There are few more popular sports for betting purposes than horse racing. Experienced gamblers in the sport tend to follow the action throughout the season, pinpointing likely end goals where healthier payouts can be achieved for the work that they have put in throughout the season.
Winning money when betting on horse racing can often be extremely challenging, as it is one of the most unpredictable sports, but there are a number of key tips that experienced pros live and die by when it comes to finding value in the market in order to maximize their returns on their selections.
But what are some of the key tips that inexperienced bettors should follow to ensure that they stand the best chance of getting decent returns from their horse racing wagers?
Find The Value
Horse racing bettors tend to spend hours conducting their research before the race to ensure that they have covered all potential results from the race that they are studying. If you are looking for Breeders Cup markets, you should consult Del Mar races schedule.
However, once the research on each of the runners is complete, bettors will then need to turn to ensuring that they get the best price available for the selections that they wish to make.
Therefore, comparing the odds is essentially important to ensure that you avoid the risk of potentially winning more should you have made your selections at a different sportsbook.
For the most part, experienced bettors will have accounts with a number of different bookmakers, making it easy to study the prices available, before putting down their stake in the selection that they wish to make. This is a key tip to follow to ensure that you stand to win the maximum possible amount when making bets on horse racing.
Find Your Niche
There is a wide selection of different types of racing. Dirt racing is most popular in the United States, with the big race of the year coming in the form of the Kentucky Derby. Meanwhile, turf racing is most popular during the flat season in Europe, with major Group 1s held in France, Australia, and the UK.
However, jump racing is the most followed type of racing in the UK and Ireland. Finding your niche for betting on horse racing is important, as all the different types of racing will require bettors to look for something slightly different. Specializing on one type of racing is a key tip to follow in order to maximize your returns, as you can spend your time digging deeper into form and figures with one, as opposed to trying to follow every race on all different surfaces and conditions.
This is a preferred method for most successful bettors, as you will rarely find those that pick up healthy returns in jump racing making wagers during the flat season, as they have limited knowledge surrounding the code.
Manage Bankroll
If you’re just getting into betting on horse racing, then a key tip that should be followed from your early stages is bankroll management. Keeping track of how much you’re betting and, importantly, winning is essential to ensuring that you make long-term profits when betting on the sport.
As a beginner, you should put aside a set amount that you wish to gamble at the start of the month, and under no circumstances should this figure be exceeded. An unhealthy bankroll management and mindless betting trying to chase returns is the quickest way to ensure that betting becomes a hindrance rather than a form of enjoyment.
This is also something that experienced bettors also follow, event after years of betting on the sport. They will set aside money for a day at the racing, and it makes it much easier to work out whether you’re in profit over a 12-month period.
Always Look Ahead
Maximizing your returns also means that bettors are looking ahead to the next events on the schedule, and making plans for the money that they wish to spend for the bigger meetings. Therefore, it isn’t uncommon for experienced bettors to overlook smaller meetings at tracks such as Aqueduct, if there are big festivals upcoming at tracks such as Saratoga and Del Mar.
Staying on top of the calendar is also important when it comes to finding potential value angles in the betting. Experienced bettors will be aware of the horses that will be pointed toward certain races, which can often throw up value angles at the ante-post stage when it comes to betting on the races. This is most common when it comes to races that are staged during the two-day Breeders’ Cup meeting.
Betting markets for the championship races open months in advance before declarations are made, meaning that bettors can put money down for their selections at an early stage to get the best possible odds for their horse. However, it is worth mentioning that the stake is lost should the runner not line up in the field.
