The Cheltenham Festival is one of the most prominent National Hunt horse racing events of the calendar year. It takes place in March at the namesake racecourse in Gloucestershire. Since it usually coincides with St Patrick’s day, it is especially popular with Irish and UK bettors. Due to the extremely high interest revolving around it, you can access several bookmakers online.
They offer player incentives such as Extra Places paid, a more comprehensive selection of markets compared to daily races, and Best Odds Guaranteed on all the meetings. Besides that, you can find individual Cheltenham bookies offers tailored specifically for the event. These include Free Bets, Faller Insurance, NRNB, and Enhanced Odds.
Latest Bookmaker Offers for Cheltenham
High odds and watching a horse race live are necessary. However, what makes a player excited and keener to open an account and play is the existence of regular promotions. Of course, one of the most significant National Hunt events of the year cannot be overseen by the bookies. Underneath, you can find the latest Cheltenham bookie offers that you can grab when you sign up.
Cheltenham Bookie Offers for Existing Players
Of course, the promotions are not limited to new players, as most sites will have quite a few that apply to existing users. Depending on your betting profile, you will probably be looking for different types of Cheltenham bookmaker offers. Some prefer being covered with Risk-Free Bets or Faller Insurance, while others want higher profits. In any case, we should look at all the possible options you will find.
Enhanced Odds
This is one of the most frequent offers. Specific horses, usually the favourites, are paid at better prices than the standard. For example, the odds of Plus Tard winning the Gold Cup are 8/1 (9.00), but some sites have increased them to 10/1 (11.00).
This is a great incentive for players because it can considerably enhance the profits if the horse wins. However, you should note that Enhanced Odds are most commonly available only on the feature race each day of the Festival and that each/way wagers are excluded.
Cheltenham Money-back Offers
You might have done excellent research and decided on a few horses that seem like close-to-certain winners. However, the nature of a hurdle event means that the slightest miscalculation will make the horse fall. This is why some of the most popular Cheltenham Money-back Offers are based on Faller Insurance.
That way, your bets are protected, and you can feel safe placing them. Moreover, some sportsbooks will give you your money back if your horse finishes 2nd or 3rd.
Non-Runner No Bet
The event is one of the most prominent events for ante-post betting, and Bookmakers set the odds months before the races. If you are quick, you can bet on the top contestants with excellent prices. However, there is no guarantee that your chosen horses will actually compete. An injury can change everything in a flash but do not fret.
Many Cheltenham bookies include a clause on wagers where, if a horse is declared a non-runner before a race starts, you will receive your stakes back. You should note, though, that this offer is not available for all races, and most often than not it does not apply to ante-post wagers.
Cheltenham Free Bets
This promotion is only limited by a bookmaker’s imagination. The list of available types of Cheltenham Free Bets is virtually endless. Besides, as a Welcome Bonus, you can claim Risk-Free Bets on specific races, your stake back as a FB in case your horse does not compete or falls, or as part of the reward program for being a loyal bettor. Since most will only apply to the tournament, do not forget to use them because, otherwise, they will expire.
ACCA Insurance & Bonus
Last but not least, you can enjoy two kinds of Cheltenham bookmaker offers when you place accumulator bets. The first one is the ACCA Insurance Offers. When you place a bet with a minimum number of selections, and only one horse lets you down, then you can receive your stake back, either in cash or as a Free Bet.
Note that this offer is primarily available for the feature and handicap races each day of the Festival. The second one is the ACCA Bonus. The more selections you add to your bet slip, the higher the percentage of extra winnings you will receive. However, combo bets on horse racing are not advisable due to the high risk.
Top Cheltenham Bookmakers List
You can find many sites to bet on the Festival. However, not all of them are equal. This is why we have rated the Cheltenham Festival bookies by examining the number of markets and promotions they offer, the odds on all the horses, and whether you can watch the races live. You can find them in the list below.
How to Choose the Best Cheltenham Bookies
Horse racing is not similar to other sports like football or tennis. There are considerably fewer criteria for selecting the top bookmakers. Cheltenham is an event that all sites will cover, so the question remains: How to choose the best ones? Let’s get down to it.
Variety of Markets
The most common markets are on the winner or each way. Due to the event's magnitude, most Cheltenham bookies set the odds early, which means you can also take advantage of several antepost markets. However, the top sites will also offer as many special bets as possible.
For example, at Coral and Ladbrokes, you can wager on the winning distance between the winner and the second-place finisher, while at Unibet or 10bet on forecasts, tricasts, and win without the favourite. In addition, at many UK bookmakers, you can place pool bets and secure a part of the total prize.
Extra Places paid
One of the most prominent bets in horse racing is each way, where you split your wager between the winner and the horses that will finish at the top. In general, if there are 5-7 horses in a race, then only the first two places are paid. With 8-15 runners, three places are paid. In the case of 16+ horses running, four places are paid.
It is a common bookie practice to pay extra places in top events. In the Festival, in particular, where most races are handicaps, picking the right horse is challenging. This is why it is a massive plus for Cheltenham bookmakers to pay horses that end up in fifth or even sixth place.
Live Streaming
Watching an event after you have placed a bet is great. When it comes to sports like football or tennis, Live Streaming can prove profitable for building in-play strategies. Even though live wagering is not an intricate part of our Cheltenham Festival Betting Guide, the actual value of LS in horse racing hides somewhere else.
An hour before the races, the horses are paraded in the paddock, a special ring where the runners are shown to the spectators and are checked by the officials. The most experienced horse bettors can determine the state of a horse by the way it walks and decide whether to back it or look for other options.
High Odds & BOG
With so many highly competitive races during the Festival, it’s only fair that the bookie prices reflect that. The top Cheltenham bookmakers must offer high odds on all the races, whether Grade 1s, handicaps, or novice races.
However, a phenomenon occurs in horse racing more than any other sport. The prices of a horse can change significantly, either up or down. If a horse is heavily tipped to win and many bettors back it, its’ odds will decrease. On the contrary, if most players show no interest in a runner, the prices will go up.
Due to the betting volume in the Cheltenham Festival, horse odds fluctuate more than daily races or lesser tournaments. This is why you should elect Best Odds Guaranteed bookmakers, to make sure you are always paid at the best prices available.
Complete List of Cheltenham Bookmakers
The list of bookmakers that offer odds on horse racing is limited compared to sports like football and basketball. The truth is that they target specific countries like the UK, Ireland, South Africa, and Australia. Nevertheless, there are some interesting options out there. Right below, you can find a complete list of Cheltenham bookmakers that also provide promotions for one of the biggest events of the year.
We examine several criteria to evaluate the top bookies to use for betting on the Festival. These include the odds, the variety of markets they offer, as well as all the services they provide, such as Live Streaming and Extra Places Paid.
One of the worst fears of a horse bettor is that their chosen runners will fall down and not finish the race. For that reason, several bookmakers like Bet365, Betfair, 10bet, Coral, Ladbrokes, and Betvictor will give you your money back if that happens.
This is an annual horse racing event that takes place every March. It’s in a span of four days, always from Tuesday to Friday, and consists of 28 races, seven each day, with the main event being the Gold Cup on Friday.
Many bookmakers provide Welcome Offers tailored explicitly to the Festival. They usually come as Free Bets that you can use to place wagers on the feature races on each day.
Most players choose to place wagers on the winners, each way, or a horse to place. In addition, many Cheltenham bookies give you the option to bet on ante-post markets, way ahead of time. Finally, you can find several special bets such as top jockey, top trainer, and winning distance.
Of course. This is one of the most significant hurdle horse racing events of the year, so bookies have several promotions you can choose from. These include Welcome Offers, Free Bets, Enhanced Odds, Money-back Specials, ACCA Bonuses, and more.
That depends. If you live in Ireland or the UK, you can watch the races live on TV. In addition, you can access sportsbooks that offer Live Streaming services and watch them live there.