Free bets are handed out by many online gambling websites in order to both attract new customers to their business and to keep existing customers loyal. These free bets come in many different forms, ranging from sign up bonuses to loyalty points which can be exchanged for free bets.

The most common kind of free bets offered by online betting websites are sign up bonuses, where players are offered huge bonuses for signing up to a new online gambling site and depositing money into their accounts. These sign up bonus free bets are usually either paid out as a percentage of an initial deposit or as a fixed sum based on how much a new player puts into their account. However, these free bets cannot instantly be withdrawn as money and often need to be wagered, sometimes several times over, before they turn into ‘real’ money.

Many UK gambling websites also offer customers access to loyalty programmes. These programmes grant players points based on how much money they’ve wagered on an online betting website. Once a player has accumulated enough points, they are generally granted free bets and allowed to keep the winnings once they’ve been wagered.

Online poker services, along with running comprehensive sign up bonuses and loyalty programmes, often offer their customers free bets in the way of free entry to poker tournaments. This leaves a player eligible to try to play for cash prizes without needing to lay down the money to buy in themselves.

Here is a list of some of the best casinos online so you can just get down to playing rather than having to scroll your way through all the different web pages; we’ve taken the hard work out of gambling and left you with only the fun part.

High up there is Virgin Casino, a simple and straightforward website that allows you to register and play immediately.  There may be some rare instances when you are asked to provide some form of identification, but this can easily be done by email, fax or post.  The 100+ games available on this site are entertaining and of high quality; you’ll never feel cheated here.

Another good online casino is William Hill, where you have the choice of downloading software in order to play all the games, or just playing via your browser where you can pick one of over 40 games to play.  Customer Service is excellent and you can win up to £10,000 a month, depending on your stakes and level of play.

Another traditional bookmaker, Ladbrokes, is in amongst the top online casinos.  A huge name in the business, Ladbrokes employs approximately 14,000 people throughout five countries to provide the support and service to its two million global members. Again you can play instantly or choose to download and have access to over 350 games, all with superb graphic and audio quality. There are ongoing promotions for new and existing members.

Other sites to check out are VC Casino, Littlewoods, Coral Casino and Lottery Casino.

The short answer is pretty much everything, at least if you like betting on certain sports and games.  William Hill is a major online betting site which has high standards, a professional interface and many offers for punters to take advantage of.

You will immediately see from the homepage that there are distinct sections of the site you can visit.  For example if you want to place a bet or get the latest odds on a particular sport, you can visit the sport section.  Alternatively if you want to have a go at their version of online bingo, look out for the specific link to that section instead.

William Hill also has various games to try out, not to mention their online casino which is packed with casino and table games as well.  They certainly cater for a lot of different punters, and when it comes to welcoming offers they have plenty of these as well.  For instance, the online casino can provide you with as much as £150 as a welcome bonus, although it depends on how much you open your account with as to how much you will receive.

William Hill sometimes has other bonuses and offers as well, so make sure you keep an eye out for these if you have an account with them.  They can add that extra degree of excitement to your time with them, and they might just tip the balance in favour of you joining the site in the first place.

Take a moment and imagine a typical bingo player. What do you see? A large lady with a felt tip pen eagerly awaiting the next number – probably.  You are more than likely reliving an outing with your grandparents down to the local bingo hall.

Would it surprise you to learn that playing bingo actually sharpens the mind? Recent studies show that online bingo can have a positive effect on brain development, and improve mental retention and capacity in those who play bingo. Bingo rates as high as doing crosswords puzzles to retain and sharpen mental acuity.

The tests, which ran over a lengthy period of time, showed that online bingo players had improved memory and better retention of brain functions than people who do not play bingo. Bingo players were able to keep both concentration and focus on tasks at hand, as well as completing the tasks earlier than the group who did not play bingo.

Researchers have long proven that mental exercises help keep the brain sharp and working at a maximum level. What they found about bingo is that a player is required to multitask: listening for the called numbers, watching the cards, concentrating on the patterns played, and chatting with nearby bingo contestants.

Granted there are other ways to keep your brain functioning at an optimal level, but why not have fun with it? Improve your mind while playing a great game of bingo online.

Online slots are extremely simple to play.  Users have the option to play for free or with real money. Playing for free also means no actual financial gain but is a good way to play for those who are learning or who are playing purely for fun.

Every online casino site has the option to play online slots, and there are many versions to choose from. Some of these you may recognise from bars or real casinos. The basics are all the same – spin the reels and hope all the same symbols show on the winning line.

Each symbol has a different value depending on the machine being played, some have set monetary values and some are dependent on the bet being placed, for example twice, ten times and sometimes as much as 500 times the bet placed. If you are lucky enough to get those symbols in a row this could mean big cash prizes.

There are also the standard options to ‘nudge’ meaning you can move a wheel one space per nudge to try to get all the symbols to match, and ‘hold’ which is for when there is 2 of the 3 wheels showing the same symbol, you can hold them and just spin the one that is left in the hope it will stop on the matching symbol.

Slot machines can be highly addictive casino games; it is therefore wise to set spending limits or even time limits if the option is available, to ensure you do not overspend in the heat of the moment.

Although many people genuinely prefer online gambling to visiting casinos, for many players the internet is just a compromise they have to make if they can’t easily travel to their nearest gambling hall.

Online gambling companies try their hardest to make their virtual casinos mimic their real life counterparts as closely as possible, however nothing quite matches the experience of being sat in a social environment and playing with real chips rather than a computer mouse. One type of online gambling, though, can more closely mimic real life casino play than others – Live Dealer casinos.

Some online gambling websites use advanced webcam technology to allow players to play with a real dealer on a table with other players. Although players will still have to indicate their bets and click actions via their computer, they will have the advantage of being dealt real cards while playing blackjack or seeing the result of a real spin of a roulette wheel. Some players who are sceptical about the fairness of online gambling websites even prefer playing this way as they get to see the whole process of playing a hand.

Although the use of live dealers is traditionally only found in online casinos for games such as roulette and blackjack, other forms of online gambling are beginning to experiment with them. Online bingo halls, which pride themselves on the social aspects of their games, have begun using live dealers both via the internet and on late night television.

Many casinos and online gambling websites offer side games or mini games – small games which are designed to need little attention – alongside their main gaming portfolio. Sometimes these side games may take the shape of a game which bets on the combinations of the two cards that a player is dealt in blackjack, while at other times blackjack itself may be offered to break up the monotony of playing online poker for hours at a time.

Although these side games can massively improve a customer’s experience and offer them more variety, they are also highly profitable for casinos. Side games are often simple and at times require no input from the player other than a stake, meaning they can have very long odds and can very quickly eat into a player’s bankroll. A good betting tip for any player gambling on a budget is to avoid them, although for those with a larger amount of cash to wager they can prove quite profitable as they are often high risk\high reward.

Some casino side games, though, are much more informal and are designed to be played amongst friends who enjoy visiting casinos together. For example, at cash poker tables a common side game is the ’7 2 game’. In this game, all of the players agree to pay a sum of money to any player who is able to win a hand with an off suit seven and two – statistically the worst starting hand in poker.

There are many different types of sports betting which customers can actively take part in to try and win varying sums of money. Sports betting is a large part of the current online gambling industry. Sports betting is full of buzz and excitement, which give these sports an extra edge.

Sports betting comes in many different varieties and forms. Each gives the customer a chance of winning a small or large amount of money, depending on how long or short the odds are.

There are also many types of sports betting which are confined to specific sports. Horse racing and football are both popular in the modern betting world. This is because they allow complex betting systems such as accumulators, which allow a customer to bet on many races or matches at once.

These complex systems are blended in with a variety of other different types of sport betting, which add to the excitement. The majority of sports betting has been based around picking the winner, as it has been for a number of years. This is the simplest form of sports betting.

However, bookmakers such as Ladbrokes and William Hill have taken this a little bit further and made sure that the customer has better odds of winning money.

Different types of sports betting appeal to different types of people but the thing that has remained the same is that responsible sports gambling can be as fun as anything else.

Is it really true?  Can you get free bets on various sports just by knowing where to look?

Yes indeed, it is true.  They are also easier to find than you might think.  The reason for this is that a lot of gambling websites offer free bets to entice people to join up with them.  Quite often you can join a site and claim as much as £50 as a free bet.  The amount you get depends on the site however, so take a look around to see which one is best for your needs.

All you have to do to find the sites that give out free bets when you join is to search for the term ‘free bets’ in your choice of search engine.  This will bring up lots of results, many of which will be with well known companies. 

One thing you have to be sure of is the terms and conditions surrounding any bet which is given to you free of charge.  Normally the free bets are given on a like for like basis.  This means that if you place a bet for £10 you will receive a free bet which equals that amount.  If your placed bet is higher you’ll get a matching bet for free there as well.

It may also be the case that free bets can only be given if they match certain odds criteria, so watch out for this requirement too.

Roulette is one of the most popular casino games in the world, with most gambling halls around the globe having at least one roulette wheel. The game is also a staple of the online gambling world, with all internet casinos offering a wide variety of roulette games.

Although there are some small differences between the various versions of roulette, the basics of the game are the same. Roulette is played with a special wheel which the dealer spins to select a winning number, with a small ball dropped in once the wheel has been spun and the winning number being the one which the ball settles by. The players betting on the outcome of these spins indicate their bets by placing them on a roulette table.

Roulette players can bet on the exact number which the wheel will produce, groups of numbers, whether the ball will land on a red or black number or whether the outcome will be an odd or even number. Each of these outcomes has different odds based on the likelihood of the result. For example, while playing on an American roulette table, the payout for correctly guessing the exact number that the spin will produce is 35/1 while predicting the correct colour – red or black – pays out at evens.

These variances of payouts have made roulette a highly strategic game, with players needing to spread their bets wisely in order to maximise their chances of winning while also limiting their potential losses.