Best Cheltenham Festival Betting Offers

How We Test and Rate Cheltenham Betting Sites & Offers

We at Gambling.com have decades of combined experience testing and reviewing sports betting sites. After years of analysing sites and reviewing feedback from real bettors, we’ve seen firsthand what makes or breaks a great betting site. 

Our goal is to connect you with bookies that aren’t just safe but offer great Cheltenham odds, betting offers and a smooth experience from sign-up to payout. 

Our team of industry-leading experts grades each of the Cheltenham free bet offers they review on a scale of one to 10 across 10 different categories that we deem to be most important to sports bettors. 

To determine these scores, we don’t just sit behind a screen and rate offers—we test them, compare them, and really dig into the user experience to see how they stack up. Our process ensures we only recommend Cheltenham offers that meet our high standards. 

We are committed to promoting responsible gambling. That’s why we only review fully licensed operators that provide safer gambling tools and resources to help bettors maintain healthy betting practices.

Betting on the Cheltenham Festival

The Cheltenham Festival is one of the most significant horse racing betting events of the year in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and it attracts wagers from around the world. Each year, around £150,000,000 is typically staked in bets throughout the festival.

Thousands of racegoers place their last-minute bets at the on-course stands, but for those not lucky enough to attend in person, the choices are either a trip to a bookmaker's shop or an online betting site. The latter is the preferred choice for many bettors, with horse racing betting sites providing a greater choice of markets and vital pre-race stats.

If you opt for the online bookmaker, here are the most popular bet types available during the Cheltenham Festival.

Basic Bet Types at the Cheltenham Festival

• Win or Each-Way: The most common and simplest horse racing bet is to put your money on a horse to win a race. If you’re not sure your selection will win outright and the odds are large enough, bettors may go for an each-way bet, which means you will get a return if the horse wins and if it places (typically finishing in the top two or three, depending on the race). Keep an eye out for Cheltenham betting sites offering extra each-way places beyond the standard 1, 2, 3.
• Placepot: Run by the Tote, the placepot is the classic "small stakes to win big" bet that can interest you in almost every race on the card. For more information on this, check out our guide to playing the placepot.
• Lucky 15: The Lucky 15 is a bet consisting of 15 separate bets placed across four horses. Within the bet are four singles, six doubles, four trebles, and a four-fold accumulator, a parlay or multi. You’ll only need one of the horses to win (or place if you’ve done an each-way lucky 15) to receive a return.

Live Betting

Many top sites offer live betting, so the action doesn't stop when the races kick off. Most bookmakers also offer live streaming, so you can take them in and enjoy Cheltenham Festival betting action anywhere, including mobile betting sites.

Cheltenham Gold Cup Betting

The Gold Cup is one of the high points of the National Hunt calendar. Alongside the Grand National, Cheltenham's blue ribbon event garners huge amounts of interest among UK and Irish betting circles. It is no surprise that the Gold Cup generates the majority of Cheltenham’s television viewers. 

The first race, known as the Gold Cup, actually took place in July 1819, years before Cheltenham became the festival we know today. Winning the Gold Cup is considered a lifetime achievement for a professional jockey, and horses that win go down in the history books. 

The climactic event gathers interest months before taking place as bettors and bookmakers alike size up potential winners during key trial races. Betting interest in the race often starts in the aftermath of the last edition of the Gold Cup, with bookmakers quick to put out Cheltenham Gold Cup odds for the next race.

Cheltenham's Feature Races

The Cheltenham Festival is packed full of high-quality jumps racing from start to finish. But each day of the festival has a feature race and this quartet are the races to look out for with Cheltenham betting sites often running betting offers for these standout contests.

• The Champion Hurdle: This race is open to horses aged four years and older and is run on the Old Course at an approximate distance of 2.5 miles. The last leg of the Triple Crown of Hurdling is scheduled yearly on the festival's opening day. Champion Hurdle odds are often produced months in advance of the race.
• The Queen Mother Champion Chase: Open to horses aged five years or older, this race is also run on the Old Course but at a shorter 2-mile distance. It is the feature race on day two, with 12 fences to jump.
• The Stayers' Hurdle: The Stayers’ Hurdle is open to horses aged four and older and is run on the New Course at Cheltenham at an approximate distance of 3 miles. This race features twelve hurdles. Stayers' Hurdle odds are available straight after the last edition of the day three feature race.
• The Cheltenham Gold Cup: The Gold Cup is one of the most prestigious National Hunt events and has featured some of the greatest racehorses ever. Its winners list includes household names like Arkle and Best Mate. It is open to horses aged five and over and runs on the New Course.

What Is the Cheltenham Festival?

Cheltenham betting has grown exponentially since the festival’s humble beginnings in 1860. The format has changed dramatically, growing from a two-day meeting to a four-day affair, with 28 National Hunt races and millions in prize money to be won annually. The festival now attracts thousands of spectators, including 68,000—the venue’s maximum capacity—on the day of the Gold Cup.

The Cheltenham Festival features several Grade 1 races, including the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, the Stayers’ Hurdle, and the Gold Cup. 

Races are held across two tracks, the Old Course and the slightly longer New Course.

Cheltenham Day 1 Races: Champion Day

• Supreme Novices' Hurdle
• Arkle Chase
• Ultima Handicap Chase
• Mares Hurdle
• Champion Hurdle
• Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle
• National Hunt Novices Chase

Cheltenham Day 2 Races: Ladies Day

• Turner's Novices' Hurdle
• Brown Advisory Novices' Chase
• Coral Cup Hurdle
• Cross Country Chase.
• Queen Mother Champion Chase
• Grand Annual
• Champion Bumper

Cheltenham Day 3 Races: St Patrick's Thursday

• Mares Novices' Hurdle
• Jack Richards Novices’ Chase
• Pertemps Network Final
• Ryanair Chase
• Stayers' Hurdle
• Plate Handicap Chase
• Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup

Cheltenham Day 4 Races: Cheltenham Gold Cup Day

• Triumph Hurdle
• County Hurdle
• Mares' Chase
• Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle
• Cheltenham Gold Cup
• Festival Hunter's Chase
• Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle

Responsible Gambling with Cheltenham Festival Betting Sites

We at Gambling.com take responsible gambling very seriously. Our main goals are to connect you with reliable betting operators while maintaining a safe gambling environment for all users.

Horse betting sites must follow strict protocols to spot, prevent, and reduce gambling-related harm. These aren't optional measures; they're legal requirements and essential safeguards that protect vulnerable players from developing problematic habits.

We always keep these requirements in mind whenever we review and rate a betting site, and we only partner with licensed operators that adhere to legal standards. Moreover, all betting sites we review here have responsible gambling tools and resources to help you stay in control of your betting.