Is Betting on Horses Legal in England?
Online Horse Racing is legal in England and is regulated by the Gambling Commission. This was found under the Gambling Act 2005. While the gambling laws are mostly unclear in most countries, the case for England is different. Everything about hosting games and placing bets is clear under the Act. Any bookmaker wishing to offer racing bets in the country must obtain a license from the Commission. The main objective of the UKGC is to ensure safe and fair online gambling while protecting vulnerable adults and children. Besides Horse Racing, England players are allowed to engage in other sports like Football, Basketball, Cricket, Volleyball, and Tennis, to mention a few.
All operators are required to provide proof of financial stability, the capability of maintaining a stable financial position, and offering fair games to players. The bookmakers licensed by the Gambling Commission are closely monitored and are open to scrutiny in case there are complaints raised by bettors. That said, England online bettors are free to join any of our recommended betting sites and place bets on their favorite Horse Racing events.
UK Horse Race for 2022
There is a diverse range of great Horse Racing betting sites out there, but we have narrowed them down to bring you the best. Expect to find exciting features such as in-play betting, live streaming, and cash out, along with free bets and attractive odds. Below is a list of the top 10 UK Horse Racing sites for 2022.
Read on as we take you through a breakdown of what you should expect from each bookie.
CORAL Racing
Coral is a popular horse racing bookmaker with licenses in many countries across the globe. This operator doesn’t shy away from covering a huge variety of horse racing events. Whatever you are looking for, you can be sure that you can get it at Coral. From the biggest races and festivals through to relatively obscure horse racing events, Coral love it all.
Coral also strives to ensure that its customers make an informed decision before wagering on horse races. This bookie provides insight, key statistics, and a breakdown of every runner’s previous performance where possible.
If you are looking for one of the best online horse racing betting sites with the best odds guaranteed, Coral is where you need to be. Whether you choose to go with your gut or pore over the current performance of a horse, you can be sure to find latest horse racing odds where you are paid for the best odds and not on fixed odds.
It even gets better at Coral, especially with their in-play betting feature. Coral is all over this and offers in-play horse race betting. This is an excellent addition as it allows players to place their bets while the horse run. More importantly, there’s nothing more exciting that watching your favorite horse tackle the rest. At Coral, this is possible through an excellent live streaming feature on their site.
William Hill Racing
Betway is a popular name among sports betting enthusiasts in Kenya. Here are the steps you need to follow to make a deposit on the Betway platform.
If there’s bookie that we heavily associate with horse racing, without a doubt, it has to be William Hill. It’s one of the best online horse racing betting sites with an impressive range of horse race betting markets. Whether it’s a three-mile chase or a five-furlong sprint, William Hill has a range of horse racing markets.
On every single day, you will have a pick of enticing racing offers at William Hill, Enhanced and Flash Odds being some of them. These are all aimed at giving you a chance of taking advantage of boosted prices. Other special offers and promotions available here include One Bet Boost that you can use every day on horse racing, and Extra Places.
Not all bookmakers that cover horse racing offer punters a chance to bet in-play or cash out. But such isn’t the case at William Hill. Punters can wager live as the races are in progress, with those feeling that they want to cash out having the freedom to do so at William Hill.
Even though William Hill offers a massive range of sports betting markets, it seems that they heavily focus on horse racing. What does this mean? For a player, it means good odds, plenty of horse race betting markets, and bet types. With all these offers, you can at least boost your bankroll.
Betfred Racing
Are you a horse racing fan? If you find yourself wagering at Betfred, count yourself lucky. The best news is that in terms of horse racing, this bookmaker has an entire section dedicated to the sport. They cover meetings from Irish racecourses, the UK, as well as international horse racing events.
Betfred has a couple of ongoing horse racing promotions worth checking out. For instance, there’s the Extra Places promotion. Here, you are allowed to wager each way, up to five or six! They also have a Free Bet if 2nd. In this one, if you wager on a horse to win but it ends up being pipped at the post, then you have some sort of consolation.
Betfred is a bookmaker that one of the most promising best prices, or what is referred to as best odds guaranteed (BOG) in the industry. Here, if you take an early price and the odds rise before the race, then you’ll get bigger odds. In the recent years, Betfred virtual sports seems to have increased sharply, with this sportsbook now one of the top-rated virtual horse racing betting brands.
Betfred wouldn’t be a top sportsbook for horse racing betting if they lacked both in-play betting and live streaming. Luckily enough, they have both options, and what’s more is that punters can enjoy wagering on live horse racing, in addition to watching the racing live via Betfred live streaming.
Betfred welcome offers, horse race bonuses and promotions, live betting, and other interesting features make this bookie come highly recommended, especially for horse racing.
Bet365 Racing
Bet365 is another top online horse racing betting sites that you may want to try. While many believe that they only focus on football, many users across the globe engage bet365 when it comes to wagering on horse races too. In Australia, for instance, bet365 is the go-to site of a good percentage of horse race betting, a region where horse racing has a long and rich history.
Bet365 offers both new and existing horse racing betting enthusiasts several good reasons as to why they should wager with them. For instance, they offer the best price for every horse that runs in all races. This bookie has amazing horse race offers, such as bet365 Each Way Extra.
For top odds, you may want to try bet365. They have best odds guaranteed where you take your price on your selection. If the starting price is bigger, they’ll go ahead and pay you at bigger odds. Where else do you stand a chance of receiving payouts on disqualified horses other than at bet365? Bet365 offers players payouts on disqualified horses.
With live betting and live streaming now a possibility with many bookies, rest assured of horse race in-play betting and streaming at bet365. When it comes to online horse racing betting and you have a chance to wager at bet365, you shouldn’t let the chance pass. You stand to enjoy excellent horse racing promos, in-play horse race betting, and a chance to watch live as your favorite horse runs.
Betway Racing
Betway opened its doors for business in 2006 and since then, it has transformed from being a relative to a household name in the online sports betting scene. Betway now boasts of over 2 million customers, with this number continuing to expand yearly. Betway offers players a chance to wager on many sporting events, betting on horse racing being one of them.
Betway has a tasty welcome offer that caters for players interested in placing horse racing bets. New customers are entitled to a 100% deposit bonus worth up to £50, in addition to money back in the form of free bets if the horse they punt on finishes second.
Besides Betway’s great welcome offer, this bookmaker has plenty of features to help punters find the best horse to bet on. The HorseFinder sidebar is the most helpful of these. It allows a punter to find some of the best horses scheduled to run on that day. With 15 different filters on offer in addition to a review system provided by a respected Timeform, finding the perfect horse to bet on has never been easier.
A closer look at horse racing odds at Betway reveals that this bookmaker offers some of the best value odds available online. They have an average odds level of 87.30%. In addition to its attractive odds, Betway makes the practice of horse race wagering easy. They have a simple and easy-to-use platform, making horse race wagering easy on for you.
Sportingbet
Sportingbet is yet another betting site that offers UK players competitive Horse Racing odds along with the best odds guaranteed offer. The bookie also offers a wide variety of markets, the live streaming option, and cash out. They provide a great insight level on form and track details, in addition to a good selection of specials. If you are new on the platform, you can take advantage of Sportingbet’s generous welcome offer of a 100% matched deposit up to £150 to wager on your favorite racing events.
BetVictor
BetVictor has proven its worth in the world of Horse Race betting. The operator is among the pioneers of the sports betting industry and has a large market for the daily UK and Irish betting. Besides having a diverse range of markets, BetVictor offers five-star live streaming and an option to cash out your bets fully or partially. There is a special welcome offer for Horse Racing players where you bet for £10 and receive £40 in the form of a free bet. BetVictor has a dedicated mobile app for Android and iOS devices, which allows players to access all services and products on the go.
Marathonbet
Marathonbet has been in the industry for more than two decades now and has managed to win the attention of many UK players since its establishment. What makes this bookie stand out is its stripped-back design. When using the website, it is very practical to get all information in one place. Marathonbet has highly competitive Horse Racing odds and a variety of markets. The operator has a decent daily selection of the UK and Irish races. New sign-ups are eligible for a £20 free bet welcome offer and can use it to place their favorite Horse Racing bets. They also have the best odds guaranteed for select UK races. You are sure to have a great experience on this platform.
888Sport
888sport is a big brand with around two decades in the market. It is among the top-rated betting sites in the UK, following its impressive sports betting services and offers. The bookmaker covers the UK and Ireland Horse Racing and has the best odds guaranteed offer for these events. If you are looking for a seamless betting experience with competitive odds and numerous markets, this should be your next destination. You can take advantage of their welcome offer of up to £30 in the form of a free bet to wager on your favorite Horse Race events. Features such as in-play betting, live streaming, and cash out will make your gambling experience more entertaining. There are mobile apps for Android and iOS users available on the Google Store and Apple Store, respectively.
Bwin
Another famous sportsbook in the UK is Bwin. The operator is known for offering the best odds guaranteed in all the UK and Irish racing with the best value. Besides that, players will have a decent range of betting markets to choose from, along with exciting features such as live streaming and cash out. New players can utilize their £20 backup bet to wager on Horse Races. The website is user-friendly, which makes it suitable for new and existing players.
Racing Offers and Welcome Bonuses
The welcome offers or bonuses are incentives given by bookmakers to attract new players to their sites. With the highly competitive industry, sportsbook operators provide generous offers to win the attention of many players. Some bookies have sign-up offers exclusively for Horse Racing, giving players a great opportunity to make good returns from their bets. We advise all bettors to read the requirements of each promotion before claiming to ensure they are achievable.
The offers come in different forms, including deposit bonuses, no-deposit bonuses, free bets, and risk-free bets. If you are lucky to find the no-deposit bonuses, do not hesitate to take advantage of them because you will not be required to make any deposit to receive them. Our top Horse Racing UK sites have enticing sign-up bonuses that will help you boost your bankroll. They also offer regular promotions to the existing players to keep them hooked and entertained.
Betting tips and strategies
Even though horse racing isn’t as popular as football or rugby, it’s slowly climbing up the ranks regarding the number of people who watch it. But again, horse racing isn’t valued by many for the thrill of the sport itself. A primary reason is that people watch horse races because they want to wager on them.
A majority of people who watch horse racing get to bet on it. However, only a few of them end up winning. Some punters use small wagers as a form of entertainment, meaning that they don’t give too much though on the outcome.
But punters who are highly serious and want to win at horse racing, there are several tips and strategies to follow to boost chances of winning. So, what are some of these helpful horse racing betting tips and strategies? Read below to find some of the best betting tips to ensure that you maximize your chances of winning:
Tip #1 – Do your homework properly
Many people bet much of their hard-earned funds on horse racing events each year. However, only a tiny percentage of them conducting any prior research before choosing the horse to punt on. Even a slight cursory glance at a racing program before wagering can highly improve your chances of winning.
Before wagering on horse races, you need to conduct your homework properly. Take time to know about a race and the horses that are scheduled to compete. Make sure that you have some background about the upcoming race, such as time and location of the race, along with the distant of the racecourse.
It will be helpful to know which places have turf, which ones have dirt tracks, and which ones have both. Do you know which horses mostly finish on top three? These and many other things are helpful if you intend at enhancing your chances of a winning horse race bet.
Tip # 2 – Place different kinds of bets
A majority of punters who wager on horse racing events mostly focus on the most common wager, the win bet, where you predict which horse will cross the line first. But there are so many bet types besides the win bet. If you intend at taking your horse race wagering to the next level, you may have to incorporate different bet types and use them in a strategic way.
Different types of bets enhances your chances of winning, as opposed to sticking to a single bet type. Instead of wagering on several horses, you can also bet on numerous horse races. Even though you may not win all the time, if you get lucky, the payouts will be handsome.
Tip #3 – Shop the odds
Shopping the odds is another excellent way of increasing your overall payout. Online horse racing bookies aren’t the same. Some offer high odds compared to others. To increase your winnings, you may want to check with a variety of horse racing sites to find the available odds for a specific type of bet.
Even though shopping for odds might seem like a worthless exercise to some, if you are wagering on a regular basis, those extra few sums of money will add up fast. It’s worth taking a few minutes to conduct a quick search, but not necessarily searching every available website.
Tip #4 – Wager on several races, but not every one
This strategy boils down to simple probability. The more times you wager, the more your chances of winning. Again, if you wager on several races, you are already a smart punter than a majority of the population. It’s always a good thing to try out new things since the more you do, the more you learn.
But again, you need to be cautious. While wagering on plenty of races increases your probability of winning, to be on the safe side, you shouldn’t try to wager on every single one of them. Doing so may quickly take the fun out of your experience and may devastate your bankroll.
Tip #5 – Manage your bankroll effectively
Manage your bankroll, make a budget, and control your cash. This is something that every punter needs to learn. To manage your bankroll, ensure that you first have a bankroll. Make sure that you don’t use your checking account hoping that funds will show up later magically. Make aside that you put away funds for betting aside from funds meant for your personal needs. Don’t make the mistake of wagering funds meant for your personal use to bet on horse races.
Popular types of bets
If you find terminologies to do with horse racing confusing, you are certainly not alone. To become a successful bettor, the language and terminology used here is necessary. However, you need to understand that it can turn out to be a learning curve. At this point, we will tell you about some of the most popular types of horse racing bets that you need to know. There are plenty of horse racing bet types but here, we will just cover the most popular ones. Let’s begin with the basics:
Win Bets
Win bets remain one of the most popular type of horse racing bets at online racebooks. Just as the name suggests, Win Bets are simple and straightforward horse race bets. Here, all that you need to do is to pick a horse that you think will win a race and bet the amount that you wish. Mostly, the minimum wager is usually $2 or currency equivalent. There’s more nothing thrilling for a horse punter than placing a horse to win the race and get it right. It means that you’ve done your job as a player. All that remains is to collect your winnings.
A Forecast Horse Racing Bet
In a forecast horse race bet, you get to select a number of selections that will finish in a specific order. Here, you have to get everything right in predicting the finish order of horses in first and second in a race. In most cases, you’ll notice a forecast bet mostly returned as a one-unit stake. For example, if the forecast return happens to be 11.53, then it means that as a punter, you are returned 11.53 for every unit of currency that you have staked. A forecast return mostly appears in decimal odds since the dividend includes the stake. Therefore, a dividend of 11.53 is 10.53/1.
A Double
Undoubtedly, the Double is still one of the most recognize type of bet in horse racing. This is an exotic wager that requires a punter to select the winner of two consecutive horse races. These are mostly the first and the second horse races on the card. It’s a single wager on two outcomes, but on different horse racing events. Both selections must come through for you to win. The average payout is about $15 or currency equivalent. It’s mostly ideal for punters who just want to have some fun.
A Treble Bet
A treble bet is also another common type of horse race bet that you can find at a horse racing betting site. A treble bet requires a punter gets to wager on three outright selections, often referred to as legs that are combined into a single multiple bet. Unlike other types of horse race bets, in a treble bet, all the three selections must be successful for the bet to win. But if one of the selections in the three selections is unsuccessful, it means that the entire bet loses. A treble bet is highly popular due to its high odds. However, the chances of winning aren’t that high.
A Placepot Bet
This is a pari-mutuel betting market in horse race betting that involves the backing of a selection of horses to correctly place across a particular racecard. Mostly, it involves the first 6 races of the card, but with the exception of occasions where races in the UAE form the first couple of legs way ahead of a UK fixture. But in short, in the Placepot, a bettor needs to have a horse placed in the first six races at any meeting.
Lucky 15
Lucky 15 is a popular type of horse race betting among plenty of punters today. Lucky 15 is made up of four selections and 15 wagers (hence the name Lucky 15). The 15 wagers consist of 4 singles, 6 doubles, 4 trebles and a fourfold. If you are lucky to have all the four horses win, you’d be paid out in all the wagers within the Lucky 15. What’s even good with this type of bet is that if one of your selection wins, you also get some returns.
Lucky 31
This is another popular type of horse wager. Lucky 31 consists of 5 selections and 31 bets – 5 singles, 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 5 fourfolds, and 1 fivefold. In this type of bet, only a single selection needs to win to guarantee a bettor some returns. When you place a Lucky 31 bet, you are placing 31 wagers on five different selections. The amount that you get to win from this type of bet depends on the number of selections that get to win, along with the odds of each. Lucky 31 bet is a good way of increasing your chances of winning, since you only require at least a single win from all the five selections.
Lucky 63
Most horse racing operators offer this type of bet to their customers. A Lucky 63 is a bet that features 6 selections and 63 bets that include 6 singles, 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 fourfolds, 6 fivefolds, and 1 sixfold. And just like Lucky 31, a single winning selection in this bet is enough to lock in returns. While 6 winners would return good winnings, such is highly unlikely. A bettor must place Lucky 63 bets on a number of different horse racing events. Since a bettor gets to wager on many selections, the money that they have to stake tends to be significantly higher.
Goliath
A Goliath horse race bet is a wager on 8 selections that take place in various horse racing events. This type of bet consists of 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 fourfolds, 56 fivefolds, 28 sixfolds, 8 sevenfolds, and an 8-fold accumulator. This entire bet consists of 247 bets. In a Goliath bet, 2 selections need to win to guarantee any returns. While the potential stake in this type of bet is huge, with a combination of prohibitive odds and a large stake, the winnings are massive.
Super Heinz
The Super Heinz is another type of horse race bet on 7 selections that take in various events. The Super Heinz consist of 21 doubles, 35 trebles, 35 fourfolds, 21 fivefolds, 7 sixfolds, and 7-fold accumulator. This entire bet totals to a huge 120 wagers. In this type of bet, 2 selections need to win if a bettor is to stand any chances of some returns. A Super Heinz remains one of the most exciting ways of wagering on a multiple since it increases a player’s chances of huge returns. But with 120 bets, the stake will be slightly on the higher side. The Super Heinz is also referred to by others as a full cover bet.
Verdict
Whereas Horse Racing is the most unpredictable sport in the market, it is very fun to engage in. Watching the action as you monitor your bets is very entertaining and even more fulfilling when the wagers are successful. Today, the game has become close-to-universal coverage across all the betting sites, following its popularity among bettors. Our list of the best UK Horse Racing sites will inspire your next destination based on your needs and preferences. We have also provided the best strategies and tips to help you increase your chances of winning.
