US Best Online Horse Betting Apps and Promos

Online Horse Betting: How to Start, What Bets to Place

If you’re betting on a single race, the most straightforward bet to place online is the win bet – you pick your horse, and you’re asked for your stake. If it wins, you get the stake times the odds of the horse, plus your stake back. A simple example is if you put $5 on a 2/1 horse, you’ll get $15 back if it wins (/$5 times two, plus your returned stake).

Also popular is the each-way bet, where you bet on a horse to win or finish in the places. You get a percentage of the odds for the place part of the each-way bet – typically a quarter or fifth. A /$5 each-way bet on a 10/1 horse that wins would return $70 on a race offering 1/5 odds on the place; $50 for the win, $10 for the place, and your returned stake. If your horse only places then you’d get $15 back with $10 for the place and $5 part of your stake returned.

In the US, the betting system is similar to the most popular bets: the win, place (horse finishes first or second), and the show (horse finishes first, second or third).

You can also try a forecast or exacta where you pick the horses to finish first and second, a reverse forecast or simple quinella where you pick horses to finish first or second in either order – stake is double the cost of a straight forecast – or a trifecta where you pick the horses you think will finish first, second and third. You can also try a superfecta bet, more common in North America, where you pick the first four horses to finish in the correct sequence.

There are also a number of combination bets where you try to pick winners or horses that place in a number of different races. The Yankee is a popular one in the UK – four selections consisting of 11 bets: six doubles, four trebles, and a fourfold accumulator – where two must win, or place if it’s an each-way Yankee, to get a return. A $1 win Yankee costs $11, based on the 11 bets, and it is believed to have been named after a World War Two American soldier that placed a small bet in the UK while on service and, due to the multiple roll-overs won back hundreds of thousands of pounds. 

How to engage in online horse betting if you are new to this:

• Firstly, find the relevant bookmaker (the licensed, of course) that offers horse racing odds. You may also download one of the best apps to place horse bets directly from your mobile device.
• Then register with your personal details like name, address, social security number, or ID. You must be a verified punter (21+ in the US) before you can sign up, bet on horses online, and deposit and withdraw money. 
• Take advantage of the offers by the horse race betting sites and apps. Deposit funds and carefully read the terms and conditions before claiming any bonuses and using promo codes.
• If you made the right predictions and won the bet, your winnings are credited to your betting account after the event ends.

Picking Your Horse Racing Bets

When you make your selection, always remember the term horses for courses – check your selection’s form on the track, form at a distance being run, and don’t forget the jockey’s form. The more you know, the better your chances of winning the bet on horse races online, and while there’ll always be a shock in the sport, the more research you do, the less chance you’ll have of picking the wrong horse.

Many big races, such as the Derby and the Kentucky Derby are competed for by horses of the same age and carrying the same weight, but those are the exception. Most racing involves competitors of varying ages and abilities with a handicap system in operation in a bid to equalize the competition, so always take that into account when betting horses online.

Information is your key to gambling success, so use horse betting websites such as Racing Post and Sporting Life in the UK and Ireland for in-depth analysis of the form and to get the views of the tipsters, with BloodHorse and drf.com offering a similar horse wagering service in the US. When you’ve picked your horse, oddschecker will save you the time of going through all the gambling websites to find the best odds for your selection, and they’ll direct you to the sites you need. Learn how to find the best and free horse betting picks and predictions provided by top racing handicappers.

Horse Competitions & Racing Events

There are four primary horse race types – flat racing, steeplechasing, harness racing, and endurance. Horse races are divided into categories in a bid to make them more competitive, ranging from a maiden for horses who haven’t won a race right up to pattern races like the Derby and other Group One events – also known as stakes races in the US.

The vast majority of the horses competing are thoroughbreds – bred from a pure breed sire (father) and dam (mother) – and they can be traced back to a handful of horses such as Godolphin, an Arabian breed from the 18th century.

Flat races are where runners race over a set distance on either turf, dirt or synthetic track. They are run most days in both the UK and Ireland, and in the US. The pinnacle of flat racing are the classics, open to three-year-olds, with three in the US making up the Triple Crown – the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Breeders Cup – and the dream of all trainers is a thoroughbred that can win all three. The last horse to do this was Justify in 2018.

Another type of racing popular for betting on in North America is harness racing, where the horse pulls a driver in a two-wheeled cart called a sulky. 

There are two main types, trotting, and pacing, with the difference based on the horses’ leg movements. Important annual races in the US include the Hambletonian, part of a Triple Crown for Trotters, and the Little Brown, part of the Triple Crown for Pacers; in Canada, an important event is the Gold Cup and Saucer, run at the Charlottetown Driving Park.

Big Online Betting Horse Races

The biggest betting horse race in the world is the Grand National at Aintree, a four-mile test of the jumping and stamina of some of the top horses in the UK and Ireland. Around $210million is bet on the outcome, with many people placing their only bets of the year on the race, with selections based on horses’ names, jockeys’ silks, and even the color of the animals, rather than any attempt to analyze the form of each horse. Approximately 65-70% of all horse bets are placed online. 

The Epsom Derby and the Cheltenham Gold Cup, part of the four-day Cheltenham Festival, are also popular betting races, with the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup Classic the top two in the US. 

Other big betting events include Royal Ascot – a four-day festival of Flat racing in June at the famous track in Surrey, with the Queen usually attending – and several events in Ireland, including the Punchestown Festival. The big international races that attract more than their fair share of gambling interests include the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the Melbourne Cup in Australia, and the Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

Horse Betting Offers

If you’re considering opening an account at a horse gambling website, don’t pick the first one you see. There’s plenty to choose from, and they all offer generous promotions for new customers, with a range of free bets and various bonus offers when you open an online account. In the USA, some of the best legal horse wagering apps are Pointsbet, TVG, Amwager, DRF Bet, and NyraBets. So, look through who’s offering sign-up bonuses, free bets, and deposit bonuses, and pick the one offering a deal that suits you best.

Quick History Of Betting On Horses

Horse racing dates back to ancient times, with chariot racing one of the most popular ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine sports. With racing comes betting, and both came to prominence in Britain in the 17th century with the establishment of the Newmarket racecourse in 1636 in Suffolk, England, with King Charles II a notable competitor who became the only reigning monarch to ride a winner. 

Soon after, Salisbury in New York established the United States’ own ‘Newmarket’ track, with a professional organization of racing controlled by the Jockey Club in the UK, established in 1750, before the American version was formed in 1894.

Flat racing dominates the US sport, predominantly on dirt tracks, while in the UK and Ireland, turf racing is king, with the flat seen as the summer version of the sport and jump racing prominent in the winter – the first recorded example of a jumps race was in County Cork, Ireland, in 1752. 

Originally confined to race tracks, gambling on racing has come a long way since the first bookmaker, Ogden, stood at the Newmarket track in 1795, with betting websites effectively allowing people to place a bet on any horse racing event around the world from their own home – dependent on any local restrictions.

Comparison of Top US Horse Betting Sites and Apps in 2023