If you’re already an experienced or expert gambler making good returns on your bets then you may want to skip this. Our guide is aimed at beginners that are looking for a gentle introduction to the world of betting on the horses and hopefully making a bit of money on a regular basis. Saying that there’s no harm in anybody following our tips but if you’re more advanced feel free to combine them in to more advanced bet types for chances at a bigger profit/loss!
Lets start at the very beginning. A horse race involves a number of horses running over either a set course or distance and the winner is the first across the finishing line. Simple. In theory much like flipping a coin every horse in a race has an equal opportunity to win that race, all things being equal. So for example in a 4 horse race each horse “should” have a 1 in 4 (4/1) chance of winning. If the race was ran 4 times each horse would win once? Except to state the obvious, not all horses are born equal. Hence why you’ll see different odds of success for each horse. The odds are set to reflect who the industry thinks has the best chance of winning and will fluctuate over time as bets are placed.
The different types of bet you can make on a horse race or multiple races are numerous and we’re sticking to the basics here, much like our race tips themselves, we keep it simple. The easiest bet to place is a “win” bet. When you put money (your stake) on which horse you think will win outright, if it doesn’t win you lose your stake. If it wins you get your stake back plus any profit. For example if you bet £1 on a horse that wins with odds of 3/1 you will receive your £1 back plus £3 extra, a total return of £4, £3 of which is profit.
The next simplest bet is the win/each way (just called each way for short). This is in fact 2 bets at once and what you are gambling on is the horse winning preferably but if not placing i.e. finishing either 2nd or 3rd depending on the number of horses in the race, or in some cases with large fields even 4th, 5th or 6th. The bookmaker pays reduced odds for the placing, usually around 1/4 odds. You need to pay careful attention to how many places your bookmaker is paying and at what odds before making the bet. So for example you bet £1 each way (a total stake of £2, remember this is 2 bets in one) on a horse that has odds of 8/1 to win. The horse wins, you’ll get back £9 for the first half of your bet (£1 stake plus £8 profit). The second half of your bet returns a quarter odds, so 2/1 plus your stake back making £3. Your total return from your £2 bet is £12. If the horse finished second then the return would be only be the “each way” part of your gamble and so £3. If the horse finishes outside of the places you get nothing! That’s the basics out of the way.
Why Can’t I just Bet On The Favourite In Every Horse Race?
You’d think that would make sense wouldn’t you? The bookmakers would love that! Statistically around about 20% of favourites win in a horse race, the average odds of a favourite being somewhere between 2/1 and generously 3/1. Lets say you bet on the favourite in 10 races, a £1 stake in each, the average favourite odds are a very generous 3/1. Out of our 10 races on average 2 will win. In each of those races we will win 1+3 = £4. So our return from those 10 races is £8 …and that is being very very generous. This leaves the bookmaker with a profit of 20%, result (for the bookmaker)! Not great for us.
This Is Where Tips, Picks, Selections, Form And Statistics And Most Importantly Value Come In
We provide our own tips for every big race happening in the UK and Ireland on any day, much the same as hundreds of others do. We chose these races because it’s what we hold the most data on. To do this we use statistics, lots and lots of statistics. We’re plugged in to several horse racing API’s and we use this information to come up with a daily selection of tips that we think stand a decent chance of winning. I say we, what I actually mean is Laura and her spreadsheets! She is the brains behind the tipping and it’s been a long process and a process that continues to evolve. When we produced our first tips you’ll not be surprised to learn that only 14% won. Just under 30% in total won and placed on that day. Since then the algorithm and process has evolved to the point at the end of January 2023 we are hitting around a 30% strike rate for winner and over 55% for wins and placed. Taking Sunday the 29th of January as an example we picked out 12 winners from 27 races, that’s a strike rate of around 44%. Not only that but of our other picks 8 placed. Basically on a win/each way bet 20 of our picks out of 27 races would have paid out. But we’re just picking favourites right? Wrong. Of course we’ll pick a favourite if that’s what the statistics say but we’ve had lots of winners in at over 5/1 and many of our placed horses have done so at odds over 10/1. Nothing massive yet but like I said it’s evolving all the time. We’re just trying to find consistent value.
How Do I Get In On This Hot Racing Tip Action?
For a one off sum of just…no we’re only kidding. We give away all our horse racing tips for free, we post them to the home page every day starting from around 11am UK time. On top of that we post a selection of our tips on to our Twitter account so follow along over there if you prefer that, note though that it’s only a selection and not every race pick. Finally there’s every chance that we will eventually get together some sort of list to mail out tips to people, what that will look like and how often we’re not sure yet. We’re just hobby gamblers who see it as a bit of fun and get enjoyment of out of sharing our free horse racing tips and picks with as many beginners as possible. And if we can keep growing the percentages for winners then all the better!
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