Best Cheltenham Betting Sites

The Cheltenham Festival is one of the highlights of the horse racing calendar in the United Kingdom. Much like Aintree’s Grand National, it draws in crowds of thousands and millions of bettors from around the world. People wager millions of pounds collectively during this event and there are loads of Cheltenham free bets that online bookies offer around race time.

With several Grade 1 races held during the course of the festival, it’s truly an awesome event for competitors and sports fans alike. Since the event itself spans over 4 days, there are plenty of opportunities to take advantage of Cheltenham free bet offers during this period. We’ve examined these offers, alongside details of the festival itself, as well as key betting tips right here.

We’ve lined up the best Cheltenham betting sites right here on this page, so you can easily compare and find your favourite sportsbook. Want to learn more about Cheltenham betting? This page covers everything you need to know about wagering on this top racing event.

Cheltenham Betting Sites - 2026

TopRatedBetting.com is dedicated to helping customers find the best place to bet online. Your safety and well-being is a priority, which is why all of our expert bookmaker reviews are 100% honest and unbiased, and we highlight the key terms and conditions of every free bet offer we advertise. Whilst we accept commission from the betting sites on our list of recommendations, and this may affect where they’re positioned on our lists, we only recommend companies that we truly believe are safe and fair. Of course, we can’t rate and review every betting site, but we do make sure that only the best UK-licensed bookies make it onto our lists.

TopRatedBetting.com is dedicated to helping customers find the best place to bet online. Your safety and well-being is a priority, which is why all of our expert bookmaker reviews are 100% honest and unbiased, and we highlight the key terms and conditions of every free bet offer we advertise. Whilst we accept commission from the betting sites on our list of recommendations, and this may affect where they’re positioned on our lists, we only recommend companies that we truly believe are safe and fair. Of course, we can’t rate and review every betting site, but we do make sure that only the best UK-licensed bookies make it onto our lists.

Cheltenham Festival; A brief overview

A collection of special events includes high-profile horse races that take place at the Cheltenham Racecourse in the UK, typically at the beginning of March each year. The festival itself invites thousands of visitors and is one of the largest racing events in the UK. Perhaps most importantly, the festival has something that is acknowledged as ‘The Cheltenham Roar’, which refers to the incredible sound levels experienced over the four days. It's truly a remarkable event.

This renowned festival features several Grade 1 races that occur over the duration of the four days, including the Queen Mother Champion Chase, Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham Gold Cup, and Stayers Hurdle. Distinctive races held include both Grade 2 and Grade 3 events, so it really is an extraordinary few days – especially for horse racing enthusiasts who are looking to seize Cheltenham betting deals. Enthusiasm runs high during the races.

Cheltenham Festival betting

If you are browsing through online sportsbooks around the time of the Cheltenham Festival, you’ll find a whole host of betting markets offered throughout this event. The most popular Cheltenham bets are:

• Single
• Accumulator
• To place
• To show
• Each way

These are the most simple and most popular of all horse racing bets, though there are a range of other markets available at the top Cheltenham betting sites. Of course, there will be different horses that you can bet on for each of these markets, which we will get to next.

Cheltenham Festival betting tips

You’ll find loads of online Cheltenham betting tips day 12/3/4/5, which can be helpful if you’re not sure what horse to back. Of course, it’s always best to combine this with your own research to make sure you’re well informed.

If you do want to make some wagers when it comes to the Cheltenham Festival time, we have a few tips that you can follow. By following these Cheltenham betting tips we don’t guarantee that you’ll be successful, but you can potentially give yourself a better chance of making more informed wagers.

Use Cheltenham betting offers

One of the best elements of this prestigious festival is how keen the online bookmakers are to pump out promotions specific to the event. Whether you’re a brand new customer or an existing one, betting sites tend to give so much value around the time of this event to increase betting numbers. You can get a host of free bets, odds boosts, extra place markets, profit boosts, insurance, and so much more.

Pay attention to last years results

Like any sport, certain venues seem to be well suited or favored by certain participants. It’s important to pay attention to the form guide during the festival, but it’s also more important to see who performed well last year. Check if the same horse/jockey combos have entered again this year, and you may just find some betting markets that are quite appealing.

Look for early markets

The odds for various races are sometimes released weeks in advance, at least for outright winners. Once these odds are released, they will start to adjust based on the betting activity of sports bettors. By betting on these markets early, you could find a gem of a horse that is underpriced, although once the betting world also realises this, the odds will have adjusted and it could be too late.

Cheltenham Festival free bets

It should now be apparent that there are tons of Cheltenham free bets up for grabs when this event kicks off, but each kind may be given due to different conditions. The best Cheltenham bets are the ones that give you reasonable monetary value and reasonable wagering requirements, but please take a moment to familiarise yourself with the different types of free bets.

Bet & get

This is a fairly standard offer that you will find around the time of the Cheltenham Festival. Basically, by making a bet (or some other amount), you will receive a free bet for a certain amount. For example, you may come across bet £10 get £20 Cheltenham free bet offers at some online sportsbooks.

Fail to finish – cashback

The Cheltenham Festival is notorious for horses failing to finish. The bookies know this, and they will often serve up an offer where you’ll get your wager back if the horse that you backed fails to cross the finish line. This may only refund your bet up to a certain amount, which is something to be mindful of.

Faller insurance

This is quite similar to the fail to finish offer. Faller insurance means that if the jockey you back falls from their horse during the race, you’ll receive your wager back. This is a popular Cheltenham betting offer and is a nice way to avoid losing out if your pick has an unlucky race.

Best Cheltenham Free Bets Bonuses

Cheltenham festival upsets

Cheltenham Festival has seen plenty of big upsets even the years, with many big name horses and favourites failing to bag the win. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest upsets in the history of Cheltenham.

Norton’s Coin

To understand how big of an upset this was, we need to rewind the clock by 30 years. In 1990, Norton’s Coin was listed at 100/1 to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup. One thing is fairly certain if you look at the Cheltenham Gold Cup betting records for this one – there weren’t many people that would have been crazy enough to pick this horse. However, it came first and caused one of the biggest shocks in UK racing history.

Al Boum Photo

We can rewind the clock slightly less for this one, as last year, a horse trained by the legendary Willie Mullins won the Cheltenham Gold Cup at a price of 12/1. Some may say this result wasn’t a huge shock, as Mullins is well regarded as one of the best in the game, but at 12/1, it’s still completely unexpected. There were many other horses in the ranks who were expected to finish well ahead of ‘Al Boum Photo’, but the underdog crossed the line first.

For those that followed the 2025 Golden Cup, you’ll know that Al Boum Photo also stole the show with another first-place finish.

Cheltenham Gold Cup betting

A race that is more than 3 miles long and contains 22 hurdles is a challenge for any horse and its jockey, which is what makes the Cheltenham Gold Cup so special. The prize money for this event is north of £500,000, and it is considered the most exciting race that takes place during the event.

This race alone pulls in seven-figure bet totals wagered from all over the UK, which gives you an idea of just how popular this race has become. Given that it is one of the most prestigious races in the world, some of the top Cheltenham betting offers are specifically tailored for this event – so be sure to check in with your online bookmaker to see what promotions you can access.

Over the last 3 years, which means Cheltenham betting 2025/2019/2018 statistics, the bookies have become increasingly generous with the number of bets as well as their value. Make sure you compare the offers at different Cheltenham betting sites to find the best deal for you.

Cheltenham Gold Cup previous winners

The Cheltenham Gold Cup has been in action for longer than any of us have been alive, so it’s fair to say there have been plenty of previous winners in the past. To help you make the best Cheltenham bets that you can, we’ve put together a quick list of the winners for the last five Gold Cup races.

Which jockey has the best Cheltenham record?

There are two jockeys that have blown the rest of the field away when it comes to their overall success on the Cheltenham Racecourse:

Barry Geraghty

Geraghty has been involved in 29 races at Cheltenham during his career, and he has enjoyed 9 victories. This puts his winning percentage at an incredible 31%, putting him narrowly above his closest rival, Paul Townend.

Paul Townend

Townend has been involved in less Cheltenham races than Geraghty, as he’s taken part in just 18 races. From these 18 races, however, he has enjoyed victories in 5 of them. This makes his winning percentage 28%, meaning that he is nipping at the heels of Barry Geraghty right now.

Best Betting Sites for Cheltenham

Cheltenham Betting FAQs

• What type of horses tend to do well at Cheltenham?

  As strange as this may seem, French-bred horses have historically performed quite well at Cheltenham Festival. For example, take Baracouda, who was a horse that competed in the 90s and early 00s, who did phenomenally well at this event over the years. Bred in France. Baracouda won the event twice and finished 2nd twice. However, anything’s possible in racing, and you can’t discount any of the horses that are in the race.

• Which trainers tend to do well at Cheltenham?

  Currently, the most successful horse trainer to ever prepare horses for the Cheltenham Festival is Willie Mullins, an Irish horse trainer. He’s trained a total of 72 winners during his career, which is just huge. It would seem that Irish trainers have a bit of a liking for the festival too, as the other trainer who has done amazingly well at Cheltenham is George Elliot, another Irishman. Elliot has also had two victories as a jockey at Cheltenham.

• Are there any trainer owner combinations with a good record at Cheltenham?

  Yes, and it’s a very recent partnership too. The owner’s name is Mrs. J Donnelly, and the trainer is none other than Willie Mullins. In the previous two Cheltenham Festival’s, this duo has taken home two Cheltenham Gold Cup trophies, which is quite a feat.

• Should you still back a horse at Cheltenham if its price starts to drift?

  Yes, as long as you have justifiable reasons to do so. The price of a horse can drift for many reasons, as the bookmaker adjusts the price based on news/form/injuries etc. Remember, the pricing of a horse doesn’t always reflect its true chances of performing well in a race, but it’s always advisable to do some more research on a horse if you do see the price start to drift.