The best Cheltenham betting offers and free bets 2023
The Cheltenham Festival is the biggest, best and most competitive jumps meeting in the world and is just as competitive for bookies and their fantastic new customer offers. The sites listed below are our top recommendations:
- Paddy Power – Brilliant daily Festival offers
- bet365 – Reliably strong odds
- Betfred – Favourite for Lucky 15s and multiples
- 888sport – Great rewards if you back winners
- Unibet – Great for daily odds boosts
- Betway – The best free racing game around
- Virgin Bet - Brilliant daily specials
The biggest races at the Cheltenham Festival 2023
A Grade 1 race is the elite level of competition for National Hunt horses and there are 14 of them at next year’s Cheltenham Festival. The most prestigious among these will always be the following four contests, which are the feature races across the four days of the meeting.
Champion Hurdle (Tuesday) The championship race for two-mile hurdlers, Tuesday’s main event saw another enthralling race with the main standout, Honeysuckle, victorious once again.
Honeysuckle was ridden fantastically once again by Rachael Blackmore and came out on top ahead of Epatante and Zanahiyr. Her unbeaten record stands at 15 victories after her win and she will now be red-hot favourite to complete a hat-trick in the 2023 race.
Queen Mother Champion Chase (Wednesday) Often the most thrilling of Festival races, the Queen Mother Champion Chase featured the end of Shishkin’s flawless career record with Energumene claiming glory.
Easy-as-you-like 2021 Arkle winner Shishkin struggled on the testing ground and was pulled up. Energumene powered home under Paul Townend, comfortably beating Funanbule Sivola and Envoi Allen. Shishkin became the first odds-on favourite to lose at this year’s Cheltenham Festival.
Stayers’ Hurdle (Thursday) The championship event for three-mile hurdlers was claimed once again by Flooring Porter who retained the crown with a quite incredible run. Gavin Cromwell’s charge, ridden by Danny Mullins, was never seriously challenged as he came home 2 ¾ lengths clear of Thyme Hill, with 2019 winner Paisley Park completing the first three.
The Cheltenham Gold Cup (Friday) The biggest race of the week and the second-biggest National Hunt race in the British sporting consciousness behind the Grand National. The Gold Cup is a far classier affair than the Aintree race, with the best staying chasers doing battle over 3m 2f.
A Plus Tard, ridden by Rachael Blackmore, was victorious in the 2022 edition in game style from stablemate Minella Indo and the pair are expected to battle it out again next year.
Get the latest Cheltenham Gold Cup odds and betting tips
Cheltenham Festival handicaps
Alongside the Grade 1 races at the 2023 Festival there are also nine top-quality handicap races. In these, horses carry different weights according to their ability as rated by the British Horse Racing Authority’s head of handicapping.
The different weights are there to make sure that the races are fair and competitive so there are often more big-priced winners in the Cheltenham handicaps than the Grade 1 races. The nine handicaps at the 2023 Festival are as follows:
Tuesday March 14
- 2.50 Ultima Handicap Chase, 3m 1f – Won by Corach Rambler (10/1)
- 4.50 Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle, 2m 4½f – Winner, Brazil (10/1)
Wednesday March 15
- 2.50 Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle, 2m 5f – Winner, Commander of Fleet (50/1)
- 4.50 Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Challenge Cup Handicap Chase, 2m ½f – Winner, Global Citizen (50/1)
Thursday March 16
- 2.10 Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle, 3m – Winner, Third Wind (25/1)
- 4.10 Paddy Power Plate Handicap Chase, 2m 5f – Winner, Coole Cody (22/1)
- 5.30 Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Handicap Chase, 3m 2f
Friday March 17
- 2.10 McCoy Contractors County Handicap Hurdle, 2m 1f
- 5.30 Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle, 2m 4½f
How to use your Cheltenham free bet
Once you have taken advantage of a Cheltenham Festival sign-up offer and obtained a free bet, you will need to identify which horse to place your money on.
Will you use your free bet to increase your stake on your biggest Festival fancy? Or maybe use it as a free hit on the long shot that might just surprise everyone?
Looking for expert advice? Our Cheltenham Festival hub is your home for brilliant Festival tipping content in the build up to and throughout the best jumps meeting in the world.
Types of Cheltenham offers and free bets
Free bets
The most common Cheltenham Festival new customer offer is the free bet. While widely referred to as ‘free’, these bets usually require new customers to make a qualifying deposit before they are awarded.
However, once this has been done (following any terms and conditions around the offer), bettors are left with a bet stake that they wouldn’t otherwise have had.
Knowing which bookmakers you can sign up with to earn Cheltenham free bets should be part of every Festival betting strategy.
Why? Taking advantage of several new customer offers means you can limit the amount of your own money you stake, while still having the chance to bet on all your Cheltenham fancies.
Huge odds-on hot favourites
Rather than giving you a free bet, bookmakers will sometimes offer unusually attractive odds on Cheltenham Festival favourites regarded as borderline unbeatable.
However, the maximum stake you can place at the inflated odds is usually limited, with the rest of your winnings usually paid out in free bets.
No-lose bets
Some bookmakers will offer risk-free bets in their Cheltenham offers rather than free bets. No-lose bets tend to require you to place a bet, then, if you don’t manage to win it, your stake will be refunded up to a maximum amount (either as cash or as a free bet).
Bet-through-the-card offers
This type of offer generally requires you to place a bet on the first race of the day – in return you get free bets for every other race at Cheltenham on the day in question. A modest first bet can set you up to bet on the rest of the day at the Festival for no extra outlay – this is usually six free bets.
These are four of the most common genres of Cheltenham Festival offers for new customers. Bookmakers are always coming up with new ones as they duke it out for new sign-ups in the busiest betting week of the entire year.
Ambassador-related offers and promotions
The biggest bookmakers all have brand ambassadors from within the racing world and they can team up with these trainers and jockeys to provide some really insightful content.
Nicky Henderson’s Unibet blog often shakes up the news cycle, while Betfair gives readers access to the thoughts of Paul Nicholls, Gordon Elliott and the up-and-coming Olly Murphy.
As well as insight on the Cheltenham Festival from some of the biggest names in the sport, bookmakers can serve up Cheltenham free bets and offers relating to their ambassadors’ runners and riders at the meetings.
BetVictor has already announced a superb Cheltenham betting offer related to the Festival exploits of one of its ambassadors, jockey of the moment Rachael Blackmore. Find out just what it entails by clicking their link in the section below.
Bookmakers’ Cheltenham Festival free bets
Find out more about the Cheltenham Festival offers for new and existing customers that are available at each of the following bookmakers. More Cheltenham betting sites will be added here as we get nearer to the Festival.
- bet365 Cheltenham offers
- Betfair Cheltenham offers
- Betfred Cheltenham offers
- Paddy Power Cheltenham offers
- Unibet Cheltenham offers
- William Hill Cheltenham offers
- BetVictor Cheltenham offers
- 888sport Cheltenham offers
- BoyleSports Cheltenham offers
- Tote Cheltenham offers
- Betway Cheltenham offers
- Coral Cheltenham offers
- Ladbrokes Cheltenham offers
Cheltenham Festival offers for existing customers
Sometimes it can seem like all the free bets and promotions are reserved for new customers when it comes to Cheltenham Festival offers.
However, existing account holders are treated to plenty of special concessions across the four days of the Festival too. They often take one of the following forms:
Extra each-way places
At recent Festivals each-way bettors have been treated to as many as seven places. Standard place terms for each-way betting max out at four places and that is generally only available on handicap races of 16 or more runners.
Money-back specials
Often available to existing customers on the first race of each day at the Festival, these promotions generally offer money back as a cash or a free bet for if a specified eventuality comes to pass.
This could be money back if your horse is second to the SP (starting price) favourite, if your horse falls, or even if your horse finishes second, third, or fourth.
Considering which horses the bookmakers appear to be “taking on” with these offers adds to the intrigue of the Festival. Is their scepticism warranted? Or will the favourite oblige?
