Cheltenham Festival 2020

cheltenham festival 2020

The Cheltenham Festival is the highlight of the horse racing calendar and the biggest racing event of the year. With any major sporting event, bookmakers release an increased number of betting offers which will please both regular punters and matched bettors. For matched bettors, the week of the Cheltenham Festival has the potential to be the most profitable week of the year with many looking to take advantage of the free bets, refunds, extra places and best odds guaranteed available at multiple bookies.

When Is The 2020 Cheltenham Festival?

The 2020 Cheltenham Festival takes place over four days from Tuesday 10th March to Friday 13th March at the famous Cheltenham Racecourse.

Over 260,000 people are expected to attend the festival over the four days of racing and a staggering half a billion pounds worth of bets expected to be placed.

How Many Races Take Place At The Cheltenham Festival?

7 races take place each day with a total of 28 races over the four days. Some of the biggest races of the year take place at The Cheltenham Festival with prize money up to £650,000.

Some of the highlights of the festival include:

Day 1 – Tuesday 10th March

  • Race: The Unibet Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy
  • Start Time: 15:30
  • Distance: 2m abt 1/2f
  • Type: Hurdle
  • Prize Money: £450,000

Day 2 – Wednesday 13th march

  • Race: The Betway Queen Mother Champion Steeple Chase (Grade 1)
  • Start Time: 15:30
  • Distance: Abt 2m
  • Type: Chase
  • Prize Money: £400,000

Day 3 – Thursday 14th march

  • Race: The Ryanair Steeple Chase
  • Start Time: 14:50
  • Distance: 2m abt 5f
  • Type: Chase
  • Prize Money: £350,000

Day 4 – Friday 15th march

  • Race: The Magners Cheltenham Gold Cup Steeple Chase
  • Start Time: 15:30
  • Distance: 3m 2f 70y
  • Type: Chase
  • Prize Money: £625,000

You can find the full 2020 Cheltenham Festival schedule here.

What Betting Offers Should We Expect To See?

With so much money being bet throughout the festival, bookmakers need to do everything they can to lure punters to their sites over their competitors. One way in which they do this is by offering tractive betting offers. We will see various types of betting offers with the most common being:

  • Bet & Get offers (eg. ‘Bet £10 on the first race of the day and get a £10 free bet for the second race’)
  • Refunds: Money back (either as cash or a free bet) if your horse finishes 2nd/3rd/4th etc
  • Extra Places: Bookies paying out on more places on selected races

There are also other ways matched bettors will be making a profit from Cheltenham Festival with one of the most profitable methods being Dutching. By covering all horses in a race and with some help from best Odds Guaranteed, it’s possible to lock in a profit from races and if not, dutching can still provide a positive expected value.

If you’re a casual matched bettor, we recommend taking advantage of the free bets for Cheltenham Festival along with the racing refunds. These are generally easy offers to do which take minimal time and effort whereas dutching is an advanced technique which can take a lot longer.

How To Prepare For The 2020 Cheltenham Festival

The first thing you should do is to make sure you have signed up to as many bookmakers as possible to ensure that you can take advantage of the Cheltenham betting offers when they become available. Another advantage of this is that you’ll be able to claim a number of new customer offers from bookmakers and generate a profit before the festival has started. This will give you a bigger bankroll and allow you to participate in more offers simultaneously throughout the festival.

It’s a good idea to plan ahead and put together a schedule of offers which you’ll be doing. You’ll find all of the offers which are available on matched betting sites such as Profit Squad and OddsMonkey. If you haven’t joined a matched betting site yet then we recommend doing so for the festival. Profit Squad offers a 14-day membership for just £1 which will cover you throughout the festival and give you access to all Cheltenham betting offers along with a range of matched betting tools.

Creating a schedule is important so that you don’t miss out on the most profitable offers. If you work full time then you’ll need to decide when you’ll be free to look for close matches and when to place your bets. Planning ahead will ensure you are not rushing to place your bets and missing out on value.

Cheltenham Festival can be an extremely profitable week for matched bettors and we hope this year’s festival will be for you.