There are plenty of great Aussie betting sites. All of these different bookmakers offer great value for betting on racing, such as excellent odds, a wide selection of markets, in play betting and quality live streaming as well as racing news. Here are the bookies who come out on top:
TAB AU
Not only is it one of the biggest Aussie betting sites, but it is excellent for horse racing betting. One of the reasons that TAB Au is one of the top betting sites for horse racing in Australia is because of its Sky Racing license. Having a Sky Racing license is a big benefit to all of its customers. Because of this, punters can not only access excellent quality live streaming, but also audio streams and live racing news. Customers can do this via the desktop or mobile app. So, punters can make their bets on the race, then watch live as it happens.
TAB Au covers all of the top races, not only in Australia. but also in other countries such as the UK and Ireland and even Hong Kong, as well as some of America’s biggest races. Not only do they cover Australia’s Melbourne Cup, but also famous UK races such as The Grand National, Cheltenham Festival and the Epsom Derby.
As soon as you open an account with TAB Au, you can enjoy top quality streams, value odds and an overall great experience for customers, with a user-friendly desktop and mobile device, great customer service, plenty of banking methods and even access the most recent horse racing news to help you make a well-informed bet. Also, not only can you find great bonuses and offers, but it is also linked to websites encouraging its customers to gamble responsibly. Read more in our full TAB Au review.
Other top websites for betting on racing include SportsBet, Bet365, Blue Bet and Unibet. Also, worth a look is Sports Champs that is excellent for fantasy horse betting. All of these sites offer generous bonuses and offers, up to date racing news and follow all laws and regulations in the country and encourage players to gamble responsibly.
Types of Horse Racing Bets
Betting on the horses doesn’t just have to be about betting on which horse crosses the line first. Betting on racing offers a much greater variety than that now, especially if you keep up to date with racing news. It is somewhat different from the UK and Ireland in a number of respects. In Australia, there are a lot of totes available. Moreover, most bookmakers in the country allow customers to choose which odds or market options they want to bet on. For punters betting on fixed odds, these will be given by the individual bookmaker. However, Totes prices are set by punters.
Tote Betting v Fixed Odds
There are three main totes in Australian, these are TAB (for the Victoria location), NSWTAB (for the New South Wales location) and UBET (for the South Australia, Queensland, Northern Territory and Tasmania locations).
However, with Totes, the prices generally aren’t as high as with fixed odds betting you get through the big bookmaker sites. There are a couple of bookies that let their punters bet on ‘Mid Tote’ or ‘Top Tote’. This means that their bets will be settled at either the average or top odds offered by all of the three different totes. Overall, if you are looking for better value, you’re best placed going for fixed odds.
Horse Racing Exacta, Quinella and Trifecta Betting
These are trickier than winning bets as these require you getting more than one correct positioning, so chances of success are greater if you know the latest racing news:
Exacta betting requires you to stake your bet on who you think will come first and second in the right order. This is just one sportsbet and offers better prices than the race winner.
A Quinella also requires you to stake your bet on who you believe will come first and second in the race. However, with a Quinella, it doesn’t matter which order they finished the race. This type of sportsbet is made up of two separate wagers.
Finally, a Trifecta sportsbet requires you to put your stake on who you believe will come 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the race. This needs to be predicted in the right order, like the Exacta bet. As well as this, you can make a ‘Boxed Trifecta’ bet, which allows you to pick the first three horses in the race in any order.
Futures Betting
One of the riskier ways to bet on racing is with futures betting. The further in advance you make your bets, the greater chance there is that something will go wrong. So, for example, if you bet on a horse to win the Cox Plate a month or two early, then there could be a chance that your horse doesn’t even run the course, due to injury. However, because of the risks, you can get excellent prices for your stake money if you bet on the futures market. With this, it is vital to keep an eye on the racing news to see if your horse will even make it to the race. As always, the risk always reflects the rewards.
Each Way Betting
Each-way betting is very popular in horse racing. This slightly decreases the risk from betting on which horse will win the race. With an each-way bet, you are placing your sportsbet on the horse to win or place. Just like a Quinella, this is made of two separate bets, so a $20 each way bet on your horse would end up costing $40. If your horse wins, you will get the best return. However, should your horse place 1,2 3 or 4 in the race, then you will still get a return.
The best way to get the most out of an each-way bet is to find a horse with an excellent price, who may not win the race, but has an excellent chance of placing. If you use this correctly, you can make a decent profit from this bet type.
Finding the Best Betting Odds for Horse Racing
No matter what type of sportsbet you make, you will want to get the best prices and the best value for your money. This is the single most important factor of placing your sportsbet. It may only mean a few extra dollars winnings on one race, but if this happens race after race, the difference could end up being huge. As such, it’s really important to find the bookies that offer value on all races, not just the top events. You want a sport betting website that is all round value and this is why it’s important to keep comparing the prices on offer.
If you make a comparison between three different websites for a specific race, and the prices available, then you will see how important it is to compare bookies for each horse on each race.
An example is as follows:
Horse Betting Site A Betting Site B Betting Site C
Kings Cove 13.6 11.2 10.6
Secret Dynasty 5.0 4.9 4.5
Stand By Me 21.0 23.0 26
Prince Charming 10.8 11.0 12.0
Straight Up 6.5 7 6.9
Taking the above into consideration, for just one race, the bookie that you should pick very much depends on the horse you want to bet on. If you want to wager on Kings Cove, you should opt for Betting Site A, Betting on Stand By Me has much better value at Betting Site C, whereas Straight Up is a better bet on Betting Site B.
Tips and Strategies for Betting on Horse Racing
If you find a race you want to put a sportsbet on, then it might be wise to check out some of the top tips and strategies. Firstly, look out for top tips from expert tipsters, but beware of those charging money, as you’ll find a lot of good tips for free. However, finding a reliable tipster will help you, especially if you are new to the sport. Tipsters will always be keeping an eye on the current horse racing news so that they know exactly what is happening. There are always plenty of changes happening in the run up to race day, so keeping up with the racing news is vital to provide good tips.
However, if you do want to bet on race without anyone else’s help, then there are certain things that you really need to know before putting down your stake.
- The Ground Conditions/Going. How a horse performs is often affected by the quality of the grounds of the course. There are some that always run better when the ground is muddy and it’s wet weather. However, others perform better on hard and dry ground. So, when looking at the race, check out the ground, look at the weather reports for the day of the race and see how your horse has performed in similar conditions.
- The Form of the Trainer. Like any team or sportsmen in other sporting events, trainers and yards have form. They have good spells and bad spells, so you need to check the latest racing news on your horse trainer form before placing your sportsbet. If your favoured horse is from a yard or trainer having a bad spell, then it’s probably best to wait it out for another race.
- The Track and Draw. Each horse has favourite courses. Some perform better on a certain racecourse. Also, the race draw could also have an effect. If a horse runs well on a certain racecourse and has had a good draw, then it could be a promising sportsbet.
Betting on Horse Racing on your Mobile
Lots of people now like to bet on racing when they are on the go, which makes a mobile app perfect for the job. Most top racing betting sites in the country offer very well designed apps and as such, offer all the services they have on desktop sites.
The quality of the website mobile app has greater importance now than ever. It needs to offer everything on mobile that it does on desktop, this includes not just the races and wager types, but also any major sporting event you want. You should also be able to enjoy any racing live streaming option that is available as well, in high quality, as well as getting the latest racing news. On top of this, all racing bonuses and offers should also be readily available to its players. Betting apps should also have features on the site to help you to gamble responsibly, such as time out and sportsbet limits.
We found that TAB au mobile app is excellent for racing wagers. Simply login on your device and you can enjoy everything on mobile that you can on the desktop website. You can wager on all the same bet types and even live stream racing from locations all over the world in HD. The app works excellently on both iOS and Android.
Major Racing Sporting Events
Any fan of racing that keeps up to date with horse racing news will be aware that there are excellent racing events that take place from many different locations around the world. Domestic Racing is generally run by Racing Australia Limited. The most famous Racing Australia sporting event is The Melbourne Cup, followed closely by others such as The Golden Slipper, The VRC Oaks and The Caulfield Cup.
- The Melbourne Cup
- The Cox Plate
- The Golden Slipper
- The VRC Oaks
- The Caulfield Cup
- W S Cox Plate
Then there are the major European events, where, in winter, it is dominated by jumpers rather than flats, with flat races mainly in the summer months. The most popular European events are:
- The Grand National (jump)
- Cheltenham Gold Cup (jump)
- Champion Hurdle (jump)
- Champion Chase (jump)
- King George Chase (jump)
- Stayers’ Hurdle (jump)
- Royal Ascot (flat)
- Epsom Derby (flat)
- St Leger (flat)
- Epsom Oaks (flat)
- Champion Stakes (flat)
- Breeders’ Cup (flat)
- 1000/2000 Guineas (flat)
Live Streaming Horse Races
There will be times when you can’t see the races you want on live TV, so live streaming is the best option. Most of the top sites that we have mentioned offer live streaming, so as long as you put a wager on the races, you will be able to watch it live, as it happens. However, with most bookmakers, you will need to wager a minimum bet on the races in order to access the stream. So, before you make your sportsbet, make sure that you read the t cs first to see if your bet qualifies for the live streaming feature.
Fantasy Betting
Sometimes, if you want to try something different, then with sites such as Sports Champs, you can enjoy fantasy horse racing. These races are available daily and here, you compete against other punters as opposed to the bookie. You can enjoy fantasy leagues, daily meetings and it’s very easy to understand. Another of the bonuses for fantasy betting is that you can enjoy free games or paid games.
When you enter, simply pick one horse from each of the races at the meeting. You will get points if your horse either wins or places in the races. Then, the player who gets the most points when the last of the races is run, wins. You can also create your own leagues and play against your friends.
Horse Racing FAQs
How Can I Win when Betting on Horse Racing?
There’s no guaranteed way to win any sportsbet. However, you can improve your chances. What makes the biggest difference is keeping up to date with the recent horse racing news. This is vital because, in the sports world, there are changes happening all the time, with horses getting injured or dips of form. If you read the racing news, you will see which horse is struggling for form, which horse has performed well on certain racecourses and more. So, if you pick a horse that has had several runs at Eagle Farm and has always performed well, then betting on the same horse at its next run at Eagle farm would be well advised. The more you keep up to date with the horse racing news, the better. However, the weather is just as important as news because the weather can also affect how the horse races.
Which are the Best Best Betting Sites for Racing?
This depends on what you are looking for. However, if you want to make a sportsbet on a site that offers an overall competitive service, then you should look at sites such as TAB au and Bet365. These sites are not only great value when it comes to pricing the races, but they offer events and races from any location around the globe. There should also be a section of the site that offers up to date stats as racing news to help. They also offer live streaming, lots of bonuses and promotions etc. However, remember to always check the t cs for each of the bonuses to make sure that your wager qualifies and that it is safe. Each bonus’ t cs should be clear and concise.
Also, be sure that the betting site gives you an easy link to gambling help. If a site links to gambling help sites then you know that they are encouraging players to gamble responsibly, which shows it is concerned for players welfare.
Which are the best Australian Racecourses?
There are a number of top race tracks in the country, with Flemington being the most popular- home to the Melbourne Cup. Other big venues in the country include Randwick, Moonee Valley, Caulfield, Rosehill as well as tracks such as Eagle Farm and Doomben in Brisbane.