Horse Racing Betting Sites

These are the three key things we look at about when reviewing and comparing the top racing bookies:

• Horse betting offers - The top bookies have a regular stream of enticing racing promotions running every day of the week, not just around big events like the Grand National and Cheltenham.
• Horse racing betting features - Live streaming is offered by every top horse racing bookie but tools like BetFinder and added features like radio commentary can enhance your racing betting experience no end.
• Horse racing betting markets - The more markets to bet on, the better. As well as the most popular bets like Winner, Each Way, Forecasts and Reverse Forecasts, the best bookies have a selection of Placepots, Multiples and Ante Post bets too.

One of the main details we consider when reviewing a horse betting site is the volume and variety of betting promotions.

The following are the most popular type of horse racing offers:

• Free bets
• Best odds guaranteed
• Extra race places
• Money back promos
• Rewards clubs

Free Bets

2nd to the SP fav is the most common racing promo that sees you get free bets. This deal is offered on a daily basis.

However, you will find that bookies ramp up the volume of free bet offers around major race meetings and festivals, especially Cheltenham and the Grand National.

Grand National Free Bets

Every April, three days of top-class racing at Aintree Racecourse culminates in the greatest steeplechase of them all - the Grand National.

Whether you’re a horse racing enthusiast, a casual racing punter, or, a complete novice:

The Grand National generates more betting interest than any other horse race in the calendar

With this in mind, you will find a whole host of horse racing betting offers and other special deals leading up to the race.

Cheltenham Free Bets

28 races over four days featuring the Unibet Champion Hurdle, the Betway Queen Mother Champions Chase, is rounded off with the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

A festival of racing featuring the best horses, trainers and jockeys

Many of the top horse racing betting websites have odds available all year round, giving punters the chance to back a long shot early on.

You will also find plenty of Cheltenham free bets and betting offers rolled out a few weeks before the festival begins in March as bookmakers gear up for the pinnacle of the jump racing season and a hive of betting activity.

Best Odds Guaranteed

Best odds guaranteed (aka BOG) allow you to still get paid out at the best odds regardless of any price changes.

So if you take an Early Price on a horse and the Starting Price (SP) happens to be bigger, the bookie will pay you out at the bigger odds.

Odds tend to change a lot prior to a race due to the volume of bets being placed. Therefore, the earlier you can lock in the price for a horse, the better.

Extra Race Places

Extra Places is another promo you can expect to find daily at the top horse betting sites. This is where a bookmaker will pay out on more than the standard 3 or 4 places.

Bookies can pay out 5, 6 and even 7 places giving you more chance of picking a horse that finishes in one of the 'money positions'

You will find the majority of Extra Places offered by bookies during big racing festivals such as Cheltenham, Royal Ascot and Aintree.

Money Back Promos

This type of betting offer acts as insurance and can you get your money back as a free bet or your stake refunded as cash if, for instance, your horse finishes 2nd to the SP fav or if your pick in the feature race fails to place.

Check out BoyleSports for the best racing money-back offers.

Each Way Promos

Bet365’s Each Way Extra promo allows you to add or remove the number of places when betting Each Way on selected races.

An each-way bet on your terms

Maybe you’re dead certain your pick will place in the top two? In this case, you can remove places and increase the odds of your pick.

Or, perhaps you’re unsure your horse will place at all so the option of adding more places, albeit for a reduction in odds, is a great way of insuring your bet.

Either way, this promo is yet another reminder of why Bet365 is one of the top betting sites for horse racing.

Reward Clubs

Sky Bet and Betway are two of the best bookmakers for rewarding regular betting on horse racing.

The latest example of this kind of offer is Novibet's Horse Racing Club. Here, you earn a free €10 bet every week based on your betting activity the week before.

Free-to-play promos

Coral's Racing Club gives customers the opportunity to win trips to visit trainers' yards, win free race day tickets and even become a racecourse owner for the day.

The promotion, which is unrivalled in terms of giving horse racing enthusiasts exclusive behind-the-scenes access, has clearly struck a chord. As many as 50,000 members have joined since the offer become available in November 2022.

When you dig deep into the features each bookie has and, also, the extent, to which they’re offered, you begin to find out which online bookmakers are ahead of the field, and, also, the ones lagging.

Here are some of the key features we look for when assessing horse racing bookies.

Horse Racing Live Streaming

Once a rarity, it’s now pretty standard for every horse racing site to live stream all races in Ireland and the UK.

Many also make selected international races available to watch on their platform allowing you to watch races in the US, South Africa, Australia and France, to name a few.

To watch a live stream of a race with any online bookie, you normally need to have an account in credit, or, have bet in the last 24 hours.

BetFinder

BetVictor was one of the first bookies to launch their BetFinder, a feature designed to simplify horse race betting for punters.

The BetFinder tool uses data from horse racing experts like Timeform and Racing Post to filter between horses, allowing you to personalise your search for the perfect horse.

We suggest you check out either BetVictor or 888sport for the best version of this tool. You will variations of BetFinder at Coral and Ladbrokes, though these are fairly basic by comparison.

While winner, each way and place markets are the most popular and also, often, the easiest to understand, the unpredictable nature of horse racing means there are opportunities to bet on a number of eventualities.

The more betting markets there are, the better chance of finding a bet that suits your taste

The best horse racing betting sites offer more than the standard markets and, provide punters with an array of other bet types to choose from. These include:

• Ante-Post Betting: The top bookies will often have odds for the big racing festivals a few months prior to the event getting underway, allowing you to gain an edge or get a higher price on a horse before the odds shorten. Bet365 has the most Ante-Post markets.

• Forecast Betting: Simply pick the horses you think will finish first and second.

• Tricast Betting: Predict the horses that will finish first, second and third.

• Betting Without Favourite: The favourite can often be priced at short odds, so short you need to bet a sizeable amount to yield a significant return. This type of bet allows you to bet on the horse you think will win if you don’t count the favourite. Like the Asian Handicap in football, it’s a great way to make a race more competitive.

• Accumulator: A single bet on four or more horses to win where all your picks must win. An each-way accumulator requires each horse to place.