Betway #BetYourWay Free Bets

You may have come across bet offers from bookmaker Betway which require you to place a #BetYourWay bet in order to receive a free bet. The majority of the time it’s difficult to lay #BetYourWay markets as they consist of multiple bets on the same event bundled into one. Occasionally, you may find a combination which you can lay such as ‘Arsenal to win, BTTS, Over 2.5 goals’ as the lay market for this would be ‘Arsenal to win BTTS’. So, what if you can’t lay your qualifying bet? Are the offers worth doing?

The majority of the time they are. Even if you can’t lay your qualifying bet, the offer most likely will have a positive expected value which means that on average, you will make a profit over time.

Let’s take a look at a few common #BetYourWay bet offers from Betway

1. Place a £5 #BetYourWay bet and get a £5 free bet

This is an offer that Betway run regularly. Usually for selected Premier League matches and other big sporting events. You simply need to place a £5 #BetYourWay bet and you’ll receive a £5 free bet to use on any sports market that you’d like.

We can usually expect to retain around 80% of the value of a free bet as cash which means whatever happens with our qualifying bet, we should make around £4 from our free bet. That means that even if we don’t lay our qualifying bet and it loses, we’ll only be £1 down. We’re therefore placing a £5 #BetYourWay bet with the risk of losing just £1 but if our qualifying bet wins, we’ll be in profit. You won’t win your qualifying bet every time but there is a lot of value in this offer and you will be in profit over time even if you don’t lay your bet.

2. Place a £5 #BetYourWay bet and get a £10 free bet

Occasionally, Betway offer a £10 free bet for placing a £5 #BetYourWay bet which is obviously better value than the offer above. Again, if we expect to retain 80% of the free bet value as cash when matched betting, we should be able to make around £8 from it. Therefore, even if you lose your qualifying bet without laying it, the worst case scenario is that you are £3 in profit! There’s always the chance you will win your #BetYourWay bet and be up by much more.

3. Place a £5 #BetYourWay bet and get a £5 free bet + another £5 free bet if a player scores

Similar to the offers above, Betway will credit you with a £5 free bet for placing a £5 #BetYourWay bet. However, you will also receive another £5 free bet if a nominated player scores a goal. Usually, the selected player is one of the favourites to score such as Harry Kane, Agüero, Lukaku etc and so there is a good chance you could receive 2 x £5 free bets from which you should make around £8 from.

4. Place a £5 #BetYourWay bet and get a £5 free bet + 50 free spins

This is an offer Betway have recently introduced and will most likely not be offered as frequently as the above. Similar to the first offer, you will receive a £5 free bet for placing a £5 #BetYourWay bet. However, you will also receive 50 free spins on a selected slot. The worst case scenario in offer 1 above is that we lose £1  but with this offer we get to keep any winnings generated from the free spins. You’re not guaranteed to win anything from the free spins but you can calculate the EV (Expected Value) of them which will give you an idea of how much you can expect to make from them on average.

EV for free spins is calculated using a simple formula:

EV = Bonus Amount – (House Edge x Wagering Requirement)

Bonus amount = Number of free spins (50) x value of each spin (£0.10) = £5

House edge = 100 – Slot RTP = Let’s say that the slot has an RTP (Return to Player) of 96% which would mean that the house edge is 4%

Wagering requirement = There are no wagering requirements and so we would simply use the bonus amount as we need to use our free spins

Therefore, EV = £5 – (4% x £5) = £4.80

We can see that on average, we can expect to make £4.80 from the free spins. Given that the maximum we can lose is £1 from the sports bets, this makes the offer worth doing.

Conclusion

Overall, the majority of #BetYourWay bet offers from Betway are good value. Even if you can’t make a guaranteed profit from the bets due to not being able to lay them, they do have a positive expected value. Treating these offers as advantage play will mean that you will make a profit over time on average.