NOTE: Paddy Power is no longer available on the British Market. Alternatively, take a closer look at one of these top Bookmakers:
Paddy Power is such a big name in betting that you could be forgiven for thinking it had been around for decades – but this isn’t quite the case. In actual fact, it was founded in 1988 in Dublin, meaning this famous Irish bookmaker is actually younger than Jamie Vardy. However, despite its relative youth, Paddy Power has shown a strong appetite for growth; while initially only available to Irish customers, the brand crossed the water in the early 2000s and has since opened hundreds of shops in Britain.
Paddy Power have built up a solid customer base online too, and are regularly voted among the best bookmakers operating in the UK. A merger with innovative sports betting exchange Betfair followed, so they are now a constituent part of the Paddy Power Betfair group. Does it match up to the current William Hill free bet, or even the Betfred free bet? Read on, and you’ll find out whether the Paddy Power free bet offer can live up to this illustrious billing.
Paddy Power’s range of offers includes numerous ways to earn a “free” bet, but the one we’ll focus on here is their new customer offer of a £10 risk-free bet. This offer differs from most available risk-free bets, as Paddy Power provide the refund in cash rather than a bonus bet token. Simply put, new customers to the brand can sign up, place a £10 bet, and if it doesn’t come off they can withdraw their refunded stake. That’s extremely rare for this kind of offer, and immediately makes Paddy Power stand out in a crowded marketplace.
The Paddy Power risk-free bet is dependent upon making an initial deposit of £10, and placing a bet of the same amount. You can bet more if you wish, but the refund maximum is always £10, so make sure you factor this in when calculating how what you want to stake.
It’s important to note that it’s only your first bet that benefits from the risk-free tag. Your first bet will be refunded, in cash, if it’s a loser. If it’s a winner, however, that’s the matter finished; the refund does not pass on to the second (or third, or fourth…) bet. Many players will use this opportunity to be bold with their debut bet – if you’re getting the money back anyway, it could be worth taking longer odds in the hopes of maximising your potential winnings.
On the other hand, if you know this is your only chance at the risk-free bet, there is an argument to say that you should keep it at low odds to maximise your chances of turning it into a profit. How you approach it is entirely up to you. The key points to remember are that it’s refunded in cash, and it’s a one-time only deal.
Of course, there is a difference between a risk-free bet and a “free bet”. At every step of this process, you are betting money that you have deposited in the account from your own funds. It can’t accurately be called a Paddy Power free bet offer, but considering that the refund is in cash, rather than betting tokens, it’s still a pretty good deal.
The £30 in bonus bets is easy to achieve provided you stick to the William Hill free bet terms and conditions, and in truth, this isn’t hard to do. As we have noted above, you merely need to input the correct code and make your deposit by credit or debit card. With your deposit made, you simply have to bet on a Sportsbook market at odds of 1/2 (1.50) or longer, and you’re all done: you should then see the bonus bets appear in your account. If you find your William Hill free bet is not showing, contact the bookmaker online; provided you abided by the rules, the customer support agent should be able to quickly manually add the bets to your account then and there.
Though using the Paddy Power risk free bet is a simple process, do take the time to read through the terms and conditions on the site itself. We’ll run you through the basics now, here on bettingtips.net, but also double-checking them at the site essential for two key reasons.
First and foremost, Paddy Power make the rules for this offer, and can change them as and when they wish. If you read them second-hand – even from us – you risk the information being out of date. Secondly, the only authority on Paddy Power’s terms and conditions is… Paddy Power. If you need to challenge an issue with your risk-free bet, you’ll need to raise it with them, and point to the Ts and Cs on their site to bolster your case. As a result, you should always check all the details before you make your first deposit.
With that point established, let’s move on to a general overview of the rules regarding the Paddy Power risk free bet:
That last point is important. Unlike with a lot of free bets, you don’t need to “play through” your refund. You don’t need to bet it on anything further if you prefer not to; you’ll be able to withdraw the cash straightaway. As well as being convenient, this also means that there’s no expiry date on the refund, and if you want to leave the £10 in your account and use it for betting in future, you’re fine to do so.
There’s one more thing you need to know about this offer: it only applies to opening deposits that have been made by debit or credit card, or PayPal. You won’t qualify for this offer if you have signed up using Moneybookers, Skrill, Neteller or a Paysafecard, so if you find your Paddy Power free bet is not showing, that could be a reason why. The same can be seen in our Betstars free bet guide.
Any bettor is likely to be intrigued by the idea of having a Paddy Power free £10 bet – even though this isn’t quite what the bookmaker are offering as part of their sign up offer; it’s a risk-free bet, rather than a true free bet. Nevertheless, the concept of free bets in general is an interesting one, and we thought it would be helpful if we explored the difference between the two concepts.
The Paddy Power sign up offer is not a free bet; it’s a risk-free bet, or to clear confusion, you could call it a risk-less bet. As you have to deposit your own funds, there is nothing “free” about the offer. However, some bookmakers do offer – what they call – “free bets” as part of their new customer offers. The best can be found here on bettingtips.net, and on bookmaker sites themselves; bear the following facts in mind when choosing which ones to sign up for.
If we take the term “free” to mean “without cost”, then here’s the bad news – there is almost no such thing as a free bet. No matter which bookmaker you go to and which sign-up offers you choose, you’re always going to have to make a deposit using your own money. You’ll then need place a bet using that money. What this means, in reality, is that whatever you’re getting from the bookmaker isn’t a free bet, even if they use that specific term. A better term would be “bonus bet” or “extra bet”.
Paddy Power’s offer does not use bonus or extra bets; it’s just a cash refund if your first bet fails, and you can then use that cash however you wish. So while there’s no Paddy Power free £10 bet, it could be argued that Paddy Power’s offer is actually preferable, as bonus bets cannot be withdrawn like the Paddy Power refund can be.
If you sign up to more than one bookmaker, you may start to get the feeling that you know how these deals go: you join, deposit, bet, and wait for your bonus bets to be credited to your account. Simple, right?
Well, not always. Different bookmakers can have wildly differing rules. While one will give you your bonus bets immediately after you place a first bet, others will wait until that bet settles. While some will give you a £30 balance which you can use in increments as you wish, others will give you three bets at £10 a time. Most bookmakers will allow you to withdraw your winnings as soon as they are won, but others will insist that you “play through”, essentially needing to win them all over again, before you can touch a penny.
This is good news for the Paddy Power risk-free bet; as your lost stake is returned in cash, you don’t need to worry about wagering or playthrough requirements.
While Paddy Power do not offer bonus bets for new sign ups, they do offer Paddy’s Rewards Club, or – as it’s more colloquially known – the Paddy Power Free Bet Club. This club involves opting in, and then placing five £10 bets across the course of a week at odds of more than 1/2. If you do this, you’ll receive a £10 bonus (not free, as you’ve had to stake your own funds) bet the following Monday.
Other bookmakers have similar offers, such as the Betvictor free bet, and it’s well worth exploring these – bonus bet offers are most commonly seen with sign-ups, but bet clubs can provide additional value to existing customers too.
The Paddy Power risk free bet offer is a very good option for punters who have yet to sign up to the Irish brand, and is more generous than most sign-up offers currently available. With the more common “bet £X get a £X bonus bet offers”, if you make an initial bet of £10 and lose, you’re £10 down; even if you then receive your bonus bets, you still need some of those to win in order to actually make your money back. With Paddy Power, it’s far simpler: you can walk away with your £10 refund in cash.
As you know you’re getting the £10 back, you can make place a bet at higher odds than you normally would – after all, if it loses, you’re no worse off. You could also make a more careful bet and turn £10 into £11 or £12. Paddy Power have, sensibly, given players plenty of freedom of choice, and this flexibility is another feather in the cap of their sign-up offer.
The one issue we have with this offer is this: we’d love it if Paddy Power rejigged this offer a little to refund the first £10 you lose. Overall though, this is a very minor complaint, and there’s no denying Paddy Power have done well with this deal.
Paddy Power has quickly risen to the top tier of bookmakers in Britain in a relatively short period of time, and let’s be clear: this is not simply attributable to the – sorry about this, but it had to be done – luck of the Irish. Paddy Power have been skillful in boosting their profile through advertising, sponsorships, and a plethora of innovative customer offers – it’s been a dedicated PR campaign, and one that has undeniably succeeded.
The Paddy Power experience is undeniably a positive one. Online customers can enjoy a range of benefits, including the casino, with occasional Paddy Power “free” spins; while in the Rewards club, there’s a range of once-in-a-lifetime prizes such as trips to the World Cup final, or an all-expenses weekend break to watch the Grand National, up for grabs. This is a nice way of rewarding often-overlooked existing customers.
It should also be recognised that Paddy Power has some of the best occasional offers – if there is a major sporting event going on somewhere in the world, Paddy Power are likely to have a promotion that ties in with it. In addition, punters can make #WhatOddsPaddy bets, which allow you to choose what you want to bet on – no matter how bizarre it may be – and then ask Paddy to provide you with relevant odds; this is a fairly common feature from bookmakers nowadays, but it’s still a lot of fun.
Finally, the core basics of Paddy Power are done well. The site and app work fairly flawlessly, and there’s plentiful options for Live Streaming on the site on both. There’s even a downloadable Paddy Power free bet calculator available for Android phones.
Give all of the above, it’s actually incredibly easy to see why such a youthful bookmaker have managed to become so ubiquitous, and so popular, in such a short period of time. While the old Paddy Power £20 risk free bet has been reduced to £10, it’s still an impressive deal, and one that any new customer should be happy to avail of. Paddy Power may be the (relatively) young upstart on the mainstream UK bookmaker scene, but it seems they’re in it for the long haul, so it’s well worth considering giving them a try if you’re looking to expand your available range of bookmaker options. Want to compare this bonus? Have a read of our Betdaq free bet guide.
Users must be 18+. If you are having trouble with gambling then help and advice can be found at begambleaware.org
This site is using Cloudflare and adheres to the Google Safe Browsing Program. We adapted Google's Privacy Guidelines to keep your data safe at all times.
