Every June, racing fans around the world turn their eyes to Berkshire for five days of unparalleled action at Royal Ascot. Whether you’re hoping to win big or simply enhance your betting experience, bookmakers roll out a dazzling range of Royal Ascot betting offers to tempt customers. Our guide highlights the most lucrative promotion types with tips on how to maximise them. Thanks to this, you can get the most out of this summer sporting spectacle when it returns from 16th to 20th June 2026 (provisional date).
Where to Find the Best Royal Ascot Betting Offers?
Competition between bookmakers is intense at Royal Ascot, and that’s great news for punters. Our table below pinpoints the most eye-catching Royal Ascot bonuses on offer.
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Which Are the Most Popular Royal Ascot Betting Offers
With 35 races throughout the festival, there are dozens of ways to bet and just as many types of betting offers. To help you navigate the options, we have outlined some of the most common promotions you are likely to encounter. Some of these offers are limited to new customers, but others are also available to existing players.
Free Bets
Royal Ascot free bets are such a regular sight across bookmakers, but they come in various forms. Regardless of what type of free bet you claim, though, a free bet itself is fundamentally the same. It works by enabling you to place a bet without using your own money.
- Matched Bets require you to stake a qualifying bet to receive a free bet of the same value.
- Qualifying Free Bets involve placing a bet at specified odds and/or on a specified event to unlock a free bet.
- Risk-Free Bets refund your losing stake as a free bet if the bet doesn’t win, but you meet the qualifying criteria, e.g. your selection finishes runner-up.
- No Deposit Free Bets require no money at all; simply sign up and receive a free bet. This is the best option for new customers looking to try a bookmaker without commitment.
During Royal Ascot, you will also find some bookmakers release free bets without qualifying bets or deposits. This is usually for use on a selected day of the action. To claim this, all you have to do is opt in, and the Ascot free bet is yours.
Enhanced Odds
Enhanced odds promotions feature a lot during Royal Ascot. Standard boosts will see bookmakers raise the price on one of the leading runners in a race. This might see the even-odds favourite pushed up to 5/4 or 6/4. Increases tend not to be huge, but participating bookies usually offer a lot of them. You can also find them on markets that cover several races, or all of the Royal Ascot racing.
As well as these standard enhanced odds, you can sometimes find massively enhanced odds with Royal Ascot sign up offers. In 2025, William Hill offered 40/1 odds on Field Of Gold to win the St James’s Palace Stakes when his regular price was 8/11. Deals like this normally limit players to a £1 bet and pay out enhanced winnings as free bets.
Antepost Offers
Ante-post markets are for those who like to bet well in advance. For a big horse racing event like Royal Ascot, you can find odds on the event’s biggest races months earlier. Ordinarily, with an ante-post bet, you do not get your money back if a horse does not feature in the specified race. There is an upside, though, in that betting early usually gives access to better odds than you get closer to the starting pistol.
Bookmakers often tempt ante-post punters with promotions like Non-Runner No Bet (discussed in more depth shortly) or even enhanced odds. Such promotions will usually appear days or a couple of weeks before Royal Ascot begins, rather than months.
Money Back Offers
Money-back promotions act as a form of insurance on your bets. A typical example is receiving money back if a horse finishes second, third or fourth in a race. Others may refund you based on the distance of the defeat, for example, money back if beaten by a head or less. Offers like this often return money back as cash, but some bookmakers may credit you with free bets instead.
New customer offers can be even more generous than this and give you money back, up to a fixed limit, if your first qualifying bet loses. Others may refund a percentage of your losses on a day of Royal Ascot, in the form of free bets.
Non-Runner No Bet
With Non-Runner No Bet, you can back a horse in the ante-post market knowing your bet is not at risk if the horse does not make the starting stall. This means if you back a horse to win the Gold Cup and it is later pulled from the race, you will get your full stake back. Bookmakers running this deal usually introduce it a couple of weeks before the festival begins. This makes it a great time to place ante-post bets as you can still access better odds, but without the usual ante-post risk.
Bet-Through-the-Card Offers
Through ‘Bet-through-the-card’ promotions, you can end up receiving bonuses covering a full day of action at Royal Ascot. After you place a qualifying bet, often on the first race, you receive a free bet for each remaining race of the day. With seven races daily at Royal Ascot, you can end up with six or seven bonuses from just one bet! As this is a very generous promotion, it is usually one that only new customers can access.
Tote Betting
A different, but still popular way to bet on Royal Ascot racing is via the Tote. Supported by several bookmakers, Tote betting pools your stake with other bettors, with the winning dividend determined after all bets have come in. With the Tote, you have your standard bets like ‘win’ or ‘place’, but many punters prefer the more adventurous Tote options like Placepot.
Through this specifically, punters need to successfully pick horses that place across the first six races at the course. Similarly, the Jackpot requires you to pick six consecutive winners. You can pick more than one horse per race, although it is more expensive this way. For Royal Ascot, the Tote often release a guaranteed prize fund. In 2025, they offered a £400k guaranteed placepot prize for every day of the meeting. This led to the dividend on day four being a whopping £26,424 following some surprise results.
Royal Ascot Offers for Existing Customers
It is not just new players who get to enjoy great promotions during Royal Ascot. Many sites will run ongoing promotions throughout the festival for all their customers. Across Royal Ascot, most major UK bookies will include extra places and/or enhanced odds for most races, or even all of them. You also want to check out the range of special markets available, as many will be Ascot-specific.
If you like bets with a high potential payout, look to system bets such as Lucky 15/31/63. Here you can back horses across the daily Royal Ascot card, and the more you call correctly, the bigger your returns. Regular promotions such as acca boosts and acca insurance, if offered, should also apply to any Royal Ascot bets. The same also goes for any bookmaker offering ‘Best Odds Guarantee’ on horse racing. Just make sure to place your bets after the qualifying window opens (often 9 am on race day).
If you plan on spending a decent amount during the five-day meeting, you may want to consider a bookmaker offering a loyalty scheme. Sky Bet has a rewarding one, as do Betway’s Free Bet Club and Paddy Power’s Reward Club.
How to Use Royal Ascot Betting Offers?
To get the most out of Royal Ascot betting offers, always check the small print before claiming. Pay extra attention to the minimum stake and minimum odds for offers requiring a qualifying bet or bets. Also, be aware that to qualify, bets usually have to use real money, and you cannot cash them out.
If a promotion requires a deposit, as new customer offers often do, check to see the minimum deposit amount. You also want to see if all the standard payment methods meet the eligibility criteria (e.g. debit card, Apple Pay). We recommend not leaving registration too late, if you wish to claim an offer, just in case the bookmaker requires verification documentation. Although most players do not need to go through this, some do, and it can take a little time.
What to Keep in Mind When Using Royal Ascot Betting Offers?
Betting offers can make Royal Ascot even more exciting, but they often come with important T&Cs. Before you jump in, check the restrictions carefully so you don’t accidentally void your promotion or end up disappointed. Bookmakers largely try to keep promotional wording simple, but sometimes players do not take a moment to check the following factors.
Restrictions on the Bet Type
Some Royal Ascot promotions only apply to particular bet types, like win singles, multiples or even bet builders. This can either relate to the qualifying bet or the bonus you receive after successfully qualifying. Other possible restrictions can include the type of sport or market. In some cases, a Royal Ascot promo may even be limited to just a specific race.
Expiry Time of the Offer
Royal Ascot offers do not stick around forever. Some deals may expire close to a specific race or need to be claimed before a specific time. For promotions where you have received an unrestricted free bet, even these will usually expire. A standard expiry for a multi-use free bet is just a few days, so be sure to use it; otherwise, you will lose it.
Wagering Requirement
With a sportsbook promotion, wagering requirements are usually not much of a factor. Many rewards, like money-back deals, tend to have no wagering terms on cash refunds. For others, like free bets, that you have to spend, there is rarely a requirement to wager any winnings. Exceptions can occasionally apply, though, especially on some new customer offers. If there is a wagering requirement (of 5x, for example), ensure you meet the necessary bet settlement value within the stated time frame.
Is the Free Bet Stake Included in the Returns?
It is extremely rare for players to get their free bet stake back when placing it on a winning bet. This means if you place a £10 free bet at 5/1 and win, you’ll receive £50, not £60. So, do not think you can place your free bet on a safe short-odds selection, just to convert the stake into cash.
Royal Ascot Betting Markets
Beyond standard win and each-way bets, there are plenty of other ways to have a flutter on Royal Ascot action. There is something to suit every punter, whether you want something straightforward or ambitious, low odds or high odds. Below, we highlight just a sample of the different markets you can take advantage of during the five-day spectacle.
Match Bet
A match bet, or a match-up bet, as other bookmakers call it, requires you to pick between two horses. Your task is to pick the horse that will achieve the highest position of the two. Say you have bet on Horse X to beat Horse Y. If Horse X finishes fourth, then Horse Y would need to finish fifth or worse. With only two options to choose from for each bet and most pre-selected matches quite competitive, odds do not tend to be big for this market.
Win or Each-Way
A win bet is as straightforward as they come; you just need your horse to finish first. Each-way bets split your stake evenly into a win and a place part. If the horse wins, both parts of your bet will return. If your horse only manages to place, only the stake on the place will win. The odds on the place element of each way bets are always a fraction of the full odds, often a quarter to a fifth. Still, this remains a popular type of bet, especially during Royal Ascot, given the number of extra place boosts. This increases the amount of ‘places’ covered by each way terms, so five places instead of three, for example.
Placepot & Jackpot Pool Betting
Placepots require you to pick a horse to place in the first six races of the afternoon at Royal Ascot. The Jackpot is even tougher, as you have to choose six winners. Both bets offer huge potential payouts as all stakes go into a single prize pool, often creating five-figure dividends. While this may seem too tough to get right, know that you can cover more than one horse for each race.
As these are both Tote bets, you may need to select ‘Tote’ within the betting market options to find these options.
Forecast / Tricast Betting
If you are looking for a big payout on individual Royal Ascot races, this is one of the best options. Forecast and tricast bets let you predict the first two or three horses home in a race. A straight forecast requires them to finish in the exact order, while a reverse forecast or combination tricast lets them finish in any order. Straight bets pay out more, due to the higher precision involved, but you can still get good payouts on reverse/combination picks, especially in large-field handicaps.
Top Festival Jockey Betting
An event like Royal Ascot attracts some of the best jockeys around. Each time, one rider will stand clear of the competition by securing the most victories over the five days. The class of the race does not matter, nor do the odds of the horse; it is simply the number of wins. You can bet on who this jockey will be both before and during Royal Ascot. If two (or more) jockeys finish tied on the same number of wins, it then comes down to second-place and third-place finishes.
Top Festival Trainer Betting
As well as a top jockey, you can also bet on the trainer you think will saddle the most Royal Ascot winners. History tells us that a trainer bagging five or six wins is usually enough to claim the top trainer award. This is not a market that tends to deliver too many shocks. Between 2015 and 2025, there were only two different winners, Aidan O’Brien and John Gosden (twice John & Thady Gosden).
Horses to ‘Win ANY Race’ at the Festival
If it looks like a big overseas horse might try their luck in Europe, sometimes bookmakers jump early to capitalise on the hype. This involves them offering a bet on the horse to win any race at Royal Ascot, months before the five-day event even begins. So, for this bet, you have to weigh up how likely they are to appear at Ascot and how good their chances would be. The benefit of getting in early is that you may get a much better price compared to waiting for confirmation of their participation.
Overview of the Royal Ascot Betting Offers
Here at Nostrabet, our hard-working team constantly track down the best Royal Ascot betting offers so you don’t have to. Especially during the run-up to the festival, we highlight new promotions and exclusive bonuses so you can add plenty of value to your bets. These deals, combined with our helpful Royal Ascot betting odds guide, will ensure you make the absolute most of the five-day event.
FAQ
How to Bet on Royal Ascot Festival?
Sign up for a licensed bookmaker and place a deposit if you do not already have an active account. Head to the Royal Ascot betting page on their desktop site or mobile app. Browse the range of markets, select your bet type and decide on your stake. Once done, confirm the bet on your betslip.
How many races does the Royal Ascot Festival include?
Royal Ascot hosts 35 races across five days. Each day features seven top-class contests, ranging from Group 1 events to competitive handicaps, attracting the world’s best horses, jockeys, and trainers.
When does the Royal Ascot Festival start?
Royal Ascot begins in June each year, with the first race getting underway on a Tuesday afternoon. The 2026 edition of the festival has a provisional date of 16th to 20th June.
Which bookmakers offer the best Royal Ascot betting offers?
Most of the leading UK bookmakers typically offer top Royal Ascot promotions. These include free bets, enhanced odds, extra places, and money-back specials to give you even more value on your wagers.
Are Royal Ascot betting offers withdrawable?
Generally, you can withdraw any cash you win from a Royal Ascot betting offer. Any bonus funds, however, like free bets, need to be spent before players can pocket any winnings from them. Try not to make assumptions, though, and instead read through the terms of the offer.