Horse Racing Betting Odds

There are so many online bookmakers established, knowing which ones to choose when betting on horse racing can be a difficult choice.

You will notice many special offers when looking at various bookmakers for horse racing betting and sportsbooks and betting websites will try and tempt new customers with various promotions and offers. Some research is advised when choosing the best website for horse racing betting.

Here is our list of the top 5 bookmakers for horse racing.

It does not matter what code of racing you prefer, whether you are a flat racing fan or you prefer national hunt racing. Each code has its major meetings with flat racing’s highlights being Royal Ascot, The Epsom Derby meeting, The Arc de Triomphe, the Breeders Cup and of course the race that stops a nation in Australia, The Melbourne Cup.

You might be more of a fan of jump racing and the Cheltenham Festival, The Grand National meeting and the Punchestown Festival in Ireland in April are the biggest jump racing meetings each year. Whichever one you choose, betting on horse racing requires an investment of your time to learn how to read the form and analyse horses performances.

There are lots of tools to help you do this now, the starting point though are the form guides you will find in major racing publications such as the Racing Post and the Sporting Life (Digital). Any bookmaker you choose must have the ability to let you watch your races through live streaming.

One other thing to look for is a bookmaker that has a maximum winnings limit of at least £1,000,000. Yes a return of that nature is stuff of dreams, but it is possible with a successful high priced multiple or combination bet. This is just a couple of things, but also important is the ability to bookmakers with cashout your bet before the final selection/s have run. Bet365 in particular have a really good cashout function which calculates a potential cashout after each race and if you have had a couple of winners early in your bet, this can be quite attractive.

Because of the nature of the sport, you have a different range of odds from live odds on betting exchanges like Betfair and Betdaq, to fixed odds on sites like Sporting Index, then you have the type of odds offered by most horse racing bookmakers which is “best odds guaranteed bookmakers”

When betting on horse racing it is not just odds that are important. It is also key to look at how many places are being paid on the big field races and races at the big meetings.

A prime example of this was in the recent big staying handicap (The Cesarewitch) which was run at Newmarket with more than 30 runners. Many of the big bookmakers like bet365 and Paddy Power were offering 1/4 odds for the first 6 places but Skybet were offering 1/5 odds for 8 places.

Now when we looked at the odds you would expect that Skybet would have much shorter odds but this was not the case. Therefore with horse racing it is very important to look at the number of places being offered, this is where a punter can find an edge and real value.

Top 5 with Best Odds on Horse Racing:

Going through all of the different bookmakers we have found that on average you will see anywhere between 10 – 20 meetings being serviced each day with an average of 7 to 12 races at each meeting. Gone are the days when you could bet just on English racing.

Now you have the opportunity to bet on racing from right across the world including

the following countries: England, Ireland, France, United States, South Africa, Australia, India, Dubai and Germany. Racing is an international sport and bookmakers have embraced that. Specialist “racing bookmaker” Racebets also cover worldwide trotting and greyhound racing in their offer.

In addition to the above-mentioned bookmakers, BetFred, Coral and Stan James all have sponsorship ties with horse racing and of course are not very far behind our top 5 when it comes to market coverage.

Best betting selection on Horse Racing:

Bet365

Skybet

Paddy Power

Betfair

Racebets

Our Top 5 Bookmakers for market coverage & betting selection are:

Because of the nature of horse racing there are not many options with in play betting , of course the exceptions to this are the betting exchanges who bet in play on both the win and place markets. Betfair, Betdaq and SMARKETS are the three main betting exchanges.

You can bet on horse racing in running with some mainstream bookmakers but it is sometimes difficult to get a bet placed because the time lapse is too quick, especially with flat racing.

The other more important issue is that the odds you will get are far worse than you can achieve by using one of the betting exchanges.

Here at BookmakerAdvisor we have selected 5 of the best bookmakers for horse racing punters, these in our opinion offer some of the best horse racing special offers and we have explained each of them below.

Bet365 – Enhanced Place Terms & TV Racing 4/1 Offer

Bet365 offer bigger and better place terms on all UK and Irish racing every day of the week. Even in races of 20 runners you will find Bet365 offering 5 places when others are only paying 4 places. One of the reasons why they are one of the best sites for horse racing punters.

They also have a special offer for racing on ITV. Back a winner at 4/1 or more on any ITV race and Bet365 will give you a free bet on the next ITV race. More winners you back the more moolah you make.

Racebets – Jackpot Freeroll & Raiders Bonus

Play the free Racebets comp to win the loot. A cool £5000 is up for grabs in this fun horse racing competition.

For serious racing punters the raiders bonus is a great offer, if you place a bet on a UK or Irish trained runner racing abroad and it goes on to win, then Racebets will give you a win bonus of 10%.

Coral – Bet & Get Club

A brilliant idea for horse racing fans who like a flutter each days racing. Get a £10 free bet every week when you bet a total of £25 between Monday and Thursday. e.g. Bet £8 on Monday, £6 on Tuesday, £3 on Wednesday and another £8 on Thursday and you qualify for a free £10 bet the next week…….brilliant offer. One of the best on the market.

Also Coral offer the unique “Watch Free” facility, a great way of following the racing even if you have not had a bet. This virtual experience allows you to keep track of every race every day, even when you don’t have a bet.

Betfred – Place Money

Not seen anywhere else on the horse racing markets, many bookmakers will give you a free bet if your horse finishes second to the SP fav, Betfred go a step further. Back a horse in a selected race, and if it finishes 2nd or 3rd to the SP Fav, Betfred will refund your stake as a free bet up to £10.

Skybet – First 8

Recently Skybet have become very aggressive in the horse racing sector and are now paying 1/5 odds up to 8 places in the big horse racing handicaps.

When judging which bookmaker/s to use for your horse racing betting, there are a number of different factors to take into consideration.

While the quality of the odds, the number of betting markets, live betting and streaming, plus bonuses and promotions are all important, there are other equally important aspects to consider when choosing an online bookmaker for any type of betting.

When betting on horse racing, you need a website which will allow you to find the race you wish to bet on quickly. You need to look for a bookmaker which mixes a good looking website with a solid user journey and functionality. Less is more on sportsbook websites, especially when it comes to horse racing. Make sure it offers a clean interface and solid colour scheme.

An important thing to look at is the bet slip. It needs to be simple to understand and have the ability cater for both multiple bets and combination bets. If you are placing a Goliath bet for example, then you want to see exactly how many doubles, trebles and folds (accumulators) you have in your bet.

The majority of bookmakers will have a link to their horse racing betting in their top menu or in the main sports menu on the left. You need the ability to be able to place a bet fast.

With so many race meetings and races going on each day (can be one every 10 minutes on busy days) you want the ability to open up a race quickly and easily. A good sportsbook will have horse racing as one of its main sports on the home page. If you have a sportsbook that does not have horse racing in a very prominent spot on the site then this is not going to be a bookmaker you would use for betting on horse racing.

Ideally, you should be able to place a single (win or each way) bet within a maximum of three clicks and preferably two. This is the most common bet on a horse racing market and should be easy to do within seconds of landing on the site. If this is not the case then we suggest you continue to look at other potential sites you can use.

A few sites that do provide the two click user journey are bet365, William Hill and Paddy Power.

In today’s modern world you want the capability to be betting on the go, and a good mobile website experience is important. Mobile apps also improve the betting experience on horse racing and you can download your favorite bookmakers app from the App store or Google play.

You might be out and about, maybe even going to a race meeting. With on course bookmakers not offering such competitive odds, then an app lets you bet with your favorite bookmaker and still get the best value in terms of prices and place terms. An app is an easy way to place your bets on any sport.

When betting on horse racing, as with any sport, you want deposits and withdrawals to be fast and secure. In addition, there should be no additional fees added by the bookmaker when using the most common forms of depositing and withdrawal.

Common deposit and withdrawal options include: VISA and Mastercard credit/debit cards as well as e-wallets such as Neteller, Skrill and PayPal.

To check a site is secure for taking payments you should check the top left corner of the browser bar where you should see a small green padlock icon. This tells you the site is secure, just hover your mouse over and it should show that the site is using a valid SSL certificate. This means that your financial transactions and personal data are encrypted and safe.

You want to know you are in the best hands when placing your bets on horse racing, this means choosing a sportsbook and bookmaker with great customer service and live chat functionality.

We advise you actually test out the live chat agents with some questions about horse racing betting to see if they know their stuff. Here are a couple you can use.

1. Can you explain how many bets their are in a Lucky 15? Lucky 15’s are popular horse racing bets which comprise of 6 doubles, 4 trebles, 1 fourfold accumulator and 4 singles. Just make sure the agent explains this clearly.
2. I am not very good at maths……can you tell me how much I would win if I placed a £1 win yankee bet at 2/1, 3/1, Evs and 5/2 ? If they cannot answer in 1 minute or cannot give you the link to a betting calculator on their site then that is a sign of weak customer service.

Having several options to contact a bookmaker when you need them is vital, and every good betting website should have a contact telephone number, email address, postal address and live chat option.

A 24/7 live chat and telephone betting service is very useful when betting on horse racing as you may need to place bets quickly. One of the best bookies for this is Paddy Power, their telephone betting service is top notch.

Perhaps the most important aspect of any bookmaker or sportsbook when you are placing a bet is the trust value of the company. Knowing your financial and personal details are always going to be safe is very important, and the licenses held by a bookmaker usually give a good indication of their trust level.

Most of the top horse racing bookmakers will have their licenses displayed at the bottom of their homepage and visible in the footer for every visitor to see.

The most popular licenses for online bookmakers come out of Malta, Gibraltar and Great Britain. One or more of these licenses is a sign that the website is a safe and reputable option for betting on horse racing and sports betting in general.

It also pays to know a little about the history of the bookmaker. You can usually check this information by clicking on the Gambling Commission license link in the footer of the website. This will take you to a page which shows the current standing of the bookmaker.

Conclusion

BookmakerAdvisor are one of the leading horse racing betting review sites online for both flat and jump racing. Our aim is to give horse racing fans and enthusiasts information and advice about the best bookmakers who cover UK and Irish horse racing.

The Top 10 are not the only bookmakers that offer horse racing betting and free bet bonuses. We advise you to take some time to look at each bookmaker review and see which one is the best for you. Also make sure to contact us with any special horse racing offer that you feel should be in our top ten. Let us know who the bookmaker is, what the offers is and why you think it would be great for our horse racing fans and audience.

We always value input from BookmakerAdvisor horse racing experts and fans.