1. Best Way To Bet On Horses
2. Best Way To Bet On Horses
3. Types Of Horse Racing Bets
4. Ways To Bet On Horses
5. Best Way To Bet Online

Betting the ponies has been a pastime around the world for centuries. There is nothing like the rush of watching the horses come down the backstretch with your horse pushing up the outside, making a last-minute charge for the lead. Fans screaming, dirt flying, jockeys jockeying — truly amazing. If you haven’t experienced that live, we recommend that you at least try your best to make it to the track once. You will be hooked.

People have been betting on horse races since horses have been running. Betting on the outcome of formal horse races can be fun and profitable if you know what you’re doing and can beat the odds. Betting on Horse Racing For Dummies offers lots of info to help better your odds including advice on what. Learning how to bet on horses can be daunting if you've never done tried before. Here's a guide to making the most common wagers at the racetrack. New Customers only. Opt in and place a £10 qualifying bet at odds of 2.00 or greater on Horse Racing within 7 days of registering; excludes cashed out bets. Receive 3x £10 Horse Racing Free Bets, plus a £10 Gameshow Bonus. Wager Gameshow Bonus 40x to withdraw max winnings of £250. Bonuses expire in 7 days. PayPal and Card payments only. The best way to broaden your gambling horizons on horse races is to bet on different types of horse races. Flat racing is the type of competition that this blog has focused on up to this point because it is the most popular.

Whether you’ve been to the track before or not, you probably know that horse racing and sports betting go together like peanut butter and jelly. If you’ve always wanted to get into the action but aren’t sure where to start, you’re in the right place. Or, if you’re a seasoned better who is looking to improve your track success, you’re also in the right place.

In this guide, we’re going to walk you through everything you need to know to get started in horse racing betting or to take your horse racing betting to the next level. We’ll walk you through the best online sites to bet at and the strategies you need to win. We will also break down the most popular types of horse racing bets into terms that you can understand. We’ll have you screaming in excitement at the ponies like the best of them in no time.

Best Horse Racing Betting Sites

No longer are the days that you’re forced to head to the track to place your bets and sweat the ponies. While this is still something we recommend you do because it’s awesomely fun, sometimes it’s not feasible. What happens if you don’t live close to a track? What happens if the track by your house is closed because of rain or for track repairs? What if you want to bet on some of the bigger races that are going on around the country?

Online horse racing betting solves all of this. Not only can you bet on races at pretty much any track in the world, but you can also watch the races right from the online sites as well! This means that you can get your pony fix at any time and from anywhere. If you’re ready to get started, here’s the list of the best horse racing betting sites and sportsbooks on the web.

Why did we pick these sites? We picked these sites because they truly are the best of the best available. These sites offer the most tracks and actions, the most betting options, the best interfaces, and most importantly, these are the most trusted sites on the web. None of these sites can ever pay us for a more favorable recommendation or a better review.

Horse Racing Betting Strategy

What’s the only thing that’s more fun than placing a horse racing bet? Winning a horse racing bet! There is no greater rush than seeing your horse or horses cross the finish line exactly as you predicted. You then get to proudly march over to the cage to collect your winnings or, if you’re betting online, see your bankroll jump up.

But winning horse racing bets doesn’t just happen by being lucky or picking the horse with the coolest name. There are strategies and tips that the experts use to make better-educated picks that have a much better chance of winning. We’ve collected all of the top horse racing betting strategy tips from our team of experts and compiled them together in a dedicated guide for you.

In this strategy guide, you’ll find basic and advanced strategies that are essential to a long-term winning horse racing betting strategy. Take your time and work through this guide, and then you’ll be on your way to crushing the races.

The Most Popular Horse Racing Bets

One of the main reasons that people don’t end up getting involved in betting on horse races is that they don’t understand the different bets available. A lot of people look at their options for each race and see a foreign language. Today, we’re going to walk you through all of the most popular types of bets available.

Win, Place, Show

Win, place, and show bets are some of the simplest horse racing bets that you can make. With each bet, you pick a horse, and if they finish in the correct position, you win! If you bet a horse to win, they have to win the race for you to win your bet. It’s that simple. A place bet is a bet for a horse to finish in first or second place. You don’t get extra money for a better finish. If your horse finishes first or second place, you win your bet. A show bet is one where you pick a horse, and if they finish in one of the top three slots, you win your bet.

If you’d like to learn more about these three bet types, click the link below for a complete breakdown.

Exotic Betting

Exotic bets are horse racing bets where you place a wager on more than one outcome at a time. In other words, you’re going to be betting on more than one horse at the same time. Different forms of exotic bets will have different parameters and conditions that must be met for you to win your bet. You must complete every part of an exotic bet for your bet to win. Below you’ll find a complete breakdown of exotic bets and what you need to know to get involved.

Below, you’ll find the different types of exotic bets that are available to you.

• Quinella
  A quinella bet is a wager on two horses in the same race to finish in first or second place. It doesn’t matter which of your two horses gets first and which gets second as long as they finish in the top two.
• Exacta
  An exacta bet is similar to a quinella bet, except it does matter in which order the horses finish. You’ll pick which of your horses will get first and which will get second. As long as they finish in exactly that order, you’ll be a winner.
• Trifecta
  A trifecta is similar to an exacta bet, but instead of picking the first and second place horses you’ll be picking the entire top three. Each horse will need to finish in the exact order that you picked to win your bet.
• Superfecta
  The superfecta is the trifecta on steroids. Instead of picking only the top three horses, you’ll be picking the top four horses in a given race. They have to finish in the exact order that you choose for you to win your bet.
• Daily Double
  A daily double bet is one where you pick the winner of two consecutive races. Usually, this is offered on the first two races of the day or the last two. Some parks will offer rolling daily doubles available throughout the day.
• Pick 3
  A pick three wager is identical to the daily double, except that it is for three races in a row. As with the daily double, a lot of tracks will have rolling pick threes as well.
• Wheel Betting
  Wheel bets utilize the above bet types, but allow you to bet more horses than the bet calls for. For example, let’s say you think that the #5 horse is going to win, but you aren’t sure whether the #6 or #9 horse is going to get second. You could place a wheel bet for an exacta where if the #6 or the #9 horse got second and the #5 horse wins, you win.

The Big Picture – Horse Racing Betting

Congrats on making it through our horse racing betting guide! By this point, you should feel pretty well-equipped to make your first bet at the tracks. Take full advantage of the online sites we recommended above as you can take your time and keep this guide open if you need help. Make sure you read through our strategy guide above as well to give yourself the best chance to walk away a winner!

The Exacta is a horse racing wager that you NEED to know. It’s more straightforward than most of the other exotic wagers, and it’s one of the least difficult to get right. It’s still harder than a straight bet, but the potential payouts more than make up for that. Because when you win an Exacta, you can expect to see a decent return!

Don’t get too excited just yet though; we’re not saying that it’s EASY to win money from Exactas. We’re just saying that it’s easier than some of the alternatives. The more advanced exotics (such as Trifectas and Superfectas) offer even bigger payouts, but they are VERY tough to get right. Exactas provide the perfect balance between risk and reward in our opinion.

We’re clearly not the only ones who think this way, as Exacta betting is extremely popular among horse racing bettors. In fact, there are many who view Exacta betting as THE best way to make money. Are they right? It’s tough to say for sure, but they certainly have a case.

No matter how you look at it, knowing how Exacta betting works will definitely be useful. And we can teach you everything you need to know right here. We go over the Exacta wager in detail, including information on the different variations of it.

What Is A Horse Racing Exacta?

A horse racing Exacta is a wager on which two horses will finish in the first two positions. You need to get both the horses and their finishing positions EXACTLY right, hence the name.

Let’s use an example to demonstrate how this wager works. Here’s what the Exacta betting menu looks like at one of our preferred online horse racing betting sites.

As you can see, there are seven horses in this race. We’ve got to decide which one we think will finish first, and which one we think will finish second. After studying the race, we like the favorite (the #2 horse) to win. We think that the #7 horse will come second. To place on Exacta on this outcome, we’d have to check the “1^st” box next to the #2 horse, and the “2^nd” box next to the #7 horse. Then we’d add the wager to our betting slip, using the button at the bottom right.

This is known as a 2-7 Exacta, because we’re backing the #2 horse to win and the #7 horse to come second. If the #2 horse goes on to win, with the #7 horse in second, then we win our wager. ANY other outcome means we lose. Just picking the first two horses is not enough, as we HAVE to get them in the right order too.

That’s a basic overview of how an Exacta wager works. Well, it’s how a STRAIGHT Exacta works. There are some other types of this wager, as we’ll explain later in this article. First, we need to explain how the stakes and payouts work.

We used a betting site in the above example, but you can also place Exactas at racetracks, bookmaking shops, off track betting bureaus and other locations (depending on where you live). Although the wager always works in exactly the same way, the process for placing it may vary. The NAME of the wager may vary too. This same wager may be referred to as an Exactor, Perfecta or a dual forecast, so don’t let that catch you off guard.

Exacta Stakes & Payouts

The “standard” Exacta stake is $2. This doesn’t mean you have to stake exactly $2 though. You can stake more if you want, and you can usually stake less. $1 Exactas are available at most locations these days, while some places offer even cheaper stakes.

Payouts for these wagers are calculated using the pari-mutuel system. This is a form of pool betting, where there are no fixed odds involved. All the Exacta stake money for a race goes into a prize pool, which is distributed among all winning tickets.

This is not as complicated as it might sound. In fact, it’s very straightforward. Here’s an example of how it works.

• A total of 2,000 $2 Exacta tickets are bought for a race.
• The proceeds from those tickets form the prize pool.
• 2,000 x $2 = $4,000, so the prize pool has $4,000 in it.
• 50 of the tickets sold have the correct finishing order of the first two horses.
• Each winning ticket receives an equal share of the prize pool.
• $4,000 / 50 = $80, so each winning ticket returns $80.

In practice, the payout wouldn’t actually be $80 here. The prize pool would have a deduction taken from it by the organization operating it. That’s how the bookmakers, racetracks and betting sites make their money on pari-mutuel wagering. There’s no need to try to figure that out though, as the Exacta payout will be announced as soon as the race is over.

The announced payout will always be based on a $2 ticket. So if you’ve staked $4 on a winning Exacta, your payout will be double that amount. If you’ve staked $1, your payout will be half that amount.

Can you see why the Exactas are such a good wager yet? It’s because of the PAYOUTS! An $80 return for a $2 stake is very good, and this level of payout is common. Payouts can be a lot less too, but they can also be a lot higher. In the 2017 Kentucky Derby, for example, the Exacta payout was $336.20. And that’s not even the highest it’s been. In the 2005 Kentucky Derby, the Exacta payout was $9,814.80. That’s nearly a five-figure return for just $2!

The more Exacta tickets that are sold for a race, the bigger the prize pool. The Kentucky Derby attracts a LOT of betting interest as a major race, so the Exacta pools are usually huge. If there’s an unexpected result, then not many of the tickets bought will have the winning combination. That means there’s a huge prize pool being shared among just a few winning tickets, hence the big payouts.

Of course, it can work the other way too. When the two favorites come first and second in a race, there’ll be lots of winning Exacta tickets. That means a much lower payout. And the payouts are lower in races that attract less betting interest too.

Nonetheless, even an average Exacta payout represents a good return. That’s why this wager is so popular, and why we recommend using it.

Now, let’s take a look at the different types of Exacta.

To place an Exacta Box, we must pick two or more horses that we think could finish first or second. This wager then covers ALL the possible finishing combinations of our selected horses in those two positions. For example, let’s say we placed an Exacta Box on horses #1, #3 and #7. Here’s a list of the exact combinations that would cover.

• 1-3
• 1-7
• 3-1
• 3-7
• 7-1
• 7-3

What we’ve done here is effectively placed six straight Exactas. So the Exacta Box is basically just an easy way to cover multiple combinations of horses in a single wager. It gives us a better chance of winning, but it also costs more. This is because we have to pay for each combination it covers.

A $2 Exacta box on three horses costs $12, as it’s covering six combinations. A $2 Exacta Box on four horses would cover 12 combinations and cost $24. Once we start including more horses than that, the costs grow exponentially.

We don’t actually like Exacta Box betting much. It’s not a TERRIBLE option if there are three or four horses that we think have an equal chance of finishing in the top two, but that situation doesn’t arise very often. It’s far more likely that there’ll be one or two horses we think will win, and perhaps a couple of others that we think have a chance of coming in second. In those situations, it’s much more efficient to use an Exacta Wheel.

The Exacta Wheel is also known as an Exacta Key. We can use it to “key” one or two horses in first position, and cover multiple other horses in second position. It’s more efficient than the Exacta Box because we don’t have to spend so much money.

A “full wheel” means we combine our chosen horse(s) in first position with ALL the other runners in the race. Here’s an example.

We like the #1 horse to win a race where there are six runners in total. A full wheel with the #1 horse as our key would cover the following combinations.

As you can see, we’re just covering our key horse to win with every other horse in second position. This means we’re guaranteed to win the Exacta payout as long as our key horse wins. Since we’re only covering five combinations, this wager would only cost us $10 with a $2 stake.

We can also use a full wheel with two key horses. We’d do this whenever we felt there were two horses with an equal or similar chance of winning. If the two key horses were #1 and #2, the following combinations would be covered.

• 1-2
• 1-3
• 1-4
• 1-5
• 1-6
• 2-1
• 2-3
• 2-4
• 2-5
• 2-6

Best Way To Bet On Horses

We’re up to ten combinations now, so the cost would be $20 with a $2 stake. While this wager is a little pricier, we’re guaranteed a payout if either the #1 horse or the #2 horse wins!

Full wheels are definitely more efficient than Exacta Boxes, as we’re only covering the combinations that we think are likely to occur. An even more efficient option would be to place a “part wheel.” This involves combining our key horse(s) with just SOME of the other runners in the race.

Here’s an example of how a part wheel works.

Best Way To Bet On Horses

Once again we like the #1 horse to win a race where there are six runners in total. This time, however, we think that the #3 horse and the #6 horse have no chance of finishing in the top two. We decide to place a part wheel with #1 as our key horse, combined with the other remaining horses. This would cover the following combinations.

• 1-2
• 1-4
• 1-5

We’ve now reduced the total of combinations to just three, so our cost is only $6 with a $2 stake. We’ve obviously reduced our overall chances of winning too, but we’ve still covered the combinations that we believe are most likely.

You’re not GUARANTEED to make a profit this way of course. We think it’s the right approach though, and definitely better than the alternatives in most situations.

A single Straight Exacta is cheap, but it’s very difficult to win since it only covers one single combination. An Exacta Box covers lots of different combinations and improves our chances of winning, but it comes at a significant cost.

Types Of Horse Racing Bets

A part wheel is basically a compromise between these two options. We get to improve our chances of winning by covering multiple combinations, but we don’t increase our costs too much. We’re getting the best possible value for our wagers, which is the ultimate goal when betting on horse racing.

Ways To Bet On Horses

So if you’re going to get involved with Exacta betting, we strongly recommend using part wheels. There will be occasions when a Straight Exacta or an Exacta Box is the way to go. For the most part though, part wheels are the best option.

Best Way To Bet Online

Another option worth considering is the Quinella. This is another exotic horse racing wager that’s very similar to the Exacta. To learn more about it, feel free to check out the page listed below.