5 Mistakes to Avoid When Betting on Horse Racing

With thousands of races a year and around 14,000 horses in training in the UK at any given moment, horse racing provides an intriguing and endlessly evolving puzzle to solve.

Like all the best puzzles, finding a winning formula is difficult. Difficult, but not impossible - punters can and do make a regular profit from the sport of Kings. The methods followed to achieve a positive result vary from punter to punter – stopwatch fans religiously track the times, form devotees burn the midnight oil assessing the collateral form lines, whilst pedigree aficionados swear by breeding analysis.

There is no method which stands tall above the rest in the realm of picking winners. The best advice is to find the approach that works for you and stick to it, but whatever route you follow, your betting balance will thank you for steering clear of the many punting pitfalls out there. With that in mind, we present five common mistakes to avoid when betting on horse racing.

1. Failing to Consider the Odds

The odds you take are the most important factor when betting on horse racing or any other sport.

Using the classic coin toss as an example, you may have a strong fancy that a fair coin may be about to land on heads, but would you bet on it if the odds on offer were 1/2 (1.50)? To do so would be foolish, considering the true odds of your bet are Evens (2.0), representing a 50/50 chance. Sure, you might win on any given bet, but repeatedly taking 1/2 about an Even Money chance would send you on a swift visit to the poor house.

The difficulty with horse racing is that we can never put a precise figure on the odds, unlike the simple coin toss. However, that doesn’t mean we should ignore the odds. When making your selections, you must ask yourself which horse you think will win but also assign a value to how likely you think it is to win. Get into the habit of allocating a percentage to this likelihood – if the odds on offer disagree with your assigned percentage, you may have a betting opportunity.

2. Placing Too Many Bets

Part of the attraction of betting on racing is that each wager generates excitement. There's nothing wrong with that (betting is supposed to be fun, after all), but be careful not to place bets simply for the thrill factor.

Taking a typical Saturday as an example, turning to the racing cards will present close to fifty races in the UK and Ireland. Expecting to find a good value bet in every race is simply unrealistic. Far better to pick out the races you find most appealing and focus your attention on a smaller pool of runners.

3. Staking Errors

This error applies across all sports but is particularly true of horse racing due to the frequency of the races. When on a losing run, it can be all too easy to up your stake to recoup losses. This kind of ill-disciplined staking will, more often than not, end in tears.

The best approach is to pick out your selections and assign stakes before the racing begins. However the results fall throughout the day, you should stick to the staking decisions you made with a cool head. Many prefer a level stakes approach; others always bet a set percentage of their total betting balance, whilst some link their stake to their confidence in the bet. Again, find the system that suits your betting style and religiously adhere to it.

4. Failing to Shop Around

If a loaf of bread costs £1 at one store and the same loaf of bread costs £1.50 at another, any rational shopper would head to the first store. However, many punters take shorter odds about a runner with their regular bookmaker when a bigger price is readily available elsewhere - this is simply throwing money away.

In the modern era, where heading from one bookmaker to another is as simple as a few clicks, there is no excuse for taking inferior odds. We recommended opening accounts with a selection of the top bookmakers and always placing your bet with the firm offering the best price. The availability of odds comparison sites takes all the work out of following this step, which can only improve your bottom line.

5. Ignoring Best Odds Guaranteed

There are many racing offers, but for regular punters, the simple Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG) remains the best for our money.

For those unfamiliar with this deal, BOG stipulates that if the SP is better than the odds taken when placing your bet, you will be paid out at the bigger price. Conversely, if the odds you took are bigger than the SP, you will still be paid out at the bigger price. This is known as a win-win scenario and shouldn’t be ignored.

You might wonder how you could possibly go wrong with such a deal. Firstly, not all bookmakers offer BOG, so the first step is to prioritise those who do. Secondly, BOG only applies to bets placed after a specified time - most often between 9am and 11am on the day of the race. Unless you have an excellent reason to believe your selection will shorten significantly from its current price, you should wait until the BOG period is active before placing your bet.

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