Best Horse Racing Betting Apps
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7 Best Applications - December 2023
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Great range of payment methods
Thousands of markets
Daily bet boosts for horse racing
New customers using Promo code H30 only, Min £10/€10 stake, min odds 1/2, free bets paid as 2 x £15/€15, free bets credited after settlement of first qualifying bet, free bets will expire 30 days after the qualifying bet is placed, payment method/player/country restrictions apply. Full T&Cs apply.
Great mobile app
Generous promotions and consolation prizes
Tote betting available
18+ New UK+IRE Customers only. Paypal & certain deposit methods & bet types excl. Min first 5 bet within 14 days of account reg at min odds 1/2 = 4x 5 free bets. Free bets valid for 7 days, stake not returned. No cashout, restrictions + T&Cs apply.
Tote, exchange, and sportsbook betting available
Great odds
Great variety of markets
18+ New UK+IRE Customers only. Certain deposit methods & bet types excl. Min first 5 bet within 14 days of account reg at min odds 1/2 = 4x 5 free bets. Free bets valid for 7 days, stake not returned. No cashout, restrictions + T&Cs apply.
Great money back offers
Plenty of live streaming options
Build your own stable
New Customers only. Bet £10* & Get £30* in Free Bets. Sign up, deposit between £5* and £10* to your account and bet365 will give you three times that value in Free Bets when you place qualifying bets to the same value and they are settled. Free Bets are paid as Bet Credits. Min odds/bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. T&Cs, time limits & exclusions apply.
In-depth stats available
Totepool betting
Great horse racing offers
New UK 18+ only. Register with promo code WELCOME40, Bet £10+ on Sports in one transaction. Get £30 Free Bets & £10 free spins within 10hrs of bet settlement. Bonuses expire 7 days after issue. Min odds, eligibility & payment exclusions apply. Full T&Cs apply.
High betting limits
Great choice of live streaming events
Excellent promotions
Min deposit £10 • A qualifying bet is a ‘real money’ stake of at least £10 • Min odds 1/2 (1.50) • Free Bets credited upon qualifying bet settlement and expire after 7 days • Free Bet stakes not included in returns • Casino Bonus must be claimed within 7 days and expires after 14 days • Bonus can be used on selected games only & winnings are capped at £500, excluding jackpot wins • Bonus winnings can only be withdrawn after wagering requirements have been met • Full T&Cs apply.
Very few deposit/withdrawal limits
Detailed Help Centre
Amazing odds
18+ New customers only. Opt in, bet £5 at odds 2.00+ within 7 days of registering, no cashout. Get 2x £10 Free Bets, set events at odds 2.00+. Plus a £10 Slot Bonus, selected games, wager 20x to withdraw max £250. 7 day bonus expiry. Card payments only. T&Cs apply, see below. begambleaware.org | Please gamble responsibly
Affiliate Disclosure
Betfy.co.uk may receive commission through affiliate links. All of our reviews are written prior to acquiring affiliate deals with gambling operators.
How We Rank Our Applications
Our methodology is both complex and strict, but we rely on keeping it transparent so that readers understand our reasoning in order to make an informed choice for themselves. On the other hand, being aware of our approach helps those who disagree pinpoint the exact criteria they can implement when doing their own research.
Presence on Market
The gambling industry is an area rife with scams, frauds, security problems, and other scandals. Those that have been involved in any such events do not make it onto our lists and picks. However, there is more to this than just being an honest provider: the way these apps conduct themselves, the type of advertisement strategy they use, and whether they deliver on their promises are all important factors to consider when choosing your platform.
Additionally, we check every bookmaker’s license. To be able to legally operate within the UK, a bookmaker has to be regulated by the UK Gambling Commission, but other regulatory authorities, like those from Malta or Gibraltar, are usually enough in other jurisdictions. Of course, the more licenses a provider has, the more legitimacy it adds to their business model, which is always very good to see.
Bonuses and Free Bets
Finding your horse racing betting best odds provider websites is closely tied to seeing what kind of bonuses and promotions they offer, both to newcomers and to seasoned veterans using their platform. While many bookmakers will have Best Odds Guaranteed, meaning if yours and the event’s starting price differ, you get the better price, not many are willing to return your stake if you’re beaten only by a length or give you a consolation prize if only one selection on your acca fails.
Additionally, many providers have stipulations in fine print that disqualify many punters because of the payment, deposit methods, and banking options they’re using for deposits, meaning what you thought was the best horse racing betting app for you can turn out to be much more restrictive than you first thought. We’re the experts in checking the fine print information for any of these, so you don’t have to.
Sports Variety and Types
From a UK-based bookmaker, you can expect an exhaustive list of horse races sports betting apps from the UK and Ireland, but if you’re looking for international horse betting, those are not necessarily available just anywhere. We check which countries are represented, whether their live races also include live streams, and if you can apply any bonuses you receive from the bookie to place bets.
We also check for the availability of ante post horse racing betting, less popular horse races like harness racing, and virtuals. And even though many bookies offer all the different exotic and complex horse racing bets, a calculator to show you your potential winnings also comes in handy more often than not.
Payment Methods
There are some relatively standard payment methods that are available almost everywhere: debit cards (since punters from the UK cannot use credit cards for depositing or withdrawing since April 2020), ewallets like PayPal or Skrill, and prepaid vouchers like paysafecard, and in some cases, the bookmakers allow for in-shop top ups or payments through their own, specialised cards. While horse betting apps are free to download and install, playing is not free, so it’s useful to know whether you can take advantage of some of the less common payment options like cheques and bank transfers to fund your account. Some bookies may require additional identification, while others (albeit rare ones) charge fees for their services—we check all of these for you.
Customer Service
No matter how great the betting app in the Apple App Store or Android App Store, you’re almost guaranteed to run into an issue sooner or later. Of course, with a good provider, this can be a downright pleasant experience, especially if their Help Centre teaches you something new, or you have a positive interaction with their customer support agents when you have questions. The best horse betting phone or tablet apps will give you access to: a detailed, easy-to-follow guide to common issues, betting rules, wagering requirements, deposit methods, and the platform’s features, and helpful, patient agents who can be reached at any time to further assist you.
Taking it a step further, many bookmakers will have community forums where you can interact with other users, but also blogs with tips, expert analyses, and news, speculations, and much more, making them especially worth following.
Everything You Need to Know
There are several types of horse betting. The most popular ones by far are flat racing— separated into conditions and handicap racing—and jump racing, often called National Hunt in a standard horse betting app, which is separated into hurdles and steeplechases. Less popular races include endurance racing, quarter racing, and harness racing, which is especially popular in Australia but not nearly as much in the UK. Some other significantly less popular disciplines, like maiden racing, are actually not as distinct from other categories as they may seem, so they will often be offered under those headers (if at all).
Many bookmakers offer ante-post betting on horse races, which means the bet is placed before the racing course’s betting market has even opened. The best horse racing betting sites that offer this feature will often let you place those bets a full day before the event. Since there are no racecourse prices, these odds tend to vary considerably between bookmakers, so many punters will choose the ones offering the best prices.
This is also, in part, where the Best Odds Guaranteed feature comes from: since the difference between the price at which you placed your bet and the starting price can hurt your profits, the vast majority of bookmakers will always let you keep the better price. The feature is also used for day-of bets when the best horse betting odds are hard to follow as they depend on previous races, tips, and potential changes in the runners, but the bigger profit can usually be gained from ante-post racing.
Finally, horse races were the birthplace of many complex odds with names that tend to confuse newcomers, like Trixie, Yankee, or Lucky 15/31/63, whichever strikes your fancy. They are just names for specific bet types that consist of varying numbers of single and multiple bets, and most of them can return some profit, although you have to have a relatively high number of winning selections to even return your stake, let alone make an actual profit.
Many horse betting bookies online offer detailed explanations of all the different bets they offer, plus bet calculators that let you play around with odds, quantities, and preferred outcomes to see what happens.
Short Reviews
The jump from in-person to desktop site online gambling has happened quickly, but not nearly as fast as the shift to mobile. As the logical continuation of the gambling experience, once smartphones proved they were here to stay and the convenience in gambling on the go, it’s rare to find bettors with an online profile who has never used their mobile device to place a bet. This doesn’t have to mean they use apps, as mobile betting on horses is often available through the mobile version of the site just as easily as on your PC. Still, since apps are so popular, we’ve assembled ten of the best ones and reviewed them.
Before You Go…
We hope you’re able to find your perfect free live horse racing app with the assistance of our reviews. It’s no walk in the park, but it also doesn’t have to be a terrifying chore. Now that you know which features all the bookies have on offer (bonuses being by far the most important one to most punters), you can go ahead and pick the bookie with the best offers, be it in terms of promotions, markets, worldwide races, or different disciplines within the racing sport. Most importantly, have fun and gamble responsibly.
How to pick the best application?
Understanding what each mobile app offers is the first step towards picking the perfect one. From different odds, markets, bonuses, payment methods, etc., every app has its own peculiarities that make it better suited towards a certain type of punter. Another great way to find the perfect app is to compare the odds between different providers using online comparison tools. Don’t forget to use elimination—if a bookmaker does not offer something you can’t live without, don’t sell yourself short; find something better.
What is the best way to bet?
There are many bets you can make on horses, but by far the most profitable ones are outrights—simply betting on a horse to win. Since you’re only making one selection, the odds of the bet winning are the odds the bookmaker gives you. You can also bet on multiple horses, and multiple race bets, where you choose the winners of several races. Finally, the best way to bet on horses is, at the most basic level, the one that lets you have fun, but also win, at least occasionally.
What types of bets can you make?
There is a huge range of bets you can make when it comes to horse races. There are straight bets, with three distinct types: betting on a horse to win is simply called a win, betting on it to come in a certain place is called, well, place, while betting on it to come in the first three is called show. Exotic wagers, however, let you bet on the order in a single race (vertical wagers), on the outcome of several races (horizontal wagers), or even the order where the chosen horses can come in whichever order they like for you to win (boxing wagers).
Can you bet to lose?
In a way, betting on one horse to win is betting on all the others to lose. However, all of us already know that it is much easier to choose a horse that will lose than one that will win, as the selection is so much greater. This is made possible through exchange betting: if one user bets that a horse will win, you can lay their bet, betting on it to lose. You can also bet on a single horse to take a certain place other than the first, meaning that in order for your bet to win, the horse has to “lose.”
Which bookmakers offer early odds?
A number of bookmakers offer early odds, also known as ante-post betting, and most of them will have this advertised on their website. Bet365, Betfred, and 888Sport are all examples of bookmakers with this feature, which is especially useful at the same time with their best odds guaranteed feature, as the early odds (before the opening of the racecourse) can differ widely among bookmakers as they have nothing to tie them to. Since most horse racing apps that offer these features also have excellent tips and analyses available on their blogs, punters can get a winning combination simply by signing up with them.