Football betting offers are one of the cornerstones of the betting world. They can help to provide value in bets that do not originally have it, they can make a narrow loss slightly less heartbreaking, and they can see a big win turned into a massive one if boosted.
In this guide, we will take a look at the best football betting offers. These offers will be more for existing customers than new customer offers, with bookies looking to ensure that their loyal players do not feel like they are being neglected.
Football Sign Up Offers
Some of the most generous offers are those for new customers. Sometimes called welcome offers or sign up bonuses, these are meant as an introductory perk when you first register with a betting site.
All is not lost once you’ve claimed the welcome offer, however, and many betting sites run a range of loyalty promotions designed at keeping their punters happy. We’ll cover these in the next sections.
Enhanced Odds & Price Boosts
Enhanced odds are the bread and butter of offers that are generally provided to an existing customer. You may notice that there is a lot of hype around the big game, but one pick is the overwhelming favourite. This means that they come into the contest as odds-on or close to it. Therefore, you will have to stake a huge amount of money to get anything of note back, tipping the balance deep into the ‘risk’ section, with the potential reward not worth it.
Bookies will therefore offer enhanced odds or price boosts to make wagering on a particular outcome more attractive. For example, if Liverpool were to play Ajax in the Champions League final, the Reds would go into the game as big favourites.
The bookies will notice that the Reds offer little value at odds-on, so they will decide to offer a price boost on Liverpool winning of 30/1. Meanwhile, they might boost Ajax’s odds to 50/1. This sort of offer always looks great on the home page of a bookie or on TV before the game, but you should bear a few things in mind. There will almost always be a maximum bet of around £1 applied to this. It means that your potential winnings are restricted.
To add to this, a bookie will almost always pay out any winnings as free bets. While you can usually extract real winnings eventually, you will almost always have to adhere to a very long and drawn-out wagering requirement to get it.
Price boosts are similar to enhanced odds and usually, the terms themselves are interchangeable. A price boost will generally be for markets in a game where a bookie will bump up the available odds for their customers. This will not usually be as long as the promotional enhanced odds, but a win with these markets will usually pay out in real money.
Because odds boosts tend to be for a specific match or event they tend to be very short lived, making it hard for us to track them in the same way that we do for the other offers (below). The excellent, and aptly named, site betting offers UK tends to cover them for most major events, including sports other than football.
Acca Insurance
First of all, an accumulator (acca) is a bet that consists of a number of legs. You will often see big accas on social media where a punter has put a small stake on in the hope of winning big.
The main factor to remember with an acca is that every single one of your picks must win in order for your bet to come in. You could have a monster 100-leg acca going on and 99 picks win, but if one leg lets you down, then you lose. The draw with an acca is that you can bring together a number of bets that offer little value as a single to create one long bet with better odds.
For example, backing Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Napoli all to win as singles will usually offer little value. Backing them in an acca will see the odds of all the sides winning enhanced.
Acca insurance is a promotion that bookies will offer to their customers, giving them a small amount of protection on their bet. If your bookie lets you utilise acca insurance, then you will usually get your stake back as a free bet if one leg lets you down. This means that in the scenario of our 100-leg acca, that one leg that lets you down will see you miss out on your potential winnings, but your bookie will provide you with a free bet to use on another acca.
The restrictions with this will see a bookie only providing a free bet up to a certain amount, there will be a time limit on how long you have to make your next bet, and if more than one leg losses, then you will not be entitled to acca insurance. You also need to keep an eye on the minimum number of legs that you must include to be able to claim acca insurance as this will differ from bookie to bookie.
Acca Boosts
An acca boost will see a bookie giving you small percentile rewards depending on the number of legs in your acca. Generally, a bookie will offer a small percentage on top of your winnings for accas with five-legs or more. Usually, a bookmaker will state that, for example, accas with 10+ legs can get 20% on top of their winnings, but the percentage increase stops at 10.
This means that if your 10-leg acca at 45/1 with a £10 stake should payout £460 (£450 in winnings plus your £10 stake), you will get a percentage boost on your £450 in winnings. Bettors that love their accas adore acca boosts.
Free Bets
A free bet is one of the standard customer offers that are provided to new players. However, they can also be given to existing players too, although this is usually rare. A free bet for a new customer will usually come in the form of a Bet £X Get £X offer. For argument’s sake, this means that if you Bet £10, you will get £10 from the bookie.
Therefore, you need to deposit £10 into your account and the bookie will provide you with a £10 free bet to use. For an existing customer, you will usually need to place a bet at the stated minimum or maximum stake, allowing you to claim the offer as long as the required outcome occurs. These offers can be as miserly as a Bet £5, Get £5, up to more generous ones, such as: Bet £5 Get £50, for example.
Money Back If …
Money back offers are usually seen as more of a part of horse racing betting offers. For example, you may see something like ‘Get money back if your horse finishes in…’. This means that a bookie will provide you with money back if a certain situation occurs in a race.
This is the same in many other sports. For example, you may see something like ‘Get money back if there is a red card’, ‘Money back if Lionel Messi scores’ or ‘Money back if the game ends in a draw’. The main thing to remember with a money back offer is that a specific event will need to occur for you to get that money back. The draw with this sort of offer is that a loss can be made less painful if you are provided with some form of consolation.
Goalscorer Offers
Some of the goalscorer betting offers are able to provide some real value for money when it comes to betting. For example, a goalscorer offer may ask you to place a bet on the first goalscorer. If your pick scores the first goal, then you will be paid out at the normal odds. If they then score again, a bookie might decide to double or even triple the odds you bet at.
The boost you get depends on the bookie you bet with and may be for first goalscorer markets, anytime, brace betting and more. Some bookies will also provide a consolation offer to you. A bookie may decide to give you money back as a free bet if a player scores a brace or a hat-trick in a game. Once again, this is the type of offer that makes a less feel slightly less disappointing.
Things to Keep in Mind
When it comes to using any of these markets, there will be a string of restriction. The list below will not cover every single restriction you may be faced with, so make sure you thoroughly read and understand the terms and conditions for each offer.
Void Bets
A void bet can occur for a number of situations such as being cancelled or postponed, an abandoned event, injuries and more. Usually, if a bet is voided, then your stake will be credited back into your account. Ensure that you know what happens with regard to the offer if a bet is made void.
Time Limits
Almost all betting offer, whether for new or existing customers, will have a time limit attached to them. This means that you have a certain amount of time before the offer is no longer valid and taken from you. The time limit will usually be around seven days, while some are as short as two days, while others may be as long as a month.
The time limit on an offer may refer to when you place a specific bet, while others may be a time limit with regard to how soon the match or event you are betting on must be within.
Betting on the Right Market
Certain offers will be specifically designed for a certain market. For example, acca insurance has to be used in conjunction with an acca. If you had for some reason hoped to link your acca insurance with your single bet on the match winner, then you will be left disappointed. Ensure you are always betting on the correct market with your offer.
Correct Stake Amount
Too many bettors will have shot themselves in the foot when it comes to the stake amount. They will have accepted the offer, found the correct market and bet at the right odds, but by entering an incorrect stake amount, then they will not be able to claim the offer. This is a simple part of betting, so ensure that you always know if there is a specific amount you need to bet to activate the offer.
Minimum Odds
Minimum odds are usually thrown into an offer by a bookie so that you do not bet at very short odd in the hope of really enhancing your chances of winning. Similarly, a bookie may cap how long the odds can be when it comes using a betting offer so that the customer does not win a huge amount on a free bet.
Wagering Requirements
Wagering requirements can be the most confusing thing about betting offers. A wagering requirement is a certain condition that is applied to an offer that will alter how a bettor is able to use the winnings created from a promotion. For example, if there is a wagering requirement of 10x on a £10 bonus, you need to wager that bonus 10 times. Therefore, the wagering requirements is £100 (10x£10).
