Horse Racing Betting Sites In South Africa

Horse racing is one of the most favourite sports among the South African citizens. Hundreds of people visit racecourses annually. They want to see the exciting performance and place bets.

You don’t need to leave the house to bet on a horse race in 2022. All you need to do is to sign up to a betting site. You will be able to watch a live broadcast of a national and foreign competition. Which horse racing betting sites offer the best service? Where can you start with great bonuses? How to start betting? How to keep your money?

We will provide you with all the details about the online horse online horse betting in South Africa and horse races in general. You will find out the legal betting sites with the best offers. You will enjoy betting on your favourites and there will be nothing on your way.

Horse Racing Betting Sites List

Online Horse Betting in South Africa 2023

Horse racing is not a niche sport. Depending on a region it can be either ignored by local people or added on betting sites as one of the most popular sports. Horse betting online in South Africa is very popular. Local online bookmakers do their best to offer a good service. International companies that enter the South African markets make local bookmakers improve their offers.

However, all online bookies set a pretty high margin for the horse racing betting markets compared to the other sports. The odds on outsiders to win are pretty high, but low odds will definitely be a problem if you place a bet on a favourite horse.

The margin around 8% can be considered perfect for now. You can easily calculate the margin using a special calculator. It can be found on the Internet. Enter fixed odds on all the contestants and you will see the margin percentage. The margin may vary even on the same betting platform depending on a horse race. So you’d better always check it.

Almost all online bookmakers offer several options of showing the horse racing odds. Fractional and decimal odds are the most popular.

Fractional odds show the ratio between potential profit and a bet. For example, if you place a stake at the odds of 2/1 the amount you bet will be doubled in case the bet wins. You will get R200 if you have placed R100. However, the net winning is R100 as your R100 bet just returns to you, too.

Decimal odds are easy to calculate although not everyone is familiar with them. In this case you just multiply the amount of your bet by the odds. In case you bet R100 at the odds of 3 you will get R300 if you succeed. The amount of the bet is included in the amount of your winnings. Thus, in the example above your net winning is R200 and R100 is the amount of your bet you get back to your account, too. 

How to Find the Best Horse Racing Betting Sites in South Africa

When it comes to horse racing betting, there are many different betting options available. There are quite many various horse racing betting sites across the country, and each one offers a different experience.

Here are the basic criteria we focus on when choosing the best bookmaker:

The Best Betting Markets For South Africans

Some unusual bets are usually provided for the sports that are played individually rather than for the team sports. Horse racing is not an exception. This is a very specific type of sport. This is why you need to carefully learn the information about the betting markets before you place your first bet. What can you bet on in horse racing? How can you do it?

Let’s take a look at the simplest horse racing markets options first. They are the most popular on online betting sites.

Straight racing betting usually contains three types of single bets, i.e. win, place and show.

There are several interesting horse racing betting markets, which can be considered standard ones now. They are perfect additional options to the main markets. However, some betting sites don’t offer them at all.

In addition to straight line betting, horse race betting sites have many different types of exotic horse racing bets. Exotic bets are more complicated than straight ones in terms of betting rules. Better odds are often offered in this case.

There is so called vertical betting on horse racing. It includes the following types of bets:

Top 5 Horse Racing Betting Sites

Horse racing is one of the top sports for betting. So where is the best place to bet? Let's take a closer look at the best horse racing sites in South Africa and the welcome bonuses they offer.

New Horse Racing Betting Sites

Nothing makes betting fans happier than the arrival of new bookmakers on the market. In the gambling industry, including betting, new companies are generally considered to be those that have been on the market for no more than 5 years. Unfortunately, South Africa doesn't have a great variety of new bookmakers.

The only new betting company to make the list of top horse racing sites in South Africa in the last 5 years has been the British bookmaker Betway. The bookmaker's ".co.za" domain was registered in 2017. However, the company did not start accepting horse racing bets in South Africa until a year later, in 2018.

Betway has diversified the betting industry in South Africa by offering customers a great betting app with a minimalist design, Cash Out & Bet Builder options and a daily jackpot of R10000.

Horse Racing Betting Sites with Live Streaming

In the battle for every customer, bookmakers have to stand out and add something new to their platforms. One such feature on the bookmaker's website is live streaming of horse racing. For the bettors, it is an opportunity to watch their favourite horse race for free, and for the bookmaker to try and increase their profits from the influx of new customers and the rise in the number of in-play bets.

Races with live streaming are always marked with an additional 'TV', 'player' or 'camera' icon. As a rule, simply opening the betting site will not be enough to watch horse races. Often the bookmaker will ask the customer to do one of the following actions:

Unfortunately, there aren't many bookmakers in South Africa who are willing to stream horse racing on their websites. The high cost of TV rights is the reason for that. Therefore, horse racing betting sites have some extra requirements for bettors to cover their costs.

The only horse betting sites in South Africa that have live streaming available are Hollywoodbets and World Sports Betting.

Top Horse Betting Apps For South Africa

In South Africa, many customers place horse racing bets from their smartphones. Best online bookies take this into account and develop mobile versions of their betting sites. Some companies also release apps for Android and less frequently for iOS.

Advantages of betting through the app:

Match.Center experts have compiled a selection of top horse racing betting apps. There are only the apps from legal bookmakers in South Africa. 

How to Bet on Horse Racing

Betting online on any sport is very easy. Here's a quick guide:

Horse Racing Promotions & Bonuses

Let us take a look at the most popular promotions offered by South African horse racing bookies.

No deposit bonus is a free bet from a bookmaker that can be used for betting. All you need to do is register on a horse betting site and verify your account. There is no need to make a deposit. Theoretically, there is a chance to turn virtual money into real money without investing a single rand. But in reality, you often have to make a deposit to withdraw the no deposit bonus.

Such offers are available at the following horse racing betting sites:

The most common bonus is a bookmaker's bonus for the first deposit credited into the customer's account. The deposit bonus is often equal to a 100% of the deposit. This means that a user receives a full deposit back as a bonus amount. Sometimes it also happens that the deposit bonus is credited as a double amount of the initial deposit (200%). Be careful, though - a number of conditions and restrictions imposed by a bookmaker may make wagering such a bonus difficult.

A distinctive feature of the deposit bonus is the mandatory condition on the minimum and maximum amount you are allowed to deposit in order to receive the relevant bonus. To put it simply: if your bonus is limited to a R100 maximum, then depositing R120 into your account will still only give you a R100 bonus.

If you want a matched deposit bonus, then you should choose the following bookmakers:

Free bet is a bet that is given to a user for free as a virtual amount to place a bet. If a client wins a bet, the bonus turns into real money and becomes available for withdrawal from the betting site.

No deposit bonus, match deposit bonus and match bonus on betting are also varieties of free bets. However, we will now look at bookmakers in South Africa which offer free bets not only to new users, but also to existing customers.

Here's what free bets can be awarded for:

Horse racing betting sites, which give existing customers free bets, are:

How to Get the Most Out Of Horse Racing Betting

Horse betting is a great pastime. It is always fun to watch the races and cheer for the horse you are betting on, and the winning is a great addition to the sporting excitement.

Horse racing betting is first and foremost entertainment, which does not promise winning even for the most experienced bettor. Therefore, you should enjoy even losing bets, but there is no pleasure in going into deep into the negative.

We want to give you some tips to highlight what you need to pay attention to in horse racing betting. We will describe the fundamentals of horse racing betting for beginners, so that you don't lose all your money in the day, but can show a consistently good result over the distance. For experienced bettors, we will present the important details of the sport.

The stupidest thing for beginners in horse racing betting to do is to make the same mistakes as millions of bettors before them. Form the psychology of a successful bettor from the start. That's where you need to start.

One more point we would like to discuss separately is the choice of a horse racing betting site. The conditions of a betting platform can have a direct influence on your success, can make you a bettor making a profit or a loss.

To punters with a lot of experience in horse racing betting, we can hardly say anything new. We just want to stress some important points that will help you form a successful betting strategy.

Popular Horse Racing Events and Tournaments for South African Customers

Every day there are horse races of different levels taking place around the world. If you open the page of any South African bookmaker part of the Top Horse Racing Betting Sites, you can easily notice that there are dozens or even hundreds of races for today and tomorrow. Often such races are small tournaments with small prize pools. However, there will also be elite events in the list that attract the most attention from professional jockeys, ordinary fans and betting fans. Let's take a closer look at the top-rank events.

The Everest

The Everest is Australia's horse races on grass. The Everest is one of the biggest horse racing tournaments in terms of sheer prize pool. On average, participants compete for about $15 million each. The races feature only the best race horses and their world-renowned jockeys. The length of the track is 1.2 km. Randwick Racecourse in Sydney is the venue.

The Melbourne Cup

The famous races take place at Flemington Racecourse on the outskirts of Melbourne. This is the central spring sporting event across Australia and the crowning event of the Spring Racing Carnival. The Melbourne Cup slogan is "The race that stops the nation". The race takes place on the first Tuesday in November. It is 3.2 km long and the prize fund is worth $8 million.

Royal Ascot

This is one of Britain's biggest horse racing events. The race takes place every June at Ascot racetrack 30 miles away from London. The British, including the royal family, love this elite entertainment. Royal Ascot has a prize fund of £4 million. The most prestigious trophy of the tournament is the Golden Cup.

The Kentucky Derby

This is the most important race in the so-called "Triple Crown". The race at the racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky, annually attracts the best thoroughbreds from all over the planet. The prize money for the competition is $2 million. The length of the track is just over 2 km. The Kentucky Derby is number one in attendance in North America, surpassing such well-known horse races as the Preakness Stakes, the Belmont Stakes and the Breeders' Cup.

Dubai World Cup

This is an annual race for thoroughbred horses at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai. The first race was held in 1996. The track length is 2 km. The prize fund of the tournament is more than 10 million dollars. An interesting feature of the competition is the age qualification of the horses. So, horses from the northern hemisphere can take part if they are from 4 years old. In case a thoroughbred comes to the tournament from the Southern Hemisphere, he must be at least 3 years old.

Horse Racing Betting Sites - FAQ