Horse Racing Betting Sites

Below you'll find a quick run down of all of the betting sites and online bookmakers that we feature on UK Racing Guide. For each bookie we have provided a short paragraph or two about why we like them and is aimed at those of you who are after a bit more information than found in the free bets table, but don't want to have to read all of our reviews - lazy blighters!

To read more about any of these betting sites you can click the bookies name which will take you straight to our full review. Or click the 'visit' button to be whisked away to the relevant site.

Best Betting Sites For Horse Racing in 2023

So what makes one bookmaker better than another for racing? There are lots of different factors to consider and at the most basic level you're going to want to look at the competitiveness of the odds and what races are covered. But beyond this - as many betting sites are quite simlar in that respect - it comes down to two things: offers and features. 

Jump to: Offers - Features

Racing Betting Offers

First up we'll take a look at the offers. For the purposes of this guide we're going to focus on the more long term promotions that apply generally to your day to day betting.

It's worth noting as well that many bookmakers also offer one off specials on individual races such as price boosts, faller insurance and money back on losing bets. For a list of these kinds of offers see here: https://www.bettingoffers.org.uk/horse-racing.html

Best Odds Guaranteed

Best odds guaranteed is probably the most valuable of any feature when it comes to betting on horse racing. The number of bookies that are now offering it means that if you aren’t utilising the promotion, then you really need to reassess where you are placing your bets.

The process of Best Odds Guaranteed or “BOG” as it’s commonly referred to is should you place a bet on a horse to win and the starting price for that horse is higher than the odds that you took, if that horse wins, they will pay out at the higher starting price. The offer means that you are essentially getting the best possible price for your bet no matter what point you place the bet…to a certain degree anyway.

Let’s run through a quick example of how this might work.

You place a bet on Horse A to win the race 30 minutes before the start at odds of 10/1. At the start of the race the price for the horse has drifted and the official starting price for that horse as provided by your bookmaker is 12/1. The horse goes on to win and instead of paying at the price of 10/1 that you took initially, they will pay out at the higher 12/1 price under the Best Odds Guaranteed promotion.

On the other hand, if the odds shortened to 8/1, you would be paid out at the higher 10/1 price that you originally took. Making it win-win.

This essentially allows the punter to always get the maximum price possible. However to do so you must always take a price - if you opt for the Starting Price when placing your bet you will be paid out at the SP regardless of what the odds were at the time.

The best thing about the offer is that you don’t need to opt-in for the most part, this offer will just automatically be applied to your bet. But, it is worth noting that not all bets are covered. For example, some bookies might only offer this on certain races or even on all UK and Ireland races, but not international. Most are well highlighted either way though, so it should be fairly easy to see if your bet is eligible or not.

Non-runner No Bet

Non-runner no bet (NRNB) is a guarantee that is made by the bookmaker that covers their bet should a horse be deemed a non-runner for that bet. This is particularly targeted at ante post betting and with it will have the biggest implications for these bet types.

The reason that it’s such a good feature to take advantage of is that with typical ante post bets, if your horse is declared a non-runner at any point between you placing your bet and the start of the race, your bet will be settled as a loss. In contrast, if you place a bet after the final declarations have been made, then this is not an ante post market and if a horse doesn’t run then your bet will simply be deemed void and your stake will be refunded.

The reason that bookies offer NRNB is to try and drum up a little more action within their ante post betting markets. One of the biggest reasons why people are scared in utilising these markets is because of a horse not taking part in the race. This can be for a number of reasons such as an injury, the going, entered in another race or the trainer simply deciding that they won’t take part. The ante post markets, even though well thought out by the bookies, have no guarantees that the horses that you can choose from will take part at any point.

By offering up NRNB they are essentially giving punters a chance to still get involved but without the risk that they could lose their stake if the horse fails to run. It’s an offer that is very common with the larger meetings, such as Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot, but we have noticed that over the last few years the number of bookies offering this across the board on ante post markets has been growing.

Similarly to that of the Best Odds Guaranteed that we mentioned above, if you are looking to bet on ante post betting markets, we strongly advise that you look for bookmakers who are offering NRNB on these markets as it can save you a lot of money should the horse fail to run. It’s another “promotion” that requires nothing from the punter and is becoming increasingly more popular with the larger bookies especially.

Note: Non-Runner Money Back (as a Free Bet) is Different

Following on from NRNB there's a very similar promotion that's often called non-runner money back - but to save confusion we'll call non-runner free bet (NFFB). The general premise is exactly the same - if your horse doesn't run you get your money back - but here it's given as a free bet or bonus cash rather than  having your bet refunded. 

Whilst NRNB and NRFB sound similar, they are actually quite different. With NRNB your bet is made void and the money is returned to your account, however with a bonus based NRFB it means that what you're receiving is promotional money that needs to be bet before it can be withdrawn. Often with free bets the stake itself wont be returned either, meaning that you would only receive the winnings from the bet placed with your free bet and not the original stake.

For example, let's say you placed a £25 ante post bet on a horse that didn't run with two bookmakers - one with NRNB and one with NRFB:

• NRNB - bet made void, £25 returned to your account.
• NRFB - bet stands but £25 free bet issued and must be wagered at least once. Winnings from the free bet become cash but the £25 free bet is lost.

As you can see it can make a big difference and so you should also opt for a bookie that's offering NRNB rather than a free bet.

Guaranteed Run for Your Money (Betvictor)

Another great feature that punters need to take advantage of is something called “Run for your money”. This is in place to protect punters from when their horse fails to get away as they would expect and in turn squash any chance of winning almost before the race has even started running.

The terms that they state will qualify for a return of your stake is that if the horse refuse at the start, get stuck in the stalls or fail to go into the stalls properly. There is no doubt some leeway as to what they will and won’t allow here, but common sense should prevail for the most part.

This type of feature is going to work much better for flat racing than National Hunt, mainly because of most race starting from stalls and also because of there being more room for error at the start and much less time to make up should anything go wrong.

Key Features

Another way in which bookmakers can differ is in the features they offer - such as live streaming and in play betting, or even the ability to take longer odds on a horse by increasing the margin they have to win by. 

Below we have listed a number of key features that are currently running. Some are more valuable than others, but each have their part to play in what is now an exciting era for betting on horse racing.

Guaranteed Bet (BetVictor)

Guaranteed Bet is one of the latest features that we have come across in the industry, but it could turn out to be one of the biggest. The process is currently being trialled by that of BetVictor on the back of heavy criticism for limiting the amount of money that could be won on certain races, specifically lower rated races.

The process is quite simple in that the bookmaker is allowing punters to win a minimum of £500 on any race that they place a bet on. This can be applied to both single bets and the “win” part from each way bets. The class of race is irrelevant and the amount of money that they have taken or are offering as maximum stake is irrelevant as well. So, if you were betting £500 on an even money shot, they would pay out, just the same as if you were betting £10 on a 50/1 shot.

You may be wondering why this has come in at all. The reason behind it is simply because a lot of bookies would limit the amount you can win on lower races. This was common practice, but what was frustrating for punters was that they weren’t always informing them of how this would work until the market was settled. So, it may have had a restriction on the amount you can win from a certain class type, but not necessarily limit the amount you can bet.

Guaranteed bet does away with all that and the process has come on the back of working with companies such as the Horseracing Betting Forum who highlighted their concerns. It’s worth noting that a lot of promotions such as Best Odds Guaranteed won’t apply if you decide to utilise this offer and you'll often find that the place terms or even the odds themselves vary for the Guaranteed Bet market compared to the regular bets.

Lengthen the Odds (BetVictor)

Lengthen the odds is another feature that has been a fairly recent addition to the industry. It’s been kicking about in drips and drabs for a couple of years, mainly through that of single, one-off bets, but now it’s finally gone mainstream in the industry and is something that many punters have been delighted to get on.

As you bet on any horse to win, the distance in which it needs to win is irrelevant. It can win by a nose of by 20 lengths, previously you would be paid the exact amount for each. But, lengthen the odds allows you to state how far the horse will win by and in return, you get better odds for you bet. The distances can work as far as a length up to 10+ lengths and with each the price increases quite considerably.

For example, the price for Horse A to win their race at any distance is 2/1. But, the bookmaker, using the Lengthen the odds offer is offering the following prices for certain distances:

• 2+ lengths = 5/1
• 3+ lengths = 7/1
• 4+ lengths = 10/1
• 5+ lengths = 15/1

Whilst the above is just an example and it all massively depends on the horse and the current price for the horse to win, it does give you an idea of how it will work.

The bet is going to work best for horses that are short priced and are likely going to win easy. These types of bets aren’t really going to be for horses that are priced at 10/1+ and instead more horses that are even money or big favourites over the second best-priced horse. Although, as ever with betting, there will always be punters who take on the former and find success.

As mentioned, the feature is one that is only just starting to leak in as any mainstream bet, but we would be very surprised to not see this take off and we would expect that over the next 12 months or so most of the bigger bookies will have least trialled it due its likely popularity.

Live Streaming

Live streaming is now a massive feature and one that a lot of the major bookies are able to offer. With it you are able to be able to watch dozens of horse races every day direct from the bookmakers live streaming platform.

Most live streams that bookies offer are linked up to already established satellite channels, such as At The Races and Racing UK. These are the two biggest in the UK and between them they offer coverage of every single race that takes place in the UK and Ireland, along with a plethora of races internationally as well.

The streams are generally “free” to watch, but most state that you need to have wagered on that race prior to being able to watch. You will then be granted access for that race only, with the stream kicking in as the horses go down to post and then the stream ending as the official result has been announced.

It’s a very common feature these days with most bookies offering it, but you will still be able to shop around to get in for the best price possible. By this we mean that some will allow you to watch a whole meeting worth of racing for just a single stake on one race or even give you full day coverage for a fixed fee.

The streams are of really high quality as well and even if you have wagered on your mobile via the betting app, you’re still going to be able to get access to the stream. If you are into watching the races live, then this is definitely going to be a feature that you need to take advantage of.

In Play Horse Racing Betting

In play betting or live betting as it’s sometimes known is not something that is new to the betting industry. It’s been around for many years now, but it is something that is still pretty rare with horse racing.

The reason why it’s still so rare is simply because the races don’t tend to last that long so its harder to make adjustments to the odds for the bookmakers in order to offer a true reflection of how the race is panning out.

If you compare it to football for example where a match lasts 90 minutes, a horse race might last less than a minute. Bear in mind that most in-play betting sections are bang up to date, it makes any adjustments for the race tough to do for the bookies, which is why a lot don’t offer it.

But, there are still some that do, albeit not for all races. National Hunt races are more common that flat racing for the most part given the length of these races and the longer time they take to compete.

Alongside the live racing (when available) you'll usually see a graphic of which horses are in which position, similar to that of virtual horse racing and seeing the horses move respectively. Betfair are one bookmaker that offer it, with greater coverage on their exchange (for obvious resons) - just look for the In-Play symbol on the race page:

#Requestabet

Social media has taken over and it’s starting to be implemented deeply within the betting industry as well. Through various bet request features punters can tweet in potential bets that the bookies then take to their traders and create a price for that specific bet.

Whilst the general concept is the same at all bookies who offer custom bet requests, each site tends to have their own unique name for it. Common examples include #YourCall (Coral), #BetYourWay (Betway) and #PriceItUp (BetVictor) - for a full list see the table below.

The concept has been adapted from football where they would come up with bets that would usually including inflicting markets and therefore not normally be able to bet direct from the bookmaker. Traders would then take the betting markets and cumulate them into a one-off bet for the punter.

The same process works with horse racing but given that there are limited betting markets compared to the likes of football, it actually works quite well as it offers something very different. For example, it could include two jockeys to win 4 or more winners at a certain race meeting, or it could be for a horse to win the Triple Crown or could be for a horse and a football team to win their respected race/match… the list goes on.

To access these bets all you need to do is Tweet the selections of the bet to your bookmaker using the hashtag that has been assigned for that bookmaker. We’ve included a list below to show you who you need to tweet and the hashtag you need for each. Not all bookies offer this, but it’s been growing increasingly popular over the last 12 months and definitely something worth looking for.