How do you bet on horse racing?

When it comes to betting on horse racing, you can do so online or in person, in a High Street betting shop or on a racecourse. Placing a bet online essentially involves opening account with the bookmaker of your choice, depositing funds, making your selection(s), entering an appropriate stake or stakes and confirming your bet. Placing a bet in a High Street betting shop is exactly the same, fundamentally, but rather than filling in an on-screen betting slip you need to fill in a physical slip and hand it over the counter to the cashier along with your stake money.

On a racecourse, you once again have the choice of an on-course betting shop, which works in exactly the same way as the High Street equivalent, a traditional bookmaker, in the betting ring, or the Tote. A Tote bet is what is known as a pool bet, insofar as all the money staked on a particular market, say, the win market, is pooled together and, after a deduction, is shared among the winning tickets in that market. The downside of Tote betting is that you do not know at what odds your bet will be settled until the winning dividend is declared.

A traditional bookmaker, on the other hand, will display the odds on offer on a board, so you can see what price you are taking at the time you place the bet. In either case, it is simply a question of making your selection, deciding what sort of bet you wish to place, to what stake, and convey this information to the Tote cashier or bookmaker. In return for your stake money, you will receive a ticket containing the details of your bet, which you should retain until after the ‘weighed in’ signal.