Horse Betting Options that New Punters Should Know About
Horse racing is one of the oldest sports in the world. According to ancient texts, humans have been racing horses since 3000 BC. In other words, for over 5000 has horse racing been a discipline that people have been watching, participating in, and betting on.
Horse Race Betting
Today, horse racing remains an incredibly popular draw for most punters. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it is one of the most celebrated and beloved traditions. Naturally, online sportsbooks have jumped on the bandwagon, and offer various different options.
Online sportsbooks, for those who don’t know, are websites that allow players to go through the various odds, and engage in sports betting directly from an electronic device. Punters can do so using a smartphone, tablet, or a PC. The mass availability has made betting much more popular.
It has also introduced many new punters to the various different types of bets that one could place on horse racing. In this article, we would like to delve into these different options, and explain a little something about how they work.
First Place Bet
The most obvious and recognizable bet is, of course, the bet to win, or the first place bet. When making a wager like this, the punter is putting their money on the horse that they believe would win the race. In any sport, this would be the most popular option. However, horse racing is a little different.
The Place Bet
The place bet is the actual most popular available option for horse racing enthusiasts. As the name may suggests, a place bet is a wager on whether a horse will end in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. Though the chance to get it right increase with this bet, the payout is also lower. Still, it is a perfect option for low-risk/low-reward type of punters.
Exacta/Quinella
Taking the place bet on another level, the Exacta bet is a wager on the top two horses. Basically, rather than betting on a single horse to win, a punter is betting on two horses that will end in second and first place. The catch is that said punter has to get the order right. Otherwise, they lose the wager.
For those who think that sounds fun, but don’t like the huge risk, there is the quinella. Similar to the exacta, a quinella is a wager on the top two horses to win the race. However, the punter does not have to get the order right here. Rather, they just have to guess which two horses will win the race.
Trifecta and Superfecta
The trifecta and superfecta are the hardest of the “cta” wagers. As you might have guessed, a trifecta is a wager on the exact position of the top three horses at the end of the race. The Superfecta takes it a step further, and is reserved for experts only. A superfecta wager requires the punter to correctly guess the order of the top four horses that finish the race.