Betfair Bonus & Review

Betfair has established itself as a giant in the world of sports betting, offering a unique blend of traditional fixed odds betting alongside its renowned betting exchange counterpart. With the sportsbook specifically, they have taken an innovative approach that has proven especially popular with all types of bettors, regardless of their preference in terms of sport. At Racing TV, we have explored all of the details and defining elements that help Betfair to deliver a comprehensive betting experience to its users, highlighting all of its key features, competitive promotions and other nuances the platform presents.

Betfair first shot to prominence as the world’s number-one sports betting exchange – a peer-to-peer platform enabling backers and layers to match at mutually agreeable odds. It was founded in 2000, and the Betfair horse racing exchange is still the market leader today despite attempts by challenger platforms like Matchbook and Smarkets to take over.

Betfair merged with Paddy Power in 2016 to become Flutter Entertainment, which is now a behemoth in the global iGaming industry. Four years prior to this merger, Betfair launched its own fixed-odds sportsbook in a bid to compete with traditional bookmakers in the horseracing market and other major sports.

Creating a Betfair account h is a simple process that is designed to allow quick access to the platform.

Once you have created your account at Betfair, you will have full access to the platform. The website of the Betfair Sportsbook looks and feels like the Betfair Exchange, as the recognisable yellow and black aesthetics are very much on-brand with the Betfair experience. This website has a very typical grid-like user interface, with top and left-hand navigation bars, making it easy to switch between betting markets. It is fully compatible with all leading mobile web browsers. 

It’s also possible to download and install a native Betfair sportsbook app for iOS and Android smartphone and tablet users. This provides a condensed version of the website, with a top navigation menu that can be scrolled from left to right. It’s easy to monitor active bet slips and same-game multis, which makes it possible to build the horse racing bets that work for you. 

At Betfair, horse racing is one of their standout offerings; hence, there is no shortage of horse racing betting markets available on their platform. From Ireland and the UK to international events in the US, Australia and even further afield, the platform covers an extensive range of markets. All of these are featured on the platform with their own horse racing racecards, detailing all runners, information relating to them and, of course, the abundance of diverse betting options.

Speaking of betting options, your most conventional ones can be found at Betfair, with win, each way and place markets being available to those users who specifically stick to wagering on horse racing results. However, there is a wider selection of more nuanced bet options found on site, too, with some examples including the ‘betting without favourite’ markets as well as forecast and tricast, which allow bettors to predict the places certain horses will finish in.

Users at Betfair can also choose to bet on the distance in which the winner will win, with this tying into the ‘lengthen your odds’ markets, too. However, one of the most nuanced betting markets on Betfair is the ‘Match Bet’ option; this presents opportunities to users to place both a back bet on the sportsbook and a lay bet on the exchange, which essentially cancels one another out. 

Above all of these horse racing betting markets, users can navigate between races in a meeting thanks to each race being divided by the times they take place. What’s more, the timeform menu on these racecards also gives additional insight into the upcoming event, giving star ratings to specific participants based on how well they are predicted to perform. 

Across its sportsbook, Betfair offers highly competitive odds, with this being the case for most markets and events available to be wagered on. For bettors who seek value when placing stakes on their favourite sports, Betfair is a strong contender in the sports betting world, with the prices of selections changing in the lead-up and during events due to the robust in-play system that the platform has. Although all of the odds on Betfair are displayed as fractions, this is something that can easily be altered in the settings menu, with users being able to alternate between decimal and American formats at will.

At the time of writing, Betfair Sportsbook gives new sign-ups a great value bonus after placing a first real-money wager. Wager £10 at odds of 2.00 (1/1) or better, and you’ll immediately receive £50 in free bets. These free bet credits must be used within 30 days of being applied. These bonus funds can be used on bet builders, accumulators and multiples, with this being applicable to any sport, including horse racing. Be mindful that Betfair only considers real money deposits via card or Apple Pay eligible for this bonus.

If you're a user who prefers to bet on multiples when it comes to racing, you will be glad to hear that Betfair offers horse racing free bets to bettors who place these types of bets on events between Monday and Friday. Depending on the qualifying wager placed, once users opt into this Betfair bonus, they may receive free bets valued between £5 and £20 to use within a 48-hour period.

The Betfair promo code for new customers is solid enough, but you’ll be pleased to know that the sportsbook offers plenty more betting promotions throughout the horse racing season. It is well-known for crediting loyal, existing customers with Betfair free bet credits ahead of major meetings like the Cheltenham Festival, Royal Ascot or the Grand National. Better still, most of these promotions do not require a Betfair bonus code to be activated. They are usually deposited directly into your Betfair Sportsbook account in the bonus balance.

It’s not uncommon for Betfair Sportsbook to encourage existing customers to bet again or make a further real-money deposit with the use of reload bonuses. There’s also a popular partnership with Rewards4Racing. You’ll receive 2,000 points in your Rewards4Racing account just for signing up via an affiliate link. You’ll then accrue one point for every £1 staked on Betfair horse racing markets via the sportsbook. It will not include any wagers placed on the Betfair Exchange.

✔ Up to £50 in free bets given through the sign-up bonus.

✘ Any reload bonus credits expire within 2 days.

One of the main betting features especially centred around horse racing at Betfair is their extra place races. Each day, select meetings will be labelled with an orange arrow, indicating that extra places are paid out for placing each-way bets for this event. Frequently, Betfair will also run best odds guaranteed and odd boost promotions, with these often coming around the time of major races in the horse racing calendar.

Betfair also has its own horse racing tips section on site, giving detailed analyses from industry specialists on up-and-coming races. These typically highlight trainer specialities at certain racecourses and go deep into the statistics of horses, all of which could be useful if potentially wagering on one of these races yourself.

If you are someone who likes to watch horse racing as it unfolds, Betfair has live streams available for an impressive number of races each day. These are pulled from all across the globe, with users only needing to log into their Betfair account in order to watch these as they happen. 

Although it is not accessible directly on the sportsbook side of the site, Betfair does have its own betting exchange, which bettors could potentially make use of as well. These allow users of the site to wager against one another as opposed to the bookmaker, with a handful of alternate betting options being located over on this portion of the platform.

Moving onto the payment methods provided by Betfair, there is a wide variety of these that users of the site could potentially select between. As you’d come to expect, all forms of debit cards are accepted, with these offering instant deposits and withdrawals that do not come hand in hand with any additional fees. ApplePay is another option that is especially fast in terms of processing, and the same applies to PayPal, Neteller, and Skrill. The list of payment methods at Betfair doesn’t end there either, with PaysSafeCard, Bank Transfers, and others being options. However, when it comes to bank transfers, it may take between 1 and 5 days for any transactions to go through.

Customer support for Betfair Sportsbook users is plentiful. There is a wealth of FAQs to choose from, which are designed to solve the most common queries. Although the 24/7 live chat function sounds like a useful addition, there are instances where this helpline proves slow, cumbersome and frustrating. There is a sense that the brand has outsourced its live chat support, which can sometimes make it hard to get swift responses on sensitive account issues.

On the whole, the Betfair horse racing experience has been replicated superbly from its exchange to its sportsbook. With competitive Betfair odds across all the leading UK, Irish, European, Australian and US horse racing meetings, the Betfair Sportsbook is a rock-solid option for online and mobile horse racing bettors.

✔ Expansive selection of betting markets.

✔ Slick site and mobile app that are easy to use and navigate.

✔ Live streamed horse races from across the UK, Ireland and other regions.

✔ Welcome bonus is great value, providing up to £50 in free bets.

✘ Abundance of information on the platform could confuse newbie bettors.