Top Five Sporting Events to Use Free Bets on in December
6 minutes Throughout December you will find free bets aplenty from the UK’s leading betting sites and here at betting.bet we have compiled a list of five sporting events where you can utilise those free bets.
December is almost upon us and for most of us this means time to wind down and get ready for the Christmas festivities. However, the UK’s sports betting calendar is as busy as ever with some real Christmas crackers on the horizon across a number of sports. During the season of goodwill, the UK’s top betting sites will all be looking to supply gifts not even the big man himself could deliver. Throughout December you will find free bets aplenty from the UK’s leading betting sites and here at betting.bet we have compiled a list of five sporting events where you can utilise those free bets.
PDC World Darts Championship
An obvious choice to kick us off, the PDC World Darts Championship at Ally Pally is as much a Christmas tradition as turkey and mince pies. The 2025 tournament will get underway on December 15th with the final scheduled for January 3rd. Last year’s tournament saw the emergence of darts’ new superstar as Luke Littler (aged just 16 at the time) made it all the way to the final before losing 7-4 to Luke Humphries. Littler has since enjoyed a memorable 2024, winning the Premier League, Grand Slam and World Series of Darts titles and rising up to fourth in the PDC’s Order of Merit. He is currently the bookies’ favourite to be crowned world champion.
Reigning world champion, Luke Humphries has not let up since lifting the trophy at Alexandra Palace twelve months ago and he heads back to London more than capable of defending his title. Humphries has already won the World Matchplay and Players Championship in 2024 and made up one half of England’s World Cup winning team. According to the latest outright odds, last year’s finalists Luke Littler and Luke Humphries are set to battle it out for PDC World Darts Championship glory once more next month whilst the likes of Gary Anderson and Michael van Gerwen also feature prominent in the outright betting markets.
Tingle Creek Chase
There is Grade 1 horse racing action at Sandown in December with the Tingle Creek Chase the highlight of the two-day Tingle Creek Festival. Contested over two miles and open to horses aged two years and above, the Tingle Creek Chase often attracts some of the stars of National Hunt racing with no fewer than nine winners this century also winning the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. Notable recent winners include Altior, Sprinter Sacre, Kauto Star and Master Minded.
Last year’s race winner, Jonbon returns to Sandown next month in fine form having landed a hat-trick of wins including the Melling Chase, Celebration Chase and most recently the Grade 2 Shloer Chase at Cheltenham. Jonbon is set to go off as odds-on favourite at Sandown and could once again lock horns with old adversary Edwardstone. The Alan King-trained ten-year-old won the race in 2023 but was only third in this month’s Shloer Chase. Shloer Chase runner-up Boothill could run another big race whilst the leading Irish hope looks to be Found A Fifty for Gordon Elliott.
Usyk v Fury 2
The much-anticipated rematch between heavyweight rivals Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury is arguably the biggest boxing event of the year. Usyk became the first undisputed heavyweight champion in a generation when claiming a split decision win over Tyson Fury in May of this year and now the best two heavyweights on the planet will do it all over again in Riyadh on December 21st.
Usyk has since been stripped of his IBF title which means the winner of next month’s bout will not become undisputed world champion however they would lay claim to the title of best heavyweight in the world. A stacked undercard features a return to the ring for two former light-heavyweight world champions as Israel Madrimov and Serhii Bohachuk look to bounce back from their respective defeats against Terence Crawford and Vergil Ortiz Jr. Leading British heavyweight prospect Moses Itauma faces arguably the biggest test of his fledgling career so far as the 19-year-old faces off against Australian, Demsey McKean.
King George VI Chase
The two-day Ladbrokes Christmas Festival is one of the highlights of the National Hunt season in the UK and it is also home to one of the most prestigious horse races of the year with the traditional Boxing Day running of the King George VI Chase. The three mile Grade 1 contest is the second most prestigious race on the jump racing calendar, behind only the Cheltenham Gold Cup and has been won by some of the icons of National Hunt racing. Past winners include Mill House, Arkle, Desert Orchid, Best Mate and five-time winner Kauto Star.
The big story ahead of this year’s renewal was the news that Willie Mullins has pulled all his horses from the field, including antepost favourite Gaelic Warrior.
The 2024 King George VI Chase still promises to deliver a strong field with last year’s winner Hewick amongst a number of hugely talented horses still in contention. Hewick was a surprise winner at odds of 12/1 last year but he has ran well in two races over in Ireland over the Autumn to enhance his chances of emulating some of the sport’s greats in winning successive King Georges.
Corbetts Cross was an impressive Cheltenham Festival winner and is the current market leader for Irish trainer, Emmet Mullins whilst Envoi Allen commands respect after getting the better of Hewick in the Ladbrokes Champion Chase at Down Royal earlier this month. Grey Dawning won a 2m5f handicap hurdle on Boxing Day 2022 on his only previous Kempton run and the Betfair Chase runner-up has developed into a very useful chaser for in-form trainer Dan Skelton.
The intriguing entry in the race could prove to be Il Est Francais. Twelve months ago Il Est Francais blew the field away to win the Kauto Star Novices' Chase over the King George track and trip on Boxing Day. An eleventh-length success over the well-respected Hermes Allen saw Il Est Francais instantly installed as favourite for this year’s King George VI Chase. However, he tailed off last in his very next race and pulled up last time out. He remains a major uncertainty on current form but if rediscovering his Kempton form of twelve months ago, he could take some beating.
Boxing Day Football
No Boxing Day in the UK is complete with a full complement of domestic football fixtures and we have some mouth-watering match ups across England’s top four leagues in 2024. In the Premier League, stuttering title holders Manchester City host Everton in the day’s early kick-off whilst some of the day’s other standout matches include Newcastle United versus Aston Villa at St James Park and a West London derby between Chelsea and Fulham at Stamford Bridge. The current league leaders and outright title favourites Liverpool host Leicester City in the final Premier League fixture of the day.
Two of the current top three in the Championship will meet at Bramall Lane on Boxing Day as Sheffield United host Burnley whilst there is a potential relegation six-pointer at Deepdale between Preston North End and Hull City. Bolton Wanderers versus Barnsley is arguably the pick of the action in League One whilst promotion hopefuls Walsall and Doncaster Rovers go head-to-head in League Two.
North of the border, the highlight of the afternoon will be at Tynecastle where struggling Edinburgh rivals Hearts and Hibs meet. We head into December with Hearts and Hibs occupying the bottom two positions in Scotland’s top tier and with pressure increasing, neither will want to give an inch in this traditional festive fixture.
