Newbie question about opening Betfair account and first Coral qualifying bet

1) You don’t want to lay a Betfair Sportsbook bet on the Betfair Exchange. Either lay it on another exchange (smarkets etc) or you could dutch it with another bookmaker.
2) It doesn’t have to be the same bet (but it can be).

Dutching means betting on all possible outcomes of an event.
A simple example would be both teams to score ‘btts’. With one bookmaker you’d bet on btts – yes and with another bookmaker btts -no. You’d want something with higher odds for your freebet though.

The Betfair exchange offer – The terms state that it has to be £20 or more, so yes you’re correct, any bet under £20 won’t qualify.

No problem – happy hunting!

You don’t have to incur a loss on your qualifying bets but you nearly always do.
The only way not to incur a loss is if you get an arb ( the lay odds are lower than the bookie odds) and then you will break even or make a profit. Don’t forget you’re paying commission on your winnings on your lay bets ( unless they have 0% commission offer on ).

Placing bets on arbs though is a sure way to get gubbed. (They stop your account receiving offers)

The outcome of the bet makes no difference as to whether you get your free bet unless it is a lost bet refund offer. For these types of offer you use the risk free calculator.