Beginners Guide: How to Bet on Horse Racing

Horse racing offers the thrill of the race track and the vibrant energy. If you're thinking about horse racing betting, you may find it useful first to know how to do it. Nowadays, it has become one of the best racing choices with the Kentucky Derby drawing 16.7 million viewers. With that in mind, let's take a look at how beginners can wager.

Types of Bets for Horse Racing

When it comes to wagers, you can categorize them as two different types: straight wagers and exotic wagers. Straight wagers make the most sense for beginners for their straightforwardness and cheapness. At most race tracks, straight wagers cost as little as $2.

An exotic wager, on the other hand, would make you place wagers on multiple horses with a single wager. You need an advanced understanding of horse picking to do it well.

Straight Wagers

When you do straight wagers, you only bet on one horse. They have different types. For example, they have one wager called the win wager. With this one, you need to bet on the horse that will win the race. Should your horse come in first place, you'll win the pot.

Next, you have a straight wager called a PLACE. A PLACE wager gambles that your horse will come in either first or second place. Why would someone choose win wagers over a PLACE wager? The biggest reason is you don't collect as much.

The next wager is a SHOW wager. This one gambles that your horse will come in first, second, or third place. You have a higher chance of winning, but you win less. Next, you have a wager called ACROSS THE BOARD. This one is also called a combo straight wager. It uses three bets—WIN. PLACE, and SHOW. Normally, these aren't good wagers to place because they're expensive, and you win less profit.

Finally, you have the WIN/PLACE and SHOW/PLACE wager. This one lets you make multiple straight bets on a single bet.

Exotic Wagers

Exotic wagers let you place bets on multiple horses. First, you have the EXACTA Wager. You bet that two horses will come in first and second place. This can be challenging, but the payoff is why it has become popular with experienced gamblers.

Next, you have the QUINELLA, which bets that two horses will come in first and second place in no specific order. The payout is usually less than EXACTA. For the next bet, you have TRIFECTA. This one wagers on three horses that will come in first, second, and third place. They can do this in any order.

Finally, you have SUPERFECTA. This one is a bet on horse racing where your horse choices will finish in first, second, third, and fourth in that exact order. The minimum bet on this one is only $0.10, which makes it more popular.

Final Thoughts

Next, you just need to place the wager. Tell the person where you will wager like the racetrack and the race number. Choose the amount you're betting and the type of bet you want to place. Finally, tell him your horse's program number. That's how you place a bet on horse racing.