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Matched betting on horse racing – Can you make money betting on horses?

Matched betting on horse racing – Is it possible to make money betting on horses in 2019?

You bet…

Read on to find out how you can profit from horse racing using match betting and how you can use OddsMonkey to get started today.

A few weeks ago, a beginner got in touch asking whether it was possible to make money betting on horses. Specifically, they were asking about matched betting horse racing and whether it was profitable in 2019.

The person in question had a few misconceptions about match betting and horse racing and they thought it was more difficult than other sports and events.

This may be the case for you, so to show you how easy and profitable it is to make money betting on horses, I decided to go in-depth…

Horse racing is one of the most popular sports in the UK and it’s home to some of the most prestigious racecourses and richest races in the world. You’ve undoubtedly heard of Ascot and Cheltenham.

Cheltenham horse racing

Horse racing is a prolific sport in the diary and there’s plenty of match betting opportunities to make money throughout the year.

Reasons for matched betting on horse racing

Here are a number of reasons why it’s a great idea to place your matched bets on horse racing events:

  1. Mix up your matched betting
  2. There’s plenty of profit to be made betting on horses
  3. You can continue earning during the football off-season
  4. Horse racing is an exciting sport to follow

Let’s have a look at each of these in more detail.

Mix up your matched betting

The aim of matched betting is to use as many bookmaker promotions as possible, the more you complete, the more money you make. It’s as simple as that.

Therefore it’s important to keep bookie accounts open and active for as long as possible.

If your accounts are restricted or gubbed in any way, you can’t take advantage of free bets and other promotions. This renders matched betting pretty much useless.

To stay under the bookie’s radar, you need to make yourself look like normal, regular punters. By mixing up your betting patterns, you can blend into the crowd more effectively.

So don’t just place your matched bets on one sport or event all the time, change it up and bet on something new – horse racing is a great option.

It also makes matched betting far more exciting. There’s nothing worse than a tedious betting pattern. Make it interesting and have some fun!

Plenty of profit to be made betting on horses

Another reason to place matched bets on racing is that you can make plenty of money betting on horses.

Horse racing is the second largest spectator sport and actually the most popular sport for punters to bet on in the UK, so it makes perfect sense for the bookies to offer free bets to incentivise punters.

For that reason, there’s a huge range of horse racing offers that matched bettors can take advantage of on a regular basis. So what does that mean for you?

It means you can make a lot of money betting on horses risk-free.

We’ll take a look at different matched betting horse racing offers later in the article.

Continue earning during the football off-season

Football is the most watched sport in the world and there are plenty of games to bet on and numerous matched betting offers to complete each week during the season.

But what do you do during the summer break?

There’s usually (on major tournament off-years) a  5-6 week period when footballers are spending their millions on holiday and resting up. During that spell, you’re unlikely to be able to place matched bets on football events. That means less profit in your accounts.

Football - Ronaldo

As I mentioned earlier, the aim is to place as many matched bets as possible so when football isn’t an option it’s time to look elsewhere. It’s a great idea to place bets on other sports and events like horse racing.

Thankfully, horse racing is an annual sport. Whatever the weather’s doing you can be sure there will be a race to bet on somewhere in the world, allowing you to make money betting on horses quite easily.

Horse racing is an exciting sport

Being one of the most unpredictable sports in the world, horse racing is quite exciting even when you watch it on TV. When you start placing bets and making money betting on horses, the excitement goes to the next level.

You now have a vested interest in the outcome of a race no matter what betting strategy you use.

So we know why it’s a great idea to start matched betting horse racing, but is it different from other sports or events?

Does horse racing differ from betting on other sports?

Betting on sports is relatively easy no matter what category you pick. As you’d expect, most things are pretty similar whether you’re betting on horse racing or other sports like football.

The main difference between betting on a horse race or a football game is the markets available. Everything else is exactly the same, including placing your bets etc.

Obviously, a horse race cannot end in a draw, unlike football fixtures. That means you can either bet on a horse to win or lose a race. In my view, betting on horses is actually easier than other sports.

Here are a few key terms you’ll need to know. These specifically apply to horse racing betting.

EW or Each Way

Each way bets are a bet type in which the punter stakes the same amount of money on the horse winning the race as the horse ‘placing’ (finishing in the top three places). These bets basically give you more than one chance to win your bet. We’ll look into these in more detail below.

Handicap

A handicap is a term given to horses that have different amounts of weight added to their saddle to make a race more even.

The Going

The Going refers to the condition of the ground the horses are racing on. There are seven surface grades ranging from hard to heavy. This shouldn’t affect your betting in any way but it’s good to know and helps you analyse performance.

How matched betting on horse racing works

If you already understand the concept behind matched betting and you’re used to placing matched bets on football or other events, you’re pretty much sorted.

You just need to apply this same knowledge to horse racing events.

If you’re not sure what matched betting is and how it works you can find out more in our in-depth article.

Match betting on horse racing events follows exactly the same process as any other sport or event. I’ve laid it out below:

  1. First and foremost you need to find a horse racing offer or promotion.
  2. Next up, find the specific horse race you want to bet on. The terms of the offer may state you must place your bets on a certain race.
  3. Find the same race at the betting exchange you’re using. It’s easiest to search for the name of the event.
  4. Just like in other sports, we’ll look for the market (horse in this example) with the tightest back and lay odds at the bookie and the betting exchange.
  5. Once you’re happy with your selection, work out the correct lay stake using the matched betting calculator.
  6. When you’re sure everything’s correct, place your bets.

It’s as easy as that!

If the horse you bet on wins the race, your back bet will win and your lay bet will lose. If that horse doesn’t win, your back bet will lose and your lay bet will win.

Just the same as placing your matched bets on any other sport or event.

If you’re completely lost at this stage, I recommend you head to our matched betting partners OddsMonkey, who will guide you through the entire process from start to finish.

Matched betting horse racing offers

As I mentioned above, horse racing is the most popular sport for Brits to bet on. So it’s no wonder the bookies spend thousands promoting countless offers to entice new and existing customers.

For that reason, the large horse racing events like Cheltenham and Ascot provide matched bettors with huge potential.

Without a doubt, these events are the most profitable weeks of the year for matched bettors.

However, it’s not just the large events you can make money from. Horse racing is a global sport which makes it perfect for matched betting. There are always plenty of events to pick from across the globe, whether they’re in America or Australia.

You really don’t want to miss out on any opportunities to make money betting on horses.

Below are different types of matched betting horse racing offer that you can profit from.

Common free bets

As you’d expect, there are plenty of regular free bets available on horse racing events.

At the time of writing this article, the Cheltenham Festival has just finished so I’ll use an example from that.

William Hill offered customers a £10 free bet on day one of Cheltenham when they staked £20 on UK or Irish racing. Overall, this is an incredibly easy offer to profit from.

Matched betting horse racing - William Hill Cheltenham 2018

Price boosts

Another brilliant option to make money through matched betting on horse racing is price boosts. The bookies may boost the price on a certain horse to win, enticing more punters to gamble.

If the lay odds are suitable, using matched betting you can make a guaranteed profit regardless of the outcome.

Risk-free bets

This type of horse racing offer can be incredibly rewarding and you can make a guaranteed profit very easily.

Whilst risk-free bets are a little more complex than your standard matched bet, get some help from OddsMonkey and you’ll soon get your head around them.

Here’s just one example from the world’s largest online bookmaker, Bet365.

Bet365’s ITV racing 4/1 offer (previously Channel 4 racing) is a great risk-free bet to complete.

Matched betting horse racing - Bet365 ITV racing

Simply back a winning horse at odds of at least 4/1 (5.0) and you’ll receive a risk-free bet on the next televised ITV race, up to a maximum of £50.

The great thing about this offer; if you keep picking a winner, Bet365 will keep giving you a risk-free bet.

What if the horse you bet on loses? To unlock this specific risk-free bet, you need to select a winning horse so in this example, you wouldn’t have access to the promotion.

However, as with all matched bets, there’s no risk involved even if you select a losing horse.

On average you should be able to extract about 60% of a risk-free bet in cash. So from this example, that’s about £30 in tax-free profit.

If you’re new to matched betting risk-free bets may seem quite challenging but trust me, they’re incredibly easy and profitable offers that many people take advantage of.

Each way bets

This type of horse racing offer is for more experienced matched bettors. However, each way bets are certainly still worth learning as they can be very profitable.

Unfortunately, these bets don’t provide a guaranteed profit but there’s very little risk involved. You’ll only lose a small amount if results don’t go your way.

We won’t go through every promotion offered on horse racing events as we’ll be here all day.

However, it’s good to remember there will always be an offer to take advantage of when matched betting on horse racing meaning there’s plenty of opportunities to make money betting on horses.

Where to find the latest horse racing offers

Finding the latest offers and checking through the terms and conditions is the only part of matched betting that takes time.

This is where our matched betting partner, OddsMonkey come in. They put in all the legwork so you can maximise your profit and reap the benefits of matched betting.

Their team of matched betting experts are always searching for the latest offers, checking them over to make sure they’re worthwhile and adding them to the members-only part of the website.

If you’re thinking about getting started with matched betting, sign up to OddsMonkey right now. They even offer a free trial so you can see for yourself how great match betting really is.

Major horse racing events of the year

This is where matched betting horse racing really comes into its own!

As I’ve already mentioned, there are plenty of opportunities to make money betting on horses. Below are just some of the large horse racing events of the year that you cannot miss:

Cheltenham Festival – March
Grand National – April
Royal Ascot – June

Cheltenham festival - horse racing

How much can you make matched betting on horse racing?

How much money can I make is the question everyone wants to know the answer to, yet it’s quite difficult to give a definitive answer.

Everyone’s results will vary depending on how much time you invest and what offers you take advantage of.

However, what I can tell you is that members at OddsMonkey make between £500 and £1000 per month. When you consider this is both risk and tax free, it’s certainly very appealing.

As I mentioned earlier, matched betting on horse racing is incredibly profitable. You’ll make more money during some of the larger horse racing events than you would in say a month…

However much you make, horse racing matched betting is well worth your time and effort.

Top tips to make money betting on horses

Below are three top tips to maximise your profit betting on horses in 2019 and beyond.

Tip #1 – Place your bets in plenty of time

Our first tip is to get your bets placed in plenty of time.

Horse racing works very differently to other sports in terms of odds. Typically, the odds aren’t available until 24 hours before the race starts. In the last five minutes before the off, the market and odds move very quickly.

In an ideal world, matched bettors want stable odds as it’s easier to calculator and place your bets. Whilst this isn’t always possible, aim to place your bets about 15 minutes before the race starts.

If you can’t place your bets, just look for another market. There will be plenty more opportunities to make money betting on horses.

Tip #2 – Look for high liquidity markets

Our next horse racing tip is to look for high liquidity markets.

For those of you who aren’t sure, liquidity is the amount of money waiting to be matched on a certain market. Check out this guide for more information on how it works.

The liquidity of a horse racing event doesn’t start to increase until about an hour before the ‘off’. So what does this mean for your match betting?

The higher the liquidity or number of people looking to bet, the easier it is to place your bets. So it’s advisable to wait until the liquidity rises before looking to put your bets on.

Large crowd in stadium

You’ll find that with larger horse racing events like The Grand National, the liquidity increases earlier than smaller horse racing events.

Tip #3 – Bet on popular events

Our third and final tip is to make sure you pick popular events to place your horse racing matched bets.

Again, this comes back to the liquidity of an event. The more people who are looking to place bets, the better.

As horse racing is such a big sport, there are hundreds of events the bookies offer odds for. However, not all of these markets are worth pursuing. Stick to popular markets and you’ll be in safe hands.

Other sports and events that suit matched betting

As I’ve already mentioned, matched betting can literally be used on any event or sport. As long as there’s a lay market available at a betting exchange, you can make a risk free profit on any event or market.

I’m sure you know, football is another great sport to use for matched betting. There are always plenty of games to pick from and hundreds of markets available.

There’s also a huge number of offers available for football which is always great for matched bettors as you need to take advantage of as many free bets and promotions as possible.

Make money betting on horses

If you’re not matched betting on horse racing already, I hope this article encourages you to start.

Expanding the markets you regularly place bets on allows you to blend in with the betting crowd, makes the process more interesting and ultimately allows you to make more money.

I recommend you sign up with OddsMonkey as they’ll guide you through the entire process hand in hand.

All in all, matched betting is one of the best strategies you can use to make money betting on horses. Thousands of people already use this technique, so why not give it a go and see what you think.

Until next time.

What do you think of matched betting horse racing? Let me know by leaving a comment below right now.