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Just What Are the Best Horse Racing Betting Offers in the UK?

Top horse racing offers

Betting on the horses was once the bread and butter of the offline betting industry with betting shops up and down the country packed to the rafters every afternoon as punters got involved with the horse racing action of the day.

When betting online became the norm, a new breed of younger punter became involved with betting on football being their preferred sport, but don’t think for one minute that horse racing betting online is not still extremely popular because it is.

Many sportsbooks have horse betting offers in place with many of them being extremely generous in that it is not too difficult to make a profit from them. One of the great things about online horse betting is that it can be a great form of entertainment.

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Horse racing takes place every afternoon and during the summer months evening meetings are common place, so even those punters who just like to place small bets have something to look forward to each day with some of the sportsbooks allowing punters to watch the races live as long as they have placed a bet on the particular race.

The best horse racing betting offers the UK are wide and varied so we will talk more about those in a little while, but it might be a good idea to first take a look at the kind of bets which are often associated with horse betting offers and which appeal to the recreational punters as stakes can be low and entertainment value is high.

How about a Yankee?

The Yankee is a bet which can be used on any sport but which lends itself perfectly to betting on the horse racing markets. It consists of eleven bets which are in the form of six doubles, four trebles and a fourfold.

What is a yankee bet in horse racing betting

Whilst some punters will use large stakes on a Yankee, it is possible to have a total stake of just a pound or two, so it doesn’t take much imagination to realise that this kind of bet will appeal to those punters who are not working such as pensioners and students.

If just two selections out of the four are successful, a return is guaranteed, but it may surprise you that the size of the winnings if all four selections in the Yankee are successful, can be very impressive.

As an example, and to keep the calculations simple, if you had placed a 20p Yankee at a total cost of £2.20 and all four selections had won, each one at odds of 6/1, your total return would be £813.40 which would be a profit of £811.20.

Few punters would argue that this is an amazing return for such a small outlay, so it is of little surprise why the Yankee bet is so popular, especially with horse racing punters. A question about multiple bets which is often asked is, what is a Trixie bet in horse racing? The answer to that question is that it is similar to a Yankee but consists of only three selection and a total of four bets which are three doubles and a treble. A Trixie is a very popular bet and ideal for those who wish to bet with a smaller total stake.

Strike It Lucky with a Placepot

The Placepot is another bet which is extremely popular with online horse betting punters, and it appeals to those who just like to bet small stakes which will hopefully give them an afternoon or evening of entertainment as well as the big hitters who like to bet with large stakes.

With a Placepot bet, a punter simply needs to pick a selection in each of the first six races at any UK race meeting which is taking place on that particular day. For a Placepot bet to win, the selections must be placed in each race, and as this is a pool bet, the total pool is shared between every winning ticket.

What is a placepot in horse racing

To make matters even more exciting, you can choose as many selections as you like in each race. The best way to describe this is to look at an example. Let’s say that you want to place a Placepot bet at an afternoon meeting at Ascot. You choose two horses to be placed in the first five races and one horse in the last race.

You decide on a unit stake of 10p, so the total bet is calculated as follows – 2x2x2x2x2x1 which comes to a total of 32. 32 x 10p = £3.20, so that is the total stake for the Placepot bet.

You could even use lower stakes than that if required so many punters will place a Placepot on every race which is taking place during the day, and as you can probably imagine, this gives them a great deal of entertainment throughout the course of the day.

There are many types of bets such as the three we have just mentioned which give punters the opportunity to take an active interest in the days racing, but it would be fair to say that these three are probably the most popular.

For those with interest in horse racing but who are looking for something a little different there are horse racing betting games. These games can be found online, and there are also horse betting games in the form of board games such as monopoly but with a horse racing theme.

How about Horse Betting Each Way?

Horse betting each way is one of the most popular types of horse racing bets but if you are not familiar with horse betting each way it is important that you remember than an each way bet is actually two bets, one bet on the selection to win and one bet on the selection to be placed.

What are horse racing each way bets

Again, the best way to explain this is to look at an example. You decide to place a £5 each way bet on a horse in the 2.30 race at Wincanton which equates to a total stake of £10. There are eight runners in the race, and the odds of your selection is 8/1. There are three scenarios regarding the result of the race, and they are listed below.

Your selection finishes outside of the first three past the post, so you don’t win and lose your stake. Your selection finishes second or third so you will lose the win part of the each way bet but win on the place part of the bet which will give you one quarter of the winning odds, 2/1 The return will be £15 (including stake) minus the £5 of the win bet so a total profit of £5.

If your selection wins the race, you will get a return of £45 for the win part of the bet plus £15 back from the each way part of the bet giving a total return of £60 and a profit of £50. Most punters place an each way bet as a type of insurance so that they will get their money back if their selection fails to win but end up being placed.

£
%
%

Part Lay One

£

Part Lay Two

£
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Results

At odds of 2.5, your lay stake is £44.90

Your liability will be £67.35

If the Bookmaker Bet wins, your overall position will be £12.35

If the Exchange Lay wins, your overall position will be £12.35

Your match rating for this bet is 77.55%

Underlay

You could lay £36.67
Liability will be £55.01
Bookmaker Bet wins £0.01
Exchange Lay wins £20.16

Standard

You could lay £44.90
Liability will be £67.35
Bookmaker Bet wins £12.35
Exchange Lay wins £12.35

Overlay

You could lay £57.89
Liability will be £86.84
Bookmaker Bet wins £31.84
Exchange Lay wins £0.00

Custom

You could lay £55.00
Liability will be £82.50

Bookmaker bet wins £27.50
Exchange Lay wins £2.75


The odds that are given on a horse to be placed depends on whether the race is a handicap race or not if it is a handicap race, each way terms are usually a quarter of the odds whilst a non-handicap race is usually one-fifth of the odds.

Also, it also depends on how many runners are in a race as to what position a horse has to finish for it to be placed. Up to four runners is win only, between five and seven runners is two places, between eight and fifteen runners equals three places and sixteen and overpays out on four places.

Live Horse Racing Betting - Not for the Faint Hearted

Betting on horse racing live

If you are interested in live horse racing betting you are in for a great deal of excitement and if you get the hang of it, some great profits. To make the most out of live horse betting, you really should be using a betting exchange such as Betfair to place your bets, and some of the most successful live horse racing betting experts will make their money on each race before the race has even started.

The prices change so quickly before a race starts that it is possible to lock in profits before the off which means that you can then sit back and watch the race, safe in the knowledge that you have already made money.

You will probably be aware that this type of betting is known as trading and it doesn’t really matter which sport you are trading on, but horse racing lends itself to trading like this because of the enormous amount of liquidity which is available.

The problem with live horse betting such as this is that most punters can see how profitable it can be and like the idea of getting involved but don’t realise that it takes an awful lot of practice in order to make a profit on a regular basis. Practice does make perfect though so if live horse racing betting in this way is of interest to you, make sure that you bear this in mind.

So What Are the Horse Racing Betting Bookies?

Which are the best bookmakers for horse racing betting

We have already spoken about how Betfair is the best site for live horse racing betting but what about the best horse racing betting sites for those punters who enjoy the traditional type of betting on the horses.

In that case, the best horse racing betting bookies would have to be the likes of William Hill, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and as usual, bet365. You will find that all of these horse betting sites offer an excellent service with competitive odds along with attractive horse betting offers.

Due to the vast numbers of races which are taking place each day, an important factor to bear in mind when deciding which sportsbooks to get involved with is how easy the site is to navigate and how straightforward it is to place a bet. All of the sportsbooks that we have mentioned tick all of the right boxes and they are renowned within the online gambling industry as being leaders in the field of online horse betting.

Are There Any Horse Racing Betting Systems Which Are Worth Getting Involved With?

If ever there was something that you should be especially careful of getting involved with it would have to be horse racing betting systems. These systems have been peddled by shady salesmen since before the days of the internet, and if you read a copy of the Sporting Life newspaper from the 1960s or even before then, you would come across adverts which promised the best horse racing betting systems which could not lose!

Most of them were not worth the paper that they were written on but if you come across any horse racing betting systems today (which you will) at least you now have the beauty of the internet so that you can easily check back through past results to make sure that the results which are being claimed are actually true.

The same thing applies to horse racing betting tips, make sure that you take the time to go back through the claimed results and make sure that they are correct before you start acting on these horse betting tips with your own money.

Is it worth betting on horse racing

Is It Worth Getting Involved with Horse Racing Gambling?

Yes, it is! Take a look at the best online horse racing betting sites which we have mentioned, and you will instantly see that there are extensive resources available for you to get involved. The best horse betting sites will allow you to look back at the past form and in some cases, even watch past horse races that your selections have been involved in so that you can gauge how they may run.

The horse betting rules will be clearly laid out so that you can see what you are getting involved in and if it is the bonus and offers that you find of particular interest, matched betting horse racing will get you excited because it is very easy to lay off any horse racing bonus offers on your betting exchange of choice.

All in all, betting on horse racing offers the punter lots of opportunities to get involved and hopefully make a profit, so it comes very highly recommended.

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