Free Bets and Betting Offers for South Africa

Betway Africa

Brand Overview 

Betway is one of the oldest international online sportsbooks, first opening its doors more than 20 years ago and finding long-standing success the world over. Its immediate selling points include the clean user interface, deep betting markets and excellent bonuses available. 

Free Bets and Betting Offers 

Betway offers a wide range of different bonuses for aspiring punters. With its ‘Pick your Promo’ deal, you can choose an offer that best suits you every week, with boosts, deposit matches, free spins and more up for grabs. Add to that the frequently updated deals that change out with the season and different events, and you’ll have a deal for any occasion.

Key Features 

If you’d rather access Betway Africa on the go, you can check out the dedicated mobile apps available on Android and iOS devices. This provides a streamlined service that works great on the smaller screen. Betway also offers competitive odds across major events, so you can be confident you’ll be getting one of the best offers available.

Betfred ZA

Brand Overview 

Betfred is one of the most prominent betting brands in the UK and has an excellent international presence. This brand is best known for its wide range of promotions, covering all of your favourite events, but it also features an attractive website, competitive odds and deep betting markets. 

Free Bets and Betting Offers 

Betfred is famous for its betting offers. You’ll find daily deals across multiple sports and fixtures, boosting odds, offering free bets and more! You can also find soccer insurance deals, cashback offers, early cashout and multi-bet boosts. And don’t forget the permanent horse racing deals like extra places, refunds and boosted happy hour.

Key Features 

Betfred is a modern site with an attractive site that’s adaptable to mobile devices, both through a web browser and dedicated mobile apps. The site also features a comprehensive bet builder and extensive international event coverage, although that can lead to fewer local events getting the spotlight.

Betfred is also one of the best betting sites with free spins, so if you're interested in casino based welcome bonuses, this is a great choice!

HollywoodBets ZA

Brand Overview 

HollywoodBets is one of the most prominent betting brands in South Africa. It is homegrown and proud, and it covers more local events and offers targeted deals. And while it’s been considered one of the less polished sites in past years, after a big upgrade and a new website, HollywoodBets has a fresh new look that’s ready to attract new and experienced customers alike!

Free Bets and Betting Offers 

Hollywoodbets promo lineup mostly consists of prize drops, with opportunities to win huge sums of money or through competitions to win a share in a jackpot. But you still find those excellent bet boosts, moneyback and insurance offers. And the cherry on top is that the HollywoodBets welcome bonus is small but completely deposit-free!

Key Features 

One of our favourite parts of betting with homegrown sportsbooks is the emphasis on local events, giving South African bettors great odds on fixtures that matter to them. We also appreciate that HollywoodBets offers mobile options, including great browser adaptability and a dedicated Android app!

Lulabet

Brand Overview 

Lulabet is another South African betting company that offers a clean and intuitive betting service that covers all of your favourite local and international events. Lulabet is a reliable website that consistently offers a stellar betting experience with deep betting markets and great odds. 

Free Bets and Betting Offers 

Lulabet offers an excellent selection of betting promos for you to choose from that help you customise your sports betting experience and take control of your wagers. Options include bet boosts, early cashouts and multi-bet bonuses. You can also opt into prize drops and make use of the website’s bet builder. Lulabet is one of the best multiple welcome bonus sites (including the one we have an exclusive offer for), as it allows players with different budgets to buy in at an amount that suits them.

Key Features 

As a locally based sportsbook, you know that Lulabet has great coverage of local events, appealing to South African punters better than an international site could. Lulabet also has a great in-play betting system, allowing you to monitor bets live so you can cash out and place new wagers as games unfold! 

Supabets

Brand Overview 

Supabets is a sportsbook that’s looking to set the standard for South African sports betting. It offers more than 1300 betting markets across major sporting events and an incredible range of promotions. Supabets also prioritises customer experience, with a responsive and easy-to-use customer support system and an intuitive website. 

Free Bets and Betting Offers 

Supabets has a great spread of sports betting bonuses, including multi-bet boosts, losing let refunds and early cashout offers. On top of that and the flexible welcome offers, you can also claim 10% cashback every single week! The Supabets promos let you take control of your betting and give you the best chance of winning that you could ask for!

Key Features 

The Supabets live betting feature is fantastic, with live stats and options for early cashout enhancing the sports viewing experience. The range of local fixtures covered is also out of this world, with the bonus boosts working for local and international matches alike! 

Understanding Free Bets: Are They Really Free?

Despite the name, it’s important to understand that free bets are rarely 100% free. Hidden fees pop up where you don’t expect, and if you walk into a free bet promotion without understanding the terms and conditions, you could end up spending money only to have your bonus forfeited anyway. 

The first caveat to remember is that the majority of free bet promos require an upfront deposit to claim them. You often also have to wager and settle a bet with that deposit before the free bets will be credited to your account. And, of course, you’re not guaranteed to win anything with your free bets either — especially since there are often minimum odds — so if you use them and don’t win anything, you’ll have made that initial deposit for nothing. 

Additionally, while it isn’t universal, you might have to contend with wagering requirements. While some sportsbooks allow you to keep any profit from free bets as withdrawable balance, others put wagering requirements on free bets. This means you have to use the value of your free bets a specific number of times before you’re allowed to withdraw anything won using them. If you’re not lucky, this could also incur some extra money.

With all of that said, as long as you understand the terms and conditions of a free bets bonus before you claim it and use your bonus funds wisely, you shouldn’t have an issue. Just be prepared for that initial stake. 

Why Do Free Bets Matter to South African Bettors?

Now that we’ve discussed the unfortunate costs associated with free bets, how about the benefits? What makes free bets a good deal? Well, plenty of things!

First and foremost, while you have to make an upfront payment for the majority of free bets, they still allow you to make additional bets free of charge. If you can find a good bonus, especially one that doesn’t require wagering, your chances of claiming anything you win are very high. We figure that, if you’re looking to sign up for the sportsbook, chances are that you were going to spend the initial deposit anyway — the free bets at that point are just a perk.

Something else we like about free bets is how they let you explore new sites at lower risk. If you find free bets as a welcome offer (see our list at the top of this article for examples), you can make a small deposit to claim the free bets, then use those betting tokens to see how well you get on with the site. This means you don’t have to invest a lot into a new site you potentially won’t be sticking around for. 

In the end, the worth of your free bet will come down to the quality of the site and how well you know the terms and conditions. If you ensure that you’re an informed customer before spending any money, you’ll have a great time with South African free bets deals. 

How to Claim Free Bets on South Africa Betting Sites

Actually claiming a free bets bonus is usually a simple affair, but it can vary depending on the site you’ve chosen and the type of bonus. Bonuses are usually very easy to claim at welcome bonus sites, but there are a couple of caveats you need to be aware of, or else risk having your deal forfeited. Ongoing free bets deals are a little harder to find and usually have less bang for your buck in terms of buy-in. 

There are as many ways to claim an ongoing free bets promo as there are free bets promos to claim, so you’ll need to check out the terms and conditions of any bonus you claim to ensure you know how to claim it properly. However, the process of claiming a free bets welcome bonus is usually pretty standardised across sportsbooks, so we can offer a general guide to help you get started, along with a few tips to make sure you don’t stumble: 

1. Find the promo sign-up page — While it isn’t always necessary to do this, it’s always safest to register your new account using a webpage dedicated to your chosen free bets offer. This will give you the best chance at activating the deal, especially if there’s a promo code attached.

2. Register your new account — This will require you to submit sensitive information like your date of birth and home address. Not only does this show the sportsbook that you’re a real person, but most deals can only be claimed once per residence. 

3. Enter the promo code (if needed) — Some bonuses will require a promo code to claim, and you’ll want to input it before you finish registration. A few sites will let you do it when you make your first deposit instead, but it’s always safer to activate it at registration.

4. Make your first deposit — Most bonuses will require you to make a deposit of around ZAR200 to claim your free bets, and you may have to use a specific payment method, too. Always double-check the T&Cs for this specifically, as you could lock yourself out of your welcome bonus this way. 

5. Wager your deposit and wait for it to settle — You may need to use your deposit before you can claim your free bets. Check the T&Cs for the minimum odds you need to bet at to claim your bonus.

6. Claim and use your bonus! — You can now claim your free bets and use them! We always recommend using free betting tokens at their full value and make sure you know if there are wagering requirements.

Guide to Choosing the Best Free Bet Offers

Finding a good free bet offer can be challenging if you don’t know what to look for. Luckily our team at Livescore are sharing their main criteria when picking out the best deals! Read on to see what you can expect from our top picks, and find a few tips on how to find some good deals for yourself. 

Licensing and Safety

Above all else, our team prioritises the safety of our readers. The legality of online sports betting is still a little shaky at times, but our team will always look for a South African gambling licence before recommending a site. A licence proves that a site will honour player rights, follow through on payouts and keep your data safe. Even the very best free bets bonus is meaningless if the site it’s offered on isn’t worth your time. 

Variety of Sports

Our team not only considers the range of sports available for betting at prospective sportsbooks but also the variety of events a free bet can be used on. We want to ensure that the bonuses and sites we’re recommending are top quality and will appeal to a wide range of our readers. Additionally, you want to be able to use your free bets on an event of your choice! So, at least when it comes to welcome bonuses, we prefer to see free bets that can be used widely across the site instead of being limited to just one or two events. 

Size of Free Bet

Of course, a point of consideration should always be the flat value of a free bet. But more goes into this than you might think, as the flashy number on the promo banner isn’t always a direct reflection of the bonus value. We prioritise smaller deposits for larger bet values — there’s little point paying more for the bets than you receive! It’s also important to take into account the denominations of the free betting tokens and where they can be used. R5000 in free bets that can only be used on soccer may have less value than R2000 that can be used on any sport across a site, depending on the customer.

Free Bet Terms and Conditions

Finally, we need to take a close look at the terms and conditions. All betting bonuses come with their own T&Cs, which must be adhered to strictly if you don’t want to risk losing your free bets! We look for bonuses with minimal wagering requirements, long expiry limits, and simple claiming methods, among other things. And we should emphasise that, while we take the time to look through the T&Cs for you, it’s important to take a look for yourself to ensure you understand what you’re signing up for before you commit to a deal. 

Types of Free Bet Offers

You’ll find a lot of different free bet offers at South African sportsbooks, as these deals can differ drastically from site to site. However, there are a few popular types of free bets bonuses, and we’ve outlined them below:

Matched Free Bets

You control the quantity of a matched free bets deal. This type of free bets bonus will grant you a value of free bets equal to however much you transfer on your first (or qualifying) deposit. This type of bonus is actually a lot more common at online casinos, but we see them at sportsbooks from time to time, especially in South Africa. This type of deal is usually advertised as ‘100% match bonus up to R5000 when you deposit R500 or more.’ Put simply, this means you’ll receive the same value in free bets as you wager, up to a point of R5000, and at a minimum of R500. Watch out with this kind of free bets bonus, though, as they commonly have wagering requirements attached to them. 

No Deposit Free Bets

While for most free bets you’ll need to put down money to claim your bonus, the no-deposit free bets bonus doesn’t! You can claim this kind of bonus without making a deposit first, letting you take your immediate free bets and explore the new site a little before committing any real money to the account — and you can even win something along the way! Just watch out because when they have wagering requirements, no-deposit bonuses often have some of the highest wagering thresholds around. No-deposit free bets also tend to come in much smaller quantities. 

Money-back Specials

A classic deal at online sportsbooks is the ‘second chance’ welcome bonus. If you make a wager on your new account, if it loses, the sportsbook will return a free bet of the same value to you so you can try again! This return will eventually cap out, but these cashback bonuses can be very generous with their upward limits. The money-back bonus isn’t so overtly generous as regular free bets, as you have to put down a large wager to really benefit, but that second chance could be the help you need to get your payout.

Players can also sign up to free bonus on registration betting sites to take advantage of the best betting offers South Africa has to offer.

No-Deposit Free Bet Offers vs Deposit Offers

If you shop around for free bet offers, you’ll soon notice that while most of them require an initial deposit, many others don’t! This might leave you wondering, what’s the real difference here and why, when there are options for entirely free bets, would you ever consider a deal where you need to pay upfront? The simple answer is value. 

No-deposit free bets are as good as they sound — you receive some free bets at zero cost, and you have the chance to win real money from them! However, the bonuses that you need to pay for tend to offer more free bets upfront. When you’ve already put money into the website, the sportsbook has less to lose by offering you more bonus funds. This aspect will matter most depending on your budget and whether you plan to stick around at the sportsbook you’re signing up for. 

Additionally, no-deposit free bets usually incur stricter terms and conditions. Your average deposit-free bonus has much higher wagering requirements than an offer you need to deposit to claim. You might also have less time to use it, a stricter win limit and so forth. Free bets that need a deposit can afford to be more relaxed with this, for the same reason they can offer more bonus value. 

This isn’t to say that deposit-free bonuses aren’t worth it in the long term; we don’t harp on about their benefits because it’s blatantly obvious. When it comes to picking which kind you want, you’ll want to consider your budget and whether you plan to stay at the site in the long term.

New vs Existing Customer Free Bets

When you see articles like this one discussing free bets bonuses, chances are you’ll be reading about welcome bonus sites. These welcome bonuses are flashy and exciting, and we love to talk about them. However, after signing up with a site, the main bonuses that will be on your mind are the existing customer free betting bonuses. 

These types of bonuses often look very different because each bonus has a different aim: the welcome bonus is trying to attract new customers, while ongoing promos encourage you to stay.

New customer bonuses are grandiose and eye-catching. They’re trying to offer a large, attractive bonus to encourage new users to give the website a shot and potentially become a long-time user. Ongoing bonuses, on the other hand, are much more varied and tend to offer far smaller quantities of free bets but at frequent intervals. You might only be able to use an ongoing betting offer on a specific type of sport or for a limited amount of time. Ongoing offers also change a lot more often than welcome bonuses, swapping out old deals for new ones that promote popular events. 

We recommend that, when you find a welcome offer that interests you, to also look at the ongoing offers to see what’s in store for you down the line. 

Free Bet Terms and Conditions

All gambling promos come with their own set of terms and conditions, laying out the parameters for how you claim and use them. While we know this part of bonuses is dull, it’s also crucial to making the process go smoothly — if you do something wrong, you could forfeit your bonus or worse. So, to make it all a little easier for you, we’ve detailed the important parts of the T&Cs for most promos and explained what they mean:

Wagering Requirements

Wagering requirements are the number of times you must use the value of a bonus before you’re allowed to withdraw anything you made using it. For example, if you have R1000 in free bets with 10x wagering requirements, you have to wager R10000 before you can claim any of your winnings. Not all bonuses have wagering requirements, this is especially true for free bets bonuses, but you must ensure you understand if yours does. Misunderstanding the WR is the easiest way to lose your bonus. 

Wagering requirements are particularly important to note when you're signing up to betting sites with free spins, welcome bonus sites and free bonus on registration sites.

Expiry Dates

Free bets don’t hang around forever, and you’ll only have so long to use them. This is the expiry limit, and on average, it will be about a week after you’ve claimed your bonus. You might also find that there’s a limit on how long you have to claim the deal, too — you’re only a new customer for so long, after all, and ongoing bonuses change out a lot, so you have limited time to grab them. When you claim a deal, always check for this expiry to ensure you have enough time to use it and fulfil any additional requirements. 

Maximum Payout Caps

While it’s awesome that you can win some free money using free bet bonuses, sportsbooks don’t want to be giving out too much for free; that’s unfortunately very bad for business. So some free bets — especially the ones that are easier to win something from — come with a maximum payout, where even if you win more than that maximum, you can’t withdraw it. This isn’t a universal condition to contend with, but you should keep an eye out for it to avoid late-stage disappointment.

Minimum Deposit Requirements

If you have to make a deposit in order to claim your free bets, you can’t just put whatever you feel like into your account. You’ll need to meet a minimum deposit requirement and do it through an appropriate payment method. This minimum is usually stated in the main advertising line for the bonus, which is useful, but it’s always worth taking a closer look — there are often stipulations about making the deposit in a single transaction, and the minimum deposit may not guarantee the advertised amount of free bets. 

Qualifying Bet Criteria

Sometimes, making a minimum deposit isn’t enough to claim a free bet. You may also need to wager that minimum deposit too! When this happens, you’ll have to look through the T&Cs to see what kinds of bets will count for the qualifying bet — and if doing it wrong could lock you out of your bonus! The main things to look for are limited betting markets, bet types, the amount you need to wager, how many wagers will count (usually just one) and, most importantly, the minimum odds. When claiming your bonus, ensure your qualifying bet meets each of these criteria.

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Responsible Gambling

While gambling is an entertaining pastime, like all things, it’s important to take it in moderation. Despite being fun, it’s not difficult to develop dangerous gambling habits, so you need to engage in responsible gambling habits and make liberal use of the various tools provided by online gambling sites. 

Top sportsbooks all offer a range of responsible gambling tools to help you monitor and control your habits. These aren’t just for people who struggle with addiction but should be used by everyone! These tools make maintaining healthy habits much easier and give you precise control over your spending and time on the site, plus extra resources if you need advice or a wake-up call. 

Below, we’ve detailed some of the most common tools:

• Deposit/Loss limits — set a hard limit on the amount of money you can deposit into your account or lose from it in a set amount of time, like a day, week or month.

• Time limits — this limits how long you can spend on a sportsbook or casino per day or week.

• Reality checks — an automatic, gentle reminder of how long you’ve been on the website or how much you’ve spent recently.

• Time outs — a short-term solution if you think you need a solid break. It will cut off all depositing and wagering functions for a set period of time, from a few hours to a few weeks.

• Self-exclusion — a long-term solution that will suspend your accounts and all advertisements for a minimum of six months.

• Self-assessments and helplines — if you’re worried that you’re developing bad habits, you can assess yourself with on-site resources or reach out to expert helplines for detailed advice.