Betfair became the official betting partner of the John Smith’s Grand National meeting at Aintree for the first time in 2005, and the association has been an unqualified success story for the exchange.

Being linked with such a high-profile meeting and a race that pulls in an audience of 600 million television viewers worldwide has obvious attractions for any potential sponsor.

But because one of Betfair’s main pluses for punters is its unique in-running betting service, it is even more suited to the partnership of the meeting. The John Smith’s Grand National is the longest race of the jump season, and the longer the race, the more interesting the betting!

Sponsorship at the Grand National meeting, in addition to events such as the 2005 Ashes, saw Betfair increasingly become a household name and was partly responsible for the exchange posting some impressive trading figures:

• Betfair matched over 5,000,000 transactions a day.
• At peak times 300 bets were matched per second.
• Betfair carried out 15 times as many transactions as the London Stock Exchange per day and, unlike the LSE, settlement is immediate.
• Betfair have over a million registered customers.
• There were over a billion bets placed on the exchange in 2006.

To claim your free bet:

1. join Betfair using the bonus code FTB125
2. deposit at least twenty five pounds
3. you will get your free bet worth twenty five pounds in 12 hours