Horse racing has always been a very popular sport to bet on in Australia and with the online revolution, horse race betting is more popular than ever before in the Australian betting industry. 

Being able to follow The Melbourne Cup may be the highlight of any Aussies’ year, and what could be more thrilling than being able to live stream the race, get live updates and make an in-play bet, all in the comfort of your own home? 

Bookmakers have improved their service, added valuable features and had to be very creative to offer current betting fans the best imaginable online experience and simultaneously attract new customers.

 

The changes in legislation have had a huge impact on the way new betting sites in Australia advertise their products and many fan favourite sign-up bonuses, referral and cashback bonuses had to be discontinued. 

Bookmakers offering and advertising incentives to attract new customers get penalised with hefty fines can therefore only offer bonus features and promotions once a bettor has already signed up. 

 

NewBettingSites has done the research for you. We offer accurate and trustworthy insight into what Australian bookmakers offer betting fans who want to sign up with a reputable brand that will give them more for their buck. 

We recommend betting sites that can offer both domestic meetings as well as races from around the world to wager on. We consider bookmakers that will deliver appealing odds, useful features, good client support and are trusted to wager your bet on. Our top-ranked bookies cover numerous sports, races and events and are all registered, licensed and completely safe for punters to bet on.

In this guide, we will go deep into more of what matters to race betting fans. We explain the meaning of the most important racing terms, give priceless horse racing betting tips and recommend the bookmakers that are offering the best odds and value for your money when wagering online. Here are our top 5 horse racing betting sites and what we considered when choosing them. 

When NewBettingSites ranks betting sites, there are set guidelines we follow to give our readers accurate, transparent and reliable insight. 

In today’s online betting industry, bookmakers are competing vigorously to earn the attention of punters, and with all the excellent products to choose from, it can be a difficult decision to make. Here are the seven factors we consider and aspects we zone in on to determine which online horse racing betting sites make our favourites a cut above the rest:

How safe are they? All Australian bookmakers have to comply with legal requirements and hold a valid and updated license to operate in Australia. Safety measures to protect the customer and ensure a safe betting experience for its clients is at the top of our list. 

What markets are available? Punters want a variety, especially for Australian horse racing betting markets. Markets have to include meetings from Australia, the US, the UK and various other countries and pre-race and future markets should be found as well. Punters need to be kept updated on upcoming events. For leading races, they often introduce odds, months in advance giving punters the chance to place ante-post wagers. 

How good are the odds? Good odds may very well be a tipping point when choosing the best bookmaker as a bettor. Prices are based on form, weight and the going, with the number of runners also having an impact. Whatever the race type, odds should make placing bets attractive to betting fans. 

Do they offer promotions? With welcome bonuses and sign up codes no longer available in Australia, bookmakers had to up their game and offer a quality product for those customers who register with them. When you browse through your options of available online betting sites and click on their homepage link, you will not see any promotions until you have registered with them. Promotions are there to help bettors in maximising winnings and minimising losses so we consider this a crucial factor when reviewing online betting sites, especially those dedicated to horse racing. 

What features do they offer? A good online horse racing betting site should have live streaming, cash out, odds booster, and bet builders to be considered as one of the best. Features should also be available to bettors on both mobile and PCs. 

Is it a mobile-friendly site? Being able to get live updates, place in-play bets, and do it all while on the go is what betting fans want. Most trusted bookmakers have dedicated mobile apps that are available on both Android and iOS devices to let bettors enjoy their online betting experience on their smartphones, tablets or laptops. This app should have ease of use, have a simple layout and must make betting easy for punters to navigate. 

How good is the support? Customer service can make or break the reputation of any bookmaker and in a world where good service is hard to find, punters won’t stick around with a bookmaker that does not seem to care. Support should be available to customers when it is needed, day or night, and bettors must be able to engage via email, through a live chat feature or have a customer hotline to contact. 

Choosing the right bookmaker when betting online is important, more so with horse racing betting where in-play betting and live streaming are crucial aspects to ensuring a good return on a bet wagered upon. We’d like you to know that our recommendations are based on the most important factors and our favourites tick all the relevant boxes. 

Horse racing betting online typically has fewer options on the betting market than other sports which may have a huge variety of different sports markets. 

There are, however, different types of bets and some are found more commonly than others. Exotic bet types include bets like quinella, exacta, trifecta, first four and quadrella (quaddie) and it might take years or hours of betting experience to fully understand all of the types available to bettors.

If you are new to horse racing online betting, it’s important to build an understanding of the basic horse racing betting types available to Australians before you should wager your hard-earned cash on the ponies. 

In this NewBettingSites guide, we’ll look at the most common horse racing betting types found in popular races we think you should be aware of. 

Place: This bet type is when you bet on your horse finishing either first, second or third. Should your horse win the race, you will get just as much as if the horse finished third. Most online sports betting websites require a minimum of eight horses in the race to pay the three top places, less than that will only pay the top two places and is then referred to as a “No Third Dividend” or NTD.

Win: This means just what it says. You are betting on the horse to win, second and third place means nothing. This is also known as a “straight-up” or “on the nose” bet.

Distance: In this type of horse racing betting, punters are offered the chance to bet on the winning distance and is particularly useful when there is an overwhelming favourite. This market can be used to increase the potential earnings.

Each Way: This is the same as placing both a “win” bet and a “place” bet. Should your horse win the race you will win both bets, but if your horse finishes second, third or fourth, you will lose the “win” bet and win the “place” bet.

Head To Head: This bet type is about wagering on which of two horses will come out on top, no matter the position. As long as one finishes above the other it will be considered a win.

Ante-Post: This betting type is better known as “Futures” and can bring about greater winnings.  This type of horse racing betting is mostly used in high profile races where odds will be introduced online months in advance, or even as much as a year in advance. 

Specials: This is a less traditional type of horse racing betting and can be anything from a stake on the leading jockey at a particular meeting or a stake on the most successful trainers.

Besides the above type of betting, you also get standard horse racing betting options which include: 

The odds are what sets one online horse racing betting site apart from another. Some bookmakers are just more generous with their odds than others, odds are determined by a number of variable factors.

Right up until the day of the actual race, prices will often change and will be influenced by anything from an injury, weather conditions, form and track surface.

Because of varying odds, deciding when to place a bet can also be important. Sometimes a horse racing betting site offers the best odds guaranteed which means that punters will be paid out at the best possible price no matter when the bets get placed.

We’ve compared the odds at Australian horse racing betting platforms and found those who we favour above the rest: 

It’s impossible to enjoy horse racing sports without knowing what is meant by the racing language amongst bettors, and feeling lost is imminent if you don’t know the meaning of the most basic and key horse racing betting terms. As with any other sport, there are terms used that are specific to horse racing and it’s especially important for beginners to learn the lingo to put themselves in a stronger position.

Let’s get your vocabulary up to speed with the most commonly used terms and phrases in horse racing betting:

Handicap: In a handicap race, weights are used to provide runners with an equal chance of coming out on top. 

Form: The condition a runner is in currently or when entering a race.

Fillies: A young female horse that is too young to be named a mare. 

Mare: A female horse that is 5 years old or older. 

Juvenile: This is the name given to a two-year-old horse. 

Blinkers: This is headgear that is put on a horse’s head to make it see directly in front of them and unable to view the left or right and is used to avoid distractions during a race. 

Classic: The 200 Guineas and Epsom Derby are two prime examples of a classic. This name is given to a series of flat races that are competed in during the season. 

Furlong: A measure of distance to measure the distance of a race - 1 furlong is the same as ⅓ of a mile. Races take place over a series of furlongs. 

All-Weather: This term refers to the synthetic surface where races can take place in almost all conditions. This term is more common in countries where the weather tends to be less favourable and may affect the outcome of the race, and therefore all-weather courses are used.

Non-Runner: This is an entrant that is withdrawn or withdraws just before a race.  Bookies do offer non-runner insurance promotions as withdrawals can take place for any number of unpredictable reasons.

Quaddie: This term refers to selecting the four winners in four consecutive races. 

Quinella: This term refers to successfully selecting the first and second places in a race, not necessarily in order.

Trifecta: This bet type is about successfully predicting the top three spots for the finishers of a race but in the correct order.

Under Wraps: This is an action that refers to a jockey purposely holding a horse “back” from running at full “tilt”. 

Frontrunner: This is someone in a race who performs well only when ahead of the field and sets the pace for the rest of the field. it can also refer to the leader or favoured contestant, not just the person who does best when ahead.

Horsepower: Used to describe how much power a car engine or motor has, it means what power a standard horse would be capable of. Technically it is a unit of power equal to 550 foot-pounds per second (or 745.7 watts).

Some prefer the more traditional bet and enjoy wagering on horse races with their local high street bookie. However, betting online, especially for horse racing, is the preferred option for punters today.

Australian online bookmakers make it easy and convenient for bets to be placed, while also delivering a host of additional benefits. Let’s inspect the main pros and cons of betting online:

Live Streaming: Nothing beats the excitement of watching a game unfold in real-time and if you cannot be there in person, watching it live is the next best thing. Today, a huge number of races are available to watch at Australian top sports betting sites and bookmakers include this feature to attract and maintain customers. With a lot of help from technology, betting fans can follow any race on their mobile device and in the comfort of their own homes (or anywhere else). 

Promotions: Making use of online promotions is one of the biggest advantages of online horse racing betting and helps bettors minimise losses and maximise profits. These differ from one bookmaker to the next but typically include best odds guaranteed, faller insurance or extra places.

Cash Out: This important feature is only available with some bookmakers and allows a punter to opt-out of a bet before they completed the race, minimising the loss when their horse falls behind during a race. 

Winning: No need to go out and visit your local bookie to collect your winnings, betting fans can get their hands on profits quickly when betting online instead.

Gambling addiction: Responsible Gaming is always being promoted and visible as a helpline on any bookmakers' site. Gambling addiction is a real and dangerous risk associated with online betting. For a punter that struggles to gamble responsibly, online betting sites might make things more difficult. 

Australians love their horse racing events and betting on online horse racing events is both thrilling and exciting. The Australian horse racing calendar is jam-packed with high-profile meetings, but some attract more attention to betting customers than others and is worth betting on:

This race runs over 3,200 metres and is often referred to as “the race that stops the nation”. Held at Flemington Racecourse on the first Tuesday of November, this race is known as the richest two-mile handicap in the world and has a prize pool total of  $8 million. The Melbourne Cup is the most bet on sporting event in Australia each year, and there are a host of specialist Melbourne Cup betting sites that offer promotions on the great race. 

The Golden Eagle was founded in 2019 and boasts a prize pool of $7.5 million, one of the most lucrative in the Australian racing calendar. This race runs over 1,500 metres at Rosehill and 10% of the prize money is donated to charity.

This is arguably what fuels online horse racing betting and is a thrill that is hard to beat. A bookmaker that offers live streaming is likely to be chosen over another as the excitement of seeing your pick lead the race is exhilarating and only as enjoyable when experienced live. 

Therefore, horse racing betting sites offering live streaming already hold an advantage over others. You need to place a small bet or have a funded account balance to gain access to streams. They hold meetings from around the world and are available to watch on your mobile or PC online. 

In-play betting online is strictly illegal in Australia, but that does not keep punters from dialling in the bet they see turning into a potential win while watching the action unfold online. 

It’s important to have the best chances of beating the bookies and therefore, several factors need to be considered before wagering. Here is what we think you should pay close attention to: 

 

Always do your homework: If you want to play for fun and don’t mind throwing your hard-earned money away, you don’t need to do any homework. If you want to bet a winning punt potentially, you need to thoroughly research all the factors involved. The age and weight of a horse will impact results and if a particular horse won over the past three races, it is likely to win again. 

Odds: Shop around for the best odds and register with a few bookmakers to ensure that you can take advantage of the best odds available. 

Horse racing betting system: No system can guarantee to win your bets, but a horse racing betting system (that involves a series of steps to be taken and research that needs to be done) can ultimately turn your punt into a win.  

Budget: No matter how appealing a market appears, always stick to your budget! This should be a small proportion of your disposable income. You can help yourself by setting up a deposit limit. 

Jockeys: Jockeys play a critical role in the outcome of a race and we often overlook them when betting on horse racing. Note who the riders are (as well as runners) and who the leading jockey is that is picking up regular wins.