Cheltenham Gold Cup Free Bets 2025

Top Cheltenham Festival Betting Offers for 2025

Finding the best betting offers is easy at Sporting Life, our dedicated team make sure that you can grab the best betting offers for Cheltenham on one simple-to-use page!

Whether you’re on the hunt for a new customer betting sign-up offer or an existing customer looking to grab some generous free bets offers, you can rely on us to bring you the best value from our partners.

What are the Best Cheltenham Betting Offers?

With so many bookmakers competing it can be difficult to find the best offers that you can trust and rely on. All our bookmaker partners offer complete transparency on their offers, meaning no tricks or hidden conditions that stop you getting your free bets.

We only ever post betting offers from brands that meet our high standards of customer satisfaction, protection, and security.

Types of Cheltenham Free Bets

There are a few different types of betting sign-up offer and free bet bonus you’ll be able to claim for Cheltenham. Check out an overview of each offer type below:

Bet X Get Y

Bet X Get Y is the most common betting offer, giving you a number of free bets when you stake over a certain amount. This type of offer is available year-round from all our bookmaker partners but are more generous during Cheltenham.

You’ll want to look out for any minimum odds requirement for you qualifying bet, as well as what sports/markets you can use the free bets on.

Money Back as Cash Offers

Sky Bet’s Money Back as Cash offer or Paddy Power’s Money Back Tokens are a form of insurance bet in horse racing.

If your horse finishes 2nd, 3rd, or 4th in the race (depends on the number of runners) you get your money back as cash or a free bet depending on the bookmaker. Giving you another chance to win if you just miss out.

Free Bet Credit Offers

These are available for both new and existing customers and are a way of encouraging you to engage with new markets or specific races. The free bets amount is usually much lower, between £1-£10 but you do not have to stake any money.

Simply opt in to the promotion and you will be able to use your free bets, however they are likely tied to a specific event or bet type, for example the Champion Chase or accumulators only.

Enhanced Odds Offers

Enhanced odds give you incredibly high odds for quite likely bets and pay you out in free bets. For example, Willie Mullins to train 1+ winner at the festival at 60/1. The max stake will be £1 but it is a great way to collect free bets while keeping stakes low.

No Deposit Free Bets

This offer is rarer these days but are incredibly popular when they are available. Simply click the promotion link and create an account using the code and when your account is confirmed you’ll be credited free bets.

Making the Most of Your Cheltenham Free Bets

Free bets are a great way to have fun during the Cheltenham Festival without having to stake much of your own money. A generous welcome offer could give you £50 in free bets and set you up nicely for the week.

Most free bets will have an expiry date between 7-30 days, but Cheltenham betting offers may expire at the end of the festival so make sure you check the expiry date to not leave any free bets unused.

Free bets let you bet without staking your own money, but the catch is your free bet value isn’t returned with your stake. This means betting on short prices with free bets can return less than the value of the free bet!

Bettors tend to use free bets for slightly bigger prices or more ambitious accumulators as it allows for a bigger return without risking their own money. Cheltenham is a great opportunity for this with plenty of upsets, in 2024 Stellar Story won the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at 33/1!

Free Cheltenham Betting Tips

Our team of experts are your must-have guides to the Cheltenham Festival. With years of experience picking apart races and finding the best value you can follow all their tips completely free on Sporting Life.

Once you’ve got your free bets head over the Cheltenham Tips Centre to see the latest tips from the team, including antepost selections!

What Does Each-Way Mean?

Each-way betting is essentially playing 2 bets on the same horse, which is why your stake doubles when selecting each-way in your bet slip. You are placing a single bet on the horse to win at the odds advertised and a second bet on the horse to place at either ¼ or 1/5 of the odds (depending on the number of runners).

For example, if you place a £5 each-way bet on a horse to win the Cheltenham Cross Country Chase at 20/1 with the each-way terms 1/5 for the first 4 horses.

You are placing a £5 single on the horse to win at 20/1 (which returns £105, £100 profit + your £5 stake) and a £5 bet on the horse to finish in the first 4 at 4/1 (which returns £25, £20 profit + your £5 stake.

This means that:

If the horse wins, both bets would win, and your return would be £130, £120 profit and your £10 initial stake.

If the horse finishes in the first 4 but doesn’t win, only the second bet would win, and your return would be £25, £15 profit and your £10 initial stake.

If the horse finishes outside the first 4 both bets would lose, and you would get no return.

Where is the Cheltenham Festival?

The festival takes place at Cheltenham Racecourse, located near the town of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire.

What is the Best Cheltenham Enclosure?

Cheltenham has three main enclosures, as well as various other hospitality packages and experiences during the Festival. The three enclosures are listed below, with the cheapest enclosure first:

The Best Mate Enclosure – The cheapest enclosure, seen on the other side of the track to the main stand and finishing line. It still offers good views of the finishing line but does not include access to the same bars, betting options, or the parade ring.

Tattersalls Enclosures – Probably the most popular and busiest of the enclosures during the Festival. You get views in front of the main stand from beyond the finishing line and access to the parade ring and ever popular Guinness Village.

Club Enclosure – The most expensive of the main enclosures and offers the most space and best views of the run up the famous Cheltenham hill. Also has access to the parade ring and Guinness Village like Tattersalls.

Is Cheltenham Festival Expensive?

Cheltenham Festival is the highlight of the jumps racing calendar and as such is one of the more expensive race days in the UK calendar. The price for each day and enclosure varies, with Gold Cup Day the most expensive and popular day to attend.

Overall, food and drink prices are comparable to other sporting events and arena shows. Pints of beer cost between £7-£8, single spirits start from £7 depending on brand, and wine is closer £10 per glass.

With regards to food, options on course are incredibly varied and plenty but again are as expensive as food in stadiums, with a burger and chips likely to cost close to the £15-£20 mark.

How can I Watch Cheltenham Festival for Free?

ITV will be showing 24 of the 28 races at Cheltenham in 2025, with the final race of each day not covered by ITV. This means streaming through ITVX will also be available for free in the UK.

If you want to watch on the go or to ensure you catch every race, all our bookmaker partners offer livestreaming of races shortly before the race time. In order to do this, you usually will have had to place a bet within the last 7 days, terms for streaming with each bookmaker can be found on their website.

The other way to watch all the racing is through RacingTV, the primary distributor of racing in the UK and will cover every race. Around the Festival you can usually claim a trial period or discount to cover all the action.

What Does Grade Mean in Horse Racing?

The Grade of a horse race is a way of ranking the most important races and the quality of runners. Grade 1 is the highest level, such as the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and in these races weight differences are only given due to age and sex, with no penalty for previous victories.

Grade 2 and Grade 3 races are slightly below the level of Grade 1s but still incredibly high quality. These races can be handicaps or have different rules for the weights horses carry, albeit not as varied as true handicaps.

What is Non-Runner No-Bet?

Non-Runner No Bet is a promotion growing in popularity among bookmakers. It reduces the risk to bettors and their antepost bets placed after the promotion is live, which is usually in January. If your selection does not run in the race, it is settled as a Non-Runner and you get your stake back (excluding free bets).

For example, if you bet £10 on Lossiemouth to win the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle and instead she runs in the Champion Hurdle, you would get your stake back once both races have been run.

What Does Extra Places Mean?

In horse racing there are industry standards for how many places bookmakers will pay on each-way bets based on the number of runners. As a bonus most bookmakers will offer races where they offer to pay out on more places, sometimes as many as 7 or 8.

One of our partners, Sky Bet, offer the most extra places in the industry and are a favourite of bettors looking to land bigger prices on each-way bets.

What is the Top Festival Jockey?

Similar to Cheltenham Festival Top Trainer, this award is given to the jockey who rides the most winners at the Festival. As Paul Townend is Willie Mullins’ stable jockey, he has shared in the success of the trainer.

The last 10 winners of the Cheltenham Festival Top Jockey award are below as well as how many wins they had:

2024: Paul Townend (6)

2023: Paul Townend (5)

2022: Paul Townend (5)

2021: Rachel Blackmore (6)

2020: Paul Townend (5)

2019: Nico de Boinville (3)

2018: Davy Russell (4)

2017: Ruby Walsh (4)

2016: Ruby Walsh (7)

2015: Ruby Walsh (5)

If there is a tie, then number of seconds are counted as a tie breaker.