Betting on horse racing is reckoned by many to be a game for mugs since horses are very unpredictable animals, and yet the sport is incredibly popular with vast sums of money changing hands on bets worldwide at bookmakers and exchanges. Therefore one has to ask why this should be? Well, for spectators at a race track or watching on TV the whole event can be quite exciting, watching the horses parade, and then the frenetic race itself where anything can happen. Then of course there is the thrill of winning some money, especially at good odds if you can get them. It is the emotional part rather than the rational part of human nature that seems to allow us to soon forget the losses along the way.
There is no doubt, however, that some people do make a lot of money with horse racing and one can only speculate as to how they do it. It is likely that some are party to inside information, and often an experienced stable knows when its horse is ready to win a race, as it will have seen its gradual development and improvement, and know the signs of a potential race contender. Good information is very valuable and often sold on down a chain of tipsters, and of course many ordinary folk rely on tipsters to get their selections. There are some well known tipsters who publish in the national daily newspapers and there are online forums and tipping websites all too happy to give opinions. It is, however, very difficult to sort out those who are selling tips just for the money without any actual real information from proper and reliable inside sources.
In fact you do not necessarily need tipsters since anyone can study the form of horses racing each day at the Racing Post website and call themselves an authority. Also it is interesting to see the results published of the performance of various professional tipsters as it would seem that they get it wrong more often than they get it right!
There is some general sound advice, however, on how to approach horse racing as a newcomer. First of course is to set yourself a daily limit of the amount of money you can afford to lose and stick to that. It is quite likely that you will lose that money and it is best by far not to chase losses but simply to stop and return another day.
A lot of information about the horses for a particular race can be found from the Racing Post race cards, or from bookmakers websites, but some would say that recent form is of limited use. However most punters will take into consideration the fact that a horse has recently run well at the same distance of the forthcoming race that they may be interested in and whether the ground conditions are suitable. Some horses seem to prefer softer ground whilst others may do better on hard surfaces or artificial surfaces. It is good to know all these things, but many would say that you could do little better than to check the odds of all the runners for a race to come on a good exchange. This site displays the collective opinion of very many punters who are putting up their money in support, so should be taken seriously. It is sometimes useful to watch the odds in the final ten minutes before a race since sometimes they can change due to perhaps a lot of money coming in late to the market by serious punters, perhaps bettors who are “in the know”. Betfair can show you the relative amounts of money wagered on each horse and the weight of money is one key factor to note.
You have a choice of several types of bet when betting on horse racing with an exchange. You can place a straightforward back bet on a particular horse to win. Then if the horse comes in first you get to collect your winnings, the amount dependent on the amount of your stake and the odds you took. Quite often there will be just one or two horses at the head of the market with the lowest odds. These are generally perceived to be the best contenders, and the horse with the lowest odds is deemed the favourite.
Note that if the odds for a win are less than 2 you will find yourself putting up a stake which is larger than your expected win amount. At odds of 1.25 for example, you need to bet £4 just to win £1. Thus there are those who deem it unwise to bet on favourites since they often fail to deliver on expectations. Still, however, many ordinary punters will put their money on the most popular horse even though the odds are low.
An alternative to the straight win bet is known as an each way bet and here half your stake goes for a win and half for a place, which is usually whether a horse comes in the first two or first three at the finish depending on the number of runners at the start. With this bet you might be lucky enough to win both parts of the bet, or maybe just the place bet which usually pays a quarter or fifth of the win odds. With each way betting you have a margin for error in that you can sometimes cover your total stake amount to avoid a loss should your horse fail to win but only place.
It is also possible to bet just for the place with one or two bookmakers, and certainly all exchanges. Here you settle for the lower odds and payout in return for a greater likelihood of a successful bet. One way to profit with place betting is to use a compounding staking plan so that the low odds allow you to profit, assuming a good strike rate of course.
The exchanges also allow you to place a lay bet where you are actually betting that a horse will not win, and this kind of bet has become increasingly popular as it seems obvious to most that it is much more likely for a horse to lose rather than win a race, and hence easier to back a loser. The disadvantage here however, is that if you bet on outsiders to lay then you are taking on high odds, whilst if you are laying short-priced favourites, those deemed “false favourites” then they are more likely to win and hence lose you your bet. Another approach is to lay in the place only market so that the odds are reduced, but choosing a horse to not even place can be more difficult than for it not to actually win.
So there are many ways to win or lose money by betting on horses and it is certainly not to be undertaken in a haphazard way. I would also strongly advise anyone by the way, not to bet under the influence of alcohol, or on horses in running, especially in short distance races!
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