Best Horse Racing Betting Sites Ireland 2025

Best Horse Racing Betting Sites Compared & Reviewed

Here, we analyse what makes these sites the best bookmakers for horse racing betting.

Take a look at each site's pros and cons so you can compare options and choose a bookmaker that suits your preferences.

Betfred

Founded in 1967, Betfred is known as the 'Bonus King', thanks to its promotions, including a generous Bet €10, Get €50 welcome offer.

The bookie also offers best odds guaranteed on all UK and Irish races, ensuring that you get the best possible prices.

Acca insurance refunds bets as withdrawable cash rather than free bets, which is unique and not something many other sites offer.

Live streaming is available for most races and is subject to a €1 betting limit to watch. 

Betfred also has a range of content from experts, like Racing Post tips, form guides from the top pundits in the sport, and detailed racecards to enhance your betting experience.

bet365

As one of the world’s biggest online betting sites with over 90 million customers, bet365 offers an impressive range of features for horse racing punters.

During testing, we were particularly impressed with the 'Each-Way Extra' promotion, which allows you to adjust your each-way bets by increasing or decreasing the number of places paid out.

We also found a wide range of odds boosts, available daily for Irish racing. 

The live streaming service delivers a stable, smooth experience, even during peak racing times.

Another useful tool is the horse tracker feature, which sends notifications when your selected horses are running - allowing you to stay on top of your bets effortlessly.

Both the mobile app and desktop platform performed consistently in our technical testing.

Tote

The Tote is a household name in the betting industry, with roots dating back to 1928.

This bookmaker specialises in pool betting, offering unique markets like the placepot, where punters select a placed horse in the first six races of a meeting to win a share of the prize pool.

There's also Ten to Follow, a season-long competition with monthly and seasonal prizes.

Live streaming covers UK, Irish and international races, including action from France, the USA and Australia. During our tests, we enjoyed a smooth viewing experience with clear streams and no lag across devices.

While best-known for pool betting, Tote has now added a range of fixed-odds promotions, which include Non-Runner No Bet and Best Odds Guaranteed.

Betway

Betway is another top choice for Irish punters, offering comprehensive markets and features.

We found great market depth on Irish and UK races, including for major races like the Grand National.

The site offers lots of horse racing promotions like odds boosts, best odds guaranteed and acca insurance.

A standout feature for us is Betway’s free bet club, which rewards regular punters with weekly free bets.

Betway’s user-friendly iOS and Android app ensures seamless betting on the go, with a well-designed, slick app making it easy to navigate racing odds and place bets with ease.

Spreadex

Spreadex is our go-to spread betting site for horse racing, but also boasts a strong fixed-odds section.

Spread betting markets allow you to profit or loss based on how much the market moves in your predicted direction.

You can read our spread betting explainer if you're new to this style of betting.

We also rate promotions like '2nd to a Rag Insurance', which refunds your stake as a free bet up to €25 if your horse finishes second to a winner priced at 33/1 or higher.

Still, we’d like to see some improvements to the platform, like more ante-post markets and quicker withdrawals.

Despite all this, Spreadex is an exciting and improving bookie offering a great range of markets and a unique style of betting.

BoyleSports

BoyleSports is a famous Irish bookmaker known for strong racing odds and daily promotions.

There are regular extra place offers around major festivals and races in the UK and Ireland and the bookie also boasts a good range of money-back specials. For example, you can claim a refund if your horse falls at the first or last hurdle in National Hunt meetings.

The 'Bet and Watch' feature allows live streaming of Irish and UK races with a minimum €1 stake.

BoyleSports also sponsors major racing events like the Irish Grand National, with special offers available for this and other events.

How we Review Horse Racing Betting Sites

Our strict bookmaker rating process involves signing up for online bookies and testing all of their features, before sharing our findings and assigning a rating to each site.

Our 10-Step Testing Process

Here is a basic outline of the 10-step process we undertake when testing a site:

• Check if the bookmaker is licensed, safe and secure.
• Sign up to the site and verifyID.
• Deposit real money to the betting account.
• Claim the welcome offer and verify the terms and conditions.
• Analyse the value of the odds and number of betting markets available.
• Claim promotions for existing customers and verify their T&Cs.
• Place a range of different bet types across different sports.
• Contact customer support to ensure a high level of service.
• Test a site and app on both iOS & Android devices and desktop.
• Withdraw funds to confirm available payment methods and average processing times.

What to Avoid at a Horse Racing Bookie

When choosing a horse racing bookmaker, it’s essential to avoid pitfalls like unlicensed sites, unclear terms, or restrictive bonuses. Here’s what to watch out for:

• Unlicensed & Unregulated: Using an unlicensed site can risk your personal data being compromised - while you also can't guarantee your bets will be paid out.
• No SSL Encryption: SSL encryption ensures that your personal and payment data is protected when you make payments.
• Restrictive Bonus Terms: Untrustworthy bookmakers may restrict the value of your bonus with tight wagering requirements and low maximum wins.
• Unclear Terms & Conditions: Untrustworthy sites often have unclear terms and conditions, which make it difficult to take advantage of promotions.
• Low Winnings Limits: Unreliable bookmakers will put overly strict limits on the amount of money you can win with your bets.

Meet Our Horse Racing Betting Experts

At Gambling.com, we have assembled a team containing genuine horse racing betting experts. Dean Ryan is a lifelong racing enthusiast, who has hosted the popular #Racehour Podcast. 

That podcast was co-founded by another expert of ours, Diarmuid Nolan, who has worked in the gambling industry for over a decade across a wide variety of roles. 

We also have Michael Butlin, who has held various product development, commercial and marketing positions at online bookmakers for over two decades. 

All three are seasoned  horse racing punters and have helped us arrive at the recommendations you'll find on this page. Below, you can read what they each look for when choosing a site to bet on racing with.

Horse Racing Betting Offers & Promotions

When betting on horse racing, taking advantage of promotions can significantly enhance your betting experience and potential returns.

• Extra Each-Way Places: Many bookmakers offer extra places on each-way bets, meaning they’ll pay out even if your horse finishes outside the standard top four. This is particularly useful in big-field handicaps.

• Odds Boosts: Bookmakers enhance the odds on races, offering better value on certain selections. Sometimes the bookie will nominate a horse and boost the price, while other times you can apply a boost to a horse of your choosing.
• Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG): One of the most important offers, best odds guaranteed means if you take an early price and the starting price (SP) is higher, your bookmaker will pay out at the bigger odds. 
• Non-Runner No Bet (NRNB): If a horse you've backed is declared a non-runner, your stake is returned, usually as a free bet credit. 
• Money-Back Offers: Some bookmakers refund losing bets if your horse is beaten in certain circumstances, such as losing to the favourite or losing by a nose in a photo finish.

• Acca Boosts: These promotions apply to multiple bets such as accumulators, as well as Lucky 15s, Lucky 31s, Heinz and Super Heinz bets, increasing the overall return if your multiple lands.

Popular Horse Racing Bet Types

Horse racing offers a range of bet types, some of which are unique to the sport. Here are some of the most common:

• Each-Way Bet: A bet consisting of two equal bets, one for the horse to win and one for it to place, usually in the top 3 or 4.
• Forecast: This bet asks you to predict the first two horses in a race. For the bet to pay out, you have to predict them in the correct order.
• Tricast: Similar to a forecast bet, this bet asks you to select the first three horses in a race in the correct order.
• Trixie: This bet type involves you placing four bets with three selections: three doubles and one treble.
• Patent: Punters select three horses and place seven bets: three singles, three doubles and one treble.
• Lucky 15: This bet type requires you to pick four selections, with 15 bets placed: four singles, six doubles, four trebles and one four-fold.

• Lucky 31: Similar to a Lucky 15, this bet type involves 31 bets on five selections: five singles, 10 doubles, 10 trebles, five four-folds and one five-fold.
• Goliath: With this bet type, you need to make eight selections for 247 bets: 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 four-folds, 56 five-folds, 28 six-folds, eight seven-folds and one eight-fold.
• Yankee: This bet type involves 11 bets on four selections: six doubles, four trebles and one four-fold.
• Canadian: You are required to make five selections in this bet type for 26 bets: 10 doubles, 10 trebles, five four-folds and one five-fold.

Our Final Thoughts on The Best Horse Racing Betting Sites

You should now have all the information you need to choose a site for betting on horses.

We pride ourselves on listing only the best horse racing betting sites on this page, ensuring you only sign up with safe, reputable bookies.

We consistently update our rankings to include new horse betting sites, so you can always find the best bookies for your needs. 

Check back here at any time to see which sites make the cut - and best of luck with your betting!