How to Bet on the Grand National

Registering an account with one of the top horse racing betting sites is a fairly generic process that differs only marginally from site to site. Opening a new account doesn’t take very long, and you should be able to put a bet on the Grand National within 10-15 minutes of registration.

Comparing the horse racing odds across sites is always a good idea before choosing one.

Sign Up With a Betting Site in 5 Steps

1. Click on the “Visit Site” button next to the most appealing welcome bonus.
2. Click the button to register a new account. This might also say “Sign Up,” “Create Account,” or something similar.
3. Fill in the personal details requested by the betting site, including verifying that you are of legal age to bet in your area.
4. Choose your deposit method and make sure you deposit and/or bet the correct amount to trigger the sign-up offer.
5. Once your account is funded, you can place your Grand National wager! Find out how to place a bet on the Grand National below.

Finding Grand National Markets

Grand National betting markets are easy to find on most betting apps and betting sites, and often you can save sports or markets as “favorites,” making them even easier to navigate.

1. Go to the horse racing tab on your app.
2. Look for a menu titled ante-post racing or futures racing.
3. This section will often be split between flat and jumps. Select jumps racing.
4. You should find Grand National odds near the top of this section.
5. There will often be several markets around the Grand National, but the Win market is the most popular.

Filling Out an Online Bet Slip

Once you have located the market, you will want to put a bet on the Grand National. It’s as simple as this:

1. Scroll up and down the list of Grand National runners and click on your selection; this will automatically populate your betting slip.
2. If you want to bet on your selection each-way, a check box needs to be ticked. If not, it should remain unticked.
3. It’s time to enter your stake. Remember, if you have checked the each-way box, the stake is multiplied by two (one for the win part of the bet, the other for the place part).
4. Once you are happy with your selection and stake, it’s time to place the bet by clicking on the “place bet” or “confirm” button.

Once placed, you will see a confirmation message that normally contains a bet ID for future reference.

Withdrawing Winnings (if Successful) in 4 Steps

If your Grand National wager is successful, you may want to withdraw your winnings immediately. Here’s what to do:

1. Once your Grand National winnings have been added to your account balance, go to the account section.
2. From there, depending on the site, you must select the banking option or click the withdrawal button.
3. Once in, you need to select the amount you wish to withdraw and the destination of the funds (your chosen payment method).
4. Once you are happy that these details are correct, select withdraw funds.

Withdrawal times range from instant to five days, so check out the withdrawal times.

Here are the most popular types of Grand National wagers:

• Win bet: This is a straightforward single bet in the win market. A €10 (or local equivalent) win bet at 14/1 on the Grand National winner returns €150.
• Each-Way bet: You are backing your selection to win OR be placed. A €10 each-way bet costs €20 in total (€10 on the win part of the bet and €10 on the place part). If your selection wins, you will receive win and place returns; if it is placed, you will receive the place return on the bet. Betting each-way on the Grand National is usually a good way to play because most firms extend their place terms as a special offer.
• Place only bet: A single place-only bet on the Grand National would generally be calculated at a ¼ odds of the win price. If the selection wins, you still only get the place returns.
• Forecast bet: A forecast is two selections that must fill the race's first two places. A straight forecast (SFC) wager means the selections have to finish in the correct order, while in a reverse forecast (RFC), which costs x2, selections must fill the first two places, but in either order.
• Tricast bet: Tricast is one step up from a forecast in that you are betting three selections. This can be in the form of a single stake tricast, which means the three selections must finish in the correct order. If you want to do a tricast in which the three selections can come home in any order, then the best costs x6 initial stake.

There have only been three single-figure priced Grand National winners this century, and six of the last 10 winners have been 25/1 or longer (2022 winner Noble Yeats had 50/1 odds). So, finding the winner of the world’s most famous steeplechase can be a lucrative exercise that rewards those who avoid more obvious contenders.

These trends can help you pick a winner in the Grand National race:

• Focusing on long shots is one of the best strategies if you want to put a bet on the Grand National. 
• You may think concentrating on horses with Grand National experience is a good strategy; however, 20 out of 25 races since 2000 were won by first-time runners.
• Bettors should focus on horses that have shown the ability to maintain strong performance over long distances (i.e., those that have already won races of three miles or more and are proven reliable jumpers). You should also consider horses with a forward-going running style.
• Horses that race nearer the front than the back do well in the Grand National nowadays. It's become a race where it's extremely difficult for horses that come from behind to make an impact in the final stages.

Let's look at how to create a winning Grand National betting strategy.

At over four miles and two furlongs, the Grand National is the longest race any horse will likely run in its lifetime, so the ability to draw on stamina reserves is crucial.

Non-stayers don’t win Grand Nationals, so when browsing the odds at your favourite horse racing betting site, we advise you to focus on horses that have already excelled over distances of at least three miles.

The Grand National might not be the jumping test it once was, but a horse’s ability to jump a steeplechase fence is still a stiff examination. With that in mind, horses with the letter”‘F” (Fell) in their form figures should generally be avoided.

There will always be the odd exception to any rule, but for the most part, you need a horse that has proved it can jump soundly in the heat of a big-field contest.

The Grand National has become a race that is very hard to come from a long way back. The reasons for this vary, but the nature of the fences and the amount of traffic make it hard for horses that have sat back to build the momentum required to close in on the leaders.  

Corach Rambler's connections realized this factor in 2023 when he was ridden much closer to the pace than expected. He also got into a good rhythm, something crucial in this unique race.  

The key here is to focus on horses with the cruising speed to be handy enough in these big-field races. Before selecting your runner, we recommend watching videos of their previous runs.

You could also examine the “close-up” comments available on sites like the Racing Post. These indicate where a horse was positioned during each race.

Before confirming your selection, consider that previous winners have a poor record in this race.

Tiger Roll (2018 and '19) is an obvious recent exception, but to put his achievement into context, he was the first back-to-back winner since Red Rum in 1973 and '74.  

The reason? Well, as ever, there are multiple factors at play. The main one is that Grand National winners nearly always have to try and win the race for a second time off a much higher mark than the previous year. Luck also plays a huge part. So much needs to go right for a horse to win the Grand National; it would take an unusually large amount of luck for a horse to get the same run twice.

Despite the recent changes to the Grand National, it remains very difficult to carry a big weight to victory.

No topweight has won the National since Red Rum in 1974, and only two horses have carried more than 11 stone to victory in the last decade. The biggest weight carried to victory since 1974 was Many Clouds' 11st 9lb carried in 2015.

Since the turn of the century, the National has been won by a horse carrying less than 11st a remarkable 16 times.

That tells us that it remains important to focus on runners in the bottom half of the handicap.

Preparation is everything when it comes to winning a Grand National. With that in mind, having a grueling race less than a month before can often ruin a horse’s chances of glory at Aintree.

For the most part, hard races at Cheltenham leave their mark on an Aintree contender. It’s a point that goes a long way to explaining why no horse has won the Gold Cup and Grand National in the same year since Golden Miller in 1934.

As with any rule, there will always be an exception, and we don’t have to look far to find one. Corach Rambler didn’t have an easy time when beating Fastorslow in the 2023 Ultima Handicap Chase, but it didn’t stop him cruising to glory at Aintree the following month.

Horse racing betting sites are hugely popular with Grand National bettors, but so is betting on the Aintree showpiece in person—either at a betting shop or on-course.

Betting shops are usually hotbeds of activity on the morning of the race as bettors flock to place a wager on the Grand National. If you like picking up your winnings in cash, a betting shop wager is the right move. Locate a betting slip and pen, fill out the race time and course name, along with your selection and stake, and hand it over the counter to a member of staff.

If you want to avoid the queue, placing your Grand National bet at one of the fixed odds betting terminals in the shop is likely quicker. Select horse racing, then the Aintree meeting, and the correct race time to find the market you are looking for. These machines take cash, and winnings can be collected over the counter.

If you are going to Aintree for the big day, you have several options for putting a bet on the Grand National. If you want to bet cash, betting with one of the on-course bookmakers is easy. You name the horse you want to back and your stake, and they print off a receipt with the bet details, including potential winnings.

There will also be an on-course betting shop and a tote facility, which enables you to bet in the tote pools. Instead of taking fixed odds, tote bets are paid out as dividends based on pool sizes. Tote bets can often pay out more than the SP of a bookmaker, but it’s not guaranteed.