Sports Betting SitesIn the UK betting on sports is incredibly popular, and you don’t have to be backing your favourite team for thousands in order to get some added excitement from the match. You don’t have to settle for small wins either, thanks to accumulators even a bet as low as 50p can return some huge numbers if every result goes your way.

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£5 Minimum Deposit Sports Betting Sites

As competition for your business has increase, bookmakers have gotten much more generous and there are now plenty of decent sized free bets that you can get from a small deposit. In this first section we look at the Bet £5 Get £20 type offers. Simply deposit and place a real money bet and you’ll get £20 or even £30 in free bets.

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Bet £5 Get £20
18+. UK+IRE only. Min first bet £5 at odds 1/2 or more. Tote and Pool excluded. Must be placed within 14 days of account reg. £20 credited as 4 x £5 free bets. Not valid with Cash Out. Free bet valid for 4 days. Free bet stake not returned. T&Cs apply. #ad

Minimum Bets

The beauty of the increased popularity of online betting is that your choices are numerous, from bingo to slots, poker to roulette. Yet the original form of betting remains as popular as ever, which is the ability to have a flutter on the outcome of sporting events. Whether you’re a fan of the football, the horse racing or the darts, there are a myriad of betting sites that will let you place a wager on your chosen event.

If you’re the sort of person that likes to bet little and often, however, it can be quite confusing when it comes to figuring out what the best thing to bet on actually is. If you’re only keen on one particular sport then it goes without saying that you’ll concentrate on that, but if you want to bet for a bit of fun and keep your stake low but aren’t sure what to opt for then it can be a minefield. This will help you chart your path.

The first place to start is by having a look at what the minimum bet is on each of the various popular sports out there. For the purpose of ease we’re going to look at three random bookmakers and three sports that tend to be the most bet on: football, tennis and horse racing.

In the below table we’ll tell you what the minimum bets on those three sports are according to our randomly chosen bookies. The key thing to bear in mind is that this isn’t saying that these are the minimum bets for all bookmakers, but rather just to give you an idea of the market.

Sport Bookmaker 1 Minimum Bet Bookmaker 2 Minimum Bet Bookmaker 3 Minimum Bet Average Minimum Bet
Football 10p 3p 9p 7.3p
Tennis 10p 3p 9p 7.3p
Horse Racing 10p 3p 9p 7.3p

As you can see, all three bookmakers are consistent with their minimum bet across all three sports. For your information, we also checked out other far more random sports with all three bookies and the minimum bet remained the same.

The main point to take away from that, though, is that the minimum bet that you can place will vary wildly from bookmaker to bookmaker. The different between bookie 1 and bookie 2 was 7p, which might not seem like a huge amount of money but if you’re playing a number of bets over the course of a week it can add up.

Let’s say, for example, that you’re planning on placing two bets a day during the working week. With the first bookmaker we turned to that would be ten bets at 10p per bet for a total outlay of £1. With the second bookmaker, however, it would be 30p, so a saving of 70p per week or £2.80 per month. Not bad over the course of time.

Things To Think About

Knowing the minimum bet is one thing, but there are things to bear in mind before you place your bet. The chief amongst these is the fact that if you want to place an Each-Way bet then it will cost you double the stake.

An Each-Way bet stands you in better stead of getting a return, of course, but if you have to pay double the stake money to place it then you’ll need to work out if it’s worth it. How often you’ll want to do it will also need to be considered.

Placing an Each-Way bet every time you have a flutter on something will mean that your stake money will start to run out rather quickly. If you’ve only got a limited pot to play with then that’s worth thinking about.

Continuing the same conversation around stakes from above, ten Each-Way bets a week would set you back £2 at 10p per bet, or 60p at 3p per bet. That’s then a saving of £5.60 per month, presuming you decide not to place bets at the weekend.

Multi Line Bets

One of the really fun way of having a flutter that gives you a number of chances to win is by placing a multi line bet. Sometimes referred to as a ‘full cover bet’ because of the implication that they will give you a return on all possible outcomes as long as your selections win in some capacity, they all you to place numerous bets simply.

They’re very much worth explaining, however, for the simple reason that those of you that haven’t placed one before might wonder why they’re so expensive when you’ve added them to your betting slip. The reason is easy enough to explain: they’re actually a number of separate bets that each require their own stake amount.

Let’s look at a Lucky 15 as an example and imagine that we’re placing the bet on horse racing. To place this sort of wager you’ll need to pick four different selections, which will then be used to place fifteen different bets:

  • 4 Singles
  • 6 Doubles
  • 4 Trebles
  • 1 Fourfold Acca

Each of these bets requires stake money, meaning that a site with a 10p minimum bet amount would result in you paying £1.50 to place this type of bet. Here’s a look at the most common multi line bets and the amount they would actually set you back if the minimum stake per bet was 10p:

Bet Type Bet Amount Assuming 10p Per Bet
Forecast 20p
Tricast 30p
Lucky 15 £1.50
Lucky 31 £3.10
Lucky 63 £6.30
Trixie 40p
Yankee £1.10
Super Yankee £2.60
Heinz £5.70
Super Heinz £12
Goliath £24.70

It’s fairly obvious, but the more bets that are in your multi line wager the more it will cost you to place it. Again, if you’re the sort of person that is looking for a way to have a bit of fun with your betting rather than aiming to win loads of money, opting to place your multi line with a bookie that accepts minimum bets for as little as 3p will make a big difference.

To make the point, here’s a look at the difference between the above bets depending on whether you’re placing your bet with a bookmaker that has a minimum bet of 10p or 3p:

Bet Type Cost of 10p Minimum Bet Cost of 3p Minimum Bet Difference
Lucky 15 £1.50 45p £1.05
Lucky 31 £3.10 93p £2.17
Lucky 63 £6.30 £1.89 £4.41
Trixie 40p 12p 28p
Yankee £1.10 33p 77p
Super Yankee £2.60 78p £1.82
Heinz £5.70 £1.71 £3.99
Super Heinz £12 £3.60 £8.40
Goliath £24.70 £7.41 £17.29

If you decided to place every single bet in the above table then that would cost you £57.40 with a bookmaker that has a minimum stake of 10p.

Place the same bets with a bookie that has a minimum stake amount of 3p, however, and you’re looking at a total outlay of £17.22.

That’s a total difference of £40.18. That’s a huge saving you can get yourself by choosing the right bookmaker to place your multi line bets with and is absolutely worth bearing in mind if you’re thinking of opting for a full cover bet or two.

Again, none of the above is comprehensive, but it absolutely shows you the value in searching for the bookmaker that has the lowest minimum bet if you’re hoping to make your stake money last for as long as possible when engaging in some sports betting.