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Betfair's Cheltenham free bets: get £20 to use on the races during the festival when you bet £5

Betfair Cheltenham betting offer

We are just over a week away from the highlight of the jumps season, the Cheltenham Festival, and there is no better time to sign-up for a Betfair account and take advantage of their generous welcome bonus.

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Betfair are an online bookmaker you can trust to provide excellent service, great odds, and plenty of exciting specials. But this bookie comes alive during the Cheltenham Festival, flexing their muscles and showing why they are a market leader.

Click here to claim your £20 free bet at Betfair.

When you take up the Betfair welcome betting offer, create an account, deposit £5, and place a qualifying sportsbook bet, the world-famous betting app based in London will instantly drop £20 worth of free bet tokens into your account. These can be used to wager on any race from Prestbury Park.

Below, we detail the Betfair betting offer and how to sign up in order to get your hands on this exclusive free bet bonus for Cheltenham day one.

Cheltenham day one preview

The famous Cheltenham roar erupts from the packed crowd ahead of the opening race of the festival, the Supreme Novices' Hurdle, which could feature a mouthwatering clash between two JP McManus-owned runners, Mystical Power and Jeriko Du Reponet.

The highlight of the day is no doubt the Champion Hurdle, won last year by jump racing's biggest name Constitution Hill, who is unbeaten in eight starts, with the last seven coming at Grade 1 level. However, his participation was put under threat with some poor work last week, so could State Man come out on top?

Lossiemouth is one of the biggest names on the card and will look to enhance her reputation in the Mares' Hurdle, while the Arkle is a must-watch race with a view to next year's Queen Mother Champion Chase. 

Betfair day one Cheltenham offer: £20 in free bets

Fancy getting your hands on £20 in free bets to use on one or more of the races from the Cheltenham Festival? That’s a bit of a daft question on one of the greatest sporting weeks of the year. We’re here to help make things easy.

Click now for a £20 free bet on the Cheltenham Festival.

The welcome bonus free bet is available to all new customers who create an account at Betfair, make their first deposit of £5 or more, and gamble on a sportsbook market. The £20 in free bets will become available when that bet results.

Steps on how to claim your Betfair Cheltenham betting offer

Learn to quickly and securely join Betfair as a new customer and claim the £20 free bet welcome bonus.

  1. Click here to register at Betfair
  2. Select the Join Now button on the homepage
  3. Open a new account using promo code ZBHC01
  4. Complete the registration form, providing your details, and verify your number by SMS
  5. Create a username and password
  6. Deposit £5 using a card
  7. Bet on a sportsbook market with odds of 1/2 or greater
  8. £20 worth of free bet tokens will be added to your balance

Betfair Cheltenham betting sign-up offer: terms and conditions

You must read the terms and conditions before registering for a Betfair account and accepting the welcome bonus. Below are some of the points to remember when creating an account.

  • All rewards are valid for 30 days after they have been awarded.
  • Unmatched, unsettled or voided bets will not count towards this promotion.
  • Excludes 'same market' bets placed on the Sportsbook.
  • Free bet stakes are not returned with winnings.
  • Bets placed using free bets as the stake (in full or in part) will not qualify.
  • Bets placed on SP (starting price) odds will not qualify.
  • You'll be able to see details of your free bets in the ‘My Bonuses’ tab which can be accessed at the top of the website.
  • If we find that you have taken part in this promotion using a duplicate account or that you have used more than one account to participate, we reserve the right to withhold your free bets and any winnings earned on the duplicate account.
  • Cashed Out or Partially Cashed out bets are excluded from the promotion.
  • The offer excludes the following bet types: Canadian, Goliath, Heinz, Lucky 15, Lucky 31, Lucky 63, Patent, Super Heinz, Trixie & Yankee.
  • To complete Phone Verification you must have a device capable of receiving an SMS.

How to spend your Betfair Cheltenham free bets

With Betfair offering a total of £20 in Cheltenham Festival free bets for this week's racing, there are plenty of options available for you to bet on, including:

Has gone from strength-to-strength since switching to fences, winning a Punchestown beginners' chase by 13 lengths on his first start before easily accounting for Sandor Clegane in a Grade 3 at Naas in January. He jumped well on both occasions, looking better the further he went, and it would be no surprise should Willie Mullins target this usually weaker race than one of the Grade 1 staying chases.

JPR One was always going to improve over fences and was about to deliver one of the standout novice performances when lengthening clear in the Arkle trial before unseating at the last. That’s about the only mistake I’ve seen him make, and his defeat of Matata at Lingfield last time reads just as well as any of the Irish challengers.

Note, these odds are subject to change.

Have a look at our Cheltenham odds and Cheltenham tips pages for more ideas on where to spend your free bets ahead of the festival.

Day one Cheltenham schedule

The Cheltenham Festival is the most highly anticipated meeting of the year for jumps fans, with the crowd producing an almighty roar ahead of the first race on Tuesday, March 12. The highlight of day one, the Champion Hurdle, will be without last year's winner Constitution Hill, and the talented State Man looks set to take advantage.

Tuesday, March 12

Why bet on Cheltenham with Betfair?

Betfair are an online bookmaker you can trust to provide excellent service, great odds, and plenty of exciting specials. But this bookie comes alive during the Cheltenham Festival, flexing its muscles and showing why they are a market leader.

Betfair offer better place terms

Betfair offer better place terms than much of the competition, increasing your chances of landing a return on your bets.

Betfair offer better odds

The odds offered on the top races are as generous as you’d hope to find. Check any gambling odds comparison app, and Betfair sets the bar on odds.

Betfair offer specials and enhanced market

Specials and enhanced markets mean there’s more than one way to gamble with Betfair on your favourite horses of the week. Predict the number of finishers or have your stake on the favourite failing to win the race. You can also take advantage of existing customer free bets and offers via the promotions tab.

Betfair Cheltenham offers for existing customers

Not only new players enjoy excellent promotions and specials at Betfair. Existing members are also treated well. Below are some of the deals you can expect to find when clicking on the promotions tab on the Betfair website or mobile app.

Non-runner money back

This deal is already in place for all races at the Cheltenham Festival. If your horse doesn’t start the race as expected, Betfair will return your stake. This offer is not available for ante-post bets.

Extra place races

Betfair will enhance the place terms of the most popular races each day of the festival. They may be moved from 1/5 the odds a place to 1/4 or enhanced from three places to four.


To discover more Cheltenham Festival betting offers and free bets for both new and existing clients, make sure to explore the promotions provided by other top bookmakers in the UK and Ireland:


Commercial notice: This article contains affiliate links. Offers are handpicked and come from operators our experts have first-hand experience of. Opening an account via one of these links will earn revenue for the Racing Post, which will be used to continue producing our award-winning coverage of horseracing.


Harry WilsonReporter

Published on 6 March 2024inBetting offers

Last updated 15:07, 8 March 2024

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