Dan Eisenberg
Horse racing is the oldest type of wager when it comes to sports betting. It has literally been around for hundreds of years and while it may not be the most popular wagering option anymore, it still has a loyal following that is the envy of most other sports. A day at the track is always time well spent and a day at the OTB is always an adventure. Yet, you can have even more fun playing from an online horse racing betting site!
Of course, it didn’t take long for the online gambling world to take notice and many online gambling sites were built on the same concept horse racing betting shops have been using for years. In fact, one has to wonder, where would online gambling be if it weren’t for horse racing. You can say that betting on horse races is the reason why all the action moved to the internet in the first place. Today, we take a look at the best horse racing betting sites, starting with our top five picks.
Our staff racetrack experts recommend these as the best 3 sportsbooks as overall horse racing betting sites:
Top 3 Horse Racing Betting Sites
BetOnline
- Very generous bonus payment system
- Bonus codes for every major event
- Mobile compatible and accessible
SportsBetting.ag
Intertops
Contents
- 1 Top 3 Horse Racing Betting Sites
- 2 BetOnline
- 3 SportsBetting.ag
- 4 Intertops
- 5 Stand-alone Racebooks are the Best
- 6 Rebate System
- 7 Minutes to Post
- 8 Special Offers
- 9 Horse Racing Betting Guide
- 10 Four Steps to Start Betting on Horse Racing
- 11 Top Offshore Horse Racing Sites
- 12 Types of Horse Racing Bets
- 13 Horse Racing Odds
- 14 Live Betting on Horse Racing
- 15 Horse Racing Betting Strategy
- 16 3 Advanced Horse Racing Betting Tips
- 17 Horse Racing Betting Picks
- 18 Mobile Betting
- 19 The Season
- 20 Horse Racing Leagues to Bet On
- 21 Biggest Events to Bet On
These days, you have a superb pick of horse racing betting sites all available at a point-and-click. While, not every racebook is worth your while, we only draw your attention to the ones that provide all the essentials of having a good time betting on horse races. That includes:
- A great rebate program to guarantee yourself a steady return
- Reliable and quick payouts via all popular banking options
- Great odds and variety of available bets
- Straight, Exacta Trifecta and Exotic wagers available
- Proven reputation over the course of years
Finding a site is simple enough. Specifically, we recommend that you find horse racing betting sites that you are happy with. Some among you are probably happy with a simplified racebook where there aren’t as many things happening all at once. Other, more experienced bettors would probably go straight for some of the busier racebooks to have access to the best options around the clock.
Before you place your next trifecta bet online, be sure to go over our list of recommended racebooks first. We’re here to help find you the best racebook where all the savvy bettors mingle and bet.
Stand-alone Racebooks are the Best
Finding a great horse racing betting facility online takes a while. Similarly, it takes a while to get to know what you are after specifically. Some people are committed bettors and they want to place a wager on each and every horse race out there. Others only stick to the big events and wait for Jody Demling to tip them on the next big Kentucky Derby outcome.
For instance, racebooks will be focused on specific horse racing events and offer tailored promotions and bonuses, no deposit promotion codes and other coupons to use. Ideally, you’ll find a site with a stand alone racebook that will fully cover the global horse racing derbies.
This way you keep you horse money separate from your sports money. It may seem like being a bit fussy as a bettor, but there is much more to gain in way of rebate, bonuses, and special features if the online site you choose keeps its racebook separate from the sportsbook. Now, let’s explain some of these terms.
Rebate System
The rebate programs available at all good horse racing betting sites are a surefire way to keep bettors coming back, and their efforts – rewarded. Surely, there are days when you won’t be able to turn as much profit, but thanks to the rebates you can get at some of the best horse racing venues online, even your bad days would feel like you have had a great time. Such is the nature of horse racing that everyone is a winner – more or less.
Rebates make sure that a bettor never leaves empty handed. You won’t find this kind of deal at the track or in the Off-Track Betting facilities out there. We’ve seen 7%, 8%, and even 15% rebates on a day’s losses offered, depending on the online racebook.
This is one of the online perks we were talking about and one which you shouldn’t play the ponies without. Not every racebook will offer them so find the ones that do. If you are not entirely sure which ones to pick, make sure to run everything by our horse racing sites reviews first.
Minutes to Post
The Minutes to Post time is a handy way of knowing how long you have before a race kicks off, and more importantly – how long before you can no longer place wagers. When you visit a racetrack in real life, you can see people trying to make their ways to the counters and place a down to split-seconds before an event. Racebooks operate in much the same way, only you don’t have to worry too much about missing out on the action.
At the majority of horse racing betting sites, you don’t have to elbow the other bugger out of the way. Nor do you have to frantically chalk down your bets seconds before the race starts. Instead, you can leisurely and calculatedly explore the available offers, pick the bets you like and just make your wager.
And if a race is too close to post, and you haven’t done your research – so be it! Unlike racetracks in real life, which rely on events taking place in their backyard, online racebooks cover an international horse racing market. There is really an event that’s worth making a heady wager on, simply because there are quite a few alternatives to choose from altogether.
Special Offers
Every online racebook has some special bonus or promotion to offer. It’s true that not every offer really makes the cut, and it’s sometimes much simpler to just focus on the bets you want to make, rather than going after a bonus. After all, why saddle yourself with wagering requirements, if you can just bet and win, no questions asked?
Yet, it never hurts to shop around a little. You know how much you want to spend, what you like to wager and how you like to wager. Find an online racebook that has those specific bonuses, contests, and/or promotions for the amounts you prefer.
Horse Racing Betting Guide
Horse racing has been around since the 1800’s and horse betting emerged almost around the same time people started flocking to watch other people race on horseback. There are hundreds of race tracks all over the United States and horse bettors have been flocking to the tracks to bet on horses for many years now.
The demand has created many excellent opportunities to place a wager quickly and reliably. Yet, learning how to actually win and turn a profit on horse racing is an art form and no less. You need to factor quite a bit of things, including the horse racing betting sites you have chosen as well as the individual performances of jockeys, horses, and of course the track. Here is a four-step horse betting strategy for beginners.
Four Steps to Start Betting on Horse Racing
- The first step in horse race betting is finding an online sportsbook that you are comfortable with and one that is reliable. It’s important to focus on specific aspects of the experience that interest you in particular. For instance, ease and speed of deposits and withdrawals matters a lot to the majority of bettors. Other agree that the available markets at a specific horse racing site take a slight precedence.
- Once you find an online sportsbook that you feel comfortable with, the next step is creating your account. Signing up at most online racebooks is very simple. You will need to provide your names, address, city, state, zip code, phone number and some password questions. All of this is done to ensure that you are of the legal age to place sports wagers.
- Funding your account comes up next on the list. You want to deposit in the online racebooks without incurring any fees or experiencing delays. This is precisely why reading a horse racing sites review can help you decide which online venues are worth your time. Of course, examining the T&C’s of each individual venue is no small part of determining your future success as a bettor.
- With all of this completed, all that’s left is to start making your wagers. Of course, this is where the most challenging aspect of the experience comes. How do you decide what bets to stick with? Everyone seems to talk about the exotics, such as Quinella and Exacta, but are you at the point where you can actually benefit from them? Remember to start simple, perhaps by choosing the easiest to guess wagers at first. Speaking off, let’s jog our memory once again and see what makes a good horse racing site just that.
Top Offshore Horse Racing Sites
Once again, half of your success will depend on you picking a horse racing betting venue that you can trust. Of course, trust is built over time, but you can still tell if a specific venue is worth it. A variety of give-away signs will help you decide. The most popular option, however, remains consulting specialized horse racing betting forums. People on platforms such as Reddit tend to be very forthcoming about which racebooks are actually worth a shot.
We did a little digging of our own and after hundreds of hours of research work, we can point you in the direction of proven horse racing venues. And the best part? All the action here takes place online, so you are just a click away from the best horse betting options!
- Bookmaker – Eager to get the scoop of what makes Bookmaker one of the top horse racing betting venues? Great, once you start browsing you will find a bunch of features including budget wagers starting at as little as $1, great pari-mutual pools, no tax forms, and wagers from over 50 North American tracks. To top it all off, you never have to miss landmark events such as the Melbourne Cup!
- MyBookie – The international racing events are a draw for all American horse racing lovers. Don’t you think that you will only be limited to Penn National and Kentucky Downs. There is a whole lot more events to pick from, such as the Chemsford City in the UK and Clonmel in Ireland. MyBookie offers horse racing futures, daily track odds, Triple Crown wagers for anything from the Kentucky Derby to the Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes!
- GTBets – GTBets is just the right sort of horse racing betting site for you. Interested in a 100% welcome bonus? Want to benefit from an excellent 15% rebate? Great, GTBets has all of this and more to offer you. Plus, you get to place wagers for over 75 racetracks world wide – now that is a massive offer that’s worth your while!
- Bovada – Bovada covers international markets as well. The racebook you will find here is more concentrated and you will get immediate odds and bets to place on races such as the Breeders Cup Distaff, Prix De Larc De Triomphe, Breeders Cup Dirt Mile, and many more. Feel like you already know what the future holds? Make sure to benefit from the horse racing futures!
Types of Horse Racing Bets
There are tons of ways to wager on horses and each one has its benefits and disadvantages. We will list each of the betting term with a small description next to it to help explain what each one is. From the regular ones to the exotics, there is a whole lot waiting for you here in the form of awesome wagers!
- Win Bet – A win bet is a wager that you place for a specific horse to win the race. Your horse must win the race in order for you to collect money.
- Place Bet – A place bet is wagered for a horse to finish first or second in a race. Your horse must come 1st or 2nd to collect money.
- Show Bet – A show bet is wagered for a horse to finish first, second or third in a race. Your horse must come 1st, 2nd or 3rd to collect money.
- Quinella – A quinella is a grouping of 2 horses to finish first and second. Both of the horses you select must come 1st and 2nd, in any order, to collect money.
- Exacta – A exacta is very similar to a quinella bet but the horses must come in the specific order that you place it. These usually pay a little more than a quinella depending on the odds. In order for you to collect winnings, your horses must come in 1st and 2nd, in the order it was placed.
- Trifecta (aka Triple) – These are much like the exacta bet but now you combine a third horse. The horses must place in the order you select, 1st, 2nd and 3rd, in order for you to collect money.
- Superfecta – Superfecta is very similar to the exacta and trifecta but now you have four horses. All four horses must come in the exact order you place the wager, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place in order to collect winnings.
- Daily Double – A daily double wager is one of the harder plays to cash as you must win back to back races with a single ticket. That means that you must hit the winner of Race 1 and Race 2 to collect money.
- Pick 3 – Pick 3 is similar to the Daily Double but instead of winning two races, back to back, you must now hit 3 races consecutively.
- Pick 4 – Pick 4 is similar to the Pick 3 but instead of winning three races, back to back to back, you must now hit 4 races consecutively.
- Pick 6 – Pick 6 is similar to the Pick 3 and Pick 4 but instead of winning 3 or 4 races, you must win 6 straight races that the track predetermines. These are the hardest wager to cash in horse racing but by far the most profitable single wager in betting with a entry costing you $2 for a single horse entry in each race, with a return on investment sometimes reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars!
Horse Racing Odds
Horse racing odds are released, normally, the night before the race is expected to take place. With most tracks, a morning-line odds maker will make an estimated guess at what he or she thinks the odds should be and once the money starts coming in on the various horses. The odds will play themselves out compared against the payout pot for the total amount wagered on the race. Of course, racebooks online usually offer you the odds much sooner, as they do have their algorithms that crunch numbers non-stop.
One thing to keep in mind when betting on the ponies is that the odds that you see when you place your wager, may not be the actual odds that the horse goes off at. The odds for horse racing will change all the way up until post time. It is always recommended that you check the odds prior to the race going off to know what your actual odds are.
Live Betting on Horse Racing
There really isn’t a live betting option for horse racing because once the race starts, it only lasts about a minute and a half to 2 minutes. What they do have is the ability to bet all the way up until the horses go into the starting gate.
Horse Racing Betting Strategy
Anyone that has spent time out at the racetrack on a racing day will hear horse gamblers talking various strategies to be successful when betting on the ponies. The fact is there are hundreds of theories on how to pick winners, but some are much more successful than others.
The following are 3 basic horse racing betting strategies that we have found are successful, each year on the horse racing circuit. However, you should take each and every one with a grain of salt and be prepared to adjust, adapt, and even dismiss a strategy altogether if you don’t think it makes sense in your particular situation.
- Winners Win, Losers Lose – Pick up a daily racing form and you will see the horses that are the favorites are the ones that are close to winning, or that have won in recent races. If you want to increase your winning percentage, look for horses that have won or that have come close to winning races in the past 3-5 races.
- Look for Jockey/Trainer Tandems – Many times, trainers will hire a jockey to ride their horse for a single race but many times in horse racing, trainers and jockeys build relationships together and become very successful working together. You can find the information you need in a basic daily racing form for jockey/trainer combos and their statistics while working together. Most people agree that betting on jockeys and trainers tandem is the smart thing to do.
- Be Selective with Races – A normal race day at the track will consist of anywhere between 8 and 14 races on a card. Just because there are 14 races on the card, does not mean you need to bet all 14 races. Be selective and pick the races that you feel the strongest about. Avoid those races where you just aren’t sure who you really like.
3 Advanced Horse Racing Betting Tips
Now that we have given you 3 of the basic principles and strategies of horse racing, let’s dig a little deeper into some advanced strategies that we find to be the most successful in horse race betting.
- Bet the Beaten Favorite – Many times in horse racing, when a horse loses as a favorite, his odds will plummet the next time he hits the track. This is because horsemen have long term memories and hate betting a horse that lost in their last race. The fact remains that the horse was the favorite for a reason. Someone believed that the horse was the best horse in the race and the most money was wagered on that horse, to make it the favorite.
With the horse losing, the odds on the horse, naturally will be longer (in your favor) the next time he/she races because the oddsmaker will need to put lower odds on the more popular horses with more money wagered. This is when you can clean up and capitalize on misguided information. Maybe the horse simply had an off day? Maybe the horse broke bad from the starting gate? Maybe the horse had a different jockey on him? There are numerous reasons why this could have happened but betting that horse in its first race back off being beaten as a favorite is a very successful strategy that we recommend.
- Only Play Value Pricing Horses – Far too often in horse racing, you will end up focusing on a horse, which, while a promising pick, would still not be worth to bet on, as the risk might outweigh the reward. When you start your day of betting on some horses, tell yourself that you are not going to go below a horse that is XXX amount. For me, I always look for horses that have a value of 4/1. I won’t play a horse any lower in odds than 4/1. While there are some favorites out there that may look like great picks, the potential return is hardly enough to justify the reward. Sure, you can spend a whole lot more, but this is generally not the best way to bolster your bets and be a successful long-term bettor.
- Avoid Horses That Are Hard to Control Before the Race – There is an old adage on the race track that you never play a horse that can’t be controlled in the paddock or on the walkover before the race. Many times, horses will tire themselves out by trying to get away from the hot walker and groom that will walk the horse over to the paddock area. This is even more emphatic when the jockey is on the horse and the horse is hard to control. This burns a lot of energy from the horse and in most instances, causes them to run bad in that race.
Horse Racing Betting Picks
Horse racing is a very tough sport to wager on but once you get the hang of it, it is one of the most profitable and fun sports to choose from when looking for opportunities to make a bet. Whether you are attending a horse racing track live or you are wagering on it from the comforts of your own home, there are options to find plays from tipsters and experts from around the world. Just think Jody Demling.
Most tipsters make a living by simply giving out picks for horse races. But in order for them to sell those picks to the public, they have to show some success because otherwise, no one will want to purchase their picks. Searching the internet for horse racing handicappers will result in thousands of options but as with any service, you want to look for long term reliability.
Mobile Betting
Mobile betting is a great option for betting with most sports but with horse racing, it is probably the best asset to have since odds can change all the way up until post time. For this reason, it is imperative to make sure that whatever sportsbook you decide to go with has a mobile horse racing option.
It is a great benefit to be able to handicap a horse race and wait until the last minute to play it, so that you can make sure the odds are in your favor in the race. The two top online sportsbooks that we recommend for horse racing are Bookmaker and MyBookie. Both of these websites offer mobile betting and have great horse racing platforms that can be played on your mobile device.
The Season
Horse racing is not a seasonal event. The horses run all year round and you can find horse betting at nearly every state around the country all year long. Each track has their own season that they go by but each one is spaced out among the others within that area so that horses that are 2-year-old can run with other 2-year-old and 3-yea-old can run against the same 3-year-old.
Horse Racing Leagues to Bet On
With horse racing, there are various tracks to wager on rather than leagues. There are not really any leagues to list other than various horse tracks.
Biggest Events to Bet On
There are big races to play, each and every day, but the biggest events to bet on are the annual Triple Crown races and the Breeders Cup. The Triple Crown races consist of the Kentucky Derby, which is held on the first Saturday in May, the Preakness, which is held on the third Saturday in May and the Belmont Stakes, which is held in the month of June, usually 3 weeks after the Preakness.
The Breeders Cup is an annual series of Grade 1 thoroughbred races. Some people call the Breeders Cup the championship series of thoroughbred horse industry. Both the Breeders Cup and the Triple Crown races have become worldwide events that attract fans and gamblers from local and nationally.
