Free sports betting offered by almost every bookmaker, from William Hill and Ladbrokes to Betfair and Betfred, has been around for a while. Like any industry, whether it’s supermarkets that open on Sundays or hotels that offer free WIFI, once you do, all other players in the industry quickly follow suit.

Ultimately what this means is that what was once a unique selling point for a vendor becomes the industry standard and any business that does not comply is highlighted as substandard.

However, despite the fact that there are hundreds of online betting companies offering free bets totaling thousands of dollars, a few weeks ago one of the big players made the decision to cancel their free bet promotion. Victor Chandler now relies solely on his site and his brand to attract punters.

So will the other big names follow suit? I honestly don’t know, but it’s a bold move and I think it’s a mistake. I have surveyed a small sample of around 200 people through my own site and it was an overwhelming 99.5% of people who said ‘Given the option to start gambling online for the first time, they would choose one site less known. offering a free sports betting offer on VictorChandler.

Combine this with the fact that a similarly sized survey showed that 74% of online gamers stick with one of the top two sites they try as their primary source of online gambling. Another surprising statistic was that 87% said that the main reason they would try another site instead of their current one is to take advantage of a free betting promotion, only then, if they were satisfied with the ease of use of the site, would they consider making a switch. permanent. .

I’m sure if someone from VictorChandler HQ sat down and read this article they would tell me that the sites numbers haven’t been affected much and have been more than offset by the savings on free bets. If this is the case good luck to them and I hope it works as I actually think it is a very smart and easy to use site.

So will the other bookmakers follow suit? I doubt it. I’m sure it was very difficult for the first site to take the plunge, it will be a bit easier for the middle ones to follow suit, but what about the latter. What if Ladbrokes, William Hill and Coral are the last 3 to offer the free bet offer, are Ladbrokes and Coral going to waive that and let William Hill dominate new sign-ups? In my opinion, this is highly unlikely!

All in all, I think the online bookmakers free bets promotion is here to stay, but if there are any that you haven’t taken advantage of and were planning on doing, now might be a good time to do so before a few more drop. off.