Ireland’s association with and love of horse racing spans centuries with the earliest records of racing listed as far back as 110 BC, though the country has come a long way from the primitive chariot racing of bygone ages.
In Ireland, horse racing, training and breeding are huge institutions, indeed, the Irish are widely considered to be some of the best in the world at their trades. Horse racing betting gained popularity as a natural offshoot of that industry and the sport is a staple among bettors on the Emerald Isle.
Betting on horse racing has risen in popularity with the introduction of online betting sites in recent years and the evolution of the way punters wager their hard earn cash has spawned fresh markets and bet types to explore.
Most Popular Markets and Bet Types
- To win the race
This market is pretty much the most straightforward. You pick a horse and back it to win a certain race. If your horse gets over the line first, your bet lands and if it doesn’t you don’t. We like these bets for simplicity’s sake and they are a great way for novices to get going, though you can probably find better value in other markets a lot of the time.
- Each Way
This market is one of the primary reasons behind horse racing betting’s huge popularity. Essentially, this market allows you to place two separate bets on the same race. For your bet to be successful, your horse will have to either win the race or finish in any of the other positions you’ve selected. For instance, you could back a horse to finish in any of the first four places. Payouts will get smaller the further back your horse finishes, however.
- Multiples
With multiples, you combine a number of different bets into one. They can include doubles or even trebles. For your multiple to win, all of the selections must land. For example, you could combine predictions from four different races into one multiple. With each additional selection or “leg” added to your betting slip, the odds will increase. Multiples are great fun and can payout big if they hit the mark, though they are priced with longer odds for a reason and they can be difficult to get right.
- Yankee
A Yankee is a type of multiple but it works slightly differently. It consists of four selections and 11 bets – six doubles, four trebles and a fourfold. A minimum of two of your selections must win to guarantee a return. Pricing for Yankees can be tricky to understand, but a £1 Yankee would cost you £11 to stake.
- Lucky 15
Lucky 15’s are popular bet types among horse racing punters and they involve placing four selections with 15 bets – four singles, six doubles, four trebles and a fourfold. It’s quite similar to a Yankee except it has four singles added in. Only one selection must win to guarantee a return. A £1 Lucky 15 bet would cost you £15 in total. Although it can be a little dizzying at first, Lucky 15s can offer excellent avenues for profit.
- Ante-post
If you want to back a horse in a race a long time before it actually runs, then ante-poste betting will be right up your alley. Sometimes you can take advantage of more favourable odds when you back a horse in the ante-post markets, so if you have some insider knowledge, this is where you can apply it.
Horse Racing Betting Odds
In Ireland and the UK, horse racing odds are generally displayed in two formats at racecourses, in bookmakers and on betting sites online – fractional and decimal.
The odds in horse racing inform you how likely an event is to happen and how much you stand to receive from a successful wager.
For new bettors, they can look a little daunting, but the learning curve with odds isn’t steep and with a little practice, you’ll be reading them like a pro. Below, we’ll give you the basics about how each one works.
Fractional odds are usually displayed in a format that looks like: 3/1, 5/2, 7/1, 11/4 etc
Spoken out loud, it sounds like “three to one” or “eleven to four” etc and they are a simple mathematical way to calculate how much you stand to win if your bet lands.
For instance, if you back a horse at 3/1, for every one euro/pound you stake, you get three back if you win, plus your original stake.
If you see odds listed the other way around – like 1/3 or 1/5 – this is commonly called “odds-on” and it means the horse you’re looking at is a massive favourite to win the race they are running in.
Similarly, if you see EVS displayed instead of a fraction, it means the horse is “even money” which is the equivalent of 1/1 in fractional terms.
Decimal odds work more or less the same way as fractional odds, though they are displayed in formats like the following: 3.00, 6:00, 1.87, 2.53 etc
To work out how much you stand to win using decimal odds, you only need to multiply the number by your stake. For example, a £1 bet on a horse at 3.00 would return £3. Unlike fractional odds, your original stake is already built in here, so there is no need to add it on at the end.
For odds-on prices, the decimal format equivalent of 1/3 would be 1.33.