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Where to Bet on Horse Racing

The popularity of horse racing in the United Kingdom means that all betting shops offer you the opportunity to bet on both daily horse races and special horse racing events such as:

• The Grand National
• The Paddy Power Gold Cup
• The Cheltenham Gold Cup
• The Queen Mother Champion Chase
• The Hennessey Cognac Gold Cup
• The Coral Welsh National
• The Mitsubishi Shogun Tingle Creek Chase
• The Stan James King George VI Steeplechase

If you would like to see what horseracing events are happening in the near future so that you can bet on them, visit our Events section.

You can make a horseracing bet in any high street bookmakers, but an increasingly popular way of betting on horseracing is to place a bet through one of the many internet betting sites run by bookmakers or on online betting exchanges.

Where to Bet on Horseracing – Online Betting

The main advantage of this is that you can place your bet quickly and easily from the comfort of your own home.

Another benefit of online horseracing betting is that many betting sites offer introductory and/or regular offers to account holders, meaning that you may be able to benefit from free horseracing bets.

Check the top racing bookmakers page for introductary offers and claim your free £10 bet

Where to Bet on Horseracing – Choosing an Internet Betting Site

With a vast number of online bookmakers and betting exchanges to choose from, it can be difficult to know which is the best betting website to use when you want to make an online horse racing bet.

The first decision to make is whether you want to use a bookmaker’s site or a betting exchange. You can learn about the differences between the two on our Bookmakers and Betting Exchanges page.

You then need to find a site that offers the types of horse racing bet that you want to place. Most internet betting sites offer a variety of bet types, so it should be fairly simple to find one that suits you. However, to learn more about the different types of horse racing bet available to you, visit our Horse Racing - Types of Bet page. You can also learn more about which internet betting sites offer horse racing betting opportunities at our Top Horse Racing Betting Sites page.

It’s also important to choose a reputable online bookmaker or betting exchange in order to guarantee that you will receive your winnings promptly. If you would like more information about where to find a reputable internet betting site, visit our Top Horse Racing Sites page. You can also find out what other users think about specific online betting sites in our Reviews section.

Where To Bet on Horse Racing – Betting at the Track

If you fancy a day at the races, you can also make bets at the track. Most major bookmakers have betting shops at the main racecourses. You can also use what are known as totepool betting windows to place a horseracing bet. The tote was established by the government in 1928, and is an on-course pool betting system.

This means that rather than having fixed odds as bookmaker’s do, all the stakes placed on a race goes into a pot, which is shared out amongst the winners. You can make different types of tote bet in the same way that you can make different types of bet with bookmakers. It’s important to realise that Totesport also now acts as a bookmakers, so the Totepool is a specific horse racing betting method offered by them and not all bets made with them are part of this.

If you decide to bet at a horse racing track, you’ll probably notice many of the bookmakers using hand signals. This is a system known as tic-tac, which bookmakers use to communicate with each other about the changing odds on the horses.

For more information about terms you might come across in horse racing, take a look at our Horse Racing Glossary.

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