Horse racing has been a part of Irish culture for centuries, and it continues to be a major draw for punters in Ireland. With the rise of online betting sites, Irish punters now have access to an even wider variety of horse racing betting options. From traditional bookies on the high street to online betting sites, Irish bettors can find everything they need to make informed bets on their favorite horses.
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✨ Finding a Horse Racing Betting Site in Ireland
With the convenience and flexibility that comes with betting online, more and more punters are turning to these sites for their horse racing needs. This article will explore the various features available at Irish betting websites and how they can help you get the most out of your horse racing bets.
Horse racing betting has become an increasingly popular pastime in Ireland, and with the availability of online betting sites, punters now have more opportunities to place their bets. With plenty of runners and riders offering numerous betting option and horse racing attributes, it can seem overwhelming ifficult to choose the right bookie for horse racing.
In this article, we will discuss some of the most popular horse racing betting sites in Ireland and what makes them stand out from the competition. We will also provide helpful insights into the various offers available so that you can make an informed decision when choosing your bookie.
🇮🇪 Top Horse Racing Betting Sites at a Glance: Pros & Cons
✨ BoyleSports: – Free Bets on Horse Racing
5 stars
Pros:
- Free bets on signing up during certain events
- Free bet promos on 2nd to SP favourites
- Guaranteed top odds after 8am
Cons:
- Promos offered only in shop
- Limited number of daily specials
✨ Bet365: – Excellent Variety of Markets
5 stars
Pros:
- Sign-up offers at specific events
- Free bets as introductory offers
- Price promise
Cons:
- Limited racing offers
- Site lacks appeal
✨ BetVictor: – User Friendly Betfinder Tool
5 stars
Pros:
- Variety of bet boosts
- Previews and tips
- Free bets on sign up of certain events
- Find perfect horse with BetFinder
Cons:
- Limited number of promos
✨ Ladbrokes: – Design-Your-Own Racecard Feature
5 stars
Pros:
- Excellent racecards loaded with information
- Live streaming of Irish and UK meets
- Live streaming of international meets
- Design-your-own racecard
- Feature for horse bet search
- Welcome offers including free bets
Cons:
- Limited number of specific racing offers
✨ Betway: – Free Wager Club
5 stars
Pros:
- Live-stream of all Irish and UK meets
- Race specials
- Daily boosts
- Top odds guarantee on race day from 9am
- Race cards visually appealing
- Free bet guarantees if you lose the first bet
Cons:
- Fewer offers on events specific to horse racing
✨ William Hill: – Guarantee of Top Price
4 stars
Pros:
- Great offers like lengthening of odds
- Free bets in introductory offers
- Live streaming of all Irish and UK meets
- User friendly navigation between races
Cons:
- Bland design could do with some sprucing
✨ Coral: – Super Series Racing with Free Game
4 stars
Pros:
- Has a bet filter feature
- Free bet promos
- Free super series racing game
- Free bet welcome offers
Cons:
- Presentation and layout needs improvement
✨ Rhino Bet Racing: – Racing Promo Variety
4 stars
Pros:
- Sign up offers and free bets
- Excellent odds guaranteed after 10am
- Range of racing promos
- Easy navigation
Cons:
- Limited markets
- Basic Racecards
✨ Novibet – Horse Racing Club
4 stars
Pros:
- Weekly free bets
- Introductory offer of free bets
- Horse racing club
- Live streaming of Irish and UK meets
- Predictions and tips for upcoming races
Cons:
- Only covers domestic races, no international events
✨ BetRegal: – South American Meets
3 stars
Pros:
- Worldwide meets covered including Chile and Uruguay
- Loyalty program
- Introductory offers including deposit matching
- Custom styled site to suit betting on horse racing
Cons:
- Limited live streaming of races
These are our top 10 betting sites with their pros and cons, but there are many sportsbooks which cover horse racing with a range of introductory offers including free bets, bonuses and deposit matching. Here are some which are worth looking into.
- TonyBet
- Kwiff
- Betinia
- Mr Mega
- Malina Casino
- BetTarget
- Campobet
🇮🇪 What to Look for in Horse Race Betting Sites
Horse racing betting sites are becoming increasingly popular in Ireland, as they provide punters with a comprehensive range of betting options. With so many online bookies available, it can be difficult to choose the best one for your needs. However, there are certain criteria that the best horse racing betting sites should tick in order to provide punters with the best possible experience.
These include competitive odds, a wide selection of markets and races, reliable customer support and secure payment methods. In this article, we will explore why these features make for an ideal horse racing betting site and how you can find the best one for you.
✨ Competitive Odds:
Naturally! The more competitive the odds, the more money you make. When you win, you don’t want to see Paddy with more in his hand than you for the same bet. The odds are a ratio. The higher the second number compared to the first (which is how much you pay), the more money you will get back on a win. If the odds are 5/1, for every Euro you wager you will get €5 back, plus your original bet. So 20/1 will give you a lot more back, but a 5/3 will give you less return. Of course, if you lose your bet, the more you bet, the more you lose.
✨ Plenty of Markets:
A good horse racing betting sites should offer a wide range of markets for punters to bet on. From the most popular bets like Win, Place, Each Way, Forecasts, Reverse Forecasts, and Show to more exotic markets such as Tricast, Placepots, Ante Post, Multiples and combination bets. With so many different markets available, choosing a bookie for horse racing can be daunting. But with the right research and knowledge, you can find the best bookmaker for your needs.
✨ Great Offers:
Online betting is a competitive market, and the sportsbooks will compete to get your attention. This means there should be plenty of offers and promotions – free bets, bonus funds, deposit matching etc. Many will have extra offers on racing days, especially with the really big meets like Cheltenham and the Grand National.
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Remember to always check the Terms & Conditions to make sure that these exciting offers will work for you. They sometimes have requirements which may not work, like minimum bets you’re not happy with, minimum odds which you don’t like, limited time within which to claim which could have miminum betting amounts before you can claim.
✨ Features Specific to Horse Race Betting:
Besides live streaming on races, a must for every meet, you also want tools like BetFinder to ensure yourself a good betting experience. There should be a wide selection of horse races on offer – you want to be able to do all your betting through the one site.
✨ User-Friendly Horse Racing Mobile App:
These days with our on the go lifestyle most of your betting is likely to be done from your phone. Even if you normally choose to be on your home computer, there are still those days when you are out and about. Make sure the app is one that you’re comfortable using, and if it’s not your usual way, get yourself familiar with it to save stress on that day when you need to use it. Some sites may be more oriented to other sports markets, so make sure their app is one that works for your habits and preferences.
✨ Secure Payment Option:
This may seem like a no-brainer since most sites taking payments will have a secure payment option. But take the 2 seconds to check, and make sure the lock symbol shows up at the top of the payment page in the bar. For such a small thing to check, it is not worth skipping.
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✨ Customer Service:
When everything is new and fresh, these details often seem remote and barely relevant. But if something goes wrong, you want to have good customer service, easy to contact, and responsive to your problems. Sometimes it can be answering questions on the site. Other times you may have a problem. You want to be able to fix it as soon as possible, and talk to someone who is helpful. These things can make a massive impact on your betting experience.
🇮🇪 Some Major Horse Racing Meets in Ireland and the UK
- Cheltenham Festival
- Irish Derby Festival
- Royal Ascot
- Aintree Festival – The Grand National
- Punchestown Festival
- Galway Races
- Fairyhouse Easter Festival
- Glorious Goodwood
🇮🇪 Promos To Expect from Top Horse Race Betting Sites
Horse racing is one of the most popular sports in Ireland and betting on horse races is a great way to enjoy the excitement of the sport. With so many online betting sites available, it can be difficult to choose which one to use. Fortunately, the top bookies have a regular stream of enticing horse racing promotions running every day, not just around big events like the Grand National or Cheltenham Festival.
These offers can provide punters with great value and make betting on horses even more enjoyable. Whether you’re looking for free bets, money back specials or enhanced odds, there’s plenty of horse racing betting offers available online in Ireland of which you can take advantage.
With a wide variety of races and betting sites available in Ireland to choose from, horse race betting can be an exciting and lucrative activity. There is a huge number of races even on a daily basis. The range of different components of a horse race to consider can be overwhelming, making it difficult to know where to start.
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However, with the help of horse racing betting promo codes available on various online sites, you can be sure that you are getting the best possible deal when placing your bets, and of these there are a large range available. You want to make sure of getting a good selection at your chosen bookie. Here are some of the most popular offers.
🇮🇪 Guarantee of Best Odds – Really?!
Yes, really!
As it turns out, this is a feature offered by all the horse racing sportsbooks, every single day. Believe it or not, they will guarantee that your winnings will be paid on the best odds. If you bet paying the Early Price before the race, you pay less, and so your returns will be greater. If you bet at the start of the race and pay the Starting Price you are paying the odds at the close of betting.
As the race gets closer, more information is available, including what the general public think about the odds of a particular horse winning. The odds are not fixed, but vary up to the start of the race. When betting is closed at the start of the race, they are fixed until payment.
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But good bookies will have a miminum guarantee, so that whatever happens to the odds you are guaranteed what they set as a minimum – their estimate at a certain point of where they think the odds are likely to close at. As an example, if you bet on a horse which is at 4/1, but it wins at 6/1, the bookie pays out at the 6/1 odds.
🇮🇪 Extra Places
A normal feature on horse racing sites is an offer of paying out on extra places. The standard is a payment on 3-4 places, but some bookies will offer to pay up to 6 or 7 extra places on certain meetings. The bigger the meet, the more Extra Places will be offered by the bookies. So watch out especially at the big festivals like Cheltenham, Aintree or Royal Ascot.
🇮🇪 Free Bets in Horse Racing
This is an offer which is mostly a part of the welcome package as a part of enticing new customers. When a big meet is in the offing, there are even more free bets on offer making that timing an even more lucrative time to join your chosen betting site.The Grand National and Cheltenham are two that often have some of the best free bet offers put forwards.
But be mindful that free bets and other promotions are not exclusive to introductory offers. Also keep an eye out for the sites which offer bonuses and free bets specific to horse racing. This way you can hone your wins even more.
✨ Cheltenham Free Bets
The Cheltenham meet has 28 races running across four exciting days. These include fun events such as the Unibet Champion Hurdle and the Betway Queen Mother Champions Chase. And of course the whole meet is finished with the big one – the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Being one of the biggest horse racing meets, this festival is a coming together of the best horses, jockeys an trainers, all of whom have been honing their style through the smaller meets throughout the year, ready for the big events.
Be mindful that many of these biggest races have betting open from very early with odds available the entire year. Back a long shot in the early days when the betting fee is still small and you may get even bigger wins.
There are then those extra free bets and other promos offered in the weeks prior to the start of the festival in March, especially since it’s the beginning of the racing season. So don’t wait til the big day – there are even better prizes to be had if you bet ahead.
✨ Grand National Free Bets
This festival of top-class races follows on the heels of Cheltenham in April. Held at the prestigious Aintree Racecourse, this festival features a grand Opening Day, and the fun and classy Ladies Day. The finish of the 3 days bonanza is one of the greatest steeplchases of all, the Grand National itself.
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With the buzz of capacity crowds and interest from around the globe focused on these events, it is hard to get a greater thrill than betting on this event. Horse Racing fans have one of the biggest excitements of the year, but there are also many who participate in only this one, dress up for the day, enjoy the buzz and excitement of a special event.
So get out your fancy hats and champagne flutes, check out those early bets, take advantage of those free bets, follow the development, keep an eye out for new offers, and have your fun with the Grand National.
🇮🇪 Money Back Offers
Again, one is left to wonder how the sportsbooks make their money with all these offers, including free bets, and money back offers for things like your horse comes in at 2nd playe to the SP favourite, or if your horse doesn’t make a place. (But don’t worry, the sportsbooks do make their money!)
Money back offers are a great way for you to minimise your losses, since with a bad outcome you can still get your money back – under certain specified circumstances. BoyleSports and 888sport have some of the best money back promotions.
🇮🇪 Each-Way Offers
Each-way betting promotions is a way of hedging your bets. For example, in selected races Bet365 has an Each Way Extra offer which lets you change how many places you bet on. For example, if you have at an earlier point have bet on 3 or 4 places hedge your bets, as the meet comes closer you might feel certain that your horse will come in first or second. Each Way Extra means that you can remove all the extra places you bet on so you are betting on only those first 2 places. This increases your odds, and your final winnings.
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Alternatively, as the meet comes closer you start to wonder if your horse will do as well as you thought. Maybe another horse is looking more certain than it did before, and has been performing well in races through the season. You can cover your uncertainty by adding extra places to your bet. Of course, you will wine less since the odds are less, but this can be a good move to make sure you win something rather than risk winning nothing.
🇮🇪 Reward Clubs
A club, albeit a betting club, seems like something that doesn’t belong to the world of betting. However, to keep members, many good sites will offer these to reward loyalty. If you bet regularly, this is a good way to get some extra offers and increase your winnings.
For example, Novibet has a Horse Racing Club which makes offers like free bets or extra funds on a weekly basis if you meet their betting criteria from your wagers in the previous week. Other clubs like Coral might offer prizes where the winner gets a trip to the trainers’ yards, for example, or a free tickets to the race meet, maybe even become a racecourse owner for the day. Usually winning a grand prize like one of these will be the result of participating in special competitions – but that’s just more fun to be had!
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🇮🇪 Special Features in Horse Race Betting
As you develop a familiarity with the horse racing features of the sportsbooks, you will start to see which online bookies are more solid with the better offers. Some of the key features you should be noting are Live Streaming – especially important in racing, BetFinder – to help search out particular races, horses, trainers and owners, and a wide range of markets to maximise your options and opportunites. These three features are key when looking at betting sites and in ensuring a great betting experience.
🇮🇪 Live Streaming in Horse Racing
We were all familiar with seeing bookie shops crowded with punters staring up at the TV in the corner while gripping their betting tickets. Now of course with the net making everything instant, it is a standard on any decent horse racing betting site to have live streaming on all the Irish and English races.
Not only is there live streaming on all the races in Ireland and England, but most of the big international races will also be available, bringing to you the possibility of following the horse racing in Australia, South Africa, France and the US amongst others. Often the bookie will require you to have credit in your account, or to have placed a bet within the previous 24 hours in order for you to get access to one of these races online. Small price to pay for a whole new range of exciting betting opportunities.
To watch top international meets, one of the best sportsbooks is Bet365. With an extensive coverage of horse racing worldwide, it is hard to beat. There is live streaming for every race in France, and of course all races in Ireland and the UK. Most bookies only offer a fraction of these live streams.
Bet365 also has a broader coverage of other races. Countries covered include Dubai, Brazil, India and Singapore, as well as a far more extensive live streaming selection than most bookies covering races from Australia, the US and South Africa.
🇮🇪 BetFinder
BetFinder is a fantastic horse racing feature which helps searches for horses and racing data, putting much needed information at your fingertips. It takes data from the experts such as Racing Post and Timeform and puts it into an easy to use search engine designed specifically for horse racing.
You can filter your search to find horses of particular interest with the specific characteristics in which you are interested, giving you the tools to find the horse which perfectly fits your personal criteria and simplifying your horse racing betting. One of the first sportbooks to set up BetFinder was BetVictor. 888sport has also developed a good BetFinder. We consider these two to have the best BetFinders, so check out both of them. Others which also have BetFinder are Coral and Ladbrokes, but we feel that BetVictor and 888sport are significantly superior.
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It is a fabulous tool for those serious about their horse racing betting. But it is also invaluable to the beginner. When you still have limited knowledge about trainers, jockeys and their forms and about the horses themselves, BetFinder can help you out. Some horses and jockeys perform better over the longer races, others love the sprint. Some perform especially well on certain tracks or in particular weather and track conditions.
You also want to know the rating of the horse, the odds, and how they went in previous races. BetFinder offers the tools to narrow down your preferences depending on the categories that you think matter, and can be even more useful to a beginner who is still learning the ropes of horse racing betting.
🇮🇪 Range of Markets in Horse Racing Betting
The easiest to understand and most popular markets are usually betting on the outright winner, betting each way, or on place markets. Even the newbie has an idea of how these markets work. But horse racing involves the horses, and people – not just the jockey, but also the trainer and often owners, depending on how much they are involved.
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Even the weather and dealing with crowds and the buzz in the air at the big meets are factors which can have unpredictable effects on the outcome of a race. But this just varies the eventualities and makes for a greater range of markets and betting opportunities – all bonuses to the keen punter. Top horse race betting sites will offer a great deal more to the interested bettor. Some of the markets which you could explore include:
- Ante-Post Betting:This gives you the opportunity to take advantage of early odds. As the race day approaches the odds will typically shorten. An early bet before the odds shorten means your winnings are bigger. Ante-Post betting is offered by top sportsbooks, especially a few months before and leading up to the big festivals. The sportsbook with the greatest number of Ante-Post markets is Bet365.
- Betting Without Favourite:When there is a favourite to win, the odds will normally be short, which means you get small returns on your bet. The bookie, remember, is in this to make money too. Your job as a bettor (besides just having a bit of fun over a flutter) is to outguess the bookie and be one who gets the winnings back. Betting Without Favourite is the horse racing equivalent of handicap betting.
- Forecast Betting:This is the straight forward betting of picking the horses you think will win and come second.
- Tricast Betting: In tricast betting you are extending your bet by predicting not just the first 2 places, but also the third.
- Accumulator:This is where you start to get fancy with your betting. Normally a bet is placed on a horse winning or coming in a certain place. If you bet on 4 horses, and they all win, and you will get back your bet as well as a multiple of it depending on the odds. With an accumulator bet the winnings are multiplied, so you get a lot more back in your pocket. However, you must be right on every single horse and its place. It is basically just a bigger version of Forecast and Tricast betting.
CHOOSING a horse racing betting site in Ireland is challenging, not only because there are so many of them, not only because amongst all of them there are also many good ones, but also because there are so many variations in their details and what they have to offer. However, with this guide leading you through the details so you can undertsand what you’re looking at and what you need to take into consideration, hopefully it is now easier and less daunting.
Take a space to think about what aspects of your betting experience are more important to you. Your budget, how often you like to bet, and the types of betting that appeal to you will nudge you towards the right site for you which best covers your personal needs.
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Then finally it is just down to sitting back and having fun, enjoying the thrill of the races and the betting. Above all it is about gaining the most out of your betting experience that works for you through the variety of options offered by the Irish bookmakers.
Have fun and good luck!
