6 Essential Tools for All Horse Racing Betting Fans
Horse racing betting is still as popular as it ever was. Sure, the recent introduction of horse betting affordability checks means that some bettors aren’t allowed to wager as much as they used to — and the industry itself has experienced a 20% decline in turnover — but punters are still getting out there and betting on all the big races. We’re talking the Grand National, Cheltenham Festival, and everything else in between. Even some of the slightly smaller events, like the Coral Gold Cup, are still popular to bet on, too. But before you do any of this yourself, it’s recommended that you start using betting tools.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a horse betting veteran or someone who has recently caught onto the trend through social media: it’s highly recommended you use different tools to help you. This way, you can craft smarter bets, gain control of your finances, and ultimately give yourself a better shot at getting returns from your wagers. Let’s get started.
🏇 Essential Betting Tools for Horse Racing Bettors
First up, you need a betting calculator. As a starting point, the bettingtools.com free calculators are pretty good. And in an age where money is tight for a lot of bettors, it’s important that you’re correctly understanding all of your potential bets with the help of a calculator.
The obvious benefit here is that you don’t have to crunch any numbers yourself. Instead, the calculator does it all for you. Once everything is done, you know exactly how much money you’d be winning based on your wager and the odds. Simple. Plus, what’s great about bet calculators is that they’re especially helpful for complicated bets.
Accumulators come to mind here, as “accas” typically involve at least four or five different legs in horse betting. Essentially, you can use your calculator to enter the odds for each leg, the amount of money you want to bet, and then quickly find out what the return would be. From this, it’s easy to answer the question that most horse bettors have before submitting an accumulator: is this bet actually worth it?
Next, stack up on your form guides. You can find these all over the place online. What they do is incredibly helpful, too: they provide you with detailed stats, race analysis, historical data, and more. This way, you can get a good idea of whether a horse you’re interested in betting on is actually worth a punt or not. Have they been performing well recently? Does the jockey have a good history with the ‘going’? All these types of questions can usually be answered by form guides, making them an absolute essential for all the horse racing bettors out there.
When it comes to horse racing betting, people typically think about on-course bookmakers, betting stalls, and betting shops. Basically, of the traditional ways to place bets. However, things have changed over the past decade and the vast majority of today’s horse bettors are using mobile betting apps. After all, it’s much easier, you can do everything at your own pace, and there are plenty of helpful features (some betting apps even allow you to watch video streams of the horse races). Therefore, if you haven’t already, you should consider downloading one of the following apps:
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📱 Bet365: Arguably still the best betting app for horse racing fans, offering live streams, in-play betting, and coverage of all the major races, including the Kentucky Derby, Royal Ascot, and Grand National
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📱 Paddy Power: Offers an excellent horse racing betting hub that comes with best odds guarantees, plenty of bonuses, and even beginner’s guides for the less experienced bettors out there
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📱 William Hill: Another great app for horse bettors, largely because of it’s in-depth stats, bet boosts, and cash out options
Once you’ve got an app installed on your iOS or Android device, it then gives you the freedom to bet on-the-go. At the same time, you can also get notifications for odds boosts, special promotions, and other types of deals that you won’t want to miss out on.
Before you place any type of horse bet, something that experienced bettors always do is use n odds comparison sites. What this does is allow them to uncover which specific sportsbook has the best odds for the bet they want to place.
For example, if you were planning to bet on ‘I Am Maximus’ to win the 2025 Grand National following his victory at the same event last year, Bet365 is currently offering 12/1 odds while William Hill has 14/1 odds. What this means is that if you wanted the best possible returns on your bet, going with William Hill would be the superior option due to the odds being higher.
If you’re a follower of horse racing, free bets are your best friend. These days, not everybody wants to place huge lump sum bets and would much rather take advantage of free bets. After all, free bets are a great way to potentially turn nothing into something, whether you’re betting on an outright favourite or an underdog horse. And what’s great about free bets is that new offers are always popping up.
Let’s take a look at Bet365 for a second. Anyone who creates an account with Bet365 can get their hands on free bets. All you have to do is deposit between £5 and £10 and you’ll receive x3 that value in free bets. For example, depositing £10 would get you £30 in free bets, which you could then use on any eligible horse races.
Lastly, make sure to use a VIG calculator. In a nutshell, this type of calculator lets you figure out the built-in commission or fee that a sportsbook takes each time you make a wager. And in case you didn’t know already, sportsbooks do take small commissions for every bet you place (yep, it’s true). So, by using a VIG calculator, you’ll quickly know the exact amount of profit you’ll make once the VIG has been subtracted. It’s a smart way to uncover whether your bet is actually worth placing, especially if it’s only a small wager to begin with.
Final Thoughts
From betting calculators to odds comparison sites, there are plenty of tools out there for horse racing bettors to use. Best of all? The tools discussed in this guide are all available to access or download for free. For instance, if you want to get jockey information or learn about track conditions, the majority of horse racing form guides on the internet are free to access, meaning no stress on your side. So, whether you’re an absolute beginner or someone who’s been betting on horses for decades, start using these essential tools today and take your bets to the next level.