Best Horse Racing Betting Sites
Horse racing is one of the biggest betting sports in the world, with at least AU$10 billion bet on this fast-paced and unpredictable sport every year. With the sports popularity at an all time high, it's no wonder there is a plethora of online horse racing betting sites, and it can be hard to distinguish between them. This is where we step in!
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How We Judge Sites For Betting on Horse Racing
Deciding where to start or which of the best horse racing online bookmakers is the one for you can be daunting, but luckily for you, you don’t have to do the hard work as we have ranked them according to exactly what you need. Rating Horse Racing betting sites is a pleasure for our team due to their passion for the sport and the betting industry.
We look into the variation of payment methods a bookmaker offers, their safety and security measures, the free bet offers, and customer support options, as well as the ease of use of the site. Thanks to this, we always have an updated list of bookmakers for you, so you don’t have to look elsewhere.
Safety and security is very important to us, as we know that the only safe online bookmakers are those that are licensed and regulated by a relevant gambling commission, such as the UK gambling commission. We never promote, advertise or recommend black listed, offshore or unregulated entities on this website.
Our Unrivalled Team of Horse Racing Betting Experts
Here at Gambling.com we always want to ensure that we are offering the best information to our customers, and the best way of doing this is to have a team of experts on every betting industry topic, and horse racing is no exception.
We have a team of experts always looking into every facet of the industry and our horse racing team is led by the experienced duo of Dean Ryan and Diarmuid Nolan.
- Dean Ryan: Dean Ryan has been enamoured with all things horse racing for 20 years and he leads Gambling.com's European content team. Dean is a horse racing Journalist and Broadcaster, formerly with RacingFM. and generally can be found contributing his expertise to several leading sports betting outlets on all things gambling. Dean still enjoys hosting the racehour podcast or talking all things betting on the radio with Sunshine 106.8 in Dublin.
- Diarmuid Nolan: Diarmuid has been involved with horse racing for as long as he can remember and has worked in the industry for just under 10 years. He is the Commissioning Editor for European freelancers contributing to Gambling.com. Diarmuid Nolan is a published horse racing journalist and creator of the #racehour twitter community which produces a weekly podcast and a home for all things horse racing throughout the flat and jumps season across the UK and Ireland.
Features Offered by the Best Horse Racing Betting Sites
Every online horse racing bookie is different, with a massive variation of offers and features on show from bookmaker to bookmaker. With this in mind it's very important you know which online betting site offer the best odds, who has the most markets available, which bookmakers offer in-running betting and streaming, as well as who has the best promotions.
It can be very frustrating when you sign up a new bookmaker, only to realise they don't offer promotions or streaming, so having as much knowledge about what you're looking for in a horse racing betting site is key. We have listed the most important facets to look out for when choosing a new horse racing bookmaker.
Best Horse Racing Odds and Prices
Getting the best odds available is paramount to being a successful horse racing bettor. Why would you take 5/1 on a horse winning with one bookmaker, when you can get 6/1 elsewhere?
This means that it can be fortuitous to open several online betting accounts as prices can vary on every single race. Each bookmaker have their own markets and liabilities, and these are looked after by what are known as traders, and at times, albeit less and less these days, they can take opinions on races and move the odds one way or the other.
For example, one bookmaker's trading team could decide they want to take on the favourite in the betting market of the Cox Plate or the Melbourne Cup, while another might not. This means that the first betting site will lengthen the odds of this horse to say 4/1, while the second will decide to keep the odds at 3/1. This means that customers can take on the traders opinion at better odds and if successful make more money from their win.
Horse Racing Betting Markets
There is loads of different markets that horse racing punters can get involved in, not just the typical win or each way. This can be easily checked before signing up to a bookmaker or betting exchange, and can be a big help when you're looking to place a different type of bet on a race. Below is a list of some of the bet types to watch out for:
- Win, Place Or Each-Way: This is the most common market where you can place a bet on whether you think or a will win, or place. Customers can wager a win bet where the horse has to win or an each way bet, where your stake is split in two, so a AU$5 each way bet is AU$5 to win and AU$5 on the horse to place, depending on how many each way places a bookmaker is offering.
- Betting W/O the Favourite: Sometimes you want to back a horse, but you can think that the favourite will not be beaten. In this circumstance you can place a bet without the favourite at revised odds where effectively you are betting on a race without that particular horse taking part in the contest. This means if you back a horse to win without the favourite and he finishes 2nd to the favourite, you have won your bet.
- Match Betting: This is exactly what it sounds like, here you can place a bet on one horse to beat another at revised odds.
- Distance Betting: Sometimes you could really fancy a horse to not only win, but to demolish a field. Bet Victor, and other bookmakers, offer you the chance to lengthen your odds by stating that the horse will win by more than 20 lengths in the process. This could turn an evens shot, into a 3/1 bet, but your horse will have to win by more than 20 lengths in this scenario.
- Ante Post: Ante-Post betting can be of immense value to horse racing punters. This is where you can back a horse well before the date of the race, depending on whether bookmakers have the race available. The advantage here is that you can get much bigger odds about a horse you fancy, but there are risks involved as it's unless otherwise stated on the market you are betting on, all selections that are Non-Runners are counted as losers.
- Other Markets: There are plenty of other markets on offer from an online bookie such as place only betting, which is where you can back a horse to place, rather than win and there is also fallers insurance for Jumps racing where you can take slightly shorter odds that will result in you getting a refund if your horse falls.
In-Play Betting
In-Play betting, or in-running betting as it's known in horse racing, is another great tool for horse racing punters. This is where you can back a horse in the middle of the race depending on how the horse is going.
This is particularly useful when you might worry about a horse early on in a race, as some horses might not start very well or they might be prone to acting up before the race starts. By waiting to bet on a race while it is running you can see how a horse has started and act accordingly. Be careful though, as there can be a lag between the actual race and a stream, so you may be backing a horse 2 seconds before they were to fall.
Not every bookmaker offers this service for horse racing so make sure you check it out beforehand.
Live Streaming
Similar to In-Play betting, streaming is a key component for many horse racing punters. The ability to watch races on the go is very important, and thankfully the vast majority of horse racing betting sites do offer this service.
For a full in-depth look at websites or which betting app offers this service, you can read our review of the best Bookmakers with Live Streaming.
Promotions and Bonus Offers
Everybody loves something free in life, and it's no different when it comes to betting online. Thankfully with the surge in the number of online bookmakers it's never been a better time to open up a new horse racing site account and claim a free bet or even enhanced odds. Winning is great, but winning with a free bet is even better!
There are different types of free bets that you can claim and it's important you fully read the T's & C's of the potential wagering requirement before opting into a promotion. Free Bets types include a welcome bonus, matched free bets, No deposit free bets, Reload bonuses and risk free bets. To read more on this, you can check out our Free Bet guide.
Customer Support
Sometimes there is questions only the company themselves can answer, so it's very important that the horse racing online sportsbook you choose has a good Customer service team. Generally you should be looking for a company that can be contacted through several means such as live chat, email, by phone and by social media.
There is nothing worse than when you have a genuine issue and you cannot contact a company, so make sure they have at least two of the above means of contact available.
The Best Betting Types for Horse Racing
Horse Racing is a really fun sport to bet on, responsibly obviously, and there is plenty of ways to place your bet. You do not have to stick to just placing singles if you wish, there is plenty of ways to increase the legs on your bet and hopefully your winnings also in the process! We have listed the most common types of bets here so you can decide what way you want to have a flutter on the horses.
- Straight Win/Place/Show: This is broken up into win, place or show on a race. A win bet means the horse must finish in 1st place, a place bet means the horse in question must finish 1st or 2nd and a show wager means your bet has to place 1st, 2nd or 3rd.
- Exacta: An Exacta means that you have to select the first two finishers in a horse race in exactly the right order.
- Trifecta: A Trifecta is exactly like an exacta, only it includes 3 horses. You must predict correctly three horse to finish exactly 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
- Superfecta: A Superfecta is a wager where you can win massive amount of money. Here a customer must select the exact right orders of the first 4 finishers, and with this bet a AU$1 bet has returned over AU$50,000!
- Quinella: This bet boxes an Exacta, which of course means that will win as long as the two picks finish in the first two, regardless of their order, so you don't have to pick the exact positions. You can also box a Trifecta and a Superfecta.
- Pick 3: With this wager you pick 3 horses across 3 different races and the horse must win all 3 to collect your winnings.
- Pick 4: With this wager you pick 4 horses across 4 different races and the horse must win all 4 to collect your winnings
- Pick 5: With this wager you pick 5 horses across 5 different races and the horse must win all 5 to collect your winnings/li>
Key Horse Racing Terms and what they Mean
Horse Racing can seem daunting to newcomers because at times it can seem like they are speaking a different language. We've picked a few terms that are commonplace in horse racing and explained them for you below.
- Blinkers: You'll often hear people talking about "first time blinkers" being put on a horse, and this can be advantageous to watch out for. Basically blinkers are a type of headgear that is put on a horse and it blocks their view from both sides so they can only see in front of themselves. This can really improve horses who perhaps don't focus as much as they should on the job at hand.
- Bridle: Again, if you've spent any time with horse racing punters you'll hear them delightfully exclaim that a horse won "without coming off the bridle", this is to emphasise the ease in which a horse won a race. A bridle is a piece of equipment that goes over a horse’s head and allows the jockey to somewhat control the horses' movements as the bit and the jockeys reins are all linked as one. If a jockey doesn't have to move his reins, and therefore the bridle, to win, the horse has done it impressively.
- Cheekpieces: Cheekpieces are very similar to a bridle, their job is to keep the horse focussed, only the horses' vision is not as impacted as it would be with a bridle.
- Classic: This is a series of flat races, worldwide, that only consist of 3 year old thoroughbred horses. The Epsom Derby, the Kentucky Derby, or the 2000 Guineas would be examples of such.
- Handicap: A type of horse race that is where the vast majority of racehorses end up at one point or another. This is a race where horses carry different weights depending on what their official ratings are. If a horse rated 80 was to take on a horse rated 72, the higher rated horse would have to carry 8 pounds more than the lesser rated horse in this example.
- Non-Runner: This is a horse who has been withdrawn from a certain race.
Best Horse Racing Events to Bet on
Like any sport, horse racing has an abundance of major meetings which garner interest from all over the world! Horses from all four corners of the globe take each other on at these meetings and the prize money on offer is incredibly massive. We have listed 4 of these meetings below to keep an eye on.
- The Melbourne Cup: This is the race that stops a nation and is the biggest prize in Australian thoroughbred horse racing, always run on the first Tuesday in November at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne.
- The Breeders Cup: There is very few events as big in the United States Of America as the Breeders Cup and horses from all over the world arrive to try and win some of the AU$30 million in prize money on offer, across 14 races. More than $120 million is wagered annually on Breeders' Cup betting.
- Royal Ascot: Royal Ascot is 5 days of brilliant flat horse racing, with prize money exceeding a total of AU$7 million. Royal Ascot is famous for its connection with the British Royal family, with Queen Elizabeth II, attending every year.
- Cheltenham Festival: The Cheltenham Festival is horse racing's World Cup for jumps racing, considered National Hunt racing's championship, and opening on a Tuesday each March with the famous 'Cheltenham roar' and finishing on the Friday. It's 4 days of fantastically fervent betting heats with the worlds best national hunt horses taking each other on.
How to Identify Fully Licensed and Regulated Horse Racing Sites
Here at Gambling.com we take customers safety very seriously. It's imperative that when you are looking for your next online horse racing betting site that you make sure they are licensed and regulated by a relevant gambling commission, such as the UK Gambling commission.
This can be tricky to figure out, but don't worry we do all of the heavy lifting here for you. We ensure all of our listed and ranked bookmakers carry full regulatory licences from the respective gambling authorities and are subject to spot checks regarding their activities. We never promote, advertise or recommend black listed, offshore or unregulated entities on this website.
References
- Gambling.com Responsible Gambling Website
- Austrlian Gambling Helpline
- Gamblers Help Australia
- Lifeline Problem Gambling
- GamCare
- The ACT Gambling and Racing Commission
FAQ
This is very difficult to properly answer as it completely depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for the best prices then you might be better off sticking with the likes of Bet365, if you want brilliant products then Betfair might be the site for you. Finally, if you're looking for constant and exciting promotions we'd recommend Unibet.
This completely depends on what your budget is, but the Pick 3 is seen as the most popular bet as you can be involved in three races for much less than if you were staking singles. A AU$10 bet covers 3 races and you can win really big if all 3 of those horses win for you. If they all lose, whilst you will have lost your stake, at least it was only AU$10!
This can completely depend on the price of the horse you are backing. If the horse is 3/1 or shorter you might be better off sticking with a win bet, while if you fancy one at bigger odds, say 12/1, it would make sense to play each way as if the horse doesn't win, but it places you will get at least 1/5 of those odds on half your stake. A place bet makes sense when you don't fancy the horse in question to win, but to run well.
A place generally pays at 1/5 of the odds of the horse. So if you back a 10/1 shot to place, you are backing him to place at 2/1.
Every website recommended on gambling.com is safe as we only promote betting sites who are fully licensed by the relevant gambling commissions.
It's very easy to place a horse racing bet online. You pick the racecourse and time the horse you want to back is running at, you decide the type of qualifying bet you wish to place and select it. The betslip will then display with your betting options, you choose your stake and the bet is on!
