Rugby Betting Bonus Guide

• Rugby in detail:
• Bonus Guide

• Types of Bonuses

• Major Sporting Events

• Types of Betting

• Top Tips for Punters

Matched deposits, free bets and great promotions are just a few of the things you can claim when you open a new account at one of our featured sports betting sites. Which type of bonus is better for rugby? We look at the pros and cons of each offer and give you our impartial view of which one is best for you.

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Betting on rugby has become increasingly popular over the last five years, high profile wins for the National team has meant that the profile of the sport has never been higher and unlike football, there is a sense of optimism that isn’t built on false dawns or overpaid prima donnas.

When betting on rugby online, you have plenty of events to have a punt on. The Rugby world cup is the big one but The Guinness Premiership, Challenge Cup, Six Nations, Heineken Cup and league fixtures mean you’ll never be short of options.

• 4.85 Ladbrokes £50 Free Bet Daily price boosts Use code F50 for matched bet Claim bonus now

• 4.75 William Hill £30 in free bets Most generous free bets bonus Special rugby promotion Claim bonus now

T&C's Apply. New customers only. 18+, UK only. Full T&Cs apply.

Rugby Sports Betting Welcome Bonus – Matched Deposit

This is the type of offer that you are most likely to see on TV adverts, it has the highest amount of money available but as you will see, it also has the most terms and conditions attached to it. This type of offer requires you to spend more than you will receive.

Rugby Sports Betting Matched Deposit – What Can I Get?

The amount you will receive depends on the amount of your first deposit and any cap the online bookie puts on the bonus. The most common type of matched deposit offer is a 100% match. If you deposit £50, the sportsbook will match that with another £50.

Not all sportsbooks offer 100%, you will often see 50% matched deposit, as the name suggests the online bookmaker will give you 50% of your deposit amount. If you were to deposit £50, they will give you £25 in funds.

Rugby Matched Deposit – What do I Need to Know?

A lot of complaints regarding online sports betting involve the welcome bonus, there are conditions attached to these bonuses and understanding these can prevent dissatisfaction at a later date. Even experienced players can get caught out so please take a little bit of time to understand what impact these conditions can have on you.

The first point to cover is what is called the “wagering requirement”. You will see this expressed as a times amount, for example x5. This figure indicates how many times you have to bet your bonus amount. Until you meet this figure, you will be unable to withdraw any winnings from your bonus funds. Let’s have a look at an example.

I sign up with an online sportsbook who are offering 100% matched deposit up to £100. The wagering requirement is x5 and I also see that the wagering requirement has to be achieved within 14 days of receiving my bonus.

I make my £100 deposit and the betting site matches my £100 so I have £200 to bet with. As the wagering requirement is x5, I need to have settled bets worth £500 before I can withdraw any winnings associated with this bonus. This is why it is important to at least have an idea of how you are likely to bet. If you are only likely to bet a few times a month, then this may not be the best choice for you.

Next consideration is the timescale you have to play-through your wagering requirement. The time you are given can range from 7 – 90 days, this is a huge difference. So finding a deal that has a wagering requirement you can meet and within the timescales should be a deciding factor when comparing different deals.

Another serious consideration is “do all my bets count towards my wagering requirement?” You may be surprised to learn that some online sports betting sites impose conditions that state that only the first bet in any match or event counts towards your wagering requirement.

For example, England are playing Wales in the Six Nations, I place a £5 bet on an England victory. Five minutes before the game I have a £50 bet on the winning margin being more than 10. At some betting sites, only my first bet of £5 would count, the £50 would be discarded. Our personal view is that this is a sneaky and backhanded way of making the wagering requirement more difficult to reach. It does empathise however the importance of knowing what you are signing up for.

Rugby Betting Welcome Bonus – Free Bets

Free bets could be the perfect compromise if you don’t want a long list of terms and conditions to abide by, at many sports betting sites the free bet offers only have a minimum odds requirement and a timescale and are usually less complicated than the deposit match bonus.

Rugby Free Bets – What Can I Get?

With free bets, you are highly unlikely to receive anywhere near as generous an offer as you will get with no deposit deals. With free bets, the amounts offered are usually in the £10 – £50 range. It is worth mentioning though that often a free bet deal will offer a free bet that can be 100, 200 or even 300% more than you have deposited.

Rugby Free Bets – What do I Need to Know?

Whilst it is true that free bets don’t usually come with a long list of terms and conditions, there are likely to be a few you need to be aware of.

For free bets they usually insist that the event or market you are planning on betting on is at least certain odds, this will vary between betting sites but is normally about 8/11 which is 1.75 in decimal odds. This is to prevent you from using your free bets on a dead certainty (if such a thing exists!) such as New Zealand beating Bulgaria in an International rugby match.

Another consideration is how long the free bets last for. This certainly isn’t as crucial as when you accept a matched deposit and may find you have to place £200 worth of bets in seven days, a free bet will likely have to be used within a week or two and you can use the free bet on one bet.

The last thing we want to make you aware of is, unlike a matched deposit in which the amount you receive is determined by the amount of money you deposit with a free bet it is often determined on the size of your first bet.

For example, lets imagine that a bookmaker is offering “Free bet up to £20”. In the terms and conditions, it states they will give a free bet equal to your first settled bet.

In this example it makes no difference if I deposit £10, £20 or even £200, the free bet I receive will be to the value of my first settled bet. If I bet £5 on a Scotland game, I will get a £5 free bet. Bet £10 on Scotland, I will get a £10 free bet. The pattern continues until you reach the ceiling of the offer, when that is reached no matter what I bet, I get the maximum free bet.

Rugby Betting Bonuses – Other Promotions

No matter which sport you bet on, one promotion that we really like is 888sport’s treble the odds offer. Instead of a traditional matched deposit or free bet deal, they offer as a onetime only deal, to treble the odds on your first bet.

Rugby Other Promotions – What do I Need to Know?

The first thing to mention on this promotion is that the difference between your normal winnings and your enhanced winnings are paid out as free bets. On a personal level, I think this is great. When I took this offer my selection thankfully won and I used my free bets on riskier bets than I normally would. I would love to tell you that I won a life changing amount on my free bets but I did well enough to really like this promotion.

This is the problem with this promotion, you win and think it’s wonderful, lose and it’s the worst deal ever and you yearn for free bets. At the end of the day, do you want to gamble or play it safe?

It is worth pointing out that the maximum amount of win on this promotion is £5,000 but the added bonus is no wagering requirements to worry about.

Our View: Which One of the Bonuses is Better for Rugby?

A lot of players don’t stick to one sport, if this sounds like you and you intend to bet regularly then maximising your bank roll makes a lot of sense. However, remember you need to satisfy the wagering requirement and the time scales involved. If this isn’t a problem for you then the mantra “bigger is better” could ring true.

If you are a more conservative player or someone who is new to betting online then you can’t go far wrong with free bets, the lower commitment will suit a lot of players. There is nothing stopping you from signing up with more than one company and we would encourage this as it enables you to compare odds from different online sportsbooks.

The promotion from 888sport which enables you to effectively treble the odds on your first bet would suit anyone, the only downside with this offer is like a virgin on a honeymoon, it could be over before it began! So choose your first bet wisely.

Major Rugby Events to Bet on in 2024/2025

We mentioned earlier in this guide that rugby is well supported at online betting sites, pretty much if it’s happening, you can bet on it! Looking ahead this year, here is a list of major rugby events taking place in 2024.

Best Betting Promotions for Rugby

Ideally you will find a site that offers a great welcome bonus, respectable odds and an interface that makes betting easy and quick. But what happens when the bonus has run out? As rugby fans, it’s more difficult to find a site that offers targeted promotions.

As promotions change from day to day, it is almost impossible to bring you a definitive list of rugby promotions. However, I would like to mention 888sport as I used them a lot during the six nations. They offered to double your winnings (in free bets) if the team you back in the win/draw/win market wins the match with a bonus point. The free bet is up to £50.

Types of Betting Available

There are a multitude of bets available for you to place, these bets are no different to the ones you can use in other sports. In tournaments, you will also be able to place an “each-way bet”.

Each way betting splits a stake into two equal bets, the first one is to win and one to finish in the “places”. The places offered can change from event to event and may also change depending what site you use.

For example, a punter might make a £5 each way bet on Wales to win the Six Nations at 12/1 odds. The total stake would be £10, made up of £5 to win and £5 to place in the top three at ¼ odds.

Rugby Accumulator / Multiple Bets

Some of the best fun you can have at online bookmakers is with accumulator / full coverage bets. Before a big tournament I love to go through the fixtures and predict a winner in each group stage. I then place an accumulator on these results. I would love to be able to tell you I have been successful lots of times and I am writing this whilst sipping cocktails in the Caribbean but the truth is I’ve been mighty close a few times. So whilst I’m drinking tea at the moment, I’m hopeful.

So whilst acca bets have the pure excitement factor, full coverage bets are the more expensive but they offer you a degree of error in your predictions. A Heinz bet for example is 57 bets, only 2 of these need to be successful to see a return.

Rugby Multiple Bets – What do I Need to Know?

Full coverage bets can be very expensive and whilst they offer great protection from an unexpected result, you could receive less than your bet cost. The minimum bet comes into play greatly with coverage bets. For example, if you placed a Goliath at an online sports site which had a 10p minimum bet it would cost £24.70, if the minimum bet was 50p this same bet would cost £123.50. That is quite a difference so another thing to consider when searching for your perfect betting partner.

Rugby Betting Online – Payment Options

To be considered a top online betting site, the online bookie must accept a wide range of methods to fund your account. You will find that almost all of our featured sites accept popular cards such as Visa, Visa debit & MasterCard. You will also find alternative methods such as PayPal, paysafecard and Skrill are supported.

A slight word of caution, some online bookmakers exclude certain payment methods from receiving welcome bonuses and / or promotions. This usually affects Skrill and paysafecard but there may be others so please check before accepting any promotion.

Rugby– Top Tips for Punters

1. Study the head to head form – There are few sports that are as passionate as Rugby and grudges do seem to carry on, long after the hooter has sounded. I like betting on the revenge result. Did Wales get humiliated by Scotland last time out? Did Scotland score a last minute try to clinch victory at England? Not the most scientific tip I know but never underestimate National Pride. It’s also true that when the home Nations play each other, form can mean very little.
2. Bet with your head, not your heart – I know this tip kind of contradicts number 1 but be realistic. You may be the most passionate Swedish Rugby fan in the world but are they really likely to beat the All-Blacks at the weekend?
3. Check the team news before you bet – Nothing worse than placing an early bet and then discovering that your team have a really inexperienced back row due to injuries and first picks not being available. In-play is a great way of avoiding this, watch the game for a few minutes and decide then.
4. Look at the discipline – You could be the best player in the world but you are no good to anyone sat in the sin bin. I like betting in-play that the other team will score next after a sending off or a player being sent to the sin bin, it doesn’t always work of course but has been a good side bet in the past.
5. Do the conditions suit your teams style of play – Do certain teams seem to struggle in difficult weather conditions? Are there gale force winds that even Jonny Wilkinson couldn’t kick against? Knowing the optimal playing conditions for your team can give that slight edge that is needed.

Conclusion – Best Betting Bonuses for Rugby

There has never been a better time to experience online betting. A new generation of sportsbooks are taking on the traditional bookmakers which makes everyone raise their game. This is great news for the punter as the offers are as good (if not better) than they have ever been.

The type of welcome bonus you should take depends on how you plan to bet. A matched deposit bonus by far gives you the biggest bankroll but does come with quite a few terms and conditions.

Free bets don’t normally come with as many term and conditions but this is offset by the lower amounts on offer.

If you want something different then 888sport’s treble the odds offer is suitable for all.

It’s not all about bonuses and free bets though, personally finding a site that runs rugby promotions is more likely to see me become a regular visitor rather than the ability to get £10 more in free bets.