The Ultimate Guide to Horse Betting

If you have never bet on horse racing, it is an experience that once known, it is not easy to leave. Few sports give you a faster thrill than horse racing – you’ll know in two minutes whether you’ve won or lost. However, the truth is that to bet online successfully on horse racing it is very useful, as well as to bet on tennis, football or whatever you want, to know the sport well and have seen it live.

Betting on horse races without ever having been to a racetrack is complicated, because there are certain things that are not easy to study and know only with what the bookmaker’s web screen offers you. However, we are going to give you certain tricks or tips that you can use to learn how to bet and make better predictions in races.

Are you ready for the best Horse betting Tips in Canada?

Horse racing tips and horse betting tips

Horse Racing tip #1 Take Advantage of Bookmaker Offers for Horse Racing

People who bet on horse races on many occasions are used to betting at the racetrack or in physical venues where they seal our bets. And we are not used to being able to take advantage of promotions for horse racing bets or Welcome Bonuses from online bookmakers .

So the first thing we should do is assess the Welcome Bonuses offered by the bookmakers . In this way we can bet a greater amount of money at a lower cost.

In addition, on many occasions the bookmakers offer us FreeBets or a CashBack of the money we play or a Bonus to use on their website when we bet on certain horse races or at certain racetracks. This is another opportunity to get a return on your stake.

Recommended legal online Bookmakers Available in Canada

Is online horse betting legal in Canada? The law only allows bookmakers in Canada to allow parlay betting as a part of their service. However, the law does not prohibit Canadians to gamble in offshore online casinos and bookmakers.

We have listed 5 legal online bookmakers in Malta that are regulated by the Malta Gaming Authority and accept players from Canada and over 156 other countries.

We recommend you to look for good welcome bonuses and free bets when it comes to looking for a bookmaker for horse betting. We found 5 casinos and bookmakers that offer amazing offers on their sportsbook.

In our opinion b-Bets has one of the best offers for free bets and gives the most personalized offers on your email if you opt in for their email offers.

b-Bets would even give you personalized free bets based on the sports you bet on.

Horse Betting Tip #2 Do your homework

As with everything in life, the more you know about it, the better. Study the sport in question and its characteristics, and each time you will make better bets. Anything worthwhile takes effort. Betting at random or on the beautiful name of that bay will provide you with fun, but surely very little money.

 start compiling web pages, magazines or blogs where good information is provided about the events and the horses, and consult them frequently to get what we mentioned in the previous point.

Pay attention to the details: pay attention to the details, everything influences a race. Although jockey and horse are the key elements, a few little things can make a big difference. For example, wearing one piece of equipment or another can have a decisive influence on how the animal will run. If the horse’s equipment is changed it may be a good sign, it is that they are doing tests to improve performance …

Specialize in a specific career or type of career: start in a limited area as a proving ground and learn to expand, little by little, your area of ​​action.

Horse Racing tip #3 The value of the bets: 

As a general rule, although at the beginning you can do tests to see how well this type of bets are offered, you should not bet on irrelevant odds. You will be wasting your time. Nobody – except for a few isolated miracles – wins much by betting little and the low odds give ridiculous benefits for which it is hardly worth bothering to close the bet. The concept of value or value of a bet is fundamental when choosing to bet or not on a horse. To calculate the value of a bet, divide the probability of the horse’s success by 1 and you will get the exact odds that you should never bet below. For example: suppose a horse has odds of 5 and you calculate its odds of winning by 50%. The value of the bet would be 1 / 0.50 = 2 <5. Since the actual value is below the quota being offered, the bet has value. But be careful, remember that our estimate calculates that the horse will win one out of every four times, that is, we can lose the bet, even if it has value, but, in the long run, if we continue to trust it, we will win.

Horse Betting Tip #4 Divide and conquer or how to choose your horse:

Choosing a winner is easier by discarding. Start by eliminating the usual losing horses, the slower ones, the out of shape, or those who are being overrated from your list. According to the experts, dividing the horses in a race into groups will make your job easier: a group (let’s say 1) will be the leading horses, those with the most chances of winning. Group 2 would be those that in the last races have been in third or fourth positions, that is, placed, but they are not winners. Group 3 would be made up of the horses in the tail, those that are unlikely to be in the top five. Dividing the races like this will help you decide whether the winning horses are more or less likely: in a race with several ‘figures’ from group 1, the duel will make it difficult to determine who will win. In a race with a single star from Group 1, the logical thing is that your chances are multiplied.

Horse Racing Tip #5 Winner or placed: 

It is best that at the beginning you bet on one of these two markets, which are the most basic. Although there is a huge variety of them, the most prudent thing is to start with these and expand as you gain experience.

 Once you have chosen your favorite horse or horses s, you can bet on the winner (the horse must finish the race) or placed (the horse must be second or, in the case of many participants, finish between the first two, three or four, depending on the number of horses running). Betting placed horse has a lower odds, since you bet on two things: that the horse wins or is among the first.

Horse Betting Tip #6 Understand Horse Betting Terms

This little dictionary on horse betting  terms will also help you in your beginnings in betting on races:

Each Way:

Each way is a type of bet offered by bookmakers that allows you to make two separate bets at once: one bet is made on the winner of the race and the other is for a horse placed in second, third or fourth position, depending on the number of horses in the race.

Favorite:

The favorite in a horse racing event is the horse that is considered the most likely to win the race and therefore the one with the shortest or lowest odds.

Twin : 

A twin is a bet that involves hitting the first and second horse to reach the finish line. This bet can be made the other way around, with a Reverse Forecast, or Exact Reverse

Form

Recent performance of a horse, which indicates its current chances of winning.

Handicap: 

A handicap is a type of a bet in which a competitor is granted an ‘advantage’ that will be added to the real result to resolve the aforementioned bet.

Odds 

Odds are the probability of an event and also act as the potential profit offered by the bookmaker.

Bet 

The amount you bet on the chosen horse or market. 

Horse Betting Tip #7 Start With Simple Bets

When you bet on horses, there are basically two main types of bets: simple and ‘exotic’ bets. For starters, we recommend newbies to stick to the simple bets are, as the name suggests, easy to make and cheap . 

You choose a winning or placed horse (will finish first, second or third). The ‘exotic’ bets are, for example, the combined system and others of that type that – in addition to being more difficult to make, understand and win -, are more expensive, although in return they report greater benefits. 

Certain advanced knowledge is needed in this market, which you can acquire little by little while making simple bets, so as not to lose everything irretrievably.

Horse Betting Tip #8 Wait for the last minutes to bet on the horses 

In horse racing it is very common for horses to be withdrawn before the race and for the final list of horses that will compete in a race to change even close to the time of the start of the race.

To avoid betting on a horse that finally does not run or to see if we risk a horse that we had in mind but that is not a favorite , we recommend that you wait for the last minutes to place your horse bet.

Many bettors are used to leaving their bets made days in advance , like football or basketball bettors, since even if a key player is not going to play in many cases it does not change their forecast. But this in the world of horse racing betting does not work for us .

And the best way to bet at the last minute is to carry the application of the bookmaker with which we normally bet on our mobile device, this way we can bet in the last minutes no matter where we are.

Horse Betting Tip #9 Follow this Horse Betting Strategy

In each race, you will see the horse’s share, the odds that they will win, along with their name, just like when you bet on a football match.

 The favorite will always have the lowest odds, and while past performance doesn’t guarantee you’ll win again this time, statistics show that betting on the favorite pays off in the long run. 

Notwithstanding the above, making only simple bets on the winner with the favorites will not bring you great benefits.The best thing is to try to find – with the advice that we give next – winner and placed.

 It is a good idea to play in races with 8, 9 or 10 runners where the conditions are more advantageous for the bettors. At b-Bets, for example, you will find good deals on the ‘Placed Only’ market. Compare them with the performance of other bets in other houses and you will see what we are talking about. For example:

If you bet that the favorite wins the race, you will win 33% of the time, if you bet that the favorite is placed, you will win 53% of the time, if you bet that the favorite is in first, second or third place, you will win 67% of the time. 

Therefore, one of the simplest and most profitable ways to bet is to predict that the favorite is in the top three.

Horse Betting Tip #10 Specialize, analyze, study

As in all sports, covering all types of horse racing throughout the year is not a good idea. Try to find a type of race that you like (handicap, apprentice…) and study its characteristics until you know them well. 

Analyze all the races of this type that you can and assess the odds of each horse in each of your bets. Create your own database with the bets you make and their results. There are some online tools – usually paid – that help you do this, including reports from expert analysts.

Horse Betting Tip #11 Learn to read the career program… and the statistics

Once you know how to bet on horse racing, you can go to your favorite bookmaker and choose the horse you want to bet on. And how the hell do you do that? Well, it can be done in many ways. 

One of them is random or because of the attractiveness of the name, but this formula does not usually give good results obviously. Although the truth is that, as a novice bettor, the first few times it will be a chance that decides on your bet with almost total security.

There are hundreds of books and websites that give you guidelines to know how to choose the horse well, you know the saying: bet on a winning horse. But only as you gain experience will you be able to properly weigh all the factors that influence a winning horse bet.

 As you learn about the handicap – the factors that give a horse an advantage – you will notice that you are gaining control over your bets.

The race program is full of information that you can use to make better bets. It contains statistics and the history of the participating horses. At first all this data may seem impossible to decipher, but you will get hold of it over time.

In horse racing there are different levels of competition and as you go up in those levels, the better the horses and the higher the stakes. Horses can move up and down the competition levels based on their performance during the season.

In good bookmakers (such as b-Bets, for example) you will find statistics on the races, which will also help you to study these factors on paper.

Horse Betting Tip # 12 Remember That The surface matters

As you surely know, horse races are run on different surfaces: dirt, grass and ‘all weather’, which can be used all year round because it is artificial grass. Horses – just like tennis players, why not – run differently on one surface or another, some are faster on land, while others obtain better results on an artificial surface. 

The race program details the results of each horse on each surface, really relevant information when it comes to betting. If a horse runs well on grass and the race you have chosen is gravel, think twice before continuing with the bet.

In the warm months, dirt and grass are usually dry, which encourages horses to run faster. In addition, it is very important that you know that the tracks are not perfectly equal: some fairways are faster and cause the horses that run through them to enjoy an advantage and finish systematically better positioned. It is well known that for example in Folkestone, 90% of the races have been won by horses running on the lanes closest to the inside fence.

Horse Racing Tip # 13 Find out and read everything you can about horse racing

The more information you collect, the better you can make your horse betting predictions. What that in mind, we recommend you to keep an eye out for the following factors:

The jockeys

Although logically a good rider cannot do much with a horse that does not run, when you see that a rider tends to be in the top three places no matter what horse he rides, you are in front of a good professional. 

A good opportunity presents itself when one of those riders rides a horse that is always in the top half of finish. The rider’s skills could be decisive in getting that horse finished this time. The same applies when a combination of rider and horse have a history of good results, we are left in the winning shortlist. That horse is very likely to be in the top two.

We do not count this advice as one more – although it is – because it will not help you to bet online. A fun – if unscientific – way to start learning how to choose a horse is to also get used to watching them in the paddock before the race starts if you go to the racetrack , something that cannot be done if you bet online.

What is the Paddock?

The paddock is the area where they wait before settling for the start. Once you have studied the race schedule, the statistics and the history of the horses and jockeys, narrowing your list to three or four horses maximum, go to the paddock and see what they look like. 

Even if you are not able to identify gestures or moods as you would with your dog, horses also have bad days. If a horse seems very nervous – it sweats a lot – it will probably not perform as it should. If the sweat is in the area of ​​the kidneys, the horse is not in full power, it may be sick.

Horses that seem eager to run, spinning, snorting, or whinnying may appear to have a lot of energy, but they are wasting it at the moment. Bet better on that horse that is alert but calm.

How many favorites?

It is very important to know how many stars run in a race: more than one diva on stage and everything can go down the drain.

 Two great horses can make things difficult for each other and let a third win. When, instead, we have a clear winner without direct competition, things are less likely to go wrong and we will see a comfortable victory.

Keep an eye on your betting budget

Set aside a maximum daily, weekly and monthly money for your bets and stick to it. In any type of bets, getting excited about the supposed ‘opportunities’ or ‘hunches’ can give you great upsets. You don’t have to bet on every race – the most common temptation for the rookie – and you should never spend more than previously allotted. 

A good bettor on horse races carefully chooses the races in which he thinks he has a good chance of winning money. Control the money you spend and win on gambling, separately from the rest of your finances.

Horse Racing Betting FAQ’s

What do i have to do to bet on horses?

What you have to do is register with a bookmaker that offers that market within their betting offer, make a first deposit and then select the bet you want to make.

What are the best bookmakers for horse betting?

The most popular bookmakers to place your horse bets where you can find almost any race in the world available are Betfair and Bet365 and Unibet. But in our opinion there are many smaller bookmakers like b-Bets that give better bonuses and free bets.

What does it mean when a horse bet appears at the PS odds?

Which means that the quota that they are going to offer you at the moment is not available and that you can bet and the quota that is going to be applied is the quota that is offered at the time of the start of the race.

What is placing bets in horse racing betting?

It is Betting that the Horse you are betting on will be first or second.

What is a twin in horse racing betting?

It is making a bet in which you have to hit the horse that will finish first and the horse that will finish second in a race.

Can the odds that I have bet and the odds that I have been paid in a horse race vary?

Yes, in some bookmakers they warn you that the quota at which they are going to pay you is the quota at which the market closes, just at the moment the race is going to start, your quota may decrease if finally your horse is the favorite.

Can I watch and bet on horse races through free bookmakers?

Yes, normally many bookmakers have TV service available for horse racing and they offer it to you for free. They will only ask you to be registered with the bookmaker and to have a balance in your gaming account. In turn, you can bet while watching the horse races

Can I use a Free Bets Bonus to place bets on horses?

Yes, if the bookmaker does not explicitly prohibit it in its conditions of the bonus awarded, you can use the bonus granted to place your horse racing bet. Click on the offers of these 5 casinos and access their sportsbook to get started on horse betting with free bets!