Horse racing and betting have been synonymous with one another for generations. The UK betting scene was built around wagering on races and in the digital age, horse racing betting sites are often the best way to bet on racing.
It’s the bread and butter of sports gambling, but there can be a big difference between the worst and best betting sites for racing.
So, we’ve ranked the best horse racing betting sites UK punters can use to help punters find the right one.
Top 10 Horse Racing Betting Sites UK
Below, we’ve highlighted 10 of the best horse racing betting sites. We’ve chosen the specific aspect of betting they excel at to create a ‘best-in-class’ list for your needs, whether that be free bets, price boosts or live streaming.
Horse Racing Betting Sites |
Best Feature |
|---|---|
Tote |
Free bets |
Unibet |
Price boosts |
BoyleSports |
Accumulators |
Betfred |
Welcome bonus |
Bet365 |
Live streaming |
BetGoodwin |
Money-back offers |
William Hill |
Best Odds Guaranteed |
BetMGM |
Profit boosts |
LiveScore Bet |
Extra places |
Betano |
New offers |
Best Horse Racing Betting Sites For Free Bets: Tote
Tote are one of the most famous and best horse racing betting sites in the UK, and have recently diversified from the pools betting that made them so beloved by certain punters.
For example, they now offer sports betting on their site with the Tote welcome offer including both sports and horse racing free bets.
But horse racing remains their first love and racing bettors can get up to £10 in free bets each and every week as a member of Tote’s Stayers Club.
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It’s free to join the club and then all you need to do is place six qualifying bets, which can include exacta, trifecta, swinger, jackpot, placepot, quadpot and scoop6 bets.
In return, bettors will receive a free bet of £2, £5 or £10 based on the highest six completed qualifying bets.
Stayers Club members also receive placepot and multiple insurance for selected meetings.
Horse Racing Betting Sites With Price Boosts: Unibet
Unibet are one of the best horse racing betting sites when it comes to offers and promotions with a wide selection to choose from. Punters can enjoy top industry prices, free bet races, extra place, accumulator boosts, same race multis and even a special Unibet racing welcome offer.
But perhaps most useful is Unibet’s neatly-named ‘Uniboost’ promo, which allows bettors to get bigger odds on any horse they choose up to three times per day. The maximum stake is £20, but no other horse racing betting sites giveaway as many price boosts as Unibet.
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The site and app are both easy to use, while the Unibet sign up offer gives customers £20 in free bets and a £20 casino bonus after they’ve wagered a minimum of £10 at the sportsbook.
Best Horse Racing Betting Sites For Accumulators: BoyleSports
If you’re an accumulator lover, head over to BoyleSports. Not only do they run an Acca Loyalty scheme, awarding customers a £5 free acca bet once they’ve placed five £5 accumulators, but there’s also Acca Rewards available on each multiple placed.
Acca rewards allows bettors to either boost or insure your accumulator. But for fans of racing accumulators, BoyleSports have launched the midweek bet and get racing multi promotion.
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Wager £25 or more on horse racing multiples, including system wagers, such as a trixie bet or a yankee bet, during the week and in return, bettors will receive a £5 free acca bet to use the following day.
The icing on the cake is the BoyleSports sign up offer, which includes a £10 casino bonus and £30 free bet that can be using on racing singles and accumulators.
Best Horse Racing Betting Sites Welcome Bonus: Betfred
Racing punters won’t find a bigger welcome bonus that can be spent entirely on fixed odds racing bets than the Betfred sign up offer.
Sign up and bet a minimum of £10 on racing and in return Betfred will give new customers £50 in free bets. The free bets are split into 3 x £10 sports bets and 2 x £10 acca bets, all of which can be wagered on racing.
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Once bettors have an account with Betfred, they can enjoy plenty of other offers, such as winnings boosts, money back if 2nd or 3rd in selected races, best odds guaranteed and racing rewards.
Horse Racing Betting Sites UK With Live Streaming: Bet365
Unlike many live betting sites, Bet365 streams every racing meet in the UK and Ireland, as well as having selected international meetings available to view.
Most races are free to watch, provided Bet365 accounts are funded or a punter has placed a bet with bet365 in the last 24 hours. They can be viewed as part of the odds page, or in a separate pop up window.
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Bet365’s entire horse racing offer is impressive, with competitive odds, a clean site and app, plus the Bet365 sign up offer can be wagered on horse racing, as long as you meet the requirements of the bet £10, get £30 promotion.
Best Horse Racing Betting Sites For Money-Back Races: BetGoodwin
New betting sites offering racing pop up all the time, but when BetGoodwin launched in 2022 it was a different story. Goodwin Racing has been providing telephone betting services for nearly 30 years and they stand out from the crowd online thanks to their range of money-back offers.
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They offer a free bet refund (up to £100) for a wide range of scenarios, including being beaten by a 50/1 shot or bigger, or falling at the last when leading. Along with those promos, the BetGoodwin welcome offer gives users 50 per cent back on first day losses.
Best Horse Racing Betting Sites For Best Odds Guaranteed: William Hill
Some, although not all, horse racing betting sites offer Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG).
Those that do offer BOG vary the time from which it activates each day. A lot of horse racing betting sites UK punters have available don’t offer Best Odds Guaranteed until 9 or 10am.
But William Hill get the jump on the competition by opening up BOG from 8am each day. Not only that, they run regular free bet and price boosts promotions for racing, while the William Hill welcome offer of bet £10, get £30 can be used entirely on racing.
Best Horse Racing Betting Sites UK For Profit Boosts: BetMGM
BetMGM’s Golden Silks Daily Racing Boost is one of the best profit boost promos on the market. By opting in on a Monday and staking up to £20 on any horse racing market, customers will unlock seven 10 per cent profit boosts – one for each day of the week.
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This is part of an impressive all-round offer from BetMGM, one of the best new horse racing betting sites. The BetMGM sign up offer rewards new customers with £40 in free bets, although sadly, not all of it can be wagered on racing.
Horse Racing Betting Sites UK With Extra Places: LiveScore Bet
While most horse racing betting sites will offer extra places on occasions, LiveScore Bet does so on selected races every single day, while they cover many more races with this offer than rival racing bookmakers.
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It’s the extra places that really make LiveScore Bet stand out, but they also have a handy offer where you’ll get your money back, up to £10, as a free bet if your horse finishes second or third in a selected race.
The LiveScore Bet welcome offer gives new customers £30 in free bets, although only £20 is eligible for horse racing betting.
Top New Horse Racing Betting Sites: Betano
Betano went live in the UK in 2024 and have made a strong first impression through their free bet offers, which cover racing.
They currently have a special Betano sign up offer just for racing punters, giving them up to £40 back in free bets if their first wager after registration is a loser.
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Betano also offer daily racing odds boosts, racing lucky dips, live streaming and more for existing customers to enjoy.
How We Rank Horse Racing Betting Sites UK
We take the rating and recommendation of horse racing bookmakers very seriously and have stringent criteria for companies to even be considered for our list.
Regulation
Before we recommend any horse betting sites they have to be regulated by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) for us to even consider rating them, so you can be confident that every site above is safe to engage with.
Reputation
Our recommended horse racing bookmakers are a mixture of household names and new horse racing betting sites. The reputation of the company was very important to us, but we also consider newer companies generating buzz in the industry.
Odds & offers
Betting sign up offers are important, but these offers are just one part of the package we are searching for when examining horse racing betting sites with competitive odds, and in particular, best odds guaranteed, also high on the wanted list.
Payment methods
Horse racing betting sites should be able to offer punters a range of payment methods, from the traditional debit card, bank transfers to PayPal betting sites.
Customer experience
How good an experience the site provides for its customers was also taken into account when choosing the best horse racing betting sites – across desktop, mobile and betting app.
Types of Horse Racing Bets Explained
Punters new to horse racing betting sites will discover there’s a lot to learn when it comes to betting on racing. Racing bettors would appear to have their own language, while UK horse racing betting sites feature lots of betting options you won’t see on other sports.
Before placing a bet on racing, it’s recommended you have a solid understanding of the sport and betting world. To help you get started, here’s a guide to the types of horse racing bets punters are likely to come across.
- To win: A bet on a horse to win a race. Any other outcome and the bet loses.
- Each-way: A wager on a horse that covers it to win or place. The terms of a place finish are determined by horse racing betting sites and tend to cover the top 2, 3 or 4 home depending on how many horses are in the race.
- To place: Rather than back a horse to win, a place bet is a wager on it to finish in the specified places of a race, such as the top three or four.
- Forecast: Also known as an exacta bet, here you bet on the first two horses to finish in a race in the correct order.
- Reverse forecast: Also called a quinella, you bet on the first two horses home, but they can finish in any order.
- Trifecta: A bet on which horses will finish first, second and third in a race in the right order.
Those are just the more common types of bets available for a single, but there are a lot more types of wagers to discovery, such as accumulators, placepots and ante-post bets.
To help punters better understand racing betting, we’ve produced a series of guides, including an in-depth piece on racing bet types:
- Betting odds explained
- Types of horse racing bets
- How to bet on horses
- How to place a bet online
- What is an accumulator bet?
- What does non-runner no bet mean?
- What is an each-way bet?
- What is a placepot bet?
What’s On In Horse Racing This Week
Chester takes centre stage this week with the three-day Boodles May Festival, which begins on Wednesday.
The Chester Vase, a good indicator for the Derby, takes place on Wednesday, while the Ladbrokes Chester Cup is the feature race on Friday afternoon.
The Derby and Oaks take place on June 7 this year and any contenders not running at Chester but being aimed at either of those races could be in action at Lingfield on Saturday.
Lingfield plays host to both the Derby and Oaks trials this weekend, both Listed races, as well as the Group 3 Chartwell Fillies’ Stakes.
Lingfield’s card on Saturday is completed by the meetings at Haydock, Ascot, Nottingham, Hexham, Leicester and Warwick, while on Sunday there’s an intriguing card at Leopardstown featuring the Group 3 Al Shira'aa Racing 'Mutamakina' Stakes.
Gamble Responsibly
Using horse racing betting sites can become addictive, so it's vital bettors take precautions to keep themselves safe on gambling sites.
Every licensed UK betting site should offer safer gambling tools, such as deposit limits, time outs, self-assessment questionnaires and self-exclusion options.
These are free tools to help punters stay in control and they are available at various gambling sites, including online bookmakers, casino sites, slot sites, and poker sites.
These operators may offer punters free bets or casino bonuses from time to time, but it's important to treat these rewards with caution. Read the terms and conditions before accepting any bonus as some will require you to place a cash bet before handing out the reward.
Always remember that horse racing betting is meant to be fun. It should never be viewed as a guaranteed way to make money.
If you ever feel like you need help or advice on gambling addiction, don’t hesitate to contact one of the charities or organisations below.
We may earn commission from some of the links in this article, but we never allow this to influence our content. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
