happening for anyone else? I would have placed the qualifying bet on Lingfield racing yesterday (lay bet on Betfair exchange liability approx 40).
Matt
1531I wouldn’t worry yet guys. This is from the terms…
Free Bet progress will be updated on the homepage within 48 hours after the last qualifying race on each date shown above.
Mark
Guest userMine is showing as £10 now.
Jamie
Guest userThis is about the only offer I can do after being banned from nearly all other bookie. Haven’t betted in well over a year, wish I had all my accounts back!
Ryan
Guest userI forgot to place a bet for Saturday gone but will I still be eligible if I start from this Saturday? Thanks.
Matt
1531Yes I believe so Ryan, you just earn a £10 free bet for each Saturday you meet the qualifying criteria.
For each day that you place the required qualifying bet(s), you’ll get a £10 Horse Racing free bet to be used on the Cheltenham Festival e.g. if you meet the requirements on the 13th February and 27th February, you’ll get £20 in free bets.
MattyS
0Morning Matt, newbie here, great site thankyou. Could I please check if I combine with Sky Bet club, odds as close to or just exceeding evens as possible with Sky Bet at £25, would qualify for the sky bet club and this one too as liability would exceed £20 if lay at Betfair, it’s probably obvious but seems to good to be true!
Matt
1531Hi Matty. Yes, by all means combine offers where possible.
If you stake £25+ at Sky Bet on Saturday’s UK or Irish horse racing and your liability at Betfair totals £20+, you’ll qualify for both free bets.
Richard
8Hi Matt. As this is a free bet offer from an exchange rather than a bookie, to extract the cash from it do I place a back bet with Betfair and then lay it at another exchange (Smarkets), or can I use the free Betfair bet to fund (or partially fund) a lay bet and place the back bet at a regular bookie?
Matt
1531Hi Richard. The free bets are ‘stake not returned’ so you can just treat them the same as bookmaker free bets. Place them as ‘back’ bets and lay at another exchange. Just remember to enter your ‘Back commission’ on the calculator.
Richard
8Having thought about this, probably better to use the free Betfair bets to lay a bet at e.g. Paddy Power? That way I’m only paying one lot of commission. All depends on the odds you can get I suppose. Back and Lay odds always seem to be closer between exchanges than with bookies.
Matt
1531Doing that won’t guarantee you a profit from your free bet Richard. Not only that, it’s always best to avoid backing and laying at Paddy Power and Betfair as the two brands are owned by the same group. It’s likely to draw unwanted attention to your accounts.
It’s up to you, but my advice is to stick with a ‘back’ bet for your free bet and lay at another exchange.
Adam
Guest userHi
Do I need to have done it each Saturday, or could I do the last one this Saturday without having done the others?
Matt
1531Yes it doesn’t matter Adam, you’ll still be eligible for this Saturday’s regardless of your previous activity.
This is from the terms…
For each day that you place the required qualifying bet(s), you’ll get a £10 Horse Racing free bet to be used on the Cheltenham Festival e.g. if you meet the requirements on the 13th February and 27th February, you’ll get £20 in free bets.