Horse Racing Betting

Horse Racing is the most popular sport in the world for betting and for good reason, across the UK & Ireland, there are racing events almost every single day. This means that fans across the country have a number of opportunities to watch horse racing and place horse racing bets, none bigger than the Cheltenham Festival - a huge event that takes place every March with 28 races across the week. The pinnacle of Horse Racing sees millions of bets placed on the event every year and dozens of horse racing betting offers available. However, the Cheltenham Festival isn't the only major event that takes place during the Horse Racing year, to find horse racing odds for the upcoming races, you can check the live now or starting soon sections of the sportsbook above.

Horse Racing Odds

One of the most important things about placing bets on a sportsbook is finding the best racing odds that you can, which is why we here at BetUK offer Best Odds Guaranteed on racing events. So, if you're looking for the latest horse racing odds on UK and Irish Horse Racing, we aim to have the best options available at just a click of a button when you browse our horse racing markets. Horse races tend to have odds of between evens to 7/1 for the favourite and horses up to 20/1 are still considered horses with a decent enough chance of winning - particularly in a big field. If you're looking for bets with higher odds, you'll likely wish to look at multiple bets such as accumulators, Lucky 15's and Trixies, which allow players to place bets on multiple horses in a single bet. For those looking to bet on Horse Racing festivals such as the Cheltenham Festival or Royal Ascot, these multiple bets are a popular way of increasing betting odds in a betslip.

On the other hand, if the odds are high, there is a heightened risk that the horses involved may not win their races, for this you may wish to utilise each way betting, which means that the bet will payout if the horse finishes in a set number of positions, usually, this is 1-3 or 1-4 with a reduced payout for every position they finish behind first. You can combine the each way bet market with the different bet types available in horse racing if you want to alter your betslip, because of this, horse racing betting provides the opportunities for players to have more variety in their bets in a way that most sports don't allow.

Horse Racing Betting Markets

When placing horse racing bets, you'll find a small range of betting markets available but before you peruse the market, it is important to know the ins and outs of the race, is the race a jumps race or is it during the flat racing season? Does the weather mean that horses would potentially pull out? If so, you may wish to check out the starting price betting market, where if you're unsure if a horse will run in future races, you can place a starting price bet (SP) and if the horse doesn't run, the bet is void. If the horse wins, you get paid out the fixed odds from when the race began.

Each way and Starting Price are two bet types that are popular amongst horse racing bettors but they differ from the other markets that are race dependant. For example, in our other bets section you'll be able to find forecast and tricast betting markets where if you're feeling certain on how a race will go, you can place this bet to back the horse that finishes 1st, 2nd and/or 3rd - depending on the market you pick.

Ante Post Horse Racing Bets

Horse race betting can start long before the race begins. For example, betting on the Cheltenham Festival, the racing odds will be live months ahead of the race, potentially from the end of the previous years race depending on which race it is. For the likes of the Gold Cup, you'll be able to place bets for the next years race when the latest race ends, this is known as Ante Post betting and can provide some fantastic wins for those that predict the winner correctly. However, Ante Post betting works differently to traditional bets, as closer to the event, the No Runner, No Bet market will be active but for Ante Post bets, players do not have that luxury, so if you were looking to back a 20/1 to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, then the horse doesn't race, the bet would still be valid. On another day, that horse could have dropped to 3/1 in the betting odds and your 20/1 bet would remain valid, making the ante post bet potentially very profitable.

Betting on Live Horse Racing Online

At BetUK, you have the opportunity to watch live racing through our sportsbook. Simply log-in and you'll be able to watch every race that has a play icon attached, which will be most UK & Irish races! You can also find live horse racing odds to place a bet on these races as well. While the action is live, you can place a bet on horse racing using our live betting odds - this way, if the favourite entrant starts the race slowly, a bet can be placed on those further up the field to win at new odds. With horse racing, the field can change in seconds meaning live betting is the best way to get the most information needed to place your bets.

What is the best bet in horse racing?

The best bet largely depends on the horse racing betting odds. For example, if you're betting on a 20 horse race, it's a lottery, we recommend going for horses of slightly higher odds but there will likely be three or four horses you like the look of before the race.

For smaller races, it's likely that there will be a horse rated as under evens in the odds, if this is the case, you're better off trying to predict the horse that is going to come second and placing an each-way bet, that way if a shock occurs, you pick up a big win, if the horse comes second, you'll still make a profit due to the seismic odds of your chosen horse.

What are the big races for betting in the UK?

The biggest UK races mainly consist of two festivals, the Cheltenham Festival and the Aintree Grand National Festival. Taking part in March and April, the National Hunt season hits it's pinnacle with 25 grade one races during these two festivals. In comparison, there are only 14 grade one races taken outside of these two Festivals.

Outside of the UK, races such as the Dubai World Cup and the Kentucky Derby are two of the most popular selected races for UK bettors.

Betting on the NAP in Horse Racing

NAP is a common term in regards to Horse Racing betting tips, the term - NAP, refers to the tipsters best bet of the day. Typically, a tipster will give three tips and the NAP of these tips is the best of which the tipster is most comfortable with. These bets are the ones to watch for any tips across the day. The term NAP is derived from the card game known as Napoleon, where the highest-ranking card is called the 'Napoleon'. In Horse Racing, the NAP is usually a horse that has a variety of contributing factors in its favor varying from previous performances all the way to course conditions.

Finding Tips for Horse Racing Betting

If you're looking for tips, look no further than our horse racing betting tips and predictions where we will have weekly horse racing tips for the top events of the week.