Best Horse Racing Betting Apps For April 2024
Horse racing is the most cash-packed field of betting. In terms of the number of bets placed, football predictably leads, but in terms of the amount of money wagered, it is horse racing that is ahead, according to research in 2019. More than £13Bn revolves around racecourses every year.
Would you like to be part of this global movement and bet on horse racing? This review will help you choose the best betting apps for horse racing, both in Britain and around the rest of the world, for iOS and Android devices.
Horse Racing Betting App Reviews
And so, you’ve seen a list of the top 20 horse betting apps. By and large, you can sign up for all of them. They leadeth you beside each way, and you will not want.
If we mentioned any bookmaker in this article, it means you can easily download the app of this bookie in Apple App Store or Google Play Store. There you will also find feedback about a bookie and its app features from iOS and Android users.
Now let’s take a closer look at a few horse racing apps that have impressed us with the variety of races and betting on them, the live streaming, the excellent statistics section or the generous bonuses. Or maybe one of them has all of the above virtues? Yes, it does.
Bet365 — Best for horse racing betting
The Bet365 name has already become almost legendary in the online betting world. The bookmaker, which went online back in 2000, has a huge range of sports, betting and streaming options. Furthermore, the bookmaker offers to UK punters all the most modern features: enhanced odds, bet builder, cash out… All in all, if you’re looking for any particular feature on UK betting apps that online bookmakers can provide in theory, it’s 99% chance that Bet365 has it up and running.
You have plenty of options to bet on horse racing at bet365. In particular, for all ITV televised horse racing events, the bookmaker promises to set the greatest odds when it comes to Win and E/W betting.
Also, when betting on ITV races, you can count on the 4/1 Winner promotion. To do so, you have to place a single qualifying bet on one of these events at odds of 4/1 or higher and win it. If you succeed, place a second horse racing bet of the same amount (up to £50) on the next race broadcast live on ITV Racing. If this bet loses, bet365 will refund your stake (up to £50 also).
To watch horse racing online on bet365, unfortunately, just logging in is not enough, as Geoff Banks or William Hill allow. But you can watch the race stream if you bet at least £0.5 on it.
Bet365 provides BOG for all UK and Irish races. In short, it’s the ultimate horse racing app.
The main disadvantage of this bookmaker is traditionally considered to be the inconvenient navigation and unattractive design. With so many different offers for horse racing fans in the UK, we’ll add to the disadvantages of Bet365 and also the fact mentioned above: you can’t watch broadcasts of horse races you haven’t bet on. At a few other horse racing apps this is possible.
SkyBet — Best bonuses
The Leeds-headquartered betting company got its name in 2002 after renaming Surrey Sports.
Now Skybet is one of the leaders in the UK betting market. And the bookie is particularly good at horse racing betting.
For example, Skybet is tied with Betway in terms of the number of paid seats at the Grand National – seven. Most other betting apps offer between four and six.
However, this will only matter once a year. But the daily offer of extra places on SkyBet is also pleasant for every horse racing fan.
You can get a nice cashback on a regular basis in case your horse doesn’t win but places.
With competitive odds, Best Odds Guaranteed (after 9am), various value concessions like paying out on First Past the Post, and daily exciting specials, Skybet offers a comprehensive package.
And, of course, you can’t provide just a few broadcasts with “Sky” in the title. According to our expert ratings, only mobile betting apps by Geoff Banks and Betftred are ahead of the bookmaker in terms of live streams.
There are still a couple of disadvantages to this horse betting app. Firstly, the streams access: you can only watch horse racing events if you bet at least £1 on them. Moreover, Early Price odds could be better.
Betway — Best in price boosts
Introduced to the betting market in 2006, one of today’s best online bookmakers Betway should be familiar to very many sports fans, including those who don’t bet, thanks to its numerous sponsorship contracts. The name “Betway” flashes from broadcast to broadcast around the world. However, that is not the reason why the bookmaker has been included in our ranking of the best horse racing apps.
The main thing we like about Betway is the great value horse racing price boosts every day. In addition, you can get a £10 weekly free bet stakes if you bet a minimum of £25 Acca.
The bookmaker offers an excellent selection of horse racing events in the UK, Ireland, USA, France, South Africa and other countries. Many of them are streamed. Unfortunately, the price for broadcasting is very high compared to other horse racing betting apps – you have to bet at least £2 on the race. On Skybet a £1 bet is enough to watch, on Bet365 – £0.5 and Geoff Banks allows every registered horse racing bettor to watch any of their streams for free.
Among the bookmaker’s highlights are the short hints under each runner’s name, which allow you to quickly see if this horse race has betting potential before you start fully researching the stats and form. Not all horse racing betting apps have this feature.
The disadvantages of this betting app are the high minimum bet size to watch the stream and the requirement of large amounts of KYC documents.
Betfair — Best odds
Founded in 2000, Betfair made a breakthrough in the sports betting industry by opening an exchange.
Unlike fixed-odds betting, on the exchange, players compete against each other. There you can find the sweetest odds on horse races, as well as offer your own price. Betfair does not impose a margin on these bets, but only charges a small commission per game.
But there is a downside to this: the number of betting offers on the exchange mobile betting app is usually lower than on the bookmaker’s sheet of betting markets. And you might miss out on bonuses.
For this reason, Betfair also has fixed-odds horse racing bets. The bookmaker provides separate apps for the exchange and for sportsbook.
At the sportsbook, you will find plenty of bets on horse racing from all continents, as well as various horse racing promotions: enhanced odds, extra places, cashback and, of course, BOG. Acca Edge refunds your stake if you bet on 4 or more outcomes and lose just 1 leg.
You can watch live horse racing on Betfair. To access the broadcast, bet at least £1 on the horse racing market you are interested in.
If you look at the exchange and sportsbook together, Betfair betting apps has almost no cons. We found only one significant disadvantage – it’s quick to ban users from bonus offers.
Geoff Banks — Best in live streaming
Unlike all the horse racing apps mentioned above, Geoff Banks is a rather small bookmaker.
The biggest advantage of the Geoff Banks betting app is that you can watch horse racing for free. All the customer has to do is log in to the site. You don’t need to have a positive account balance or bet on the race.
Geoff Banks offers exceptional value in horse race betting due to their range of promotions and offers. In addition to BOG, they also provide First Past the Post payments, and even offer a refund of up to £100 if you finish in second place. Such enticing offers make Geoff Banks one of the most attractive horse racing betting apps.
You might also like the stats section, which includes form, tipsters, key stats, video analysis (replays of previous races of participants) and the predictor, a graph showing the predicted course of the race, based on the horses’ form data.
Disadvantages of this mobile betting app include strict ID requirements to open an account and very limited payment methods (only cards and PayPal).
How To Choose Best Horse Racing Betting App
Nobody is perfect, and neither are horse racing betting apps. However, you can strive for that by offering as many useful and interesting features as possible for horse race betting. These are the ones by which we rate the horse betting apps.
Variety of races
Obviously, you can bet on the British and Irish races at almost any horse betting app, and for many backers it’s probably enough. But sometimes you want something more exotic, and the best horse racing betting apps offer a huge selection of races from all over the world. Look at, say, William Hill or Betway. They offer betting on races taking place in the US, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.
Variety of types of bets
It can be very frustrating when you have already studied the horses’ form, statistics and analysis and decide that your chosen race is best suited for an E/W bet, but the bookmaker only offers you to predict the winning horse. And such a situation, unfortunately, is not that uncommon in any sports betting field.
The best horse racing betting apps include all the different kinds of bets that we describe in the following section.
The best horse betting apps in a variety of markets are Bet365 and William Hill.
Good odds
Good odds are important for sports betting fans no matter what sport they are betting on. Horse racing differs in that it is very difficult to calculate bookmaker margins, unlike, for example, football or tennis. To compare the odds you will therefore need to see what different horse betting apps are offering for a particular race.
The highest odds are usually found on the betting apps of exchanges such as Betfair and Smarkets. And when it comes to fixed odds betting, 10bet and SkyBet are the best horse racing apps in terms of odds.
Best odds guaranteed
Best odds guaranteed is one of the most in-demand horse racing betting options. This is the opportunity to get the greatest odds possible. If you bet at fixed odds and the starting price is higher, in case you win you will be settled at the starting price.
Many horse betting apps today offer such an option, so picking the best ones is not based on whether there is a BOG or not, but on how many races this feature is available for.
Bet365 is the horse betting app that offers BOG for all races in the UK and Ireland, which covers most of the interests of UK bettors. The same options are offered by StarSports betting app.
Live streams
It’s a big disappointment when you bet on a horse racing event, turn on your mobile device in time for it to start and there’s no broadcast in your horse betting app. Of course, you can watch it on a special channel like Sky by subscribing. But that’s not cheap for everyone. Besides, there are a lot of races every day, and it can take a while to find the one you want when it comes to television. And on the horse racing app you can very easily find a broadcast of the race you have bet on by going to it from the bet slip.
For these reasons, both the availability of broadcasts in general and their number is important for UK punters. The more races the bookmaker broadcasts, the less you will have to wonder whether you will be able to watch the race you want to bet on.
In this respect, we prefer Geoff Banks first and foremost. On this betting app, all you have to do is log in and you can watch all the broadcasts. Some horse betting apps only give you the option to watch the events you have bet on. However, you may not have a betting option for every interesting one. For many competitive races, the prediction is very difficult, and you may decide it is wise not to bet, but you will definitely want to watch. Geoff Banks is a horse racing app that understands this.
We also like Betfred, where you can watch broadcasts of all the races the bookmaker offers for betting if you have at least a penny on your balance.
Bonuses for horse racing
Speaking of mobile apps’ bonuses in this section, we are not referring to BOG, which has already been mentioned before. We are referring to the free bets, no-risk bet, bonuses if a horse comes second and cash bonuses that bookies may offer specifically for horse racing betting enthusiasts.
Given the traditionally low odds compared to other sports, in horse racing betting the bonuses become even more important for those who bet regularly and especially for new UK customers. If you’re not yet experienced in horse racing, you hardly want to invest any significant amount from your wallet at first. In which case, a good bonus is just what you need.
We like the welcome offers of 10bet (50% of the deposit amount up to £50) and Geoff Banks (Bet £10 and get £30).
On a separate note, there’s a rare no deposit bonus from Skybet. You won’t get much – only £10 – but you won’t have to deposit anything at all from your pocket. Perfect to get a feel for the ground and find out what horse racing betting is all about.
Statistics and analysis
If you watch a lot of races and know every horse as your own and every jockey as your grandpa, you may not need more information. But most bettors study the stats before they bet, and that’s more than a rational approach.
Yes, stats can be found on a multitude of web resources, but it’s much more convenient (especially when you use a mobile phone) to have them at your fingertips – on the same site where you punt.
Primary information is published on most betting sites under the tags ‘Form’ (results of recent races), ‘J’ for jockey and ‘T’ for trainer.
But in some betting apps you will find much more extensive and representative information about the race. Such as graphical predictions showing a possible race result based on speed analysis of the competitors, a form comparison chart of each horse and video replays of the most recent heats of the favourites.
All this comprehensive information can be found on the Skybet and Geoff Banks apps.
Ease of use
Usability is a relative thing. Almost any iOS and Android app will seem comfortable and familiar to you if you have used it many times. That is why we do not include this parameter among the most important ones. However, some sites do make it objectively quicker to complete all the steps to make a bet from both Android and iOS devices.
In terms of ease of navigation, we like William Hill and 888Sport, but in general, it is a matter of taste.
Most Popular Horse Racing Betting Markets
There are several bet types in horse racing, from the simplest – on the victory of one horse – to complex bets that involve a point-by-point prediction on many outcomes at once. Let’s take a quick look at the most in-demand.
- Win. This is the most straightforward of the bet types in horse racing and, probably, the first horse racing bet for many beginners. You back a particular horse to win the race. It’s the simplest way to punt on horses.As this option reduces the risk compared to many other types of horse betting, it can be considered potentially one of the least dangerous for your wallet. However, not all punters find it the best choice for a bet.For example, professional bettor John Cutts prefers multiples, because it is the only way to win a large amount by betting a small amount. Building up your bankroll with small singles can take years.
- Place. In this market, you bet on a horse to finish in the top two or three places, depending on the size of the field. The odds are lower than the win market, but the chance to win is better.
- Each Way. This is a combination of the win and place markets. You bet on a horse to win and also to place. If your horse wins, the bet settlement will be a win for both bets. If your horse only places, you get paid out at a fraction of the odds. This is a lovely type of bet, but it is almost always excluded from bookmakers’ bonus programmes because it gives the backer the best chance of winning anything.
- Head to head. You pick which horse will finish ahead of the other among two specific horses, regardless of their final position in the race. The two horses are usually selected based on certain criteria such as their form, track conditions, or jockey. Head-to-head betting is often used as a way of adding excitement to a so-called “two-horse race”, where no competitor has a chance of winning except those two.
- Exacta (or perfecta). This market involves betting on the first two horses to finish the race in the exact order. It’s a more challenging bet to win, but the rewards are more significant.
- Quinella. In this case the punter selects two horses to finish in the top two places in any order. The bet settlement will be positive for you if both horses finish in the top two positions, regardless of which one finishes first or second.
- Trifecta. Similar to the exacta, but this time, you need to predict the first three horses to cross the finish line in the correct order. It’s a tough market to win, but the payouts can be huge.
- Superfecta. You have to pick the first four horses to finish the race in the correct order. The chances are slim, but the payouts can be life-changing.
Horse Racing Tournaments to Bet On via Mobile App
Here are some of the most exciting horse racing tournaments in the UK, divided into different categories:
- Classic Races. These are some of the oldest and most prestigious races in the UK, with a history that dates back several centuries. Some of the most popular classic races include:
- The Epsom Derby. Known as the “Blue Riband” of the turf, the Epsom Derby is one of the most famous and prestigious horse races in the world. It takes place every year in early June at Epsom Downs Racecourse, and attracts some of the best three-year-old thoroughbreds from around the world.
- The 2000 Guineas. This is another classic race that takes place at Newmarket Racecourse in late April or early May. It’s a one-mile race for three-year-old colts and fillies and is considered one of the most important races for young horses.
- The St. Leger. The oldest of the classic races, St. Leger takes place at Doncaster Racecourse in September. It’s a one-mile-six-furlong race for three-year-old colts and fillies, and is often called the “final leg” of the English Triple Crown.
- National Hunt Races. These are races where horses jump over obstacles like fences and hurdles. Some of the most popular National Hunt races include:
- The Cheltenham Festival. This is one of the biggest events in the National Hunt calendar and takes place over four days in March at Cheltenham Racecourse. It features several Grade One races, including the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which is considered the most prestigious National Hunt race in the world.
- The Grand National. This is perhaps the most famous National Hunt race in the UK, and takes place at Aintree Racecourse in April. It’s a grueling four-mile-two-and-a-half-furlong race with 30 fences, and is known for its unpredictability and excitement.
- The King George VI Chase. This is a Grade One race that takes place on Boxing Day (December 26th) at Kempton Park Racecourse. It’s a three-mile race for horses aged four and older, and is often seen as a key warm-up race for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
- Flat Races. These are races where horses run on a flat track without any obstacles. Some of the most popular flat races include:
- Royal Ascot. This is one of the most glamorous events in the UK racing calendar, and takes place over five days in June at Ascot Racecourse. It features several Group One races, including the Diamond Jubilee Stakes and the King’s Stand Stakes.
- The Guineas Festival. This is another big event in the flat racing calendar, and takes place at Newmarket Racecourse in late April or early May. It features both the 2000 Guineas and the 1000 Guineas, which is a one-mile race for three-year-old fillies.
- Glorious Goodwood. This is a five-day festival that takes place in late July or early August at Goodwood Racecourse. It features several Group One races, including the Sussex Stakes and the Goodwood Cup.
Horse Racing Betting Apps FAQs
What is the Best Mobile App for Horse Racing Betting?
The best horse betting app is probably bet365. This bookmaker is good at everything except design and navigation: huge number of races, BOG on all UK and Irish races, live streaming and special bonuses for horse racing.
At the same time, there are some very good bookmakers who stand out with excellent offerings in certain areas: most notably William Hill, Geoff Banks and Skybet.
What is the Best App for Horse Racing Live Betting?
Betfair and Smarkets exchanges. Fixed odds bookmakers do not offer live betting on horse racing, because players at the racecourse will have an advantage over the bookie. This option is available on exchanges where players compete against each other.
Are Horse Racing Apps Free?
Yes, every legal horse racing app is free. You can download any one and check out most of the bookmaker’s offerings, except some that require registration and a deposit, such as live streaming.