Premium horse races like the Grand National in the UK come around only once every year and if you don’t know how to bet on them properly, you could be losing all your money in the blink of an eye. There is no denying that betting on horse races is not an easy task, but if you can get the basics right, you should be able to understand how things work soon. Remember that small practice bets are very important as that’s how you get used to the world of horse racing, without risking too much.
If you’re seeking to prepare yourself in advance in order to be ready for the big event, you can start checking the different betting options, the so-called free bets when choosing from a Bookmaker, that you can find in this Grand National free bets list.
Read on to know what you need to understand before you put in your first practice wager.
Betting Odds: How Do They Work?
A betting odd could be specified in fraction (UK) or decimal, depending on the bookie and the region. To keep things simple, consider a scenario where you had bet £1 on a horse that had 2/1 odds. If that horse wins, you will be making a profit of £2 and getting back a total of £3, which includes your original betting amount of £1 plus the £2 you just won on that horse. If the same odds are represented via a decimal value, then the betting odds on that horse will be specified as 3.00, which is the value of the fraction plus £1 in this case.
Decimal odds show you the total amount you will be getting back from the bookie if your horse wins. The best race horses have very low odds on them, so if you see a 1/10 odd on a racehorse, know that betting £1 on that horse will fetch you only £0.10 as profit, with your total return being £1.10. The key is to remember that in a fractional odd, the numerator will always be the amount you will win in proportion to the denominator, and the denominator will always be representative of the amount you will need to bet in order to win the amount represented by the numerator.
The Win Bet
The simplest of the bets is the win bet, where you simply put your money on a horse that you think will win the race. If it wins, you win and if it loses, so do you!
The Each Way Bet
A much safer bet is the Each Way bet where the gambler stands a chance to win something even if his/her horse finishes in any of the top three positions, instead of winning the race. Consider the following scenario to understand how it works.
John puts £20 on an each way bet, where his £20 is divided into £10 in favour of his horse winning the race and the other £10 in favour of his horse ending up in the top three. His horse, which has odds of 5/1, wins the race. This means that he will win both the bets and make more money than he would have made from just placing a win bet. While the winning bet amount will be 5 ×£10 = £50 in this case, the amount which John will receive because his horse also made it to the last three will depend on what placement odds the bookies was offering while John had put his bets in. If it was ¼ of the winning odds, then the amount won by John in the second bet would be 1/4th of 5/1, which is £12.5. All in all, John will walk away with a total sum of £72.5 and a profit of £52.5.
The Straight Forecast
Also known as an Exacta in the US, a straight forecast requires you to predict which two horses will end up at the top two positions in a particular race. You will even have to get the order right to win.
The Reverse Forecast
The only difference between the straight forecast and the reverse forecast is the fact that in the latter, the top two horses can be in any order, but you will win nevertheless.
The Tricast
The most rewarding and also the most difficult of the lot, the tricast requires you to predict the outcome of the race in the exact order for all the top three horses.
The above info should get you acquainted with the world of horse racing, but in order to really be ready for the Grand National and other prestigious horse racing events, you will need to start with small bets soon.
