Best Horse Racing Betting Sites UK - August 2023 Horse Race Bets

HORSE racing is one of the biggest sports in the UK and one of the top choices of punters around the world when it comes to betting on sport.

With a meeting held on almost every single day of the year in Britain, betting on horse racing is a serious business, and there’s plenty of top-class racing to enjoy throughout the year.

Whether it’s on the Flat or over the Jumps, the Grand National or the Cheltenham Festival, there are bookmakers who are willing to test your knowledge of the sport of kings.

With so many bookmakers vying for your custom on the market, there are lots of enticing offers to be had if you know where to shop. Betting sites are so keen to reel you in that they offer lots of things to potential customers, like free bets, odds boosts and extra place races.

With big racing festivals never too far around the corner, we’ve put together this handy guide on the best bookmakers for betting on racing in the UK and shared our thoughts on what they have to offer.

A closer look at the best horse racing betting sites

Here are some of the top sports betting sites where you can place your horse racing bets.

Tote

Tote free bets offer

Bet £5, get £20 in free bets

18+ New UK & ROI customers, online only. Place your first bet on racing pools for a minimum of £/€5 and win or lose you will receive £/€20 Tote Credit. £/€20 Tote Credit rewarded as £/€10 redeemable against racing bets only and £/€10 redeemable against UK and Irish placepot bets only. Tote Credit cannot be withdrawn, exchanged, or substituted and expires after 7 days. The qualifying bet is the first racing pool bet added to the bet slip. Ten to Follow, virtual and football bets do not qualify. Totewin will be the qualifying bet when a Totewin and a Toteplace bet are struck at the same time. Full T&Cs apply. BeGambleaware.org.

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Pros

The first name in horse racing
The mobile app is available for Android and Apple devices
Customer service is available 24/7 via chat
The welcome offer is lucrative

Cons

Not too many payment methods are offered

William Hill

Bet £10, get £30 in free bets*

Pros

Bet builder is available
One of the top sites for racing and football betting
A wide range of markets are covered

Cons

Not too many payment methods offered

BetUK

BetUK sign up

Bet £10 get £30 in Free Bets

New customers, Deposit & Place a Bet within 7 days, and settle a £10 minimum bet at odds of 4/5 (1.8) or greater, to be credited with 3x £10 free bets: 1 x £10 Horse racing, 1 x £10 Free Bet Builder and 1 x £10 Football. Stake not returned. Full T&Cs apply. 18+ BeGambleAware.org.

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Pros

Big betting market
The mobile app is reliable and easy to use
Impressive features, including live streaming, are available

Cons

The specials could have been better

BetVictor

BetVictor sign up

Bet £10 get £40

18+| Opt-in, bet £10+ at odds 2.00+ within 7 days. No cash-out. Get 3x £10 Free Bets on selected events. Plus a £10 Slot Bonus, selected games, and wager 20x to withdraw a max £250. 7-day expiry. Card payments only. T&Cs apply.

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Pros

Wide range of horse races available to bet
The odds offered are competitive
The welcome bonus is attractive
Live streaming is available

Cons

The site is very busy on mobile

Betway Sports

Betway sign up

£30 matched free bet if your first acca loses + 50 spins

*New UK customers only. Min Deposit: £5. Maximum Free Bet: £30. First bet on a Football or Horse Racing multiple with 3+ selections. Overall odds: 3.00 (2/1) or higher. Free Bets available upon settlement of the qualifying bet. This is offer is valid for 7 days from your new account being registered. 50 Bonus Spins credited on placement of qualifying Acca bet.50x bonus wagering applies as do weighting requirements, bonus Spins only available on selected games and expires 7 days after being awarded. Debit card deposits only (exclusions apply). 18+. Full terms apply.

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Pros

Vast sports betting markets are available
Various payment methods are available
The odds are competitive

Cons

Customer support is not that great when issues arise

bet365

bet365 Bonus Code: SUN365

Get £30 in Free Bets with bet365 Bonus Code “SUN365”

New Customers only. Bet £10* & Get £30* in Free Bets. Sign up, deposit between £5* and £10* to your account and bet365 will give you three times that value in Free Bets when you place qualifying bets to the same value and they are settled. Free Bets are paid as Bet Credits. Min odds/bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. The bonus code SUN365 can be used during registration, but does not change the offer amount in any way. T&Cs, time limits & exclusions apply.

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Pros

Top rated bookmaker
Daily customer promotions and bonus codes are available
The interface is easy to use
Wide range of betting markets

Cons

Accumulators limited to fourteen legs

Rhino.Bet

Rhino.Bet sign up

Bet £20 get £20

New customers only, 1st deposit. Customers must be 18+. Customers must be residents of the UK/IE. Sign Up using the promo code ‘get20bet20’ and make a min deposit of £20. Place a minimum £20 bet on any selection with minimum odds of evens (2) and receive a £20 free bet upon bet settlement. Only customers signing up through a recognized affiliate partner will be eligible for this promotion. Full T&Cs apply.

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Pros

The registration process is simple
One of the top-rated horse racing bookies in the industry
Various betting options

Cons

Bonuses are not available for all locations

Unibet

Unibet sign up

Get money back betting offers at Unibet

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Pros

The web page and app are easy to use
The rewards program is impressive
Competitive offers available for new players

Cons

The app is basic and lacks a few features

Parimatch

Parimatch sign up

Bet £10, get £35 in bonuses

Terms: 18+ New customers only. Opt in, bet £10 on horse racing before 10:00 BST on 24/06/23. Get 5x£5 horse racing free bets (odds 3.00+)+ £10 slots bonus on set games, 20x wagering. 7-day expiry. Valid until 10:00 BST on 24/06/2023. Free bets expire at specified times. Card payments only. T&Cs Apply begambleaware.org | Please gamble responsibly

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Pros

A vast array of sports available to bet
Live streams are also available
Withdrawals are processed quickly
App is efficient
Competitive odds offered

Cons

Account verification takes time
Does not support too many major languages

kwiff

kwiff sign up

Bet £10 get £20

18+ only | New customers only. Min. deposit of £/€10. Qualifying real money bet of £/€10. Min odds greater than or equal to 1.5 required. E/W bets excluded. Offer credited within 48 hours. More T&Cs apply.

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Pros

The sign-up offer is generous
Promos offered are competitive
Live streaming for horse racing is available

Cons

Banking methods are limited

Horse racing betting UK odds explained

Betting on horse racing certainly can seem both daunting and confusing if you’re a novice, but with a little bit of practice it doesn’t take too long to master.

The prospect of being handed a list full of horse racing betting digits can be overawing, but in reality odds are essentially there to tell you the chance of your selection obliging and also how much you stand to win.

Odds can be displayed in two different ways in the UK, as decimals or in fractions, but they mean the same thing either way. Fractional odds are more common in the UK – particularly in horse racing – so we’ll go with those for an example.

In theory, odds can be as short as they need to be, but on the Betfair Exchange scale the shortest price a horse can be is one hundred to one on, or 1-100. That means that you would need to place £100 in order to win just £1 and in the eyes of the bookmakers that horse would have a 99% chance of winning the race.

As the odds get bigger the percentage of the horse winning gets smaller. The middle ground mark of this scale is even money or ‘evens’, where the odds read 1-1. That means that if you stake £5 you will win £5 plus your stake and your horse has a 50% chance in the race in the eyes of the bookmakers.

That means that anything that is shorter than evens – i.e. is ‘odds on’ – therefore has a greater than 50% chance of winning in the eyes on the market. For example, a 10-11 chance would have a 52.4% chance of success.

Let’s say we have a seven-runner Cheltenham Gold Cup, with the following market; Kauto Star 2-1, Denman 3-1, Imperial Commander 6-1, Cue Card 8-1, The Giant Bolster 12-1, Burton Port 16-1, Time For Rupert 33-1.

At those odds, Kauto Star is the favourite as he is the shortest price in the market and therefore has the best chance of winning. In percentages, Kauto Star is thought to have a 33.3% chance of winning the Gold Cup, while Time For Rupert is the least likely to win, with a 2.9% chance.

A perfect betting market should tally up to 100% when you add up the probabilities of every horse in the race, with any extra accounting for the bookmakers’ profit margin. In this case, the odds of all seven horses add up to 101.1%.

If you think Kauto Star is going to win and you would like to stake £5 on him, you would win £10 and also get your £5 stake back if he was successful, meaning you’d get a return of £15 for your bet. A bet on Denman would return £20 with his odds of 3-1 should he win, and so on.

In more competitive races like the 40-runner Grand National, the prices are likely to be much bigger to reflect that fact that the race is harder to win. However, if you can find the winner, the return will almost certainly be worth your while!

Most Popular Horse Racing UK Bet Types

After you're done with account opening, you'll be able to place bets like acca, win only, and others. Bear in mind that sports bets have terms and conditions, so make sure to read up on those before gambling. Here are the types of sports bets you can place:

Win only bet

There are lots of different ways to place a bet when it comes to betting on horse racing, with the most simple being a ‘win only’ bet. This means that your whole stake is being placed on a horse to win a particular race and you only get a return if they pass the post in front. For example, £5 on a horse to win at 4-1 would return £25 as described above.

Each-way betting

Another hugely popular way of placing a bet on racing is through ‘each-way’ betting. Once again, you are picking one horse in a particular race, but with an each-way selection you are placing two separate bets. For example, if you place £5 each-way on Frankel at 10-1, £5 is placed on the horse to win and the other £5 is staked on the horse to place.

That means that your £5 on the horse to place will bring a return if your selection finishes second or third – and sometimes fourth, fifth and sixth depending on the type of race and the number of runners – with the place part usually paying a fifth of the win odds.

Rates can vary of course, but if Frankel finishes third and you’ve backed him each way at 10-1, most firms would pay a fifth of the odds on that. Half of your stake that was placed on Frankel to win would lose, but the other £5 would be a winner at 1/5 of the odds, or 2-1 in this case. You’d therefore get a return of £15 on your £10 each-way bet and a £5 profit.

Exacta

Another race specific bet is an Exacta, which requires you to find the horses who you think will finish first and second in race. Picking them in an exact order is known as a straight Exacta, while with a reverse Exacta the order of the horses doesn’t matter as long as they finish first and second.

You can also place bets which require more than one horse to win in horse racing, which are known as multiple bets. There are a wide range of multiples available, including the following…

Double

A double involves placing a single bet on two horses to win two different races. For this bet to land, both horses need to win. For example, you could have a £5 double on Denman to win the 13.00 at Kempton Park at 11-8 and Menorah to win the 13.10 at Sedgefield at 13-8. The double would pay at just over 5-1, with your £5 stake returning winnings of £31.17.

Treble

This carries the same principle as a double, except you are using three selections rather than two. You can have as many horses in a win multiple as you like and after a treble they are generally referred to by the number of horses in the bet; a four-fold, a five-fold, a six-fold and so on.

For a treble, you could have a £5 multiple on each of Long Run in the 14.30 at Cheltenham at 2-1, Synchronised in the 14.40 at Uttoxeter at 5-1 and Hedgehunter in the 17.00 at Aintree at 3-1. The treble pays a whopping 71-1, with £5 returning a cool £360.

Lucky 15

This bet is slightly more complicated than those above it, but it is a hugely popular for horse racing bettors. You pick out four horses for a Lucky 15 bet, which is a combination of 15 different bets on those four horses.

If you were to stake 50p on each outcome, the total cost of the bet would be £7.50 and for that you would get four singles, six doubles, four trebles and one four-fold selection to boot. You only need one horse to win to guarantee yourself a pay out, though your potential winnings can shoot up quick if multiple horses win.

Heinz

This is similar to a Lucky 15 bet, though it involves more selections. You may be able to twig why this bet was named the Heinz, as you need to find six horses you fancy for this type of bet, which adds up to a total of 57 wagers.

You can get big rewards for small stakes with this type of bet and if you were to stake just 5p on every single outcome, your total bet would be £2.85. For that you would get yourself 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four-fold accumulators, 6 five-fold accumulators and 1 six-fold accumulator.

Unlike the Lucky 15, you would need to get two winners to get a return this time, though things quickly build up if you can find three or more winners.

Placepot

This type of bet is specific to one meeting and is synonymous with the Tote. A placepot requires you to pick one horse to place in each of the six selected races on the card.

You would only get a return if each of your six horses at that meeting – let’s say Cheltenham – finish in the places that day and the number of places on offer per race will depend on the number of runners in each contest, so make sure you check before placing it.

Horse racing betting offers

There are some fantastic betting offers available if you shop around, with bookmakers offering plenty of lucrative terms in order to seal your custom. Our top pick for betting on horse racing is the Tote and you can get £30 in free bets when you sign up and stake £10 on a horse. It doesn’t matter if your selection wins or loses, once it settles you will get £30 in Tote credits put into your account to spend on the racing.

Another fantastic offer is with bet365, where you can get £50 in free bet credits when you sign up and stake £10.

Elsewhere there’s kwiff, another of our top pics, who offer a free £10 bet when you stake £10 and they also have a rather unique function. You can have any of your bets supercharged at any time, which means you can find yourself sat on a bet at five, ten or even twenty times the price you bargained for – a nice bonus!