So how do you bet on the horses? Well, these days it’s easier than ever before with dozens of brilliant apps ideally suited to horse racing. If you are looking for our horse racing guide please click here.
Below you’ll find some of our top 10 betting apps for horse racing:
Bet £10 & Get £30 in Free Bets for new customers at bet365.
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Here is what you will find in this guide –
How To Bet On Horse Racing
Betting on horse racing is easy to get the hang of, with most bets basically involving a horse getting first past the post, or certainly placing highly.
Every bookmaker will offer horse racing as one of its main sports and have races to bet on every day, in many cases being broadcast live via their betting apps too.
How to bet on horse racing is very much dependent on the market in which you want to play.
Horse Racing Markets
Over the years horse racing betting has expanded incredibly to offer a huge number of markets, both simple and complex.
To Win
The To Win market is the easiest horse racing bet to understand and place, with you simply having to back the horse which you think will win the race.
In order to win the bet, that horse must then finish in the first place.
Each Way
An Each Way bet is also another incredibly popular market for punters and can usually be placed in your betting slip by clicking E/W.
What this does is break down your bet into two. One part of the bet is a To Win bet and the other is for the horse to place. It’s important to note when playing Each Way, it will double your stake.
A horse placing usually involves it finishing in the top three, although this can vary from bookmaker to bookmaker and race to race.
In order to win, your horse must at least place to receive a payout. Should the horse win the race, you’ll, of course, win the full bet. However, if it only places, the To Win side would lose and you’d win for its placing. In this case, you’ll be paid out a fraction of the odds, which varies depending on who you play with.
Double and Treble
Double and Treble bets involve using one stake on multiple selections, so in the instance of a double, this would be two selections. A Treble being three.
In order to win, all selections must come through. So if you placed a Double bet on two horses to win, both horses would have to win for you to earn a payout. These bats can also be taken each way, again forming 2 doubles or 2 trebles.
Tricast
Predicting the winner of a race can sometimes be tough, but many punters like to take it a step further and bet on the top three finishers of a race. Here is an example of placing this bet on the bet365 app.
A Tricast is exactly that and offers some pretty big money. To win you must correctly predict the order of the top three horses of a race. You must pick the selections in the exact order and the only way you’ll see a payout is by doing so correctly.
Accumulator
You’ve likely heard of an accumulator. It’s a wager that’s popular in both football betting and horse racing.
It’s ultimately an extension of a treble and involves placing one stake on selections of four or more. This will boost the odds significantly as every selection must come through for you to win the bet. Should just on lose, your entire bet loses.
Lucky 15
A Lucky 15 is certainly one for the betting experts and is a complex bet designed for you to receive the maximum possible payout.
In order to play you’re required to choose four selections which are then placed into 15 bets ranging from single bets right up to a 4-fold accumulator. A Lucky 15 consists of:
- 4 Single bets
- 6 Double bets
- 4 Treble bets
- 1 4-Fold accumulator
It’s designed to receive the best payout. So if all four selections win, you’d receive a full payout, whereas if just two did you’d receive winnings for two Single bets and a Double bet. Here is an example of a lucky 15 in the bet slip – you can also place this each way making a 60-line bet.
How to read the racecard
We’ll start with the race card. When reading a racecard there are a large number of abbreviations and numbers found and they all represent different things whether it be form, information about the horse, and further details about the racecourse and its condition.
Below you’ll find the various abbreviations broken down for you to check back on when viewing a racecard.
The Going
The going is the condition of a racetrack with various abbreviations highlighting how hard or soft it is:
- f or fm: Firm
- hd: Hard
- g or gd: Good
- s or sft: Soft
- hy or hvy: Heavy
- stand: Standard AW
The Horse
There are many things to note before backing a horse, whether it be how they’ve performed over similar distances in the past, to it pulling up or even what a horse is wearing.
A Horses Form:
Below you’ll find the abbreviations that offer insight into a horse’s form:
- 1-9: Previous finishing positions
- 0: Horse finished outside top nine in a race
- – : An indicator of the turn of a year
- / : Separation of seasons.
- P: Horse pulled up in a race and wasn’t able to finish.
- F: Horse fell in the race
- R: Horse refused to race or wouldn’t take a fence.
- U: Horse unseated the rider during the race.
- BD: Horse was brought down during the race.
Horse Information:
Below you’ll find the abbreviations which represents whether a horse has raced over similar distances or on the same courses before:
- C: Horse has won on the same course before.
- D: Horse has won over the same distance before.
- CD: Horse has won a race over the same course and distance.
- OR: Horse’s official rating supplied by the BHA.
- BF: Horse has previously been a favourite but was beaten.
Horse Headgear:
This lets punters know of any headgear a horse will be wearing during the race.
- h: Hood
- b: Blinkers
- v: Visor
- e: Eye hood
- t: Tongue-tie
- p: Cheekpieces
- Ht: Hood and tongue-tie.
- e/c: Eyecover
- e/s: Eyeshield
The Race
There will be an indication of what sort of race you are betting on with a number of abbreviations reflecting this, including:
- AW: All Weather
- Ch: Chase
- Cls: Class
- Div: Divisional
- Gd: Grade 1, 2 or 3 in jump racing
- Gp: Group 1, 2 or 3 in flat racing
- Hcap: Handicap
- H: Hurdle
- List: Listed
- Mdn: Maiden
- NHF: National Hunt Flat
- Nov: Novice
Frequently asked questions
We have found the best betting app for horse racing is the bet365 app, William Hill was second and Bet Victor’s app was third. These are based purely on ratings for the apps horse racing betting.
The best way to bet on horses is to build a knowledge of the sport over time and learn how to find value bets. Keep a notebook of horses to watch as a personal watch list and try and find horses that will develop and improve over time.
An estimated 33% of favourites win. Some research by Bet Victor showed that the favourite has won the Grand National 16% of the time.
If you have made a to place bet then the winnings are the same regardless of the position it finished in the places. It is only an each-way bet where you win more if the horse wins.
The 1/4 is a reference to the returns if the horse places. It means you will receive 1 fourth of the odds. This is the same if you see 1/3, 1/5 and on some big races 1/6.
This is the general rule
- Less than 5 horses – no each way
- 5 to 7 horses – 2 places – usually 1/4 odds
- 8 to 11 horse – 3 places – usually 1/5 odds
- 12+ horse – 4+ places – usually 1/6 odds
This does vary by book maker and race. For bigger events, they will often pay more places.
An each-way bet is basically 2 bets. One on the horse to win and one on the horse to place. The simplest way to calculate your returns is on the betting calculator app.
An each-way double is a backing 2 bets, in separate races, as a double. This forms a double bet on the horses to win and a double bet on the horses to place.
This makes 2 bets, one to win and one to place. For both to win all the horses have to win. For the each-way bet to win every horse will need to place.