Betting on horse racing is a popular pastime both in Australia and in many countries around the world, but with such a plethora of different betting sites available it can be hard to decide which one is best to use. And there’s no one right answer – most bookmakers have their pros and cons, and different people might be looking for different things in a betting site. To help you out, we’ve taken a look at some of the most important things that you should look out for in a horse racing betting site.
Good Odds
Let’s start with an obvious one. The differing odds between bookmakers is one of the most immediately obvious things which separates one from the next. Different betting sites will have different ‘margins’ – which refers to the amount of money they will expect to make from each race. For example, all things being equal, the likelihood of each horse winning should add up to 100%, but the bookmakers need to make money, so instead this number is closer to 120% or 130%. Essentially, the higher this number, the worse the odds. You might not notice a massive difference in odds across different sites – if a runner is paying $7 to win with one bookie, it probably won’t be any higher than $7.50 or $8 elsewhere – but though these differences may be small, they can add up over time. That’s why it’s important to take a look at whether the odds of the bookmaker you’re looking at are competitive – as an example, this Palmerbet review covers off one Australian bookmaker which generally has some of the higher odds available..
Same Race Multis
Same race multis are a relatively new concept which have gained a lot of traction relatively quickly. Following on from sporting event ‘same game multis’, this bet type allows you to include multiple outcomes from the same race into the one bet. For example, you might like the chances of a couple of different runners, but don’t want to bet on a quinella. A same race multi, in this situation, might allow you to bet on both of those runners to finish in the top three, or one to finish in the top two and the other in the top four, for example. Given this is still a fairly new concept it’s not yet universally available, meaning that its presence with certain bookmakers gives those sites a big advantage.
Detailed Form Guide
If you’re doing your due diligence prior to betting on a race, it can certainly be a good idea to look beyond the betting site that you’re using for information on a runner’s form. However, there is plenty of info on some bookmakers for you to use – if you know how to interpret it. While some betting sites will only offer the most basic information regarding runners’ form and career, others give far more information which, when interpreted correctly, can be very useful. The basics that are present on virtually every site are things like how a runner has performed in certain conditions, their overall career record and so on, but others go above and beyond and may include things like recent sectionals.
Promotions
Promotions are a very common way for betting sites to attract new customers – or to bring existing customers back to them – and there are plenty of good ones around if you know where to look. And they generally work as planned for the bookmakers – a good promo can mean that you’re more likely to start using that betting site, and once you’ve started using them there’s not always a whole lot of impetus to leave and start using a different bookmaker. Horse racing promotions that you may come across are fairly diverse and can vary from very useful to relatively useless, but some you’ll likely see often are bet returns in the form of bonus bets if your runner finishes in the top three, for example, or a price boost that you can use a pre-determined number of times per day.
Live streaming
Live streaming is something which is becoming more and more common on betting sites, though it’s still typically limited to a handful of them and exactly what is streamed can vary greatly. There are plenty of sites which offer no live streaming at all, while others might only have it available for certain sports – sometimes these are very popular ones, though quite often they can be only much less followed sports for which the broadcast rights are comparatively cheap. For the purpose of horse racing though, clearly we’re looking for racing streams. There are quite a few who have these, though make sure you check the details – some will show Australian horse racing, others will show only select international races, while a handful will show both. Being able to live stream a race on the same platform on which you placed a bet on it is clearly a major point of attraction for many punters.
There are an enormous number of betting sites around which allow punters to bet on horse racing, and sometimes, it can be extremely hard to separate them. After all, they all essentially offer the same service. There are, however, certain differences between bookmakers if you know what to look for, and the above list details some of the most significant things to keep an eye out for when looking for a horse racing bookmaker.