Bet365 Free Bets for the FA Community Shield: Arsenal v Man City on August 16th

August 15, 2026

by Emma Harrison

The Community Shield is not the season’s most significant match, but it offers opportunities: for new players to make their mark, for managers to hone their squads, and for you to get bet365 free bets.

This season’s opener brings together two graduates of the Pep Guardiola school of football coaching: Arsenal are managed by Mikel Arteta, who coached under Guardiola between 2016 and 2019, and City by Enzo Maresca who did likewise from 2022 to 2023. Now Maresca is back in sky blue, and this is a first meaningful chance to see how he fares.

Football is back(?)

Four weeks on from the World Cup final, the English season commences – yes, below the Premier League, it’s already returned, but we digress. For anyone whose interest was piqued by the summer football festival, this is a chance to see the players at their day jobs. That’s a qualified possibility: both sides may well rest some of their international stars. Manchester City captain Rodri was in the Spain side that lifted the World Cup and may not play here, and he’s not the only one. Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice of Arsenal may also sit it out after their exertions for England, while Erling Haaland picked up an injury playing for Norway and may be rested.

That being said, both squads are overflowing with talent, so whoever the starting XIs are, this is one that’s going to be closely followed at UK betting sites. Arsenal will be keen to prove that they’re not one-and-done champions so they need to kick off in style. Manchester City will be equally keen to prove that last season was an anomaly, and Maresca will want to prove that he hasn’t picked up a poisoned chalice in succeeding Guardiola. There’s a lot on the line here, and the Community Shield itself is just part of it.

Bet £10, Get £30 at bet365

If you know anything about UK online betting, you probably know the name bet365. But if you aren’t already signed up there, you might want to think about heading over to pick up on one of the best UK betting promotions we’ve found. When you sign up and deposit £10, and then bet that tenner on a sportsbook outcome that has odds of ⅕ or longer, you’ll pick up £30 in free bets. And just to give you an idea of how likely ⅕ bets are to come off, Erling Haaland is ⅘ to get on the scoresheet at any time here – and he’s not even guaranteed to play!

To be clear, the bet365 free bets are credited to your account once the initial qualifying bet has settled. So if you want to use them on the Community Shield, you’ll need to make the qualifying bet on something that ends before kick-off here. That’s Sunday at 3:00 pm UK time, so look for anything that leaves you a bit of wiggle room. And the bets evaporate if not used within seven days (that’s a figure of speech. Please note: do not let the bets expire just to see what it looks like when they evaporate, it just means they go away). So if you make your qualifying bet on this match, you’ll have until next Sunday to use them, which takes in the midweek European games and the bulk of the Premier League’s opening weekend.

Make your Community Shield bets at bet365

If you’ve missed club football, worry not; it’s filtering back week by week. And if you’ve missed signing up for bet365 until now, then check out our bet365 review to see what you’ve been missing out on. And then we recommend you click our banners and links to head over there and make the most of their extremely useful signup offer. There’s never going to be a better time to do so.