How to maximise your chances when horse betting

Horse racing and betting on horse races have been a part of Western culture for thousands of years. The chariot races from the Roman Empire don’t have much in common with today’s horse racing, though — except the factthat both are intense events that inspire excitement, and spectators love to bet on them.

You can notice the social and cultural importance of horse racing simply through the fact that it is one of the few forms of gambling rarely made illegal. Even in countries that banned all other games of chance and types of sports betting, horse racing typically remained untouched.

Betting on horse racing remains one of the most popular types of sports betting. Football is indeed the leading betting sport in the UK and most of Europe, Americans bet most heavily on the NFL, and rugby and cricket betting attract the most people in Australia and New Zealand. But in all of these countries and around the world, horse racing remains a consistently popular choice of sport to bet on.

Betting on horse racing can be a fun hobby — it’s more social than most other sports betting types, and a day at the races is a great outing. But still, it is a risky activity. Let’s dive deeper into some tips and tricks that will help you maximise your chances when horse betting.

Only bet with reputable sportsbooks

One of the most basic steps? Only place bets with a reputable sportsbook. Offshore sportsbooks and backroom bookies can offer the most amazing odds, but they can also do whatever they want with your winnings since they aren’t overseen by any regulators.

In order to protect yourself from fraud and being taken advantage of, you should only place bets with reputable sportsbooks. Luckily for bettors in the UK, dozens of in-person and online bookmakers are fully regulated and offer competitive odds — all under the eye of the UK regulator, the UK Gambling Commission.

Shop around to find the best odds

There are plenty of trusted sportsbooks to choose from. That doesn’t mean that you have to choose only one. A smart way to maximise your chances is to have accounts with multiple sportsbooks — that way, you can compare odds and take advantage of available bonuses.

A betting guide can be very helpful for this. For example, the one at AskGamblers analyses sportsbooks and rates them based on established criteria. It also provides additional information on bet types and horse race betting markets so that new bettors can start from a better position.

Listen to tipsters, but trust your intuition

The tipster has always had a place in horse racing, more than in any other type of sports betting. They play an important role in the culture of horse race betting and relying on known tipsters can help new bettors feel like insiders.

Tipsters do have a higher success rate than the average bettor — but unless they have information on a fix or other illegal shenanigans, they can’t know anything for certain. When you’re placing your bets, listen to tipsters that you trust, but always trust your intuition too.

Do the research

For people who love watching horse racing, this is the most fun step to maximising your chances. The more you know about the course, horses, and jockeys, the better your outcomes will be. This research can involve watching old races, learning about racing styles, reading about the styles of important trainers, and comparing the historical outcomes when the same horses have raced against each other.

It can also include learning about how some horses handle certain weather conditions, the state of the track, and other factors like those. The more you know about each race you bet on, the likelier you are to place smart bets.

It’s also a good idea to keep track of your betting history. You can learn a lot from the way you bet and your outcomes — which will help you identify any blind spots or biases.

Learn how to place complex bets

Although complex bets are now offered by sportsbooks for all kinds of markets, they were originally developed for horse racing. These bets are combinations of single, double, treble, and accumulator bets across multiple selections. The reason behind their popularity is the fact that typically only one or two of the selections need to be winners for the bet to pay out.

Complex bets can be fairly small — one of the examples is Trixie, which is made up of 4 bets on 3 selections. From there they grow in size and complexity up to bets like the Super Heinz, which is made up of 120 bets on 7 selections. Since a wager is placed on each bet, these complex bets can get very expensive.

It can be tempting to place a complex bet right away since they seem safer. The best thing to do is learn how these bets work, understand the odds, and start with one of the simpler complex bets like a Trixie or a Yankee. From that foundation, you can build your way up to the massive combination bets.

Use a bet calculator

Bet calculators are valuable for sports bettors, especially for placing complex bets. The math involved in working out how complex bets will pay out depending on various outcomes isn’t necessarily difficult, but it is time consuming, repetitive, and leaves a lot of room for error.

When you’re trying to work out how much a complex wager like a Round Robin, Heinz, or Flag bet, you need to calculate how each potential outcome and the associated odds will impact your returns. Using a bet calculator makes it possible to work out all possible outcomes in minutes.

If you know exactly how much you stand to win for every outcome, you can place smarter bets that come as close as possible to guaranteeing a return of your stake at the very least. Bet calculators can be found for free on most sports betting guides.