By far the most popular type of horse racing bet is the "win bet", also referred to as "on the nose". It's also referred to by numerous other names including the "win single". You simply bet on one single horse at the odds that are specified for that horse. So, why are win bets so popular with the vast majority of punters? Well, that’s because:
There is no bigger pointer to any novice than to hear and learn how professional horse racing experts bet. It's nearly always on win singles. If you had inside information about a horse and you wanted to back it, you wouldn't then dilute the effect of the information by backing the horse in a longshot accumulator, would you?
Professionals believe in win singles and so do our in-house experts. The four previous reasons as to why this bet is so popular should resonate with you. If you think that an even-money favourite is an absolute shoe-in for the 2.45 at Haydock then you can back it without having to place it into an accumulator or multiple bet.
You simply go to your online betting firm and fill out a betting slip for your selection. This is usually a simple process of clicking on your preferred horse. The name of the horse will appear, as will the venue and race time and the current odds. You then simply choose your stake level.
For example, you want to bet £10 on Monty's Pride and the current odds are 8/1. After you make your bet, £10 will be deducted from your account. If your bet loses then your money is lost. If the bet wins then you will win eight times your stake and so your win is £80.
Remember that winning bets also return your stake money as well. This means that your total return is£90 and not £80. Also, remember that a win bet is not an each-way bet. This means that your horse has to win, meaning it could lose by a nose and you still lose your money.
The key word with win bets is flexibility. If you look at three of the four highlighted reasons for picking win bets then you will see that they are geared towards flexibility.
If you want to bet like a pro and you want to bet successfully, maximising your chances against the betting firms is achieved by using win bets.
Let's say you were forced into backing a horse in every single race. This would clearly be a losing proposition as there would be many races where even after careful analysis, no selection jumped out at you. With win bets then we are no longer locked into placing our winnings onto another horse without being able to get access to our money.
One of the key areas that you need to work on if you want to make your betting profitable is to think in terms of odds. Many novices go exclusively down the form analysis route but this is old hat really. The betting firms and odds compilers know everything that you know and more. Every horse in a race has a theoretical chance of winning. Even in races with powerful favourites, if that horse were to fall or anything bad happen then the odds of every other horse in the race winning fall sharply.
This means that betting odds need to be linked to our betting analysis and this means finding the best prices online. This is the number one reason for betting online instead of in live betting shops on course. However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn't try to study the form.
At the end of the day, you're searching for the best odds on a horse that can possibly win the race. For example, if a horse was priced at 66/1 but it was destined to win one race in twenty then you would show a long-term profit backing this horse.
On the flip side, if a horse was priced at only 2/1 but only won one race in four then you would lose money backing the horse at those odds.
We have become one of the premier sites for online horse racing enthusiasts in the UK, with thousands of people visiting the site on a weekly basis. But why should you listen to what we have to say? Well, there are quite a few reasons.
We must strive to eliminate horses that are poor value and horses that we think won't win. The process of actually doing this begins to narrow the field. We then naturally progress to finding a selection for the race. There are a variety of reasons for not backing a horse:
If we look closely at any horse then we will see reasons to oppose it in the betting. The outsiders take care of themselves. Any horse at 10/1 or more should really be left to the fun bettors and the ones with inside knowledge. The rest of us need to make do with the horses that are likely to win and this means betting at the top end of the market and betting in win singles only.
Finding the right horse to bet on is simply a matter of good old deduction. If you can find reasons for the horses that won't win then what you are left with are the horses that will. If that list only has one horse on it then your selection is straightforward! Remember that with win bets, you can still back more than one horse in the same race.
