Sign up offers, free bets and the 10x cap: how Great Britain betting apps compare

Updated October 2026

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A sign-up offer is the first thing most bettors notice about a new bookmaker, and almost the last thing they read carefully. The headline — “bet £10, get £30” or “bet £20, get £40” — is the marketing version; the small print is the actual product. On a Great Britain betting app in 2026, that product has been quietly reshaped by the Gambling Commission’s promotion rules in force since 19 January 2026, which cap wagering requirements on bonuses at 10x and ban mixed-product offers. This page is built to help a reader compare the sign-up offers on licensed apps and decide which one fits the kind of punter they are.

Data current as of 30 October 2026 and verified against the Gambling Commission’s public register of remote betting licences.

The legal frame for a sign-up offer in Great Britain

Every app reviewed here holds a remote operating licence from the Gambling Commission, the regulator that licenses the entire commercial market in Great Britain under the Gambling Act 2005. Northern Ireland sits outside that Act and runs on older law, so a “GB licence” or “Great Britain licence” is the right frame and never one that covers Belfast or Derry. 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 incorporated; a Curaçao, Maltese or Gibraltar licence is not a substitute. The Commission’s public register is searchable by business name, trading name, domain or account number, and is the whole test of whether a brand is licensed.

A licence is not a quality mark. It says the operator has met the entry conditions and is bound by the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice, the social responsibility code and the Remote Technical Standards. It does not say the sign-up offer is generous. That judgement is the reader’s, and it begins with the small print.

Three licences matter on this page. Remote general betting standard (real events) covers fixed-odds sportsbooks. Remote general betting standard (virtual events) is a separate category and rarely relevant to a sign-up offer. Remote betting intermediary is the exchange licence — Matchbook on this list runs under it, and a different rule book applies. Financial spread betting is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, not the Commission, which is why Spreadex carries two regulators and warns that spread betting losses can exceed deposits.

What the 10x wagering cap actually does

A wagering requirement is the number of times the bonus (or, sometimes, bonus plus deposit) must be turned over before winnings become withdrawable. Before 19 January 2026, a £10 bonus could carry a 50x requirement and ask the customer to place £500 of qualifying bets to release the offer. Under the Commission’s promotion rules in force on 19 January 2026, that requirement is capped at 10x: a £10 bonus can ask for no more than £100 of qualifying bets. The cap does not say an offer must be generous; it says the grinding cannot run forever.

The second change is the ban on mixed-product promotions. An offer that requires gambling on two or more product types — “bet on football to get free spins” being the textbook example — is no longer permitted. A pure sportsbook sign-up offer is unaffected; a sports-and-casino bundle is out. The Commission has not yet settled whether the 10x cap applies to free bets with no wagering condition, and no cap on the money value of a bonus was set, so a headline of “£40 in free bets” can still appear while the rule does its narrower work on rollover-heavy offers.

The other side of the cap is a familiar one. Free bets whose stake is not returned with the winnings are not, in the technical sense, “free” — a £10 free bet at 3.0 returns £20, of which £10 is profit and £0 is the stake. That is the standard shape of a sign-up free bet on a GB-licensed app, and it sits behind every headline on this page. Where research has not said the stake is returned, the assumption is that it is not.

Responsible gambling: the part the offer never mentions

A sign-up offer is the entry point to a licensed product, and the licence is what brings the safety net with it. Four pieces of that net are worth knowing before the first qualifying bet is placed.

GAMSTOP is the national multi-operator online self-exclusion scheme, and a mandatory licence condition for every online operator in Great Britain since 31 March 2020. Self-exclusion periods are six months, one year, five years, or five years with auto-renewal; after the minimum period the exclusion stays in force for a further seven years unless the customer asks GAMSTOP to remove it. GAMSTOP covers online sites and apps. Betting shops use a separate service.

Identity and age checks are not optional. Since 7 May 2019, every customer at a GB-licensed remote operator has name, address and date of birth verified before they can deposit or gamble — including with a free bet or bonus. Anonymous play at a licensed site is impossible by design. The minimum age is 18.

Financial vulnerability checks apply once a customer’s deposits minus withdrawals cross £150 in a rolling 30 days, under LCCP condition 3.4.4 in force since 30 August 2024 and operative since 28 February 2025. The check is a public-record check (bankruptcy, county court judgments), not an income check and not a credit reference check. Wider financial risk assessments — what the press calls “affordability checks” — have been announced in a staged plan, with no start date.

Deposit limits are the customer’s tool, not a state ceiling. Operators must offer a gross deposit limit on a fixed time frame; the first changes have applied since 31 October 2025, a second phase was postponed to 30 September 2026, and whether it is live at the moment of reading is not established. There is no state-set cap on what a bettor can deposit at a GB-licensed bookmaker; the cap is the one the bettor sets.

Help exists outside the apps. GamCare runs the National Gambling Helpline, GambleAware funds treatment, NHS gambling clinics offer specialist support, and Gamblers Anonymous runs peer-support meetings. A sign-up offer is a marketing artefact; these are the network underneath it.

What a sign-up offer is, in plain language

A sign-up offer is a one-time promotion for new customers only, tied to opening an account and placing a first bet that meets stated conditions. The four shapes a reader will meet on this page are: a free bet bundle, where a first bet at a stated minimum price returns a set of free bet tokens; a matched free bet, where the operator matches a first bet to a stated ceiling; a “Bet Builder free bet” offer, where a small free bet is split across a sports bet and an acca; and a commission-free window, which is specific to betting exchanges and is the only offer on this page that does not run as a token bundle.

Every offer on a GB-licensed app carries a minimum odds line, a minimum stake, a payment-method restriction, an expiry and sometimes a market restriction. “Free bet” tokens usually have their own minimum odds and an expiry shorter than the qualifying window. The headline is the marketing layer; the qualifying line, the expiry and the minimum price are the product.

A worked example shows why the cap matters. Take Coral’s headline: “Get £40 in Free Bets when you bet £20” — a £20 sports bet at minimum odds of 2.0 (1/1), with the £40 paid as free bets within 7 days, expiring 7 days after issue, for new GB customers opting in. The £20 is real money and is the qualifying bet; the £40 is the bundle, paid in free bet tokens, stake not returned, each at a stated minimum price, gone after 7 days. There is no wagering requirement on the bonus itself, which is the shape the rules have moved the market towards. The 10x cap bites hardest on offers the page does not feature, where the small print once asked for fifty turns of the bonus before a penny was withdrawable.

Free bet, bet credit, and the stake that does not come back

The English term “free bet” is standard, and the standard is that the stake is not returned with the winnings. A £10 free bet at odds of 3.0 returns £30 on a win, of which £20 is profit; the £10 stake is gone whether the bet wins or loses. Bet credit is a similar product on a small number of apps and behaves the same way. The only offer on this page that returns the stake with the winnings is a successful real-money bet, which is not a sign-up offer at all.

A matched free bet is the same product in a different wrapper. The headline says “bet £10, get £10 in free bets” or “bet £20, get £40”; the qualifying bet is the bet the customer places with their own money, the free bets are tokens the customer receives. On a £10 qualifying bet at 2.0 that wins, the return is £20; the £20 is real money, withdrawable, with no further play required. The free bets that follow are a separate pool, with their own minimum price and their own expiry.

Minimum odds, qualifying bets and the order things happen in

A sign-up offer has a sequence, and the order matters. First, the account is opened with a deposit by a payment method the offer accepts. Then a first bet is placed at a minimum price, on a market the offer accepts, at or above the minimum stake. Then the qualifying bet settles. Then the free bets are credited, usually within hours of settlement but sometimes up to 48 hours later. Then the free bets are used, on a market and at a minimum price the free bet terms state, before the free bet expiry. Then any winnings from the free bets become withdrawable cash, with the stake not returned.

A reader who places the qualifying bet on a market the offer excludes, or at odds below the minimum, will not qualify. A reader who places the qualifying bet on a payment method the offer excludes — credit cards, certain e-wallets — will not qualify either, because credit cards have been banned for gambling in Great Britain since 14 April 2020, including credit-card-funded payments through an e-wallet. The two commonest reasons a sign-up offer does not credit are payment method and minimum price.

Accumulators, each-way bets and the products a free bet unlocks

Most free bets on this page can be used on accumulators (“accas”), and a few can be used on each-way bets. A few operators exclude multi-leg bet types — QuinnBet, for instance, allows straight accumulators but not Trixies, Patents or Yankees. A reader who sees “acca insurance” advertised should know that acca insurance refunds a stake as a free bet if one leg lets the bet down, not real money, and only under stated conditions. A reader who sees “price boost” or “enhanced odds” advertised should know that those are recurring promotions, not sign-up offers, and the conditions that govern them are stated in the app at the time of bet.

The 10 betting apps with sign-up bonuses, ranked by the choice they offer a reader

This list is the comparison the page is built around. The ranking is not a quality score; it is a map of the choices on offer in Great Britain in 2026, from the highest free bet bundle to the niche specialist, with the middle of the list covering the bulk of the market. Every app here holds a Gambling Commission remote licence and every welcome offer is described as the operator’s own terms state it.

The first thing the table says is that every cell is different. Two apps publish headline offers that are easy to compare; a third publishes headline offers in the app only; a fourth is a betting exchange with a different product entirely. A reader who wants a like-for-like comparison of headline numbers is being offered one — and a reader who wants a flat ladder from “best” to “worst” is being offered something the market does not have. The next ten sections go behind the table and lay out the choice each app opens up.

Betway — a £40 free bet bundle for new customers

Betway’s welcome offer is a clean shape: deposit and place a first bet of at least £10 at minimum odds of 2.0, and on settlement the account is credited with four £10 free bet tokens, valid for 7 days. The debit card restriction is the small print that bites first; an e-wallet-funded first deposit does not qualify, and neither does a credit card, which is banned in Great Britain anyway. The 7-day expiry is short, and on a market that is not on the Betway schedule that day the free bet can be hard to place. The bonus itself carries no wagering requirement, which is the part the 10x cap is designed to leave alone. Betway is the right pick for a punter who wants the bundle to feel mechanical — bet, settle, tokens, use them, withdraw the winnings.

Fitzdares — a premium positioning with standard payment rails

Fitzdares is the longest-established name on this list and positions itself as a premium bookmaker. Apple Pay, Mastercard and Visa are the named payment methods, with Visa withdrawals usually same-day and Mastercard withdrawals taking up to 48 hours. The welcome offer is shown in the app and governed by Fitzdares’ customer terms, which is the standard phrasing for an offer that changes periodically. A punter who values a same-day Visa withdrawal over a headline free bet amount has a real reason to pick Fitzdares; a punter chasing the largest free bet has a real reason to look elsewhere. The bookmaker’s own terms are the place to confirm the current offer before depositing.

Copybet — an acca-led bookmaker for the punter who multiplies legs

Copybet’s stand-out product is its Acca Booster, which pays up to a 100% cash bonus on accas of at least 3 selections, and its Daily Profit Boost, which runs up to 15%. Welcome offers are shown in the app, so the headline number moves; the existing-customer shape is the part that does not. A punter who bets accas of 3 or more legs several times a week is the reader the Acca Booster was written for. A punter who bets singles most weekends will feel the Acca Booster is somebody else’s product and the welcome offer is the only thing Copybet has for them that day.

BetGoodwin — a £15 bundle split across three bet types

BetGoodwin’s welcome offer is the smallest headline number on this page in money terms, but the structure is the one to watch: a £5 sports bet, a £5 acca and a £5 Sub-Cover bet. The Sub-Cover line is the part most other sign-up offers do not carry, and it rewards a punter who knows what a Sub-Cover bet is at BetGoodwin. The £10 qualifying bet is half the size of the £20 lines elsewhere, which matters for a punter whose first deposit is small. The right reader is a smaller-stake bettor who is comfortable with the acca leg and has used BetGoodwin’s product before.

DragonBet — a Welsh bookmaker built around price-matching claims

DragonBet advertises price boosts on horse racing, football and rugby, and states it will try to match or beat prices seen on other apps or websites. The welcome offer is shown in the app. The price-matching claim is the proposition; it is not a sign-up offer, and the way it operates in practice is the question a reader answers on a real race meeting. A punter who bets mostly on horse racing and rugby, and who watches price boards across several apps, is the reader the product addresses.

NetBet — a broad bookmaker with daily boosts and a Bet Builder

NetBet is the broadest bookmaker on this list by the existing-customer offer alone: Daily Boosts, Profit Boosts, free bet offers, a Bet Builder with instant dynamic odds, and sports stats for major leagues. The welcome offer is shown in the app. A punter who wants a single app for the daily rhythm of betting — a boosted price, an acca leg, a Bet Builder on a Saturday match — is the reader the product is built for.

Bet Ahoy — the smallest offer in the simplest shape

Bet Ahoy’s welcome offer is “Bet £10 & Get £10 in Free Bets”, split as a £5 sports bet and a £5 acca. It is the smallest bundle on the page in money terms, the lowest qualifying bet, and the cleanest shape: no payment-method restriction named in the offer terms, no minimum odds above the standard 1/2 floor, no third bet type to learn. A punter who wants the sign-up offer to be the least interesting part of the bookmaker, and the in-app product to do the work, is the reader Bet Ahoy fits.

Geoff Banks — a small advisory-led bookmaker

Geoff Banks’ app is published by GB Sports Advisors Limited and offers live in-play prices and ante-post prices on future events. The welcome offer is shown in the app. The “advisors” framing — Geoff Banks’ business has run as a tipping and advisory service for years — sets the tone; the product is built around an opinionated bookmaker who publishes prices on a smaller fixture list than the majors. A punter who likes following a single operator’s prices, particularly on ante-post markets, is the reader this app addresses.

Matchbook — a betting exchange with a commission-free window

Matchbook is the only betting exchange on this list and the only offer that is not a free bet bundle. The new-customer product is 110 days of commission-free betting from registration, conditional on a deposit, with standard commission applying afterwards. A betting exchange is a different product from a sportsbook: customers back and lay, and Matchbook’s commission is what funds the platform. A punter who already bets on exchanges and wants 110 days without commission is the reader this offer is for. A punter who has only bet on sportsbooks will find the mechanics unfamiliar and the welcome offer invisible.

Betboro — a matched free bet with a multi-leg requirement

Betboro’s sports welcome offer is a 100% matched free bet of up to £25 on the first qualifying wager, requiring a debit card deposit of at least £10 and a first bet of £5 to £25 with at least three selections each at 3/5 (1.60) or higher. The “at least three selections” line is the part that costs a single-bet punter; the offer excludes anyone who was going to bet on one match. A punter who already bets accas of 3+ legs several times a week is the reader the qualifying structure fits, and the matched ceiling of £25 is on the higher end of this list.

Worked calculation: what the 10x cap does to a 50x bonus

Before 19 January 2026, a £10 bonus at 50x wagering asked the customer to place £500 of qualifying bets. Under the cap, the same £10 bonus can ask for no more than £100. A reader who sees a 10x offer today is being offered the new ceiling; a reader who has not seen an offer above 10x in 2026 has not been offered the worst the market once was.

Take a £10 bonus at 10x with a 1.5 (1/2) minimum price, a 7-day expiry, and an average market margin of 5%. The required turnover is £10 × 10 = £100. The number of qualifying bets at a £10 stake is 100 ÷ 10 = 10. The expected cost of clearing the bonus, at a 5% market margin, is £100 × 5% = £5. The expected value of the bonus to the punter depends on the bonus type; for a free bet whose stake is not returned, value is the free bet amount times the price minus one, divided by the price, multiplied by the market payout share. For a £10 free bet at 3.0, the value is £10 × (3.0 − 1) ÷ 3.0 × 0.95 = £6.33, against an expected clearing cost of £5 on the wagering path; for a no-wagering free bet, the £5 clearing cost does not apply.

The cap is a ceiling, not a floor. The arithmetic shows what an offer at the cap looks like under one set of assumptions; an offer below the cap is better, an offer above the cap is not legal. The result is a band — expected cost of clearing a 10x bonus at typical margins of 4–7% lies between roughly £4 and £7 on a £100 turnover, with the expected value of the bonus depending on whether it is a free bet (stake not returned) or a cash bonus (stake returned). The cap moves the band downward and binds it; it does not eliminate the cost of clearing.

How the rest of the market compares on the same rails

The table at the top of this section covers the ten apps the page is built around. The wider GB-licensed market includes well-known names whose welcome offers and product shapes are worth knowing about, even though they are not in this list. The same legal frame applies: Gambling Commission remote licence, GAMSTOP membership, no credit card deposits, identity verified before the first bet.

Coral and Unibet both run “Get £40 in Free Bets when you bet £20” — Coral’s terms name a £20 sports bet at minimum odds of 2.0, free bets issued within 7 days and expiring 7 days after issue, qualifying with a debit card or instant bank transfer; Unibet’s terms mirror the headline with a debit card or instant bank transfer restriction and a 7-day expiry. bet365 carries Bet Builder+, Super Boosts, Winnings Boosts on Bet Builders and selected singles, and daily Bet Boosts. Sky Bet’s welcome offer is £30 in free bets, credited as three £10 tokens after a first single or each-way bet of at least 5p at odds of 1/1 or greater. BoyleSports runs £20 in free bets for a £10 bet for UK players. BetVictor offers regular price boosts, acca offers and free bets on selected events. Spreadex offers £60 in free bets for a £10 fixed-odds bet, with a 28-day qualifying window and a minimum price of 1/2. Kwiff runs a Supercharge feature that can boost the odds on a bet, for example from 2/1 to 20/1, plus a Bet Builder+ that combines Bet Builder bets from different games. William Hill runs a Football Acca Boost of up to 200% on 20+ legs. QuinnBet issues free bets with a 7-day expiry and a minimum price of 1/2, allowing straight accumulators but not Trixies, Patents or Yankees. SBK, the Smarkets sportsbook, offers £60 in free bets for a £20 first deposit and £20 bet at minimum odds of 3.0. Star Sports and DAZN Bet round out the long tail. The pattern is the same shape: qualifying bet at a minimum price, free bet tokens, short expiry, stake not returned, the only variation is the size of the bundle and the conditions around it.

What the marketing terms actually mean

“Free bet” — a token whose stake is not returned with winnings. “Risk-free bet” — a marketing phrase, not a Commission term; the typical structure is a free bet refund if the first bet loses, with the refund paid as a free bet, not cash. “Best odds guaranteed” — a horse racing concession that pays the starting price if it is higher than the price taken. “Enhanced odds” or “price boost” — a one-off uplift on a named selection, governed by the operator’s terms on the day. “Acca insurance” — a refund of stake as a free bet if one leg of an accumulator lets the bet down, under stated conditions. “Cash out” — settling a bet before the event finishes, at a price the operator sets; the operator is not obliged to offer it and bets stand if it is not available.

A reader who knows these terms can read a sign-up offer in plain English. A reader who does not will read “risk-free” and believe it.

The offshore question, and what a GB licence actually buys

A GB licence is compulsory at the point of consumption. Providing gambling facilities in Great Britain without the licence the Act requires is an offence under section 33 of the Gambling Act 2005 — aimed at the operator, with penalties of up to 51 weeks’ imprisonment, a level 5 fine, or both (six months in Scotland). No offence aimed at a customer who bets on an unlicensed site was found in the framework this page reads from. The Commission disrupts unlicensed sites through cease-and-desist notices, search-engine referrals, work with registrars, hosts and payment providers, and court-order DNS blocking powers that have been given or are about to be. ISP blocking of unlicensed sites is not in operation at the time of writing.

A GB licence buys a specific bundle of protections. GAMSTOP coverage means self-exclusion works across the licensed market. The Commission’s complaints route exists if a licensed operator withholds funds unfairly. An approved dispute-resolution body (the Independent Betting Adjudication Service, until its closure in late 2024, and the Commission thereafter) hears disputes. The 10x bonus cap applies, the £150 financial vulnerability check applies, the credit card ban applies, the LCCP social responsibility code applies. The licensed punter pays no tax on winnings; the operator pays General Betting Duty.

An unlicensed site offers none of these. No GAMSTOP coverage, no Commission complaints route, no approved dispute-resolution body, no British consumer redress if funds are withheld, no 10x bonus cap, no £150 vulnerability check, no identity-verification floor. The licensed punter is verified before the first deposit, which is the cost of the protections; the unlicensed punter is not. Neither choice is “the safe choice” by default; the choice is between a regulated market with friction and an unregulated market without it.

Tax, payments and the small print that does not change

The punter pays no tax on betting winnings in Great Britain. General Betting Duty is the operator’s tax on gross profits and is currently 15%, with a new remote betting rate of 25% from 1 April 2027 within it; UK horse racing bets, self-service betting terminal bets, pool betting and in-person betting stay at 15%. Until 1 April 2027 the remote rate is 15%, and whether operators pass duty on through odds is not established. Spread betting has its own rates — 3% on financial spread betting, 10% on other spread betting — and Spreadex is the only brand on this page that runs it.

Credit cards have been banned for gambling in Great Britain since 14 April 2020, including credit-card-funded payments through an e-wallet. Debit cards, bank transfers and a long list of e-wallets remain; the exact list is the operator’s. Identity verification before the first deposit is the law, and source-of-funds questions at higher spend are normal under the money-laundering rules. A British named-account rule, a state list of permitted payment methods and any rule for or against cryptocurrency deposits at licensed operators are not established; the way to find out is the operator’s payment page.

The criterion that matters most: which reader are you

The ten apps on this page are not ten points on a single scale; they are ten points on several. A punter who values a large headline free bet has Betway, Betboro and the £60 line at Spreadex as the natural picks. A punter who values a small clean sign-up offer has Bet Ahoy, BetGoodwin and Coral/Unibet’s £40 line. A punter who bets accas most weekends has Copybet and Betboro. A punter who bets horse racing ante-post has Geoff Banks and DragonBet. A punter who already bets on exchanges has Matchbook. A punter who wants a daily rhythm of boosted prices and a Bet Builder has NetBet. A punter who wants a same-day withdrawal has Fitzdares.

A reader who has only ever used one bookmaker and is opening a second account is, in practical terms, the reader every welcome offer on this page was written for. The question is not “which is best” but “which fits the way I already bet”. A £40 free bet bundle is the wrong product for a punter who only bets on singles; a £10 free bet on a 3-leg acca is the wrong product for a punter who only bets on horse racing. The market has more than one sign-up offer because the market has more than one punter.

A short checklist before the first qualifying bet

Confirm the licence on the Commission’s public register by business name or account number. The licence is the entry ticket; the small print is the product.

Check the payment method. Credit cards are out. Some offers exclude e-wallets. The deposit that qualifies is the deposit that meets the offer’s terms, not the deposit that is most convenient.

Check the minimum odds on the qualifying bet. A £20 bet at 1.8 does not qualify a £20 bet at 2.0 offer. The minimum price is the most common reason a sign-up offer does not credit.

Check the minimum stake and the maximum stake on the free bet. Some offers cap the free bet at a stated amount; a qualifying bet above the ceiling does not produce a larger free bet.

Check the expiry on the free bet. A 7-day expiry is the standard; a 48-hour expiry exists at the short end. A free bet that expires before a fixture the punter wants to use it on is a free bet that does not get used.

Check the markets the free bet is valid on. Some free bets are sportsbook-wide, others are restricted to accas, others to specific sports. The free bet is the wrong size if the market is wrong.

The checklist is six lines because the offer is six lines. The rest of the page is the rest of the choice.

What changes between 2026 and the date the punter reads this

The 10x cap and the mixed-product ban are in force on the date of writing. The financial vulnerability check at £150 of net deposits in 30 days is in force. The credit card ban is in force. The remote betting rate of 25% from 1 April 2027 is announced. The Premier League clubs’ withdrawal of gambling sponsorship from the front of matchday shirts from 2026/27 is announced. The second phase of the deposit limit rules, postponed to 30 September 2026, is announced; whether it is live is not established. The Commission’s staged plan for wider financial risk assessments is announced, with no start date. The welcome offers above are the welcome offers on the dates research captured them; the headline may have moved by the time a reader opens the app.

Two things do not change. The licence requirement for any operator taking remote bets from customers in Great Britain does not change. The punter’s age limit of 18 and the identity verification before the first deposit do not change. Everything else is a moving target, and a moving target is the reason this page is read alongside the operator’s own terms.

Frequently asked questions

How do I sign up for a betting site in Great Britain?

Open the app or site, complete registration with a real name, address and date of birth, and pass the identity verification before depositing. The minimum age is 18. Once verified, deposit by a payment method the welcome offer accepts (credit cards are banned for gambling), place the qualifying bet at the offer’s minimum odds and stake, and on settlement the free bets are credited. The whole flow is the same on every GB-licensed app, with variations in the payment methods and the qualifying terms.

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

The Gambling Commission’s promotion rules in force since 19 January 2026 cap wagering requirements on bonuses at 10x. A £10 bonus at the cap can ask for £100 of qualifying bets; a £10 bonus at 50x is not permitted. The cap applies to wagering requirements; whether it applies to free bets with no wagering condition has not been settled, and no cap on the money value of a bonus was set.

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

A minimum odds line is the lowest price the qualifying bet (and sometimes the free bet) must be placed at for the offer to credit. A wagering requirement is the number of times the bonus (or bonus plus deposit) must be turned over in qualifying bets before winnings become withdrawable. The two numbers are independent: an offer can carry a 1.5 minimum odds on the qualifying bet and a 10x wagering requirement on the bonus, and the punter must clear both to release the bonus.

Why is the stake of a free bet not paid back with the winnings?

That is the standard shape of a “free bet” on a GB-licensed sportsbook: the token is the bet, the winnings are the return, and the stake is not returned on a win. A £10 free bet at odds of 3.0 returns £30 on a win (£20 profit, £10 stake not returned) and £0 on a loss. The Commission has not required operators to return the stake; the convention is industry-wide. The only bets that return the stake are real-money bets, which are not sign-up offers.

Can a bet on sport be tied to a casino bonus under the Commission’s promotion rules?

No. The Commission’s promotion rules in force since 19 January 2026 ban mixed-product promotions — offers that require gambling on two or more product types, such as betting and casino together. A sportsbook sign-up offer is unaffected. A sports-and-casino bundle is out. A reader who sees “bet on football to get free spins” on a GB-licensed app is being shown an offer that should not be there.

How can I check that a bookmaker holds a Gambling Commission licence?

Use the Commission’s public register, searchable by business name, trading name, domain or account number. The register is the whole test. The licence number, the account number and the licence holder’s name are on the register entry. The licence categories (remote general betting standard, remote betting intermediary, and so on) are also on the entry, and they tell a reader what kind of licence the operator holds. A licence number on a bookmaker’s homepage that does not resolve on the register is not a licence.

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