Royal Ascot 2025: Free Bets, Best Bookies & Welcome Offers

Top Royal Ascot Betting Offers & Sign-Up Bonuses

Finding the best offer for you can be difficult, with so many bookmakers competing for your business! We have gathered to top sign-up offers and welcome bonuses from our leading bookmaker partners so you can quickly and easily grab a great betting offer!

Which Bookies Have the Best Royal Ascot Promotions?

Finding the best bookmaker for you means taking into account a few different things, like how you bet, any strategies you use and what promotions are most important to you.

For example, if you like betting each-way on bigger-prices, we would recommend Sky Bet as the best bookmaker for you as the offer the most extra place races. However, this does mean their prices are unlikely to be the best on offer.

Paddy Power tends to be very generous with free bet promotions and boosts and while they are usually lower value free bets, we find they still offer a great way to enjoy the sport while keeping your stakes low.

Betfair are an expert in the field, often offering competitive prices, especially on the Betfair Exchange. We would recommend Betfair for those with slightly more experience betting as they allow you to take advantage of moving markets and assessing races to find the best price.

Ultimately, it will depend on your experience in the betting world and what is most important to you. It can also help to look at the other sports you might be interested in betting in, as they all have different offerings for that too.

Are Royal Ascot Free Bets Worth It?

Yes, free bets are a great way to enjoy Royal Ascot without having to stake too much of your own money! Most free bet offers will have qualifying criteria, usually depositing or placing a first bet but once you have done this you will be credited your free bets and you can use them how you see fit!

This means you could enjoy Royal Ascot and bet in several races without staking your own money. As a new customer you can get the most generous free bet offers, with between £30-60 available depending on the bookmaker offer.

As an existing customer there are still plenty of chances to get free bets, while the amount is usually smaller (typically between £1-£10) they are still a great way to enjoy the racing without having to stake your own money!

Royal Ascot Offers for Existing Customers – Where to Find Them

Existing customer offers can be found on the homepage of your betting app or on the specific event, however we also gather the leading free bet offers from our bookmaker partners here so you can find them all in one place!

For example, Paddy Power might offer you a free £2 bet on any race on Gold Cup Day, they might show this offer on the homepage banners where you simply press “claim” to get the free bets. Alternatively you might find the offer advertised in every Royal Ascot race at the top of the page, or in the horse racing section of the app too!

Bookmakers want you to claim the free bets so they will always make sure they are obviously placed on the app!

How to Bet on Royal Ascot Online in 2025

All our bookmaker partners offer online betting both through their app and websites. This means you can easily place a bet online for Royal Ascot, removing the need to go to a betting shop in person.

If you don’t have a betting account with our partners, you can create an account with one of the sign-up offers above and get some free bets to help kickstart your betting journey. Once you have your account you can follow the below steps to place a bet on Royal Ascot:

1. 1) Make sure you have enough funds in your account to place the bet you want to place. If you need to deposit more you can do so through the account screen.
2. 2) Head to the race you want to bet on by clicking on the time the race is due to start.
3. 3) Once in the race, you will see all the runners and their odds, you can also often see a short summary of the previous performances and a small note on its chances today.
4. 4) If you press the odds next to the horse, this will add the selection to the bet slip which will appear at the bottom of your app.
5. 5) If you press on your bet slip, it will show you the horse you have selected as well as a small box to enter your stake.
6. 6) Once you enter your stake it will show you the returns at current price. This is also where you can use free bets, this is either done by ticking a box or selecting the small orange present icon to see your available bets (varies by bookmaker)
7. 7) At this point you can also tick the “each-way” box to change the bet type. This will double your stake and make the bet an each-way bet. Find out more about each-way betting.
8. 8) Once you are happy with your stake, press “place bet” and you will be shown your bet confirmation and your bet will be live.

Each-Way Betting Explained for Royal Ascot

Each-way betting is hugely popular at Royal Ascot, with huge fields and competitive handicaps often throwing up big-priced winners. You can read a full guide to each-way betting or check out a quick overview below:

Each-way betting essentially means you are placing two bets on a horse. One bet on the horse to win at the shown odds and a second bet on the horse to finish placed at either 1/5 or 1/4 of the odds. This is why your stake doubles when you select each-way in the bet slip.

Lets work through an example, lets say you place a £5 each-way bet on Horse A at 20/1. The each-way terms are 1/5 for the first 5 places. The below are your potential returns:

If Horse A wins you would get a total return of £130 (including your £10 total stake), £100 from the win part and £20 from the place part.

If Horse A finishes in the first 5 but doesn't win you would get a total return of £25 (including your £10 initial stake)

If your horse does not finish in the first 5 you would not get a return and both parts of the bet would lose.

Each-way terms vary from race to race, both with the number of places they will pay on whether it is 1/5 or ¼ of the odds. While there are industry standards, most bookmakers offer extra places, especially Sky Bet, so you will need to check on each race.

Understanding the Form: Picking Winners at Royal Ascot

Understanding form can take years of experience and racing knowledge, but it is a key part of understanding how a race might develop and potentially finding a winning selection. We have a full guide on understanding form or you can check out these helpful tips for understanding it.

How do I read horse racing form?

When looking at a race you will see a few pieces of information shown by three letters, J (Jockey), T (Trainer), and F (Form). Form is shown by a mixture or letters and numbers and indicate the previous results for that horse.

While it doesn’t tell you the full story of each race, it gives you an idea of how the horse has been doing. The below key helps you read form:

• Numbers 1-9 = Finishing position
• “P” = Pulled Up
• “U”= Unseated Rider
• “F” = The horse fell to the ground
• “-“ = Indicates a new season
• “0” = The horse finished the race outside the first 9.

Form is read with the most recent result on the right, for example a horse’s form line reading 5-P3421 will have won most recently.

What should I consider when reading form?

While the abbreviations are handy to give you a quick idea of who has been winning recently or not, it does leave out information like the race type, distance, going, course, and jockey changes.

To really understand how a horse might suit the current race, you will want to expand the form box (done in most betting apps by pressing the name of the selection, not the odds). Once you do this you will get extra information from the previous races to help you make an informed decision.

What should I specifically know for Royal Ascot?

Royal Ascot is one of the most competitive Flat meetings and can often throw up surprise results and big prices. Royal Ascot’s course, particularly the longer races on the round course, can sometimes catch riders and horses out due to its long home straight.

There is no concrete rulebook to understanding Royal Ascot races, but the data experts at Timeform best describe the differences in course and distance during the festival:

The round course is a right-handed, galloping, triangular circuit of a mile and three quarters, with a run-in of two and a half furlongs. Ascot also has a straight mile course, which tends to drain better than the round course.

Generally speaking, prominent racers fare significantly better than those held up over five furlongs, but the opposite is true over seven furlongs/a mile, while on the round course those that race in the first half of the field over a mile and a quarter have a better record than those caught further back.

Can New Customers Claim Multiple Royal Ascot Free Bets?

The dress code for Royal Ascot is almost as iconic as the racing, with top hats and tails for the men and flamboyant headpieces and colourful dresses for the women creating some of racing’s most impressive pageantry.

Dress code does depend on which enclosure you are in, we take a look at the typical dress codes for each enclosure below:

Windsor Enclosure

The most relaxed enclosure, there is no official dress code, but smart daywear is still encouraged and adhered to. With most men wearing a suit and collared shirt while women wear dresses.

Despite the relaxed dress code, there is no fancy dress, novelty clothing or promotional items allowed.

Village Enclosure

The Village enclosure asks for slightly more restricted clothing, with women required to wear a dress or top and skirt, albeit with no minimum length requirement. Men are required to wear a suit jacker of blazer, although not necessarily made of the same material.

Accessories such as ties for men and a hat or headpiece for women are also required in this enclosure.

Queen Anne Enclosure

The Queen Anne Enclosure follows a similar pattern to the Village enclosure for women, however men are now required to wear a full-length two- or three-piece suit, with the jacket and trousers made of matching material.

Royal Enclosure

As expected, the Royal Enclosure has what most view as the ‘typical’ Royal Ascot style. Women are required to wear a dress or skirt falling just above the knee or longer, as well as hats or a headpiece with diameter of at least 10cm.

For men, full Morning dress is required in black, grey or navy. This includes a top hat, necktie and waistcoat. This iconic enclosure calls back to the rich history of Royal Ascot and is a key part of the Ascot experience for racegoers.

The Royal Ascot fashion experience may seem incredibly stricy but it is often represented across the enclosures, with many racegoers opting for the full morning suit attire regardless of their ticket.

What Is Royal Ascot? Everything You Need to Know

Royal Ascot is one of the headline racing events in the world, along with its unmistakable pageantry and fashion, Royal Ascot is an incredible week of racing with 19 Group level races bringing the best horses in the world together.

It is held annually in June and dates back to the 1800s, making it one of the oldest racing festivals in the world. With close ties to the Royal Family and British culture, Royal Ascot was regularly attended by Queen Elizabeth II and has been attended by King Charles and Queen Camilla in recent in years too.