Betfair Extends National Hunt Racing Sponsorship Deals

The nights are cutting in and it won’t be long until racing makes the switch from flat to jumps. Perfect timing for Betfair to announce the extension of its sponsorship of two major National Hunt races then. The firm has opted to extend a deal with Jockey Club Racecourses which will now run until at least 2019. The two races in question are the Betfair Chase at Haydock Park and the Betfair Tingle Creek at Sandown Park.

The Betfair Chase is a Grade 1 steeplechase run over a distance of around three miles. Established as recently as 2005, the event now has a purse of over £200,000 and is considered one of the most prestigious events in the National Hunt calendar. The Haydock feature has quickly developed a star-studded roll of honour including racing superstar and four-time winner Kauto Star, along with three-time winner Cue Card.

The Tingle Creek Chase has been around for a while longer, having first been run at Sandown in 1979 in honour of the popular racehorse of the same name that had a brilliant record at the Esher venue. It was upgraded to Grade 1 status in 1994 and is contested over a trip of around two miles. Flagship Uberalles is the event’s most successful horse with three wins and other famous champions include the likes of Moscow Flyer, Kauto Star, Sprinter Sacre and Un de Sceaux.

Betfair was a founding Authorised Betting Partner (ABP) of British Racing and has long been credited as a good supporter of the sport. It was the first gambling operator to sign a deal with Jockey Club Racecourses and the latest announcement suggests that the firm intends to back the sport of kings for years to come.

Jockey Club Racecourses chief executive Paul Fisher had this to say following the announcement;

“As a major supporter of British Racing we’re delighted Betfair is continuing to partner with us on two of the biggest days of Jump racing in the calendar. We remain extremely grateful to Betfair, not only for the role they played as a founding partner, but also for the ongoing support they offer to racing.”

Betfair Sportsbook 3/1 Racing Offer

Both the Betfair Chase and Tingle Creek Chase will be shown live on ITV Racing and will therefore be eligible for the sponsor’s racing offer. The promotion focuses on televised meetings from the UK and Ireland and can be used to make a profit through matched betting. The mechanics are simple, back a winner at odds of 3/1 or greater and get your winning stake matched with a free bet, up to £20.

Because you can’t guarantee a profit with the Betfair Sportsbook 3/1 Racing Offer, it falls under the category of advantage play. This basically means that you can use matched betting to turn the offer in your favour. You can do this easily with the help of our matched betting automatcher and calculator. Check out the example below to see how.

Let’s say you wish to back Un De Sceaux to win the Tingle Creek Chase at odds of 7/2 (4.5). Betting £20 in the normal way would mean that you are risking £20 to try and make a £70 profit. However, by using the Betfair offer with matched betting, you could risk just 74p to try and make £16, giving effective odds of just over 20/1.

A quick configuration of the Matched Bets oddsmatcher will allow you to search for suitable matches and for our example, the lay odds at Smarkets are 4.60. A lay bet is to bet that something will not win, allowing you to get a return regardless of the outcome. It’s advisable to avoid using Betfair Exchange when playing this offer.


Having found a close match, a quick click will take you to the matched betting calculator which will look similar to the image above. With ‘Normal Bet’ mode selected, it tells you that for a bookmaker stake of £20, an ideal lay stake is £19.65. This will result in a loss of 74p whether Un de Sceaux wins or loses but if the horse wins, you will qualify for the free bet. Even if it doesn’t win, it has cost you a few pence as opposed to £20, this is the beauty of advantage play. You could effectively have another 20 attempts at hitting the free bet before running at a loss.

• Horse wins = £70 profit at Betfair + £70.74 loss at Smarkets = -74p
• Horse loses = £20 loss at Betfair + £19.26 profit at Smarkets (£19.65 – 2% commission) = -74p

Once a free bet is received, you can return to the matched betting automatcher to look for a bet to make a profit. Close matches with back odds of above 4/1 (5.0) are best for this. You see a good bet and click to the calculator but this time use ‘Freebet’ mode to work out the best lay stake. For our example the back odds are 6/1 (7.0) and the lay odds are 7.2, so the recommended lay amount is £16.71.

• Horse wins = £120 profit at Betfair + £103.60 loss at Smarkets = £16.40
• Horse loses = £0 loss at Betfair + £16.38 profit at Smarkets (£16.71 – 2% commission) = -£16.38

The Betfair 3/1 offer covers numerous races each weekend and is just one example of a matched betting friendly offer. There are promotions that allow you to lock-in a profit and hundreds of advantage play opportunities. It’s easily possible to bring in over £500 per month for just a few hours of effort each day. Take a 14-day trial for just £1 and get access to over £1,000 worth of bookmaker free bets and bonuses. You can find our pricing structure at the bottom of this page.