Greyhound Betting Sites
Greyhound betting is one of the favourite pastimes of UK punters. It’s like horse racing, only more dynamic and chaotic. UK bookmakers are encouraging greyhound punters by providing markets on many local and international events, so you can bet every day. We’ll list dog racing betting sites that are worth checking out, detail the top greyhound betting sites, and give greyhound betting tips for beginners.
Greyhound Racing Betting Sites
How We Evaluate Greyhound Betting Sites
When looking for the best greyhound betting sites, there are several key criteria that we take into account. We look at the basics such as their licence and recent history with the UKGC, because we only recommend legal betting sites in the UK and encourage our readers to bet according to the law, for many reasons including for the safety of their funds. The other criteria we take into consideration are:
- Competition coverage. UK punters most often bet on greyhound racing at the UK and Ireland meetings, but we also want to see Australian, New Zealand, US, Mexican and other events available in the betting markets.
- Odds and margins. The margin on greyhound racing markets is the highest of any sport. You might not feel this if you place singles, as the odds are often high and so are the payouts. However, high margins do have a negative effect on combination bets. With a high margin, the bookmaker cannot lose at all over the distance. And you, accordingly, cannot win.
- Video and audio streaming. Video streams are considered to be an essential attribute for greyhound betting on UK and Ireland races, but it’s great if you can follow other countries’ races as well. We also pay attention to how bettors can access the streams: is it enough to have a positive balance, or is it necessary to bet on a greyhound race to unlock it, or is it completely free? The more lenient the requirements, the better. A nice bonus is audio broadcasts, which you can listen to in the background.
- Welcome bonus and specific promos. We study the welcome offers and promotions for existing clients, as well as specific bonuses: boosted odds, best odds guaranteed, etc.
- Number of payment methods. We assess the number of payment methods and the processing time declared by the bookmaker.
- Mobile apps. The online bookmakers not only need to be able to move all the functionality to apps; they also need to make it as convenient as possible. In addition, we pay attention to the operating systems for which mobile software is available.
- Design and user experience of the website and apps. We don’t flood the UK greyhound betting sites with subjective complaints, but there are certain limits. If the betting site and the greyhound betting app are inconvenient, we will tell you why and provide the arguments.
- Quality of customer support and communication methods. All punters will need to contact support sooner or later. We evaluate the informativeness of the helpdesk and measure the speed of responses, so that you know whether you are really a desired customer for the greyhound betting site.
We reach our conclusions after taking all of these things into consideration.
Best Greyhound Betting Sites Reviews: Our Top 5
Bet365 Greyhound Betting
Founded in 2000, the British bookmaker has built a reputation as an international giant, but is still attentive to the British favourite sports.
There are all the most popular greyhound races in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Mexico. Often UK & IRE races are not provided with early fixed prices, unlike races elsewhere, but Bet365 has worked hard on the antepost line and often offers more events to bet on than the competitors. This is the best greyhound betting site in terms of dog race coverage.
Bet365 provides the most information for online greyhound betting of all the greyhound bookies. You can view a brief history of the last five races for each competitor, including who came first (or second if that greyhound came first), race length, finish time, winner’s time and more.
There’s live streaming for most dog racing events, and audio streaming for some.
It is possible to receive notifications in the browser and in the mobile app about the start and results of races.
William Hill Greyhound Betting Site
The bookmaker traces its history back to the first half of the 20th century. William Hill focuses on British and Australian racing, although there are also North American events. At the time of writing, 15 British and 14 Australian races were available, as well as three American events.
You can watch more than half of all races live for free, some even without registration. William Hill also runs radio broadcasts of the races. If you’re on the road, you can switch on the radio stream.
There are bets for today, tomorrow and futures at William Hill. The bookmaker isn’t too keen on looking into the future, so it has fewer antepost offers than bet365, but the same amount as Ladbrokes.
BoyleSports Greyhound Betting
An Irish bookmaker based in Dundalk, operating since 1982. Boylesports provides one of the best greyhound betting markets in the UK for greyhounds (or, as they call them, simply ‘Dogs’). It covers over a dozen British races, and about as many Australian ones, as well as a few races held in the US and Mexico.
You can also bet on futures, with five events in the line, which is the average number of antepost events at the moment.
BoyleSports runs a regular promotion for greyhound racing. It applies to certain races selected by the bookmaker that are marked ‘special’ in the line. If you bet on such a race and your greyhound comes second behind the SP favourite, you will get your stake back in the form of a Free bet. The maximum refund is £20.
There is information about greyhounds’ form for British and Irish races, less frequently for others. There may only be information about coaches, as is often the case for Australia and the USA.
The main disadvantage of BoyleSports is the awkward navigation in the Greyhounds section. If you click on one race, then it’s not clear how to switch to another. There are no arrows or tabs leading backwards in the window itself, you have to click the browser arrow fearing it will throw you too far back. When you switch to a previous tab, the location of the window is not saved. If you’ve swiped all the way back to a US Race before and have opened that sub-tab, you’ll have to do it all over again when you return.
Ladbrokes Greyhound Betting Site
Ladbrokes was founded more than 100 years ago, in 1886, by horse breeders from the estate of the same name.
In the greyhound world, this bookmaker focuses only on the UK, Ireland and Australia. There are no greyhound bets on races in other countries. The betting offer is good, but not record-breaking. We found just over 10 UK and Ireland races together on the day and 8 from Australia. Destination leaders can have up to a dozen races from the UK & Ireland, the same number for Australia, in addition to a few races from the USA and Mexico. However, if you’re mainly interested in British greyhounds, that’ll be enough.
All of Ladbrokes’ advantages are geared towards getting you to bet on greyhounds earlier than the competition. Early Price is offered on many races, unlike other greyhound racing betting sites who only have Starting Price for most races. A lot of futures greyhound bets are also offered. Tips from Racing Post together with greyhound form evaluation will help you to choose a greyhound to bet on, while Best Odds Guaranteed lets you relax about changing odds as the race approaches.
Paddy Power Greyhound Betting
Paddy Power offers slightly fewer events to bet on than the other online greyhound bookmakers in our top 5. However, it does have a number of advantages that can’t be ignored. Early Prices are mainly for Australian races, but there are also some for British races.
The bookmaker mostly offers British, Irish and Australian events, with very few American races. There is free live streaming of all races available to registered customers.
There are 7 events in the Futures section at the time of writing this review. This is a great offer, most competitors have no more than five.
With regard to disadvantages, there is a complete lack of information about the greyhounds.
Quick Top 3 Video Review
Greyhound Betting Offers
There are the same promotions for greyhound racing as for horse racing that online bookmakers offer. However, the number of promotions is noticeably smaller and they are not always as good. It can take a long time to find an interesting online greyhound betting sites offer, but we have already done the hard work for you. Here, we explain the different bonus types, before giving you an example of the best bonus in this category that greyhound punters can take advantage of.
Free bet club
With a Free bet club, you regularly receive a bonus for a day, a week or a month of betting. The size of the bonus depends on your turnover, and it does not matter whether you win or lose. Free bet club is for those who bet regularly, and therefore it often offers better terms than other promotions. There are clubs specifically for greyhounds and general clubs that allow you to bet on any sport.
Losing Bet Refund
The bookmakers like to use the phrase “money back” in their betting promotions with refunds, but more often they mean refunds in Free bets rather than cash. However, a Free bet is better than nothing.
Multibet Bonus
The UK greyhound betting sites regularly offer bonuses for multibets. These are usually combinations of Forecast and Tricast bets. Greyhound betting sites benefit from UK punters placing more multibets because the margin (bookmaker’s commission) on such bets is much higher than on single bets and the probability of success is lower. The bonus works very simply: you place a multibet and get an extra 10% on the winnings. But most likely, you just lose.
Best Odds Guaranteed
Perhaps you placed a bet after which the odds increased and you wished you had waited? For greyhound betting, there are promotions for such cases. If the best odds guaranteed are available for the race, you will get a payout at the best odds – either the one you bet on or the starting price.
New Greyhound Betting Sites
The UK betting market is booming, with more and more betting sites arriving. Let’s be honest, they can hardly compete with the betting giants like Bet365 and William Hill, but some offer very good service and a nice welcome bonus. Here’s our top pick of new greyhound betting sites for UK customers.
Our Top Pick — Fafabet
Fafabet is all about instant switching between all the available races, thanks to the way both the race list and the race card are located in the same window. The Greyhounds section itself is on the homepage – you don’t have to dig through the A-Z section.
There is live streaming available for most of the races.
Also note the window with several selected favourites of the day, which is located on the right hand side of the main field. There you can see how the odds change.
The Futures section is not bad – it has 5 events, like most of the strongest competitors.
Fafabet offers a number of promotions to choose from. Unfortunately, there aren’t any promotions for greyhound betting fans at the moment, but there are on horse racing. This allows us to hope that there will be bonuses on greyhounds in the future as well.
Of the downsides, we will note the lack of information on the race participants’ form. Aside from this, it is a very worthy alternative to the monsters of the market.
Greyhound Racing Online Betting Apps
Many bookmakers are now developing apps, realising the importance of mobile betting. Which online bookies are worthy of settling in your pocket? Here are our top ones.
Our Top Pick — Bet365 app
The Bet365 app can be called the best due to the awesome betting product it gives access to. A wide range of markets (including North American tournaments), video streaming for most races and audio for some, detailed statistics to track each competitor’s shape – it’s all available on the app. Activate notifications to find out when a particular greyhound race is starting or to be informed of the results.
Unfortunately the Bet365 App, like the website, only displays the cards for the three upcoming races on the section page. But if you go to one race page, you can click through to the other races within the same event.
Best Greyhound Betting Odds
Betting platforms with fixed odds set huge margins on greyhound betting compared to other sports. While on popular football matches the “bookmaker’s tax” is on average 4-5%, on greyhound racing the margin often reaches 30-35%.
If you place single bets, you might not even notice it. The main thing is to make sure that the odds on your bet at the bookmaker you are betting with are not lower than at others. However, high margins become a problem if you bet on the win of several greyhounds in the same race, or if you like multibets and system bets.
We have picked the greyhound betting sites with margins below 30%, so you can expect adequate payouts.
Greyhound Live Streaming Betting Sites
To experience all the excitement of greyhound betting, you need to not only bet, but watch the broadcasts and support your picks live. Many greyhound betting sites understand this, so they offer live video for at least some UK and Irish races, while certain greyhound betting sites will let you watch Australian, New Zealand, US, Mexican and other events live.
We’ve picked three greyhound betting sites with great streaming coverage so you can get the most out of your favourite sport.
Greyhound Bet Markets Explained
- Win – As the name suggests this is the simplest and most intuitive thing to bet on, it is who of two dogs or more will cross the finish line first.
- Place – This is betting on a greyhound to finish either first or second, it does not matter which. You will have a lot more chance of winning with this bet but obviously at much reduced odds.
- Show – This is a bet on your dog to finish either first, second, or third.
- Across the board – This is a combination of all of the above, you place three bets. If your dog wins then all three bets win; if it is second, the place and show bets win; and if it is third then only the show bet pays out.
- Pick 3 – This bet involved picking the winner of three consecutive races one after the other as a form of accumulator bet.
- Pick 6 – As above but this time you must correctly choose the winner of 6 races in a row.
- Straight forecast (Perfecta) – Bet on the exact order of the first two dogs across the line.
- Reverse forecast (Quinella) – This bet is on the first two to finish but in any order.
- Yankee – This bet is made up of 11 separate bets involving four races. Your bet is divided into: 1 accumulator, 4 trebles, 6 doubles, which equals 11 bets in total (also referred to as a 6-4-1).
- Lucky 15 – As above this bet alo involves four races but this time you are also placing single bets on each race winner. The total bet is split into: 1 accumulator, 4 trebles, 6 doubles, 4 singles, which equals 15 bets in total.
- Odd or Even – As the name suggests you are betting on whether the winning dog will have come from an odd or an even trap number.
- Inside or Outside – Similar to the above you are betting if the winning dog will come from traps 1-2-3 (inside) or from traps 4-5-6 (outside).
Greyhound Racing Betting Tips
- Use the Racing Post website, it is not just for horses there is a tab to greyhound betting where you can quickly and easily find the track draws, the races that will be on Sky TV, and a short summary of each dog, split into today’s races or future races. They also post their free (and pretty useful) tips. They won’t have a “Nap” for every race but it is worth paying attention to and even if you don’t back the nap, avoid the race completely if you are competing against one.
- The Great British Greyhound Board (GBGB) has all the official results listed on its website, including a search feature which will look for ALL results of the dog you are searching for. Most form guides go back perhaps 6 races, but this guide will have potentially many more results to base your choices on.
- Look at the dog’s previous times for that distance and importantly make sure you are aware if the dog is stepping up or stepping down in grade. The times of the dogs are a lot more important than the form (in our opinion). Also check the dogs performance at the given track, some dogs perform better than others at certain tracks.
- Check the age of the greyhounds. They have a very short peak performance period, normally becoming adults around the age of 2 and beginning to decline in terms of speed from age 3 to 3 and a half. With any dog aged under 3 look to see if it is improving, that is definitely possible, once a dog is 3 you are mainly looking for stability as they will not be getting any faster than this.
- As well as form take a close look at the race remarks. This will split the race into sections and you can see if the dog had trouble at any stage or had a clear run. This will have a major effect on its final time and should be taken into consideration. You are told if the dog has an early pace or not, which means you can hopefully judge if it will hit traffic or not.
Biggest Greyhound Racing Events
Greyhound racing is a worldwide phenomenon and as such there are races held all over the world. Below we look at the largest 6 based on prize money available to the winner.
Melbourne Cup – A$350,000 (£193,000 approx)
Held at the famous Sandown Park in the Australian city of Melbourne, this race (which is more of a tournament than a greyhound race, held over three weeks) should not be confused with the horse race of the same name. The race is run over 515m usually in November of each year, and there is over A$1,000,000 in prize money available (split between the field).
English Greyhound Derby – £175,000
The English Greyhound Derby is the race every trainer dreams of winning (even though the prize money is not the highest out there). This race has the most prestige and history behind it. The English Greyhound Derby takes place in June or July. The amount for the winner is a massive £175,000 from a total pot of £350,000. The English Greyhound Derby was first run in 1927 at Wimbledon over 480 metres, but has moved to Towcester and is now over a slightly longer distance of 500 metres.
Sandown Cup – A$250,000 (£138,000 approx)
This is Australia’s largest “staying race” held over the longer distance of 595m; it is also the finale of three weeks of dog racing at Sandown Park. It was originally known as the Woolamai Cup when it first started in 1963 but changed its name when it switched venues.
Irish Greyhound Derby – €125,000 (£69,000 approx)
The BoyleSports Irish Greyhound Derby has a total prize pool of €240,000 and from that just over half, some €125,000, goes to the winner. It has been taking place every year since 1928 originally at the now closed Harold’s Cross. These days the Irish Greyhound Derby takes place at Shelbourne Park in South Dublin. The course is over 550 yards (just over 500m) and takes place in August and September. The Irish greyhound derby is considered by many to be the main event in the Irish greyhound racing calendar.
Association Cup – A$75,000 (£41,000 approx)
The Association Cup takes place at Wentworth Park in April each year. It is run over the longer than usual distance of 720m. The record is still held by Fernando Bale, widely considered the greatest of all Australian greyhounds.
St Leger – £25,000
The St Leger is considered to be the original UK greyhound competition as we know it today, traditionally held (not surprisingly) on St Leger’s day each year. In recent times it is held around this date, sometime in September. Wembley Stadium hosted the race for 70 years from 1928 to 1998 before it moved to Wimbledon Stadium until 2016. It is currently raced at Perry Bar and is sponsored by Premier Greyhound Racing.
Greatest Greyhound Racing Dogs
UK greyhound racing has had a number of legendary greyhounds over the years, and we will look at a few of them now:
- Tims Crow: He won the Coral sponsored Golden Sprint at Romford, Essex in 2003 for trainer Peter Rich with a time of 24.29. Not long after he won the Peterborough Derby, going through the tournament unbeaten, and picked up the 2003 Greyhound of the Year award. He broke the track record at a number of major venues including Nottingham Greyhound stadium and Hove.
- Westmead Hawk: Trainer Nick Savva who is based in London is considered one of Britain’s most successful breeders. In total he has won four derby winner medals, and half of those have come from Westmead Hawk. In the 2005 Derby he was trailing the leaders towards the end of the contest but he hit the front at the final turn and blasted away from the rest, winning by just under two lengths in a time of 28.56. From there he went on to have a two year unbeaten run which tells you all you need to know.
- Westmead Lord: Westmead Lord is another Nick Savva trained dog. Westmead Lord was the half brother of Westmead Hawk. He was good enough to bag a £100,000 cheque in the 2007 Derby, using his straight line speed to win out of trap 6. He won in a time of 28.47 which notably was quicker than two time winner Hawk’s 2005 effort.
- Ravage Again: Ravage Again ran competitively in Ireland to begin with but a move to the UK brought him to a wider audience. He will always be remembered as the dog who came oh so close to breaking a long-standing world record. Ballyregan Bob (who we come onto next) had an unmatched winning record of 32 consecutive races and Ravage Again was looking likely to beat this as he romped home in race after race. Nothing could get near him and even though there was some dispute over how many of the Irish race wins should count towards his tally it looked like he would do it using either count. It was a huge shock and a bitter disappointment when he fell just short with 29 consecutive wins, the run ending in 1991 when beaten by a dog named “Base Rate”.
- Ballyregan Bob: We finish with the world record holder for the most wins in a row Ballyregan Bob. Racing around 40 years ago he etched his name into the history books and won the hearts of the greyhound racing public. In the May 1985 Olympic heats he dominated and claimed the title a couple of races later. In 1986 he won the Racing Post Challenge. By the time he was finally retired Bob had an incredible 32-race unbeaten record under his belt.
Dog | Career Highlight | Fastest time | Years active |
---|---|---|---|
Tims Crow | Won the Coral sponsored Golden Sprint | 18.48 Sprint | 2002 – 2004 |
Westmead Hawk | Won the 2005 & 2006 Derby | 29.61 Middle Distance | 2004 – 2006 |
Westmead Lord | Won the 2007 Derby | 28.47 Middle Distance | 2006 – 2007 |
RAVAGE AGAIN | 29 wins in a row | Unknown | 1989 – 1991 |
Ballyregan Bob | 32-race unbeaten record | Unknown | 1984 – 1986 |
Greyhound Racing Betting FAQs
How do I bet on greyhound racing?
You can bet on greyhound racing in much the same way that you would bet on any other sporting event. Simply log into an online greyhound betting site and deposit some funds, select greyhound racing from the list of available sports, choose the dog you want to back, enter your stake amount in the betting slip and submit the bet.
Which greyhound number wins the most?
There is no trap number that wins consistently more than any other trap. Every year and at every track, they are all quite close to the 16.6% that you would expect, within normal variance. It is possible that there is a very slight tendency for the lower traps 1 and 2 to perform better than the outer traps 5 and 6 but not significantly.
How do you pick a winning greyhound?
Well if it was simple then there would be no greyhound racing! Some would say that you can not accurately do so. But certainly to stand any chance you should look at the dog’s past form, the trainers, and who else is running in the race.
What is the best bet in greyhound racing?
A winning one! But no, seriously, there is no such thing as a universal best bet, as there are too many things to consider. Ultimately, the best bet is the one that you are happiest with. Personally, we like bets on just who will win the race, due to its simplicity, but that does not make it “the best”.
Which betting site is the best to bet on greyhound racing?
There are a number of greyhound betting sites and no one individual site is the best at absolutely everything. Where one is the best at one factor, another will be the best at something else, and at the end of the day, the best will differ from customer to customer. Having said that, Bet365 are in our opinion very good for greyhound betting.