Types Of Horse Racing Bet

Horse Racing Betting

Eager to understand which bets to place on horse racing? This betting guide unravels the mystery of some multiple bets offering you savvy information and fundamental insights. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned punter, and whether you like horse racing singles or eight runner accumulators you'll find valuable tips to decide which bets you should place. 

Win Bet or Each Way Bet

When deciding to place a bet on a horse with an online bookmaker, you have the choice of backing the horse to win or each way. 

If you back the horse to win, it has to pass the finishing post ahead of all the other runners for you to win your bet. 

A £5 win bet at 5/1 will return £30, (5 x £5 + your stake back of £5 = £30)

If you back the horse each way, you are placing two bets: one on winning and one on placing. 

So if you want to spend £5, that is £2.50 to win and £2.50 to place. 

If your horse finished placed at 5/1 but does not win, then the £2.50 win part of your each-way bet is lost, but the £2.50 place part is paid out in the following way.

Using the table above, let's say your horse came 3rd in an 8-runner non-handicap race. You will be paid out at 1/5th of the odds, so a fifth of 5/1 is 1/1. Your £2.50 place bet returns £5. 

Many punters bet each way when the odds are 5/1 above, especially if they cannot see the horse finishing out of the first three at the very least. 

Each way betting is being more cautious but can pay dividends. 

You can read more about finding winning bets in the helpful and informative blog written by OLBG members.

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You can tip both win and each way in the OLBG Horse Racing Tipping Competition. 

Horse Racing Multiple Bets

Those of us who bet on horse racing often try and increase our chances of a big payout by combining two or more selections in a bet. 

Many new to OLBG asked the question about what was the best type of bet to pass an afternoon or during one of the big festivals such as the Cheltenham Festival or Royal Ascot 

Below is the list of multiple bets where if they all win you could be on for a big payout. 

You can check how the odds quickly accumulate by using the OLBG acca calculator on selections. 

These are the common horse racing multiple bets, what they mean and how many bets are involved. 

Use the following to see how many bets of each type there are depending on how many selections you make.

How Many Bets?

If you combine selections how many different combinations can you make?

These are bets which are aimed to cover as many multiple bets as possible for the number of selections which are in your betslip which will include doubles, trebles and accumulators.

Bet	Selections	No. of Bets
Trixie	3	4
Patent	3	7
Yankee	4	11
Canadian	5	26
Heinz	6	57
Super Heinz	7	120
Goliath	8	247

Trixie

• A trixie is 4 bets involving 3 selections in different events. 
• The bet includes 3 doubles and 1 treble. 
• Two of your selections must be successful to get a return.
  
  

Patent

• A Patent consists of 7 bets involving 3 selections in different events. 
• The bet includes a single on each selection, 3 doubles and 1 treble. 
• If one selection is successful you get a return.
  
  

Yankee

A Yankee consists of 11 bets involving 4 selections in different events. 

The bet includes 6 doubles, 4 trebles, and an accumulator.

 A minimum of 2 of your selections must be successful to get a return.

Lucky 15

• A Lucky 15 consists of 15 bets involving 4 selections in different events. 
• The bet is made up of 4 singles, 6 doubles, 4 trebles, and 1 fourfold.
• If one selection wins, bookmakers will often give a consolation to the returns like double or treble the odds odds. If all four selections win, then often bookmakers will give a bonus of 10% or more to total returns. 
• For each-way lucky 15 bets the consolation is normally only paid on the win part of the bet. 
• Because of these bonuses, Lucky 15 bets are often thought of good value multiple bets

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Canadian

• A Canadian is also known as a Super Yankee and is made up of 26 bets involving 5 selections in different events. 
• The bet includes 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 5 fourfolds plus an accumulator. 
• A minimum of 2 of your selections must be successful to get a return.
  
  

Lucky 31

• A Lucky 31 has 31 bets! It is made from 5 selections in different events. 
• The bets include 5 singles, 10 doubles, 10 trebles, 5 fourfolds and an accumulator. 
• As with the Lucky 15, if only one selection wins, returns are often paid to double or treble the odds.
• If all five selections win, a bonus is often paid of 15% upwards to the total returns. 
• If you place and each way Lucky 31, normally the bonus is only paid on the win part of the bet.
  
  

Heinz

A Heinz is made up of of 57 bets and it name comes from the 57 varieties which the baked bean making company once had! 

This bet involves 6 selections in different events. The bet includes 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 fourfolds, 6 five folds and an accumulator. 

A minimum of two of your selections must be successful to get a return.

Lucky 63

• Like a lucky 15 and 31 but with another selection. It consists of 63 bets involving 6 selections in different events. 
• The bet includes 6 singles, 15 doubles, 20 trebles, 15 fourfolds, 6 five folds and an accumulator.
• If only one selection wins, returns are often paid to double or treble the odds. 
• If all six selections win, a bonus is often paid, normally of 20% + to total returns. 
• With each-way lucky 63 bets the consolation is normally only paid on the win part of the bet. 
• Lucky 63 bets are quite popular greyhound bets.
  
  

Super Heinz

Another selection added to a Heinz but this time has nothing to do with baked beans. 

A Super Heinz is made up of 120 bets involving 7 selections in different events.

The bet includes 21 doubles, 35 trebles, 35 fourfolds, 21 five folds, 7 sixfolds and an accumulator.

 A minimum of 2 of your selections must be successful to get a return, below is an example of an each way Super Heinz. 

Goliath

A Goliath is a monster of a bet and consists of 247 bets involving 8 selections in different events. 

The bet includes 28 doubles, 56 trebles, 70 fourfolds, 56 five folds, 28 sixfolds, 8 seven folds and an accumulator. 

A minimum of 2 of your selections must be successful to get a return.

Horse Racing Accumulator

• This bet can in theory be as many horse racing selections as you wish. 
• You can back win or place accumulators, but all of them must win in win accumulators and all must place in place accumulators. 
• Understandably the more selections you add the greater the return but the harder it becomes.

When you have figured out the best type of multiple bet check out the best bookmakers for horse racing and those that may offer any free bets. 

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Forecasts and Tricasts

There are three main types of forecast bets with the bookmakers. 

• Forecast
• Reverse Forecast
• Combination Forecast

Forecast

• You have to select the winner and second in the correct order. 
• The bigger the odds of your selections the larger return you will win.

Reverse Forecast

• Here you again choose two selections, but it does not matter in which order they return (1-2, 2-1)
• A £1 reverse forecast will cost you £2 as it is two bets.

Combination Forecast

• Here you can choose multiple horses but they must make the 1-2
• Let us say in in a 20 runner handicap you choose 4 horses which is 12 bets, as long as any of the four fill the first two places you will win the bet.
• However the more selections  you choose the larger the cost as you can see below.  

Selections	Bets
3	6
4	12
5	20
6	30

For non runners on forecasts please check your individual bookmaker on how they settle forecast bets. 

Tricast

• Here you have to choose the 1-2-3 in the correct finishing order.
• The bigger the odds of the 1-2-3 the bigger the payout, but naturally it is very hard to predict. 

Tote Bets

The Tote has a presence on racecourses and online offering an alternative to the bookmakers. On the Tote you place bets into a pool and after the event has concluded and no more bets are accepted, the total pool of money is divided among the winning bets, with the size of the payout determined by the odds and the amount of money in the pool. We have a dedicated Tote Guide which covers all the possible betting options which include:

• Win
• Place
• Placepot
• Placepot 7
• Jackpot
• Exacta
• Swinger
• Trifecta
• Quadpot
• Scoop6

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Betting Exchange Horse Racing Bets

Betting Exchanges cover most of the same horse racing bets as the bookmakers but with one major difference and that is the ability to bet AGAINST horses. 

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The term Lay means you are betting on something not to happen such as a horse not winning. 

On an exchange you are betting against other exchange bettors and not a bookmaker. 

In horse racing, when you lay a horse, you win if any other horse in the race comes first. If the horse you bet against wins then you lose and have to pay the backer his winnings, which could be a lot more than the stake. 

If you lay a bet at odds of 1.5 for £10 you are liable for £5 and will win £10 if the bet lands.

If you lay a bet at odds of 3.5 for £10 you are liable for £25 and win £10 if the bet lands.

If you lay a bet at odds of 5.5 for £10 you are liable for £45 and win £10 if the bet lands.  

You can read more about how each betting exchanges operate in our comprehensive betting exchange reviews. 

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Spread Betting On Horses

Spread betting is often viewed as riskier as you can lose more than your initial stake, but if you have horse racing knowledge, then their pricing model can offer better opportunities. 

The two main spread betting firms are Sporting Index and Spreadex, with very little difference between their odds. Below is an example of a pre-race meeting on Spreadex. They cover every meeting in the UK and Ireland daily.  

They create a "spread" of where they think the market will finish, in this case the Favourites is priced at 91-95. 

If, for example, you were to BUY Favourites at £1 a point at 95, you would get 25 points for a win, 10 points for a second, and 5 points for a third, and the result of the favourites read:

W, W, L, 2ND, L, W, W that would be 110 points. 

As you bought at 95, you made a 15-point profit (Buy at 95 settled at 110 = 15 x £1 stake), which is a profit of £15. 

However, if the results went like this:

W, W, L, L, L, L, 2ND, your total would only be 60 points, and you would lose 35 points. (Buy at 95 settled at 60 = (- 35) x £1 stake) is a loss of £35.

So you can see, with spread betting, the potential for big wins is just as real as the possibility of big losses,  this element of unpredictability can add an exciting edge to your horse racing experience. 

To read more about Spread Betting, please visit our comprehensive guide.

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Horse Racing Specials

Every day, the bigger bookmakers, such as Bet Victor, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, and William Hill, offer a range of specials based on favourites, jockeys, distances, and horses. They group together some of these and then create odds. If you have a particular opinion on a meeting and decide that there is some betting value on these markets, then they are always worth checking out.  

FAQ

Responsible Gambling

Whatever bet you decide on, you should always gamble responsibly. On OLBG, we have advised this approach since the site was created in 2002. The articles below were produced to ensure that members and readers had all the necessary responsible gambling information, alongside links to charities that aid any problem gamblers.

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Author

OLBG Betting Expert Nigel Skinner created and updated this horse racing bet article. Nigel has been following horse racing for over twenty years and reports that all of the above bets he has placed at one time or another!