The betting exchange Betfair is easily the most popular UK betting site with a reported turnover in excess of fifty milion pounds per week. Although person to person betting isn't popular with every type of punter they currently offer a free bet of £25.
Click Here to open an account with Betfair - £25 Free Bet
Betfair person to person betting has in a very short time revolutionised the gambling industry in the UK. All Betting with Betfair is placed there by users who either want to have a bet in the normal way (back), or offer odds to other punters (lay). Bets are matched between people with opposing views. The Betting Exchanges like Betfair take a small commission between 2-5% from the winners winnings. The major benefit for the punter is that they can achieve better odds of up to 20%. Betfair offers a market on most of the major events worldwide and its in-running markets are generally very strong.
Betfair is the trading name of The Sporting Exchange Ltd.
The Sporting Exchange Limited was founded in August 1999 by Andrew Black and Edward Wray. The technology used by The Sporting Exchange Limited is proprietary and, as well as being protected by copyright, is the subject of several patent applications that have been filed with various jurisdictions.
The Sporting Exchange Limited is located in the United Kingdom and operates within the confines of the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act 1963. It holds a bookmakers permit in England and Wales.
When you "back" a selection (be it an individual, a team, horse, dog or other), you are betting that it will win. This is just like betting with Online Bookmakers.
When you "lay" it, you are betting against it winning. For example, if you're betting in a market on who is going to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup and you lay Best Mate, you offer odds to other punters who wish to back Best Mate. If Best Mate doesn't win, then you pick up the backer's stake. If Best Mate wins, then you pay out. This is what bookmakers traditionally do. You never know who you are betting against, your privacy and the confidentiality of your bets is maintained by the Betting Exchange.
With Betfair there is always a choice of what odds to accept. If you want better odds than are currently available, you can place an order for a better price, but be realistic because there has to be somebody prepared to lay the bet at those odds, and vice versa. Take a look at the odds before a race and you will see them change as visitors back and lay their bets. The Betting Exchange odds often improve nearer to the off, as there are more people in the market.
| Paddy Power | Paddy Power £250 Free Bet |
|---|---|
| Ladbrokes | Ladbrokes £200 Free Bet |
| Boylesports | Boylesports £20 Free Bet |
| William Hill | William Hill £25 Free Bet |
| Sportingbet | Sportingbet £10 Free Bet |
| Bet365 | Bet365 £200 Free Bet |
| VCBet | VCBet £125 Free Bet |
Paddy Power are our firm number one choice for your Cheltenham Festival bets. When you open an account with Paddy Power you can claim a free bet of upto £250.
When the racing starts in March many of the listed bookmakers on our site provide special betting markets and cashback offers. As soon as these are revealed we will be adding them to our site to ensure you have all the latest Cheltenham offers at your disposal.
Ladbrokes are offering (all new punters using their site) a free bet worth £200 if when you open your account your first bet is for £100.

Following on from last year, we are delighted to announce that we are featuring horse racing tips from Channel Four Racing presenter, Tom Lee. Tom appears on Channel 4's Morning Line and covers live Racing in the afternoon as well fronting RTE's Racing coverage in Ireland, his Cheltenham Festival Tips and previews of each day's Racing will be available during the Festival and supported with opinions and views from our Racing writers.
On this section you can get an overview of the each of the races and official going for each day of the festival. In addition we have previewed each race with all the form, tips and odds to assist you in backing a Cheltenham Festival winner.

We now have the latest antepost betting odds for the main Cheltenham Festival 2010 races. These odds are updated regularily to ensure that you in touch with all the market moves in the build up to the festival.
All the bookmakers will be putting up Special Offers on top of their Cheltenham Festival free bets for the festival. Generally you can get extra value with various cashback offers should your horse finish second or if it falls which are just a couple of the different types of offers you will find on this site during the Cheltenham Festival Races.
For those of you who do not have accomodation or tickets for the 2011 Cheltenham Festival, we have some useful tips to assist you in having a great week at Prestbury Park. Wheter you are looking for Cheltenham Festival accomodation or Cheltenham Racecourse Directions we should be able to help.