Types of Horse Racing Bets
There are a variety of different bets in horse racing. Some are straightforward, while others are slightly more complicated and favored by seasoned betters.
1. The Win Bet
This is the simplest bet you can make. Even if you don’t frequent betting sites, you shouldn’t have a tough time understanding how this wager works. Simply pick the horse that you think will win, and if that horse is the first to cross the finish line, you’ll make money. But to understand how a winning bet would pay off, you need to understand the odds.
The odds are the ratio that determines how much you win in each race. The higher the odds, the higher the payout. Odds are generally based on a long list of factors including past horse results and previous performances as well as the amount of money bet on each horse. Horse racing is not a fixed-odds game and wagering only closes when the race gets underway.
For a £1 wager on a 3/1 odds, you would get £4 if your horse wins. That means you’ve made a £3 profit and your principal amount back.
2. The Each-Way Bet
This bet is especially popular among more seasoned punters. In order to better understand betting tips in horse racing, you need to be familiar with this type of wager.
This is effectively two separate bets - one for the winning horse and another for the horse to place in any of the positions offered in a particular race. With this bet, you can make money if your horse wins or if it just places.
If you place an each-way bet (1/5 , 3 places) and your horse finishes in the top three, you win. The place portion of your bet will pay out at 1/5 of the odds that you took the horse for. If the horse comes in first place, you’ll get paid for both the win and the place portions of the bet. If the horse comes in second or third, you’ll only get the pay-out for the place section of your bet.
In short, this is a great way to bet without having to lose your stake. Many successful bettors also use the each way bet to put money on horses that are less likely to win. This strategy shields their stake if the horse simply places but offers sizable payouts if the horse ends up winning.
In the UK, placement guidelines are decided by the Jockey Club and depend largely on the size of the field.
3. Single and Multiple Bets
Single bets are simple. You bet on one horse for one event. The outcome of the race and the odds determine your payout.
Meanwhile, multiple bets allow you to choose three or more horses in different races. The final payout is determined by multiplying the odds of each of your selections. Not all of the chosen horses have to score in order for you to get a return.
4. Forecast Bets
Another fun way to take part in horse racing forecasts and wager on the outcome of races is through so-called forecast bets. These can be categorized into various types, including the straight forecast, reverse forecast, combination forecast, tricast, and combination tricast.
In the straight forecast, you have to bet on two winners, and you have to get the order right to win the bet. A reversed forecast is a two-unit bet just like each way where you can bet on both the first and second horse. Bear in mind that this form of betting is slightly riskier than the win bet or the each way bet.
Betting Tips Horse Racing
Racecards provide a wealth of information about the race that you are betting on as well as the horses and their jockeys.
It’s important to factor in past performances and horse results. This information is imperative when deciding what to wager on, especially if you are basing your bet solely on the information you gathered rather than following someone else’s tips.
Learn to Read the Horses
This is an old fashioned trick and used to work well before the era of digital betting. Punters would examine the horses before the race by looking for signs of twitching and discomfort. Many believed that if the horses were rearing and appeared aggressive, they had a better shot of winning the race. But horse racing betting tips for beginners suggest that horses, which appear to be calm, actually perform better.
A lot of the information about the horse can be found on the racecards. But you may have to dig a bit deeper to get the full picture. A horse’s draw may be important, especially for shorter races. However, many bettors believe that it creates an unconscious betting bias. It’s also important to look at both past performance and results.
Trainer and Jockey
Make sure you familiarize yourself with the jockey and the trainer’s record. It’s a good sign if horses working with a particular trainer consistently place near the top, even if they don’t win. This is something that a lot of punters tend to overlook.
Meanwhile, the history and performance of jockeys is as important as the track record of the horse. A jockey that consistently places near the top but never wins might be too careless. A jockey that never even hits the middle-ranking probably doesn’t have it in him to win, even with the perfect horse.
Another one of the tips for horse racing and betting on this sport concerns the age and weight of both the jockey and the horse, which have to be carefully examined. The age factor differs a bit when it comes to thoroughbreds. The combined weight of the horse and the jockey comes into play when deciding on the handicapping numbers. That’s also something you should familiarize yourself with.
Research Extensively
This is a good piece of advice for many other forms of betting. In horse racing, you should gather information about the track and find out if it’s a turf surface or a dirt track. You’ll then need to find out how your horse performs on each surface and place your wager accordingly. Bear in mind that weather changes can also impact the results and potentially ruin your racing predictions.
Make sure you do your homework on stables, trainers, and horse breeds. Some punters prefer to bet on horses that are either sired by or share blood with other winning horses. Strong genetic components can impact results.
Other factors that more experienced punters take into account include the length of the track and whether their horse has a tendency to pull ahead right from the beginning or wins races only after developing momentum. These are some of the most useful horse racing betting tips you can get.
Choose the Right Bookmaker
The days of traditional bookmakers are long gone, and most people now bet using the internet. But selecting the right site for horse racing is different from choosing the perfect bookie. When choosing your site, make sure to pick one which offers you a lot of options, especially if you are planning to cast a wider net. The platform should also support virtual horse betting. This is becoming an increasingly popular option in the UK, and a growing number of bets on horse races are being placed on virtual fields.
While researching online bookies, be sure to examine bonuses and insurance. Some websites offer fallers insurance on certain races, which allows you to recover your stake if the horse falls or unseats the jockey. Bonuses and promotional deals can be both enticing and misleading, so you’ll have to study the numbers and see if a particular bonus is worth betting a certain amount.
Other important factors to consider when shopping around for the right site include the odds on offer, membership benefits, and the availability of the live stream option.
Cast a Wider Net
After doing your research or losing a lot of money, you’ll begin to understand the nuances of betting. You’ll be familiar with things like best tipsters and all the different racing and betting types. That’s the time to start casting wider nets because high profile races often offer risky and not especially lucrative odds. Meanwhile, lesser known races might offer you much better odds and easy reads on horses and past performances, so you can place a smarter bet.
Engage In Multiple Kinds of Bets
Although there are many different kinds of bets, novice punters tend to stick with one or two options. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but engaging in different types of bets might be a good educational and profitable experience. For more details, check out our betting guide. If you are comfortable with your ability to read the horses, betting smaller amounts on a win bet, each-way bet, and even a reverse forecast bet might offer better returns than betting bigger amounts on just one bet.
Grip Your Bankroll Tightly
Your bankroll is the amount you are willing to spend on betting. Bankroll management is imperative, and it requires a lot of self-control, especially if you are betting online using a credit card. This is among the essential betting tips for horse racing, and anyone who has lost a lot of money gambling will implore you to take it very seriously.
Bankroll management starts with making sure that you have enough money set aside to fund your betting. You should never use your savings or money earmarked for basic necessities. Ideally, the money should come from your recreation budget until you start making cash from your bets.
When you secure the money you need, it’s time to decide how to bet. If you bet only once per day, you should decide what percentage of your bankroll you plan to use. Many horse racing tipsters and seasoned punters believe that a percentage is better than a fixed amount because it may vary with your betting success.
If you decide to bet only 5% of your bankroll each day, the actual amount will grow as you build up your winnings. If you are losing, the amount will decrease. This strategy will stop you from depleting your entire bankroll.
So never bet what you can’t afford to lose, no matter how confident you are with your horse.
Horse Racing Betting Strategies
Many punters develop a system for betting. It either derives from existing strategies and systems that are widely practiced, or an individual punter devises his own mechanism. Even if you aren’t at that level yet, it’s good to know some common betting strategies.
Laying the Favourite Strategy
Laying the favourite means betting against the favourite in the race. It’s a clever strategy, and if employed the right way, it can be very profitable.
According to statistical analysis, the favourite horse has a 66% chance of losing, which is significantly more than the 33% chance of winning. One of the betting tips for this strategy is to wager against the favourite with odds of 3/1 or lower. Otherwise, an upset in the race can upset your bankroll.
Recent Winners Strategy
This is one of the favourite strategies among novice punters. Instead of spending time researching horses and jockeys, a punter may simply bet on the horse that has been consistently winning. However, the odds offered here might not be too rewarding.
Dutching System
The Dutching system is very complicated, especially when compared with the recent winner strategy. It’s an amazing system to mitigate your losses, and it’s used by many of the best tipsters. It’s essentially splitting up your stake and backing multiple horses in a way that allows you to benefit no matter which horse wins the race.
It requires you to decide on the amount you are willing to stake before placing it on the horses that you want to back. If you are not a numbers person, there are several online calculators that can help you figure things out.
Conclusion
Remember that even the best horse racing betting tips and strategies aren’t a recipe for guaranteed success. Afterall, it’s betting; there is no foolproof strategy. If you knew you were going to win every time, the charm and adrenaline associated with betting would evaporate. But that also doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do your due diligence before getting into horse betting.
