The Cheltenham Festival has become a massive new business vehicle for bookmakers and this year all the leading firms are falling over each other to attract customers with Special Offers.

Paddy Power started the trend several years ago with previously unheard of offers. Now most of the major firms are following suit and this year's incentives appear to top anything that has gone before.

Paddy Power will refund all single bets on horses that finish second over the four days of the Festival. The refund will be in the form of a free bet up to a maximum of €25 per race and applies to all 28 races.

SkyBet will give a similar refund on ALL beaten horses in the first race on each of the four days. The four races are the SkyBet Supreme Novices Hurdle, Neptune Investment Novices Hurdle, JLT Novice Chase and JCB Triumph Hurdle.

Betfair Sportsbook will give any punters backing a 3/1 or greater priced winner on the opening day 3 free bets to the same value as their winning stake up to a maximum of €25. In other words have €25 on a 3/1 winner and you get back €100 plus 3 free bets totaling another €75.

With other firms such as Coral, Boylesports and 888Sport due to announce similar offers in the coming days the bookmakers are obviously looking at these promotions with a longer-term strategy as they will struggle to win at Cheltenham no matter what the results are like over the four days.

Paddy Power claim to have refunded €3.5 million on the first day of Cheltenham last year when their Special Offers surrounding Douvan and Un De Sceaux both came up.