What is Best Odds Guaranteed, and why you should ALWAYS take it!

In 2025, many excellent promotions and offers are available to UK Horse Racing punters; Extra Place Races, Price Boosts, Money-Back incentives, etc, can all add significant value to your betting experience. However, in our opinion, the pick of the racing-related deals is still Best Odds Guaranteed or BOG.

Here, we have a promotion you must ALWAYS take advantage of whenever available. For those unfamiliar with Best Odds Guaranteed, here we explain why it represents a win-win scenario for the punter and identify the bookmakers who offer Best Odds Guaranteed in 2025.

Before Best Odds Guaranteed

Before delving into our explanation, let us travel back to the time before Best Odds Guaranteed, and yes, unfortunately, we are old enough to remember. When placing a horse racing bet on the day of the race, a punter had two choices: either accept the odds on offer at the time or opt to take the Starting Price (SP).

This decision would usually lead to one of two outcomes: either a feeling of smug satisfaction at taking 12/1 about a horse who subsequently wins with a starting price of 6/1; or dejection at snapping up that great value 16/1 about a horse who goes on to do the business at an SP of 25/1. Without Best Odds Guaranteed, if you accepted a price, that is the price at which you would be paid out. If you didn’t take a price when placing your bet, you would be paid out at SP. Simple, but not particularly satisfying.

How Does Best Odds Guaranteed Work? Removing the Decision

In one fell swoop, the Best Odds Guaranteed promotion removed the agonising decision regarding whether to take a price when you place your bet. And here's why.

When betting on a Best Odds Guaranteed race, if the SP is higher than the price you take, you will be paid out at the higher price. In contrast, if the SP is lower than the price you take, you will be paid out at the higher odds taken when placing your bet. We told you this was a win-win scenario for the punter.

Hopefully, it should now be clear that you should always use Best Odds Guaranteed where available, but let's look at a couple of examples to illustrate the point.

Example One: When the Price Drifts

For our first example, we will use a horse by the name of Hooray Harrison, who is available to back at 4/1 in the early price list and wins at an SP of 7/1. Let us look at the difference in returns between two customers who place a £10 win bet on Hooray Harrison – Punter A, who bets with the Best Odds Guaranteed concession in place, and Punter B, who bets without the offer.

As there is no downside to Best Odds Guaranteed, Punter A will always take the price at the time he places his bet. However, we will consider two scenarios for Punter B, one where he takes the price and one where he does not.

• Punter A - With the Best Odds Guaranteed offer in place, Punter A will receive the bigger of the two prices between the price he took (4/1) and the SP (7/1). A £10 win bet at 7/1 returns £80.
• Punter B Takes the Price - Without Best Odds Guaranteed, Punter B is stuck with the 4/1 he took, leaving him with a £50 return and an envious look towards Punter A
• Punter B Does Not Take the Price - In this instance, Punter B receives the 7/1 SP and so matches the £80 return of Punter A

Example Two: When the Price Shortens

The second horse out of our example stalls is Rampaging Red, who is available to back at 10/1 in the early price lists and wins at an SP of 5/1. Punter A and Punter B return to the fray and again place a £10 win bet on our noble steed.

• Punter A - In this instance, the 10/1 taken at the time of the bet is bigger than the 5/1 SP. Therefore, our Best Odds Guaranteed punter is paid out at 10/1 for a return of £110.
• Punter B Takes the Early Price - With no Best Odds Guaranteed, Punter B can be satisfied to have beaten the SP and also receives a return of £110
• Punter B Does Not Take the Early Price - In this instance, not taking the early price costs Punter B, who will be paid out at the SP of 5/1 for a total return of £60

The key point from our examples is that the best possible result for Punter B is to match the return of the BOG punter - he can do equally as well or worse, but never better.

If Customer B sometimes takes the price and sometimes doesn’t, the above results create the following four scenarios:

• Takes Price When Hooray Harrison Drifts + Takes Price When Rampaging Red Shortens - Returns: £50 + £110 = £160
• Takes Price When Hooray Harrison Drifts + Takes SP when Rampaging Red Shortens - Returns: £50 + £60 = £110
• Takes SP When Hooray Harrison Drifts + Takes Price When Rampaging Red Shortens - £80 + £110 = £190
• Takes SP When Hooray Harrison Drifts + Takes SP When Rampaging Red Shortens - £80 + £60 =140

In contrast, there is only one possible outcome for Best Odds Guaranteed Punter A. He will always receive the best possible return of £190 - beating Punter B in three of our four scenarios.

Which Bookmakers Offer Best Odds Guaranteed

As we can see, the Best Odds Guaranteed concession is worth seeking out whenever you place a horse racing bet. Happily, you won’t need to look too hard to find it.

Check out our list of betting sites that offer Best Odds Guaranteed on UK and Irish Horseracing, complete with the times from which the offer is available.

• bet365 - From 8am on the day of the race
• Willam Hill - From 10am on the day of the race
• Ladbrokes - From 8am on the day of the race
• Betfred - From 8am on the day of the race
• BetMGM - From 11am on the day of the race
• LiveScoreBet - From 10am on the day of the race
• betway - From 9am on the day of the race
• Coral - From 8am on the day of the race
• BetGoodwin - From 10am on the day of the race
• CopyBet - Start time not stated
• Virgin Bet - From 10am on the day of the race
• UniBet - From 8am on the day of the race
• TalkSportBET - From 9am on the day of the race
• Fafabet - From 8:30am on the day of the race
• BetZone - From 10am on the day of the race
• SportingBet - From 8am on the day of the race
• Bwin - From 8am on the day of the race
• Boylesports - From 8am on the day of the race

As you can see from the list above, Best Odds Guaranteed is one of the most widely available horse racing offers. However, there are firms who don’t offer the concession, whilst others have only recently reinstated the promotion, having removed it from their racing offer.

Betfair withdrew the offer in October 2023, and as yet, BOG has not returned to the sportsbook arm of the site. Whilst no official reason was given for the BOG removal, industry insiders have suggested it may have been to drive business away from the traditional sports book and towards the Exchange site.

In November 2023, William Hill followed Betfair in removing the BOG offer. William Hill stated that the decision was inspired by the motivation to create more personalised promotions such as free bets, price boosts and free-to-play games. Presumably, the removal of BOG had a negative impact on horse racing betting turnover, as BOG was back at William Hill by 2025.

Sky Bet are another firm that has tweaked its BOG offer in recent years. Previously available to all, the concession is now restricted to those who meet the staking requirements to qualify for the Sky Bet Club in the previous week.

More cynical observers may believe that firms who do not offer the promotion - or have removed or adjusted their BOG deal - have done so simply to save money. There is likely some truth in this, but the case of William Hill, in particular, suggests that betting sites perform better with the deal than without it, at least from a horse racing standpoint.

Not Only Horse Racing

Of course, horses aren’t the only four-legged beasts providing punters with racing entertainment; the UK and Ireland also benefit from a comprehensive greyhound racing programme. Those who prefer Central Park to Cheltenham or Harlow to Haydock will be pleased to learn that many bookmakers offer Best Odds Guaranteed on greyhound racing, including:

• bet365
• Ladbrokes
• Betfred
• Boylesports
• Coral
• BetGoodwin

When Does Best Odds Guaranteed Not Apply?

The most obvious area in which Best Odds Guaranteed does not apply is that of Ante Post Betting. As a day-of-the-race promotion, those betting in advance in the ante-post markets do not benefit from this concession.

This Ante Post absence creates a dilemma for the punter. Ante Post prices often appear attractive, but without Best Odds Guaranteed, we would suggest that you need to be pretty confident that your selection will start at a shorter price on the day before placing a bet – particularly as most Ante Post markets do not offer Non-Runner No Bet.

Away from the ante-post markets, Best Odds Guaranteed does not apply to international racing, i.e. races held anywhere other than in Great Britain or Ireland.

Standard, win or each-way singles, multiples, or combo bets will almost always benefit from BOG. However, it is worth examining the terms and conditions of your bookmaker for types of bets or markets which fall outside of the BOG rules. This will vary from firm to firm, but examples of where BOG may not apply include:

• Tote Bets - never applies on Tote bets, but the Tote offers its own Tote Guarantee
• Extra Place Races
• When Using a Price Boost or Enhanced Odds Promotion
• Bets Placed using a Free Bet
• Bet Types Featuring a Bonus, e,g. treble the odds for one winner on a Lucky 15
• Bets featuring an Insurance style promotion, e.g. money back if second to the favourite, money back if beaten by a head or less, etc.
• Cashed Out or Partially Cashed Out Bets

An Offer Not to Be Missed

Whenever you are presented with a proposition boasting a potential upside and no downside, it is sound advice to take it. For regular horse racing punters, Best Odds Guaranteed is a no-brainer.

Why stress over whether to take a price when you place your bet when there is no need to do so? Simply head to the BOG bookmaker offering the best price for your fancy and place your bet. Whether your selection drifts or shortens by the time of the race, you can relax - secure in the knowledge that you will be paid out at whichever price is higher between the odds you took and the SP.

There’s a very good reason that so many firms offer BOG – punters simply love the added value. When it comes to day-of-the-race punting, we don’t bet without the Best Odds Guaranteed offer on our side.

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