Horse Racing Betting Offers, Free Bets, Enhanced Odds Offers and more for National Hunt and Flat Racing
Just about everyone likes the occasional flutter on the horses. Horse racing is one of the most popular and enjoying sports for betting. The excitement of landing the winner in the Grand National – or any race for that matter – makes punters flock to the race courses, and indeed online bookies.
Add to that the popular Best Odds Guaranteed deals offered by the top bookies and some truly spectacular offers and bonuses for the biggest meeting like the Cheltenham Festival, and there is plenty of betting value to be found.For their part, bookmakers offer a vast array of betting offers for horse racing, from free bets and bonuses to enhanced odds offer, money back deals and additional each way places.
Here we outline the best current racing betting offers and give details of the biggest racing meetings for which the bookies really go for it in terms of big betting offers and promotions.
Also check out our latest horse racing tips and betting offers articles (also featured at the bottom of this page). And if you are seeking a comprehensive horse racing betting site, with tips, racing offers, stats and information, take a look at our sister site: RacingBettingOffers.com
Best Odds Guaranteed – New and Existing Customers
Best Odds Guaranteed is an excellent racing promotion offered by most of the top bookmakers.
Some bookies have also been known to flirt with Best Odds Guaranteed PLUS whereby they not only match the higher odds, but they’ll boost them further. For instance, if you back a horse at 3/1 that drifts out to 7/2, the bookie offering BOG+ will pay out at the new price plus a boost to the next odds up, in this case 4/1.
If you place a bet on a horse with a bookie that offers Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG) and by the time the race runs the price of that horse has lengthened, that bookie will pay you out at the higher odds if the horse wins. Of course, if the price shortens, you’ll be paid out at the price you took when placing the bet.
Horse Racing Betting Offers, Free Bets and Bonuses
888sport – Beaten By A Head Refunds – New and Existing Customers
If you bet between £5 and £25 on a horse to win or each way with 888sport and it is beaten into second place by a head or less, you’ll have your stake refunded as a free bet.
The offer applies to selected flat races, so check out the 888sport for details. The bookie also has a great Treble Odds Offer for new customers!
Biggest Horse Racing Meetings in the UK
Here are brief details of the biggest horse racing festivals/meetings in the UK. These are the ones that cause the bookies to offer promos galore, with enhanced odds offers, money back deals and more.
- Cheltenham Festival (March) – The biggest and most prestigious meeting on the National Hunt calendar. The Cheltenham Festival attracts the best runners, riders and trainers with such great races as the Champion Hurdle, the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the World Hurdle and the biggest of the lot, the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Check out Cheltenham Festival Betting Offers for the best bookie promotions for this fine four day event.
- Grand National Festival, Aintree (April) – The Grand National is perhaps the most famous race of all, and it’s the one that occasional punters often have a bet on. The Grand National Festival has plenty of other fine races – and ones that are easier to predict! – over its three days in April. We’ve got the best Grand National Betting Offers and Bonuses for you to peruse in advance of the race.
- Royal Ascot (June) – If Flat racing is your thing, you can’t look beyond Royal Ascot in terms of quality, with plenty of pomp and prestige thrown in too. With loads of Group 1 races covering all distances from sprints to marathons, this is one flat meeting you shouldn’t miss. Check out the latest Royal Ascot Offers and Free Bets.
- Glorious Goodwood (July/August) – Glorious Goodwood is seen by some as a poor man’s Royal Ascot, but that’s a little unfair. There are a clutch of top quality races here and loads of excitement to be had through the five days of racing action.
- Derby Festival, Epsom (early June) – Featuring the most prestigious of the five Classics of the Flat racing season, The Derby, this festival at Epsom is famous around the world. With The Oaks also featuring, and a fair few other races worth watching, this meeting really gets the pulse going. There are always plenty of betting offers for the Epsom Derby from the best bookies.
- Guineas Festival, Newmarket (late April/early May) – Featuring the first two Classics of flat racing season at the HQ of British racing, Newmarket’s Guineas Festival really gets the Flat season going. With the 1,000 Guineas for fillies and the 2,000 for all, along with plenty of other top races,
- Ebor Festival, York (August) – The Ebor Festival doesn’t have the prestige of Royal Ascot, but it is still a very decent meeting that is worth our attention. And indeed that of the bookies, who generally release some very good offers and promotions for it.
- St Leger Meeting, Doncaster (September) – The final of the five Classics of the flat racing season is featured in this Doncaster meeting in September. Offers are plentiful, especially when there is a big or popular favourite.
- Winter Festival, Kempton (December) – The Winter Festival is on the list essentially because it features one of the biggest National Hunt races of the season, the King George VI Chase, which is a testing ground for horses looking to enter the Cheltenham Gold Cup a few months later.
- British Champions Day, Ascot (October) – A relatively new meeting compared to some of the ancient ones mentioned, British Champions Day is the climax of the British Champions Series and it’s been on the racing calendar since 2011. With a vast amount of prize money on offer and an ever-growing level of popularity, this is a great day of racing and there will always be plenty of bookie offers and bonuses for the Champions Day at Ascot.
- Cheltenham Open Meeting (November) – One of the first really good meetings of the National Hunt season, the Open Meeting features plenty of trials for horses looking to make their names at the Cheltenham Festival the following March.
Horse Racing Betting Markets – What Can I Bet On?
There are loads of different horse racing betting options available, and here we list the most popular:
- Winner – Simply a bet on a horse to win the race
- Each Way – A bet on a horse to win or place in a race. This costs twice the stake of a single bet to win. This is essentially two bets, one on the horse to win, the other on the horse to place. The number of places and the proportion of the pay out varies. Typically for a race with eight runners you will be paid out at a quarter of the odds if your horse finishes in the top three. So if it wins it will be paid out on both the win single and the place single. If it just places but doesn’t win, just the place bet will win.
- Doubles/Trebles/Accumulator Bets – Here you pick two (double), three (treble) or more (accumulator) horses from different races and combine into one bet. If the first horse wins, the stake and winnings rollover to be the stake for the second bet, and so on. If any of the horses fails to win, the bet goes down. Depending on the odds and the number of selections, these bets can bring in massive profits.
- Combination or Multiples Betting – Here you can combine bets covering horses in a number of races whereby you can cover doubles, trebles, four-folds or whatever. The advantage of this type of bet over a straight accumulator is that if one horse fails to win, you could still pocket a decent profit, depending on the odds and number of selections (see below for the names of some of these bets).
- Straight Forecast – This is a single bet in which you bet on the first and second placed finishers in a race in the correct order.
- Reverse Forecast – Similar to the straight forecast, but this is two bets and the horses can finish in either order (as long as first and second) for the bet to pay out.
- Tricast – Like a forecast but picking the first three horses in a given race.
- Winning Margin – In some big races or those in which there is a very strong favourite bookies will offer a market on the margin of victory, usually offered as over or under a given number of lengths.
Names of Multiples Bets
Here are some of the most popular multiple/combination bets for horse racing betting. Whilst most commonly used in racing, these bets can be made in any sports or even over different sports and events.
- Lucky 15 – This is a bet with four selections that includes four single bets on each race, six doubles, four trebles and a four-fold.
- Yankee – This is like the Lucky 15 but excludes the four singles, so it is 11 bets.
- Heinz – This is a bet with six selections and 57 bets in total: 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 four-folds, six five-folds and a six-fold
- Goliath – A true monster of a bet with 247 bets covering eight selections.
Note that some bookies will offer bonuses for winning various multiples bets, for example Betfred.