Free bet offers: how the mechanics actually work

How free bets work and what the operator actually provides

A free bet is a wager where the operator provides the stake. You pick the selection, the operator puts up the money, and if the bet wins you collect the profit. What the operator provides and what you keep from a winning bet are two different things, and the gap between them defines the real value of the offer.

Stake-not-returned: the mechanic most people miss

The vast majority of free bets from UK-licensed sportsbooks operate on a stake-not-returned (SNR) basis. This means that when the free bet wins, you receive the profit only. The stake the operator put up is deducted from your return before it's credited to your account.

A £10 free bet placed on a selection at 4/1 (5.0 decimal) generates a gross return of £50. Under SNR mechanics, the £10 stake is deducted, so you receive £40. The £10 stake wasn't yours to begin with, so the operator reclaims it. That's not hidden: it's in the terms. But it's the single most significant factor in working out what a free bet offer is actually worth.

A much rarer variant is stake-returned (SR), where the full return including the operator's stake is credited if the bet wins. On the same 4/1 example, you'd receive £50 rather than £40. Stake-returned free bets are worth meaningfully more at any given odds. When an offer doesn't specify, assume SNR until you've read the terms.

What SNR means for the effective value of a free bet

SNR mechanics mean the effective value of a free bet is always less than its face value. How much less depends on the odds you place it on.

At short odds, SNR mechanics compress the return significantly. At longer odds, the stake deduction is a smaller proportion of the gross return. This is why free-bet-to-cash conversion strategies (a concept outside the scope of this page) tend to target specific odds ranges rather than using free bets at random.

How free bet winnings differ from casino bonus winnings

Casino bonuses typically generate winnings that sit in a bonus balance and must be wagered through a playthrough multiplier before withdrawal. Free bet winnings from a sportsbook operate differently. When a free bet settles as a winner, the profit (or profit plus stake on an SR offer) is usually credited directly as withdrawable cash, not as bonus funds requiring further wagering.

This is one of the structural differences between sports betting offers and casino bonus offers. There's no wagering multiplier applied to free bet winnings in the way casino bonuses work. The settlement mechanic is the constraint, not a downstream playthrough requirement. Some operators do attach withdrawal conditions to free bet credits themselves, which is covered in the qualifying bet section below.

Qualifying bet requirements: the real cost of a free bet offer

Most free bet offers aren't activated by creating an account. They're activated by placing a qualifying bet first, using your own funds. That qualifying bet is the actual cost of the offer. Understanding what makes a bet qualify, what disqualifies it, and how much it has to cost you is what determines whether the offer is worth engaging with at all.

What a qualifying bet must typically satisfy

Qualifying bet conditions vary between operators, but they generally combine several requirements that all have to be met simultaneously for the bet to trigger the free bet credit.

Minimum stake

The lowest amount you can wager to trigger the offer. A minimum stake of £10 means a £9 bet won't qualify regardless of the other conditions being met. The minimum stake amount is typically identical to the free bet amount: a '£10 free bet' usually requires a £10 qualifying bet.

Minimum odds

The qualifying bet must be placed at or above a specified price. Common minimums are 1/2 (1.5 decimal) or evens (2.0 decimal). A bet placed at shorter odds than the minimum doesn't count, even if it wins. This prevents customers from using a near-certainty outcome to unlock the free bet at minimal risk.

Eligible markets

Some operators restrict qualifying bets to specific sports, event types, or bet types. Accumulator bets may or may not qualify depending on the offer terms. In-play bets, system bets, and cashed-out bets often don't count toward a qualifying requirement. Each operator specifies which bet types are in scope.

Settlement timing

The qualifying bet usually needs to settle (win or lose) before the free bet is credited. The free bet isn't awarded when the bet is placed — it's awarded when it settles. An each-way bet that partially settles doesn't always trigger the credit until the full bet is resolved.

Why the qualifying bet is the real cost of the offer

The qualifying bet is placed at odds that carry genuine risk. Win or lose, that stake is your entry cost to the offer. If you lose the qualifying bet, you've paid £10 (or whatever the minimum stake is) to receive a £10 free bet with SNR mechanics. Even in the best case where the qualifying bet wins, you've still placed real money at risk to unlock a credit that has a lower effective value than its face amount.

Calculating the total cost of a free bet offer means accounting for the expected qualifying bet loss, not treating the qualifying bet as a free action. If the qualifying bet has a 50% chance of losing at evens odds, the expected cost is approximately £5 per free bet unlocked, assuming the operator's margin is excluded. With the margin included, the expected loss is higher.

Conditions on the free bet credit itself

Once credited, the free bet typically carries its own conditions beyond the SNR mechanic. Common restrictions include an expiry window (24 hours to 7 days is typical), a minimum odds requirement for the free bet itself (not just the qualifying bet), and a rule that the free bet must be used as a single wager rather than split across multiple bets. Some operators also restrict the markets on which the free bet can be placed, excluding in-play betting or limiting it to specific sports. These conditions are separate from and additional to the qualifying bet requirements.

Settlement mechanics: what happens when a free bet wins or loses

Settlement is where the free bet offer either delivers or doesn't. The outcome depends on whether the bet wins, how SNR mechanics apply to a winning return, and what happens to the free bet credit when the selection loses. Each of these plays out differently from placing a bet with your own money.

When the free bet loses

If the free bet selection loses, the credit is gone. You don't lose any funds from your own balance because the stake was the operator's. You receive nothing from the settlement. This is the simplest outcome: the free bet is consumed, and no cash changes hands in either direction. The qualifying bet you placed before this point was still a real-money wager that settled independently, win or lose.

A free bet that expires unused (runs past its validity window without being placed) is also gone. There's no extension on request for most operators, and the credit doesn't carry forward to another offer period. That expiry window is listed in the terms and applying before placing the qualifying bet is sensible.

When the free bet wins

A winning free bet under SNR mechanics generates a profit return that is credited to the account as withdrawable cash. The calculation is straightforward: (odds as decimal - 1) multiplied by the free bet stake. A £10 free bet at 3.0 decimal odds generates (3.0 - 1) x £10 = £20 in withdrawable cash. The £10 stake is not added to that figure.

Under SR mechanics, the full return is credited: odds as decimal multiplied by the free bet stake. The same £10 free bet at 3.0 decimal would return £30. The difference between SR and SNR compounds at higher odds: a £10 free bet at 10/1 (11.0 decimal) returns £100 under SR mechanics versus £90 under SNR. Both are meaningfully less likely outcomes, but the structural difference matters for any calculation of expected value from the offer.

Partial settlement and each-way free bets

Each-way free bets introduce a settlement variant that isn't always well explained in offer terms. An each-way bet is two bets in one: a win bet and a place bet. If the free bet is placed each-way, it's placed as two stakes. On an SNR offer, both the win portion stake and the place portion stake are deducted from their respective returns on settlement.

If the selection places but doesn't win, only the place portion of the free bet settles with a return. The win portion loses, and its stake is deducted. The net return on a placed selection is the place odds profit minus the place stake. Each-way free bets therefore require more careful evaluation than single free bets because the two components settle independently under the same SNR rules. Not all free bet offers allow each-way placement; this is stated in the eligible bet types section of the terms.