The best Horse Racing betting sites in August 2023 according to oddschecker

Thanks to the advent of online betting, horse racing betting has been teeming with innovation and unique features in recent years, but it can be hard to decide the best horse racing betting sites for you.

If you’re interested in betting race horses online, look no further: we got you covered. This guide examines the best horse racing betting sites, looking at various factors to determine the top horse racing bookmakers for UK punters. We’ve done the leg work, so you don’t have to. If you want to discover your next bookie for horse racing, read our expert guide below.

Best Horse Racing Betting Site in the UK

Our review team has searched the length and breadth of horse racing betting sites UK to determine the best operators on the market. By looking at welcome bonuses, special features, odds, mobile platforms, and market availability, we’ve done the hard yards so you can get on with what matters: sticking a wager on the action from the most popular race meets for UK punters.

Below, we’ve taken an in-depth look into several of the best horse racing betting sites to give you all the information you need to decide which operator you should choose. Our review team has also provided details of the welcome bonuses, so you can expand your bankroll when you register and make your first deposit. See below for our conclusions on some of the UK’s most prominent horse racing bookmakers.

William Hill Horse Racing

William Hill offers you a generous welcome bonus when you register and you can use bet credits on various races from the UK & Ireland, France, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. You can even bet on virtual racing! With William Hill’s EPIC Boosts, you can get significant odds boosts on the popular races daily.

You can also follow the action using WH Radio and watch international and domestic race meets at Betting TV on the William Hill desktop client and app. If you’re looking to bet on the go, William Hill offers native apps for iOS and Android, which have been well received by bettors, and rated 4.7/5 and 4.3/5 on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, respectively.

bet365 Horse Racing

bet365 offers competitive odds on the UK & Ireland’s most popular races. With Price Promise, bet365 will not be beaten on price on any horse for all UK and Irish races shown live on ITV Racing.

Price Promise: Applies to bets placed on Win and Each-Way Fixed Odds markets from 10am on the day of the race up to 15 minutes before the scheduled ‘off’ time for each ITV race (excluding US racing). Prices matched against selected bookmakers. Bet restrictions and T&Cs apply.

With Each Way Extra, you can add flexibility to your each-way bets by increasing or decreasing the number of places for an adjusted payout. We really liked this feature and didn’t find it offered anywhere else. When you sign up and deposit and bet £10, you’ll get £30 in free bets.

Paddy Power Horse Racing

Owned by gambling industry giant Flutter Entertainment, Paddy Power is renowned for its innovative advertising, fantastic offers, and intuitive platform. When we reviewed it, it didn’t disappoint. Paddy Power offers new customers a generous welcome offer: when you sign up and bet £10, you’ll get it back as withdrawable cash if it loses. Compared to free bet offers, which give you credits equal to the value of your stake, this is a unique offering we couldn’t find anywhere else.

When punters bet with Paddy Power, they’ll find a well-designed desktop client and platform with markets from races across the UK, Ireland, and the world. Paddy Power also gives combo bet odds boosts, called Power Prices, which match racing wagers with other sports and increase the potential payouts. The bookie also regularly pays extra places on races daily, so we advise you to check before you wager.

Sky Bet Horse Racing

The most famous brand from prominent UK gambling company Sky Betting & Gaming, Sky Bet is one of the most renowned horse racing bookmakers in the UK, thanks to great features like free-to-play games, live streaming, and a solid welcome bonus.

Sky Bet regularly pays extra places on many of its featured races and allows you to win cash prizes with its free-to-play ITV7 game. If you can pick seven winners from selected races, there’s £50,000 to be won weekly. Thanks to its partnership with Sky Racing channel, you can stream races worldwide when you place a bet of £1 or more. Its app is also well-designed and available for iOS and Android, with users on their respective app stores rating it 4.6/5.

Betfair Horse Racing

Betfair is a leading UK betting exchange, a peer-to-peer bookmaker where bettors wager against each other rather than a centralised bookie. Its welcome offer gives you £20 in Free Bets when you bet £5 on its sportsbook. These bet credits can be used on the site’s extensive horse racing markets, covering the usual UK, Irish, and International race meets.

For single and multiple each-way bets, Betfair also offers extra places on some races, which can give you additional value if your selection finishes in the top places but doesn’t win. One of the unique features of Betfair is its market on winning distance, which can lengthen your odds and give you a chance to boost your payout if you’re wagering on a race favourite.

We also really liked the Betfair app, available for iOS and Android. While its iOS app received rave reviews from bettors, with an average rating of 4.8/5, its Android app is less popular with punters, with a 2.6/5 rating. Android users complained of glitches and log-in issues, but Betfair’s customer team responses indicated that these issues had been fixed in a recent update.

Hopefully, these issues don’t affect punters looking to wager on Android. All-in-all, our review team thought Betfair was a solid platform with a few unique features to keep your experience of horse racing betting online fresh.

Unibet Horse Racing

Swedish bookmaker Unibet is a well-respected operator, bringing sports betting, including horse racing, to over 11 million punters in more than 100 countries. One of the most unique aspects of this operator is its dedicated racing welcome bonus, which offers you money back as a bonus of up to £40 if your first punt on the horses is unsuccessful. In addition, Unibet offers punters who claim this offer a £10 casino bonus.

It also offers Boosted Odds with its Price Boost and Super Boost features, which can enhance odds on a whole field at selected races. We found these odds boosts to be generous and significantly improve the value of horse racing betting odds. Like many competitors, Unibet offers extra places on selected races as well as money-back specials.

Best Horse Racing Betting Sites - How do we choose?

Our expert reviewers know what makes a horse racing betting site great, and we use that knowledge to examine every operator and make a recommendation to you. We analyse operators across various metrics important to players to only recommend the best horse racing betting sites to you.

The best sites entice new punters to sign up with generous welcome offers, so we examine all the bonuses available so you can get the best offer possible with lucrative rewards like matched bets, free bets, and bonus funds.

We also compare the odds at different bookies available to UK punters to see which offers the best value and available markets to ensure that its offering is deep enough to satisfy punters, whether it's your first flutter or you’re a regular punter. Knowing that many punters look to bet on the go, we also check out an operator’s mobile platform to ensure that it’s easy to use, intuitive, and free of irritating lags and glitches which can ruin your betting experience.

In addition, we look at betting sites’ available banking methods to ensure that you can deposit in your account with some of the most popular payment methods, like Visa and Mastercard. Some of our sites even accept speedy and convenient banking options like Apple Pay and PayPal.

Finally, if you run into a problem while using a bookmaker, you want to know that you can troubleshoot with quick and responsive customer service. Therefore, we put Bookmaker’s customer support to the test to make sure you can solve any problems you have as quickly as possible. Simply put, we know what is essential to punters looking to bet on horse racing, so we check it out so you don’t have to.

Best Horse Racing Betting Sites - Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most popular horse racing bet?

Generally, outright markets are the most popular horse racing betting markets, but other popular markets include Each Way, Top 3, and Top 5 markets on races. Additionally, accumulator bets that involve predicting the winners of several races, like Heinz, Super Heinz, and Canadian bets, are popular among punters.

What bonuses and offers are available for horse racing bets?

Many different types of bonuses and offers are available for horse racing bettors, including free bets, deposit matches, and odds boosts. To find out the latest offers, check out any of our recommended horse racing betting sites' promotions pages by following any link to a betting site in this guide.

What is the best horse racing betting site in the UK?

Any sites we recommend on this page are tested on various factors and are among the best horse racing sites in the UK. All operators offer competitive odds, a good range of markets, and intuitive and easy-to-use platforms, so follow any link on this page to be redirected, register, and begin your betting journey.

Is betting on horse racing legal?

Betting on horse racing is entirely legal in the UK. Horse racing has been legal in the UK since the 1600s, and the modern industry was legalised in the Racecourse Betting Act of 1928. Currently, horse racing betting is regulated by the Gambling Act of 2005.

Can you bet on all the horses in a race?

Yes, should you choose to, you can bet on every horse in a race. However, depending on your bet type, only the winner or the Top 3 horses will pay out. Unless a long-shot bet wins, you are unlikely to walk away with a profit.

Gamble responsibly

Reach plc is committed to promoting safer gambling. All of our content and recommended bets are advised to those aged 18 or over. Odds are subject to change too.

We strongly encourage our readers to only ever bet what they can afford to lose. For more information, please call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 or visit begambleaware.org.