There’s a big secret about horse racing bettors: they’re not like other gamblers. While many sports bettors consider themselves ‘jacks of all trades’ when it comes to the sporting categories, they’re willing to place wagers on, the same usually isn’t true of horse race bettors. While a football bettor might be inclined to join horse racing bettors in reading an article like “Secrets to Online Horse Betting”, it’s a lot less likely to find a dedicated horse racing bettor reading an article like “Secrets to Online Football/Basketball/Tennis/Golf Betting.”
Why should this be so? Let’s take a closer look.
The Daily Mail carried a story in November 2021 about Australian tycoon Kerry Packer’s epic bets on horse racing – a sport he exclusively wagered on (and often took “insane” risks with vast sums of money when he did so). But as the article makes clear, Mr Packer was far from alone. There were plenty of prominently wealthy gamblers of the past than rank alongside him. Like top racehorse owner Perce Galea, Filipino industrialist Felipe Ysmael, with his massive punts with top bookmakers like Bill Waterhouse, and bookmaker’s son Fred Angles, with his obsessive data analysis that allowed him to make enormous horse racing bets very successfully over three entire decades (1920s – 1950s). None of these larger-than-life characters were especially interested in betting on anything other than horse races.
So, while enthusiasts for horse race betting will search out reputable and trustworthy betting sites like Royal Ascot Bets and concentrate on the tips and data very studiously, they’re not inclined to put their energies into other sports betting. It’s as if they’ve been bitten by the horse racing bug, as if horse racing betting is so comprehensively absorbing for them that they have no desire to migrate to other genres.
The reason for this unique exclusivity amongst horse racing bettors are multiple. Humans have been fascinated by horses and horse racing for millennia. While the online accessibility of other forms of sports betting in recent years have toppled it from its top position in the sports betting popularity stakes, horse racing remains second only to football.
Of all the top sports available for betting today, horse racing delivers the fastest results. That’s because, on average, a horse race does not take long to complete: no one has to wait biting their nails for hours until the results are finalised. And if you get rapid-fire results, you also get rapid-fire payouts when you win – factors that make this form of betting incredibly thrilling for its adherents.
And the research itself seems to be inherently rewarding. Bettors seem to enjoy poring through the masses of information out there on different horses, the most successful jockeys, the most outstanding horse breeds, the different means of calculating odds and selecting from a large repertoire of different kinds of bet. Becoming aware of how to weigh all these factors up is a kind of intellectual accomplishment in itself, on top of any financial reward.
And let’s not overlook another major draw: horse racing bets come with significantly better odds than other sports, with the result that seriously big wins are more likely.
The exclusivity of horse racing bettors suddenly looks a lot less mysterious when you consider all of these highly enticing (and rewarding) factors.