Horse Racing Advice Article # 4

If you enjoy your horse racing then I would guess that you may also like the idea of being able to earn some extra money from this most fantastic of sports. As with all forms of gambling though, you need to be watchful and in this article I am going to explain the basics for you.

If you're considering betting on horse racing for extra cash each month, it may be an idea if I highlight the basic types of bet that you can place. Plus, for the absolute beginners out there, you'll learn that you don't necessarily have to pick the winner, to win money at this game, in fact one way is to pick the loser!

So to begin with, as we're covering the basics, I thought I'd start with the easiest, and please note: not necessarily the easiest way to win by betting on horses, but the easiest to understand) method of betting on horse racing, is to place what is called a "win bet". Some of you may also know it as "on the nose"!

As you might think, with this type of bet you're looking to select the horse that you think is going to win the race. If it does win the race then you win too, but if it finishes second, third or worse, then you lose your stake..

Increase Your Chances Of Getting Some Money Back

An alternative if you'd like to increase your chances of winning back some cash, is by using a 'place bet'. A place bet means that you are betting on a horse that you think will come in the first four places in a race, depending on the amount of horses that are involved in that particular race. Although you will not win as heavily, the odds of you getting some money back are higher.

There is also a bet which is a combination of the first 2 bets I've mentioned. An 'each way' bet means that you are essentially placing a win bet and a place bet. You get paid for a horse that places, plus if it wins you get paid for that bet as well. This is basically a bet that you'd place on a decent valued horse, so for example at odds of 25/1 (25 to one).

'Novelty' Bets

If you like higher stakes, but higher risk, you may consider going for what is known as a double bet. This can be either a place or a win bet, but the twist is that you are putting money on two horses in two different races. If both win then effectively your total winnings double, but if one part of the bet fails, you lose all of your money on both bets.

And working on exactly the same principle, there is also a treble bet that you can place. In this case of course, you are backing three horses in three races.

You may have heard of an accumulator bet, as the bookies like to promote these (mainly because they make a lot of money out of them). This involves you betting on four or more horses in different races. As you'd expect, the accumulator is a tricky bet to successfully achieve and you're relying on four horses all coming in. This type of bet is a bad idea for a beginner, and in fact I do not even entertain these myself and advise my members to do the same.

Betting To Lose?

The final type of bet I am going to cover is a 'lay bet'. These have grown in popularity recently, with the advent of betting exchanges, such as Betfair. It involves betting on horses to lose the race (or not win to be more precise), rather than betting on them to win or place.

The down side is that if the horse you're betting on wins instead of loses, then you can lose a fair amount of cash, so caution must be applied at all times. Particular attention needs to made of the price of the horse, as this determines the amount of your loss.

Well that covers the basics of the basics. I will be going into more detail about each individual bet in due course, so stay tuned.