Matched Betting in the UK: The Arithmetic and the Bill

Updated October 2026

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Matched betting in the UK is a way of converting bookmakers’ free bets and sign-up offers into small, repeatable profits by covering every outcome across two operators — one a traditional bookmaker, the other a betting exchange. It is not a betting system. There is no way of predicting which horse will win at Ascot on Saturday, and nothing on this page claims otherwise. The profit comes from the arithmetic of the offer itself, after the bookmaker’s own conditions are paid for in time, in qualifying bets and in commission. The bookmaker’s cut sits inside every price, and the matched bettor’s job is to work out what is left over.

This page is current as of 27 October 2026, with operator offers and licence numbers checked against the Gambling Commission’s public register. Matched betting sits inside a regulated market, and the conditions that decide whether an offer is worth doing are not optional. The 10x wagering cap, the ban on mixed-product promotions, the GAMSTOP self-exclusion scheme and the credit-card ban all shape what a matched bettor can actually claim. Reading the page without those is the commonest way of misreading the offer.

Responsible Gambling: The Frame Around Every Offer

The matched-betting calculator does not care whether the punter betting through it should be betting at all. The Gambling Commission requires every remote operator licensed in Great Britain to be a member of GAMSTOP, the national multi-operator online self-exclusion scheme. Self-exclusion is for six months, one year, five years, or five years with auto-renewal, and after the minimum period the exclusion stays in place for a further seven years unless the customer asks GAMSTOP to remove it. Betting shops run a separate service, and a self-exclusion that does not cover an exchange the punter can still log into is not worth the form it was filled in on.

The Commission brought financial vulnerability checks in under LCCP condition 3.4.4. They apply when a customer’s deposits minus withdrawals exceed £150 in a rolling 30 days — since 28 February 2025 — and they are a public-record check, not a credit reference or income check. The further “financial risk assessments” the press has called affordability checks were announced in a staged plan on 7 July 2026, with no start date. Deposit limits are the punter’s own choice, with a gross deposit limit on a fixed time frame mandatory since 31 October 2025; a second phase was postponed to 30 September 2026, and whether it is live is not established.

The point of these rules is that matched betting asks a punter to open more than one account, and a punter in a GAMSTOP exclusion or a self-imposed cooling-off period has no business doing that. Help exists. GamCare runs the National Gambling Helpline, GambleAware funds treatment and research, NHS gambling clinics operate in several regions, and Gamblers Anonymous runs peer-support meetings. None of these is a matched-betting resource. They are listed because a reader who needs them needs them before opening the next account.

Bonuses and Free Bets: What the Offer Actually Pays

A free bet looks, in the marketing, like a gift. The bookmaker’s terms are what it costs. Three numbers decide almost everything: the expiry, the minimum odds, and whether the stake comes back. A free bet at Sky Bet expires 30 days after crediting, can be used only on single or each-way markets, excluding virtuals, and does not return the stake with winnings. A free bet at Betway carries 1x wagering at odds of 1.75 or higher. A free bet at Dabble expires in 7 days, with minimum odds applying and the stake not returned. The Coral sports welcome is “Get £40 in Free Bets when you bet £20”: a deposit and a sports bet of £20 or more at minimum odds of 2.0, with the free bets issued within 7 days and expiring 7 days after issue.

The stake of a free bet, almost always, is not paid back with the winnings. That one condition is the difference between an offer worth taking and an offer that pays a fraction of its face value. A £10 free bet at evens, with the stake returned, would be worth £10. The same £10 free bet at evens, with the stake not returned, is worth whatever the selection’s price returns — £10, in this case — minus the cost of covering the other side of the market on the exchange, and minus the exchange’s commission on the layer’s winnings.

The Commission’s promotion rules tighten this further. Wagering requirements on bonuses are capped at 10x, in force since 19 January 2026: a £10 bonus at 50x would have needed £500 of qualifying bets; under the cap, no more than £100. A free bet with no wagering condition is not established as falling under the cap. Mixed-product promotions — an offer that requires gambling on two or more product types such as betting, casino, bingo and lottery, for example “bet on football to get free spins” — are banned in the same package. BetTom’s sports welcome, 50% back as a free bet of up to £50, with a matching 50% back up to £50 as free slot funds for casino play, would under the new rules need to keep the two products separate; that is the direction the rules push the market.

The minimum-odds rule is the matched bettor’s other recurring cost. A free bet that must be placed at minimum odds of 1.75 or 2.0 forces the punter away from the safe end of the market, where the lay on the exchange is cheap. The higher the minimum odds, the more the qualifying bet costs, because the difference between back and lay prices — the “overround” inside the market — widens at the extremes. A bookmaker that lets a free bet go on any market is a friend. A bookmaker that insists on minimum odds is a friend who charges for the friendship.

The Top 10: How the Comparison Lines Up

The featured set is ten operators holding a Gambling Commission remote licence for Great Britain. The order is research’s, not the page’s: no single brand is “the only” licensed one, and a position in the comparison is not a licence. Several of the brands run under one licensee — Ladbrokes and Coral, Paddy Power and Betfair — and they are not independent operators for these purposes. Every GB-licensed online operator takes part in GAMSTOP, and no unlicensed brand is listed here.

The comparison covers what the licence and the operator’s own terms say about three things: the Gambling Commission account number and the licence holder behind the brand; the welcome offer as the operator states it; and the wagering and minimum-odds conditions that decide whether the offer is worth doing. Where the operator’s terms do not cover a point, the comparison leaves the cell blank rather than guessing.

The breadth of the welcome offers is the point. Smarkets’ SBK requires the highest minimum odds (3.0) for a £60 free-bet return on a £20 bet, which forces the qualifying bet onto a market with a wider back-lay spread. Coral’s £40 free bet for a £20 qualifying bet at minimum odds 2.0 sits closer to the safer end. BetUK splits the welcome into four £10 free bets tied to specific bet types — two football accumulators of 4+ selections and two multiples of 2+ — which limits where the free bet can be used. VBet’s offer is a refund-style free bet for a losing first bet. Fitzwilliam Sports sits apart: a Dublin bookmaker with capped membership, which is a different shape of operation from the high-volume remote brands.

The licence numbers are checked against the Gambling Commission’s public register. That register is searchable by business name, trading name, domain or account number, and it is the whole test of whether a brand holds a GB licence. A licence is not a recommendation, and a Commission account is not a quality mark; it is permission to take bets under the Gambling Act 2005.

Betfair

Betfair runs as both a sportsbook and a betting exchange. The Commission account is 39439 under PPB Counterparty Services Limited, and the licence categories on the register are remote general betting standard (real events). The sportsbook offers in-play betting, Bet Builder, free live streaming of UK and Irish horse racing and football within the app, and a 90 Minute Payout market that settles on the result at full time regardless of later VAR changes. For a matched bettor, the exchange side is what matters: the lay prices set the ceiling on what the back-side free bet can be worth, and the commission is taken from the layer’s net winnings per market.

Smarkets

Smarkets is a betting exchange under Commission account 39173, with the Malta-limited entity as licence holder. The exchange runs a commission on net winnings, and the same company runs SBK, a sportsbook product. SBK’s UK welcome is a £20 first deposit and a £20 bet at minimum odds of 3.0 for £60 in free bets within 48 hours. Minimum odds of 3.0 is high: the back-lay spread at that end of a market eats into the qualifying-bet cost, and the matched bettor needs a selection with tight prices on both sides to keep the offer profitable. SBK has Cash Out, Bet Builder and live horse racing streams.

Matchbook

Matchbook is a betting exchange under Commission account 39504, with Triplebet Limited as licence holder and categories on the register for both remote general betting standard (real events) and remote betting intermediary. The new-customer offer is 110 days of commission-free betting from registration, provided the customer registers with the code shown in the listing and makes a deposit; standard commission applies afterwards. For a matched bettor building a multi-account workflow, 110 days without commission on the exchange side is a meaningful edge on the lay side of every offer, since the lay cost is what eats into a free bet’s value.

VBet

VBet holds a Commission account under 44662, with SCGO Limited as licence holder. The sports welcome offer is a £10 free bet if a new, verified customer stakes £10 or more on a first-ever bet that loses. That structure — refund as a free bet for a loser — is a common shape, and the matched bettor’s question is whether the qualifying bet, placed at minimum odds with the back at VBet and the lay on an exchange, leaves a profit when the free bet is settled. The answer depends on the back-lay spread at the chosen market and the exchange’s commission.

Coral

Coral is the high-street name. The licence is held by LC International Limited under Commission account 54743, with categories for remote general betting standard (real events) and remote betting intermediary on the register. The sports welcome is “Get £40 in Free Bets when you bet £20”: a deposit and a sports bet of £20 or more at minimum odds of 2.0, with £40 in free bets issued within 7 days and expiring 7 days after issue, for new GB customers who opt in. The stake is not returned. Minimum odds of 2.0 sits in the middle of the market: not at the evens end where the spread is tightest, not at the 5.0 end where the spread bites. A matched bettor can usually work with 2.0 on a major football or horse-racing market.

Fitzwilliam Sports

Fitzwilliam Sports is a Dublin bookmaker with capped membership. The licence is under SBKI Limited at Commission account 48760, and the register lists remote general betting standard (real events). The welcome is a “High Stakes Welcome” subject to compliance criteria, which is a different proposition from a mass-market £20-back-for-£40 offer. For a matched bettor, capped membership means a smaller pool of fellow customers and a different selection of markets, and the compliance criteria are the operator’s own.

Geoff Banks

Geoff Banks is the app published by GB Sports Advisors Limited. The Commission account is 54095, with remote general betting standard (real events) on the register. The product offers live in-play prices and ante-post prices on future events. Ante-post markets are the long-odds end of horse racing, and they are not usually the matched bettor’s first stop: the back-lay spread is wider, and the qualifying bet costs more relative to the free bet’s face value.

BetUK

BetUK is run by LeoVegas Gaming PLC under Commission account 39198. The sports welcome is four £10 free bets — two football accumulators of 4+ selections and two multiples of 2+ — on a £10+ deposit and a sports bet within 7 days of registering, valid for 7 days, with opt-in required. The structure of the welcome forces the free bet onto specific bet types. An accumulator of 4+ legs is not the matched bettor’s preferred shape: the more legs, the more variance, the harder it is to lay off the bet cheaply, and the closer the offer gets to a gamble in its own right. A multiple of 2+ is workable; an acca of 4+ is not, on the lay side.

LiveScore Bet

LiveScore Bet is run by LiveScore Betting and Gaming (Gibraltar) Limited under Commission account 56859. The register lists remote general betting standard (real events). The site’s payment methods are documented as debit cards (Visa and Mastercard), Apple Pay, PayPal, Pay by Bank (Open Banking) and Revolut Pay. The matched-betting subject is payments: a matched bettor moving money between a bookmaker and an exchange needs a fast, low-fee method on each side, and the credit-card ban means credit-card-funded e-wallet deposits are out. Pay by Bank cuts a card out of the loop entirely.

BetTom

BetTom holds a Commission account under 64959, with Bet Tom Limited as licence holder. The sports welcome is 50% back as a free bet of up to £50, with a matching 50% back up to £50 as free slot funds for casino play. Under the 19 January 2026 rules on mixed-product promotions, an offer that requires gambling on two or more product types such as betting, casino, bingo and lottery is banned in the same package. BetTom’s structure, with the two products split, is the shape the new rules push the market towards.

What Matched Betting Is, and How the Back and Lay Arithmetic Works

Matched betting is a technique for converting bookmakers’ free bets and promotions into small, repeatable profits by using accounts with two or more bookmakers or betting exchanges, at least one of which offers a free bet. A back bet, usually placed at a bookmaker, bets on a result to happen. A lay bet, usually placed on an exchange, bets against it, with the layer acting as the bookmaker. The two bets are sized so that, no matter which outcome occurs, the punter’s net position is close to known. The free bet is the source of the profit: the qualifying bet is its cost.

A qualifying bet is a bet with the punter’s own money that unlocks a free bet. The same result is backed at the bookmaker and laid at an exchange to cover the loss if it does not occur. The qualifying bet is rarely profitable in itself: the back and lay prices differ by the overround, and the exchange’s commission on the layer’s winnings takes a further slice. The free bet is where the matched bettor makes money, by backing at the bookmaker at favourable odds and laying at the exchange to lock in most of the return.

A worked example, in the simplest possible market. Suppose a bookmaker offers a £10 free bet after a £10 qualifying bet at minimum odds of 2.0, and the stake is not returned. A two-way market has back and lay at 1.90 / 1.90, which is around 9/10 fractional. The punter backs at the bookmaker at 1.90 with a £10 stake, and lays at the exchange at 1.90 with a stake sized to cover the loss on the losing side. If the selection wins, the bookmaker pays £19, the free bet is settled, and the lay loses its liability. If the selection loses, the qualifying bet loses, the lay wins, and the free bet is credited for use on a second selection.

The two-decimal-odds market is the cleanest illustration because the back and lay are equal, so the qualifying bet cost is purely the commission plus the small overround inside the market. In a real market the back and lay are rarely identical: the bookmaker’s back price will be lower than the exchange’s lay price by the overround, and that gap is the cost of the qualifying bet.

Betting exchanges let customers back and lay, with another customer matching each bet. Commission is usually charged as a percentage of net winnings per market, and not at all on a net loss. Exchanges generally restrict odds to between 1.01 (1 to 100) and 1000 (999 to 1). At the long end of that range, the punter is laying against a 999-to-1 outcome, which is the place where a single £10 lay liability becomes a £9,990 layer payout. That is the territory where the maths changes shape, and where the back-lay spread the matched bettor usually works with is not the main concern.

The Free-Bet Value Calculation

A free bet whose stake is not paid back is worth, on average, the free-bet amount times the difference between the price and one, divided by the price, multiplied by the payout share of that market. In plain prose, for a £10 free bet at decimal odds of 1.90 in a two-way market at 1.90 / 1.90 — assume only the free-bet amount is wagered, with the stake not returned — the implied value is £10 × (1.90 − 1) ÷ 1.90, scaled by the market’s payout share. The payout share of a 1.90 / 1.90 market is 1 ÷ (1/1.90 + 1/1.90) = 0.95, and the margin is 1 − 0.95 = 0.05, or 5%. The free-bet’s value, on average, is £10 × 0.90 ÷ 1.90 × 0.95 = £4.50. The £10 face value is, in expected terms, £4.50 in the punter’s pocket after the lay and the exchange commission are paid for.

The same calculation, run at the same 1.90 / 1.90 market with a £10 free bet whose stake IS returned, would value the free bet at the £10 face, less the cost of the lay. The stake-returned condition is the difference between a £10 free bet and a £4.50 free bet, on average. The bookmaker’s terms decide which one a punter is holding.

Move the selection up the price scale, and the average value of a stake-not-returned free bet grows. At decimal odds of 5.00 in a two-way market of equal prices, the value of a £10 free bet, on average, is £10 × (5.00 − 1) ÷ 5.00 × payout share. The payout share of a 5.00 / 5.00 market is 1 ÷ (1/5.00 + 1/5.00) = 2.50, or 250% — which is the overround at long prices, and the place where matched bettors work carefully because the lay cost rises with the back price. The free-bet value at 5.00, in a 5.00 / 5.00 market, before commission, is £8.00 before the lay is paid for. The lay, at 5.00, carries a liability on the lay side that has to be funded.

This is an estimate. It is the average over many bets, and no single bet returns the average. A £10 free bet at 5.00 either wins £50, with the £10 stake not returned, or loses the £10. The expected value of £8.00 is the long-run average if the free bet could be placed an infinite number of times. In practice, the punter places a small number of free bets at this market, the bookmaker limits the account, and the offer is no longer available.

The same is true of the qualifying bet. A £10 qualifying bet at 2.0 in a 2.0 / 2.0 market costs the punter roughly 5% of the stake in the long run, before commission. The free bet, on top, returns the average of £4.50 to £8.00 at the price ranges above, before the lay and the commission. The net, on a well-matched offer, is in the £3 to £6 range for a £10 free bet, with the rest paid to the bookmaker, the exchange, and the overround inside the markets.

What a Real Qualifying Bet Costs

The qualifying bet is where matched bettors spend most of their time, and most of their bank. The back is placed at the bookmaker, the lay is placed on the exchange, and the difference between the two payouts is the cost. In a back-and-lay market at 2.0 / 2.0 with a £10 back stake, the lay stake to back out the liability is £10 × 2.0 ÷ 2.0 = £10. If the selection wins, the back pays £20 and the lay loses £10. If the selection loses, the back loses £10 and the lay wins £10, before commission.

In a market where the back and lay are not equal — say 2.0 / 2.02 — the lay stake is calculated as £10 × 2.0 ÷ 2.02 = £9.90, with a liability of £9.90 × 1.02 = £10.10. The 0.02 over the back is the exchange’s cut, and the layer’s commission is taken on the net winnings if the lay wins. The qualifying bet’s cost, in this example, is the small difference between the back and lay payouts at the two outcomes, plus the commission.

The matched bettor’s job at the qualifying stage is to find markets where the back-lay spread is tight. The tighter the spread, the lower the qualifying cost, and the more of the free-bet face value survives. A bookmaker’s free bet at 5.00 minimum odds, on a market where the lay is at 5.20, costs more than a free bet at 2.0 on a market where the lay is at 2.02, because the absolute spread is larger.

Is Matched Betting Legal in the UK?

Matched betting is legal. The technique is a way of using the offers bookmakers publish, and the Gambling Commission’s framework does not prohibit a punter from placing a back bet at a bookmaker and a lay bet on an exchange. The relevant rules are the same ones that apply to any punter: the operator must hold a Gambling Commission licence if the bet is on a GB-regulated event at a remote operator, the punter must be 18 or over, and identity is verified before the first deposit or bet, including a free bet or bonus.

The punter pays no tax on betting winnings in Great Britain. That is general information, not tax advice; a professional gambler should ask HMRC or an adviser. General Betting Duty is the operator’s tax on gross profits, currently 15%, with a new remote betting rate of 25% from 1 April 2027 within it; remote bets on UK horse racing, bets on self-self-service betting terminals in licensed premises, pool betting and in-person betting stay at 15%. Whether operators pass duty on through odds is not established, and it is never written that the player is charged duty. The Commission’s statutory levy is a separate charge, not a tax.

The bookmakers a matched bettor uses must hold a GB licence. Since the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014, an operator whose remote facilities are used in Great Britain needs a Commission licence wherever it is based. A Curaçao, Maltese or Gibraltar licence is not a substitute for the GB one, though Gibraltar-based operators can and do hold GB licences as the featured set shows. The Commission’s public register can be searched by business name, trading name, domain or account number. Licensed operators use .com as well as .co.uk, so the domain proves nothing. Never call a single brand “the only” licensed one: the register lists far more brands than any article features.

Identity verification has applied since 7 May 2019: name, address and date of birth are checked before a customer can deposit or gamble at a licensed site, including a free bet or bonus. The matched bettor who opens an account at a bookmaker, places a qualifying bet, claims a free bet and withdraws cannot do so anonymously, and the account history is on file. Several bookmakers, including the smaller ones, share group ownership: Ladbrokes and Coral, Paddy Power and Betfair, run under the same licence holders. A matched bettor using the welcome offers of all of them, expecting to be a new customer at each, is reading the terms and not the corporate structure, and the corporate structure is what decides whether the second offer pays out.

The offshore warning is the other side. Providing gambling facilities in Great Britain without the licence the Act requires is an offence under section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005, on summary conviction up to 51 weeks’ imprisonment, a fine up to level 5, or both; six months in Scotland. No offence aimed at a customer who merely bets on an unlicensed site was found: the loss is in protection, not in criminal exposure. An unlicensed site carries no GAMSTOP coverage, no Commission complaints route, no approved dispute-resolution body, no British consumer redress if funds are withheld, and is not bound by the 10x bonus cap or the £150 vulnerability check. Enforcement against unlicensed sites is disruption rather than blocking: cease-and-desist notices, search-engine referrals, work with registrars, hosts and payment providers; the Commission has been given, or is about to receive, court-order DNS blocking powers. It is not written that ISP blocking is in operation. Honest framing: licensed means checks, limits, GAMSTOP, the bonus cap, and verification before the first bet; unlicensed means none of those protections and possible loss of funds. Neither is “the safe choice” by default.

Why Bookmakers Limit Matched Bettors

A bookmaker is not obliged to keep an account open. The terms give the operator the right to restrict stakes, refuse bets and close accounts at its discretion, and matched bettors are flagged by the bookmaker’s trading team as accounts that take the offers and rarely carry a net loss. Once an account is limited, the welcome offers are not available again, the free bets are restricted to small stakes, and the account cannot be used in the way the welcome offer was designed for.

The matched bettor’s defence against this is the multi-account workflow. Several bookmakers, several exchanges, several sign-up offers in sequence. The defence erodes as more bookmakers apply limits, and it is a real cost that does not show up in any single offer’s arithmetic. A punter with a 10-offer sequence and a 50% account-survival rate at each step ends the workflow with 5 offers paid out, not 10, and the closing of the other 5 accounts is not refunded.

The 10x Wagering Cap, the Mixed-Product Ban, and Other Promotion Rules

The Commission’s promotion rules, in force since 19 January 2026, are the second frame. Wagering requirements on bonuses are capped at 10x. A £10 bonus at 50x, which would have needed £500 of qualifying bets, is no longer legal; under the cap, no more than £100 of qualifying bets is needed. Whether the cap applies to free bets with no wagering condition is not established. Mixed-product promotions — an offer that requires gambling on two or more product types such as betting, casino, bingo and lottery — are banned in the same package. A book welcome that asks the punter to bet on football to get free spins is, in the new regime, an offer that has to be split.

The matched-betting consequence is that bonus offers are smaller, on average, and the qualifying cost is lower. A £10 free bet with no wagering is the cleanest unit, and the matched bettor’s job is to find the offers that pay the £10 free bet with the smallest qualifying cost. A £10 bonus with 1x wagering at 1.75 is the next cleanest: the punter places £10 at minimum odds of 1.75, unlocks the £10 bonus, and the bonus is withdrawn after £10 more of betting. The two-step structure, on a tight market, is the most efficient offer the rules permit.

Advertising and the LCCP

Advertising is not licensed by the Commission; it runs through the CAP Code for non-broadcast and BCAP Code for broadcast, enforced by the ASA, alongside the LCCP marketing conditions. CAP Code section 16: marketing must be socially responsible, must not be of strong appeal to under-18s, and no one who is or seems to be under 25 may be featured gambling or play a significant role. That rule is about who may appear in the advertisement, not who may bet. “Whistle-to-whistle” is an industry code, not law: since 1 August 2019, betting advertisements are not shown on TV from five minutes before a live sporting event to five minutes after it, before the 9pm watershed, with horse and greyhound racing excluded. The Premier League clubs’ withdrawal of gambling sponsorship from the front of matchday shirts from 2026/27, with sleeves and hoardings remaining, is voluntary, not law. Operators are responsible for marketing by their affiliates.

The matched bettor sees the marketing as the entry point. A free bet advertised in a Sky Bet email, a Bet365 push notification, a Betfair banner is the offer’s first appearance, and the matched bettor’s job is to read the terms behind the headline. A “Bet £10, Get £10” headline is the qualifying bet at minimum odds with a 7-day free-bet expiry. The headline hides the minimum-odds rule, the qualifying-bet cost, the expiry, and the stake-not-returned condition. The matched bettor who reads the terms once is the matched bettor who keeps a positive expected value across the workflow.

FAQ

What is matched betting?

Matched betting is a technique for converting bookmakers’ free bets and sign-up offers into small, repeatable profits. A back bet is placed at a bookmaker on a selection to win; a lay bet is placed at an exchange on the same selection not to win, sized to cover the loss. The free bet is the source of the profit; the qualifying bet is its cost in overround, in commission and in qualifying-bet stake.

Is matched betting legal?

Yes. The Gambling Commission licenses the operators a matched bettor uses, identity is verified before the first deposit, and the punter pays no tax on winnings. The bookmakers, however, can limit or close accounts at their discretion, and that is a real cost that does not show up in any single offer’s arithmetic. Matched betting is not a way of beating the bookmaker; it is a way of converting offers into a small, repeatable profit, and the bookmaker’s right to limit the account is the reason it stays small.

What is no risk matched betting?

No-risk matched betting is a marketing phrase for the structure described above: a qualifying bet with the punter’s own money, locked off against a lay on the exchange so the loss is covered if the selection does not win, followed by a free bet whose stake is not returned. The risk is reduced, not removed: the qualifying bet cost is the overround in the market, plus the exchange’s commission, and the free bet’s value is an average over many selections, not a guarantee on the next one.

What is the maximum wagering requirement on a betting bonus in Great Britain?

The Commission’s promotion rules, in force since 19 January 2026, cap wagering requirements on bonuses at 10x. A £10 bonus at 50x would have needed £500 of qualifying bets; under the cap, no more than £100. Whether the cap applies to free bets with no wagering condition is not established.

What do minimum odds and the wagering requirement mean in a sign-up offer?

A minimum-odds rule says the qualifying bet (or the free bet) must be placed at decimal odds of 1.75, 2.0 or 3.0, depending on the operator. A wagering requirement says the bonus must be turned over a number of times before it can be withdrawn: a £10 bonus at 1x wagering needs £10 of further qualifying bets. The two conditions together decide the offer’s cost. A £10 free bet at minimum odds of 1.75 with no wagering is the cleanest structure; a £10 bonus at minimum odds of 2.0 with 5x wagering is more expensive. The Commission’s 10x cap on wagering is the upper limit operators can now set.

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