Horse Betting Online

The Simple Form Ratings System is a method by which horse betting online enthusiasts can convert the recent racing form of each runner in a race into a form rating. Having a numerical form rating for each runner will enable you to see at a glance which horse has the best recent form, and allow you to bet (or not) accordingly.

Before you can use the Simple Form Ratings System you must of course be able to interpret racing form, so if you haven’t done so already you should study our article on Reading Horse Racing Form. That done, you can start generating simple form ratings by taking any race and applying the following rules to each of the runners:

• Look at the last two races of the horse and award 10 points for each win, 7 points for each 2nd place, 4 points for each 3rd place and 1 point for each 4th place.

• If the horse is a course winner, award 2 points.

• If the horse is a distance winner, award 4 points.

• If the horse last ran no more than 21 days ago, award 2 points.

Now look at the betting forecast (or you can visit one of our recommended Bookmakers for actual markets) and award additional points as follows:

• If the horse is first in the betting forecast (and therefore the favourite) award 5 points.

• If the horse is second in the betting forecast/market, award 4 points.

• If the horse is third in the betting forecast/market, award 3 points.

• If the horse is fourth in the betting forecast/market, award 2 points.

• If the horse is fifth in the betting forecast/market, award 1 point.

The most points that can be awarded to any horse is 33 points. This would be the rating of a horse that won both of its last two races, has previously achieved wins over both the course and distance, ran no more than 21 days ago and is first in the betting forecast.

When you have rated all of the horses in a race, the horse with the highest rating is the one with the best form according to the Simple Form Ratings System. You could bet on the top-rated horse on its own or – if the odds allow – you could bet on the two or three horses with the best ratings using the Dutching System.

Betting in running is something that you can do with a growing number of bookmakers, and involves betting after a horse race has already started. You could place a bet just after the off, just before the horses reach the finish line or anywhere in-between. But what is the value of betting in running? Read on and we’ll tell you…

To start with, betting in running allows you to wait and see if you can obtain betting odds that you have decided make it worthwhile for you to place a bet. For example, if you have decided that a certain horse would be worth betting on at 3/1, and the price is 11/4 just before the off, you could wait until the race gets underway to see if the 3/1 becomes available. The odds available about each horse change as the race unfolds, so such an outcome is perfectly possible. Of course, whether the horse in question wins or not is another matter entirely.

Another advantage of betting in running is that it allows you to see if a certain horse looks comfortable in the early stages of the race. This is particularly useful if the horse has recovered from an injury or illness, and you aren’t 100% sure if it is yet back to its old self. Watching the horse run the first few furlongs could be enough to put your mind at rest, in which case you might strike a bet, or confirm your doubts, in which case you would probably refrain from betting altogether.

If you bet with an exchange such as Betfair, you can lay in running as well as bet in running, and this makes it possible to both open and close a position before the race has finished. For example, you could bet £20 on a 2/1 shot just after the off and then lay the same horse for £20 at odds of 1/2 as the race approaches its conclusion. This would give you a break-even situation if that horse lost, but £30 profit if it wins (£40 profit from the bet minus £10 loss from the lay).

Those of you who are interested in betting in running would do well to begin with minimum stakes, and that’s because betting in running takes some time to get used to. The betting market changes very quickly when betting in running, and you need to learn how to respond to such changes effectively to make the most of opportunities as they come along.

Betfair has a great demo of betting in running (which is referred to there as the In-Play Bet) so it would be well worth checking out if you are thinking about pursuing this form of betting further. Visit Betfair now to take a look.

Betting on newspaper naps is a very simple approach to making money from horse betting online, but one that can be surprisingly effective if you go about it in the right way. In this article we tell you exactly how to do that, and by the time you finish reading you will have a great little betting system which you can use all year round to help you pick winners week after week…

The first thing you need to understand (if you don’t already) is what a newspaper nap is. In a nutshell, a ‘nap’ is the best betting selection of the day according to a newspaper tipster. If you look at each tipster in your regular newspaper you will see that he identifies one selection as his ‘nap’, and in most cases this is the horse that he thinks has the best chance of winning.

Following newspaper naps blindly is quite common, but not necessarily the best way of making money from newspaper naps. A much better way is to first have a look to see if the newspaper nap meets the criteria detailed below:

• Is the newspaper nap named first in the newspaper betting forecast?

• Is the newspaper nap in the first three in the actual betting market?

• Did the newspaper nap win its last race?

If the answer to these three questions is yes then you have a newspaper nap that may well be worth betting on. Not all of these hand-picked naps will win, but you can improve your strike rate even further by adhering to the following advice:

Always use the same newspaper when following naps for horse betting online purposes. Switching from one newspaper to another would mean that you are using naps from different sources, so you wouldn’t get consistent results. If you are online regularly, we recommend using the online version of the Racing Post and choosing one of its tipsters to follow for newspaper naps purposes.

Adopt a sound Money Management strategy that will help you to grow your bank when you enjoy a run of success, but won’t blow all your profits if you hit a loser. Remember, there is no such thing as a 100% winning strike rate, so don’t bet as if there is!

Finally, consider monitoring the results you would get from several different newspaper tipsters, but without actually betting. This is known as paper trading, and it will show you which newspaper naps are likely to be most profitable for you.

Horse betting accumulators are horse racing bets that consist of several selections, all of which have to win (or place if you make an each-way accumulator bet) in order for the bet to be successful. Many online bookmakers allow you to place accumulator bets, so it’s well worth understanding how accumulators work so that you can decide whether or not you want to have a go at profiting from them when horse betting online.

Accumulators work by staking your entire outlay on the first selection in the bet. When that selection wins, the total return is effectively staked on the next selection, and so on. Because of this approach, if one of your selections lose, the whole accumulator bet loses. However, if all of your selections win, you can make a profit that is worth many times your initial outlay, and that’s because the odds of each winner have really been multiplied together.

For example, if you had a £10 bet on a four horse accumulator (meaning that you have selected one horse to win in each of four separate races) and all of them won at odds of 2/1, your total return from the bet would be £810. We arrived at this figure by converting the fractional odds to decimal and then adding 1 point for the returned stake (see our article on horse betting odds) and then multiplying the resulting figures together before multiplying by the stake. Four 2/1 winners therefore involves calculating 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 = 81 x £10 = £810.

The number of selections that you include in horse betting accumulators is up to you. Bet on two selections and you have a ‘double’. Three selections give you a ‘treble’, four selections give you a ‘four-fold’, and so on. Of course, you always need to bear in mind the fact that the more selections you include in your accumulator, the more chance there is of one or more of them losing.

The potential to make a profit that is many times the size of your outlay makes horse betting accumulators very popular. However, the downside is that accumulators are very difficult to succeed with. Picking a winner in a single race is challenging enough, so picking winners in several races is even more tricky. For this reason, many horse betting online enthusiasts who place accumulators choose to bet each way instead of to win only.

An each way accumulator costs twice as much as a win only accumulator (£20 instead of £10, for example) but your selections only have to get a place for you to get a return. The betting odds of placed horses are not the same as for those that win, but are generally calculated as a fraction (usually 1/5) of the win odds. A horse offered at 5/1 for the win would therefore be worth 1/1 (as far as calculating your return is concerned) if it only manages to get a place.

Whether or not you use accumulators when horse betting online will depend on what you are looking for. If you are looking to win as often as possible then straightforward win singles are vastly superior to accumulators. However, if you don’t mind taking a much bigger risk in the hope of landing a much bigger payout, accumulators offer plenty of potential.

Horse betting odds are something that everyone who participates in horse betting online should understand. The horse betting odds that you get from bookmakers reflect the betting market perception of how big (or small) a chance your horse has of winning its race. Horse betting odds also determine how much of a profit you will make if your bet is successful.

Horse betting odds are generally presented in one of two ways: as fractional odds or as decimal odds. Most bookmakers allow you to choose which type of horse betting odds you want to see displayed, so let’s take a quick look at how they differ.

Fractional Odds
Fractional horse betting odds present the odds as fractions such as 1/1, 2/1, 5/2 and so on. The left hand side of the fractional odds tells you how many units profit you will make if you stake the number of units on the right hand side of the odds. For example, if the fractional odds are 6/1 and you bet £10, you would make £60 profit if your horse wins the race in question.

Calculating exactly how much profit you stand to make from a particular bet with fractional odds is quite simple, even when you have seemingly complicated odds such as 13/8. All you have to do is divide the left hand side of the odds by the right hand side, add 1 and multiple the result by your stake. This tells you what your total return from the winning bet will be, so if you deduct your original stake you would be left with the amount of profit you have made.

For example, if you place a bet of £12 on a 13/8 winner, you would get a return of 13 divided by 8 = 1.625 + 1 = 2.625 x £12 = £31.50. You staked £12 so your total profit in this scenario is £31.50 - £12 = £19.50.

Decimal odds
Decimal horse betting odds present the odds as decimal figures such as 2.00, 3.00 and 3.50. You will notice that the fractional odds described a moment ago only reflected the potential profit, and that we had to add 1 point to take into consideration our returned stake. Decimal odds automatically include the returned stake, so in order to calculate how much profit a winner would give you, all you have to do is multiply the decimal horse betting odds by your stake and then deduct your stake.

For example, if you place a bet of £10 on a winner at decimal odds of 3.50, you would get a return of 3.50 x £10 = £35 - £10 = £25.

Generally speaking, the lower the odds offered about a horse, the more chance it has of winning (according to the betting market makers and the betting public). You should still use horse racing form as your main guide to picking winners, but do consider looking at the odds as well to confirm the relative strength of your selection. If the market agrees with you (and the horse is among the first five in the betting) then a bet might well we worthwhile. However, if your selection is not among the first five in the betting, exercise caution and keep stakes to a minimum.