Best Horse Racing Betting Sites

How to bet on horse racing

If you want to get started with horse racing betting, you first need to choose a favourite from the sea of horse racing betting sites out there.

Once you’ve chosen your site and signed up, making your horse racing bets works just like any other sports bet. You will be able to browse through a list of available horse races from your bookie, and here is where you will also find the odds for a range of markets.

To make your bet, all you need to do is ensure that you’ve got the necessary funds in your betting account, choose your market, enter your wager, and place your bets!

Types of horse racing bets

Regardless of the horse races that you choose to bet on, you are typically going to work with three different types of horse racing bets. Of course, there are more bets that you can make than this, but these are the fundamental bets for any horse racing bettor. If you are new to online gambling and are wondering how to bet on horse racing, this is a section you don’t want to skip.

To Win

This is the easiest out of the three to understand, as it works the same way as other sports. When there is an upcoming horse race, you will always be presented with the chance of betting on a horse ‘to win’. The clue is in the name here, as the horse must go on to win for you to win your bet.

To Place

When you make a ‘to place’ bet, you are placing a wager that your chosen horse will finish in either first or second. Given that you are giving yourself a higher chance of winning this bet, the odds that you see will generally be lower for a ‘to place’ bet compared with a ‘to win’ bet.

To Show

Unlike the previous two bets, where the horse must win or finish inside the top two, the ‘to show’ option gives you even more flexibility. By making this kind of bet, you are betting that your horse will finish inside the top three during a race. This is why the bet is referred to as a ‘show’ bet, for the horse would effectively be on the podium for finishing inside the top three.

Each way

This is one of the most common horse racing bets and consists of two bets – the ‘win’ bet and the ‘place bet’. You’re essentially betting on a horse to either win or finish in second or third place. Some bookmakers pay out on fourth too. Your total stake is equally divided between the two, and means you can still make some of your money back if your chosen horse doesn’t come first.

Best horse racing betting sites

Within the UK, you will usually find that horse racing is one of the staple sports found in any sportsbook. With so much competition, it can be hard to pick out the best bookie. We’ve put together our criteria for identifying a top horse racing bookie.

Coverage of Races

This is something that we look for as a primary indicator of the quality of a site. The best horse racing betting sites out there don’t just focus on UK horse races, they offer markets for global horse races that span across multiple continents.

Live Streaming

It’s true that you’ll be able to watch many of the larger horse races on TV, but some of the less prestigious events aren’t always shown. The top horse racing betting sites do stream these races however, which makes it very convenient to both place your bets and watch the event from the same bookie.

Quality of Odds

You could find a bookmaker that covers every single horse race known to man, but without the offer of enticing odds, there really isn’t much to shout about. The quality of the odds can make an enormous difference to the perceived value of a site, as it simply means that you stand to get a better return on your wager than you might do elsewhere.

Regular Promotions

Horse racing is one of those sports that the bookies just seem to adore throwing out promotions for. It’s understandable, given the popularity of the sport as well as how many events take place annually. The best horse racing betting sites give many promotions around the time of popular events such as the Cheltenham Festival, and these can range from bet insurance to bankroll boosts, such as bet £10 get £30 – but every little helps.

New horse racing betting sites

Despite an already crowded scene for horse racing betting sites, there are plenty of new sites in the UK. These newer sites often have some enticing welcome bonuses in order to tempt customers away from their tried and trusted bookies.

While there’s a common misconception that a newer site may not have as much to offer as a more established bookmaker, this isn’t necessarily true. New licensed sites are just as safe and price competitively when it comes to horse racing betting. The only downside is that brand new sites may not have as wide a range of payment options for deposits and withdrawals – but this isn’t always the case.

Horse racing betting strategies

There are some rather complicated horse racing betting strategies that have come to fruition in 2025, but these usually involve complex spreadsheets and require some serious time to execute well. For more casual bettors and newcomers, it’s better to focus on the more basic strategies, as these are easier to implement.

Take advantage of promotions

Horse racing is one of the best sports for bettors when it comes to promotions. You’ll constantly find free bets, insurance, cashback, and plenty of other offers at the top sportsbooks that can help boost your bankroll.

Laying a horse on an exchange

Unlike with an online sportsbook where you can only bet ‘for’ a particular market, on an exchange you can bet ‘against’ this market. Since there are so many horses that run in each race, you stand a better statistical chance of choosing against a horse to win rather than picking one winner.

Points strategy

When looking through the horse betting form guide, you can score the horse as follows: five points for a win, three points for a second-place finish, two points for third, and one point for fourth. You then total up these points ahead of the race, as this will help you to determine who the likely winner could be.

Best horse races to bet on

One of the greatest aspects of horse racing is that races take place all year round. Unlike other sports where there may be an off-season period of a few months, horse races are constantly happening around the globe. There are some legendary events that you can bet on too, as we’ve outlined here.

Melbourne Cup

The Melbourne cup takes place ‘Down Under’ every November, and it carries a prize purse of several million pounds. That’s a pretty awesome payday whoever you are, and a race this big always attracts some top odds and even better promotions. It’s a two-mile race that you won’t want to miss.

Grand National

This one’s a little closer to home, and it’s one of the most prestigious of all horse races that take place on UK soil. This race has been running since the early 1800s, and Aintree Racetrack has become a bit of a sacred place for horse racing bettors and jockeys alike. The race takes place every April, and the event itself quite literally attracts millions of pounds in bets each year.

Kentucky Derby

The Kentucky Derby is referred to across the pond as, ‘the most exciting two minutes in sport’. This race really is enormous both in following and stature, and it takes place at the start of May each year. The prize money for this race is also into the millions – so no wonder it appeals to so many horse betting fans.

How to read horse racing form guide

The horse racing form guide should be used alongside other horse racing betting tips to help you decide on your wagers. When you first see a horse racing form guide however, it can be quite confusing, so we’ve broken down the main elements here.

Form

The form of any individual horse is always shown on the form guide, with the most recent races shown on the right and the oldest on the left. You will see numbers within this form line, and these indicate the position that the horse finished in their previous races.

Odds

The odds are always shown on the form guide, and they are typically presented in fractional format, for example, 3/1. This number indicates what the bookies feel that the horse’s chances of winning are.

Draw

This is the number that you see right next to the horse’s number, and it indicates how close the horse is to the railings, to begin with. The smaller the number, the closer that individual horse is to the railings, which can be a big advantage.