Top Online Racing Betting Sites 2024

Betting on horse racing is a common pastime for many Australian punters, and as a result there are many bookmakers that focus strongly on this form of betting. In this article, we at we'll take a look at what to look for to find a good horse racing betting site, as well as some of MyBetting Australia's top choices and a few of the bet types that you can place.

Above, we’ve listed some of the best horse racing betting sites according to our research, but you might be wondering just how it is that we come to these conclusions. What exactly is it that we are looking for when we analyse a betting site, particularly in relation to horse racing?

Unsurprisingly, the first thing that we look at is the odds that are on offer. This is where bookmakers basically all differ, even if it’s only slightly, and selecting a bookmaker that offers superior odds to most or all of its competitors is a good way to reduce the edge that betting sites have. Typically, alongside this we would also look at the range of markets; this is certainly the case for horse racing too, though in general most major bookmakers will offer many of the same markets and odds on the vast majority of races both in Australia and abroad.

Outside of those factors, we also take into account how easy it is to bet with a particular website. Predominantly this comes from the quality of both their desktop website, and increasingly their mobile app (and whether or not they have one). Being able to quickly and easily access the markets that you wish to access and place a bet is pivotal for any horse racing betting site, so we always look closely at how a bookie performs in this area.

Rounding out the list of things that we consider is things like the quality of the customer support available and the number of payment methods. A good customer support platform is key to ensuring that punters are well looked after if they need help solving any issues, while it’s also important that your preferred payment method is available – or at least one that you can easily utilise.

By considering all of these factors, we believe that we arrive at informed conclusions about which bookmakers are best to use when betting on racing.

There are a number of features which help some of our top bookmakers to stand out from the crowd when it comes to betting on horse racing. In this section, we’ll take a look at some of these features, beginning with live streaming.

Live streaming is something which has become increasingly available on different bookmakers, offering registered customers to watch live sport and racing action directly on the betting site – typically with the prerequisite that they have money in their account or have placed a bet in the last 24 hours. Exactly what is available to stream is different on every betting site, but something which is available on a handful is live streaming of Australian and sometimes international horse racing, with Bet365 and Unibet two examples of bookmakers who offer this service. 

In a similar vein, live betting is another live feature which can be valuable for punters betting on horse racing. This is also something which is becoming increasingly available, though typically most people would associate it with betting on sport rather than racing. However, it has relatively recently become available for racing too, with odds provided after the jump for punters who wish to bet in this way. It’s worth noting that the margins are typically greater for the bookmaker with their live odds when compared to their pre-jump odds, but nonetheless if you’re confident that something you see during the race gives you an edge in predicting who might win this can be worth considering, and makes bookies who offer it that much more attractive a proposition.

Finally, the existence of a high-quality mobile app is particularly important when punting on the horses. Often, you’ll be betting on numerous races and may need to navigate quickly to the relevant part of the betting site, so using a site which functions slowly can be frustrating. Having an app which functions effectively can make it that much easier to get where you need to go quickly.

Offers and promotions are something which are available with virtually every bookmaker, though it’s rare that two betting sites will be even remotely similar in terms of their promo offerings. In line with Australian regulations, you can’t see what promos are available with a bookmaker unless you’re signed up and logged in, but with those that you are signed up with you’ll notice plenty of different types of offers.

It’s common for these promos to relate to horse racing, particularly on bookmakers with a focus on this aspect of betting, though the nature of them is not always the same. One common horse racing related promo that you’ll come across reasonably regularly is a bonus back if your selection runs within a certain margin of the winner. For example, it may be that you can get a bonus bet back if the horse you bet on to win finishes in the top three for certain races. With bookmakers that offer same race multis, you also might find at some meetings that you can get your money back as a bonus if only one leg of your SRM fails, for example.

There are also certain offers which might not pertain specifically to horse racing, but which can be used for it. For example, if you get a sign up or deposit offer which will see a bookmaker offer you a bonus bet to a certain value, this can evidently be used on horse racing, meaning that while it’s not a horse racing specific promotion, it still can be used to your benefit in this area.

So now you know a little bit about some of the best horse racing betting sites, and what to look for in individual bookmakers that makes them a candidate to be rated as such. Now, it’s time to look at the actual process of betting, and the different bet types that you will be able to punt on.

Horse racing bet types

The most common type of betting on horse racing, as you probably already know, is win and place betting, which requires you very simply to select a horse to either finish the race in first, or in the top three – or both, known as an each way bet. There are, however, a multitude of alternative bet types that you can consider too. Bets known as exotics include things like quinella and exacta – which require you to pick the two horses which will finish in the first two, in any order and in the order they finish respectively. For a trifecta you need to pick the horses which finish in the top three, while first four is even tougher, requiring you to pick the top four finishers. Our top betting sites for horse racing like PlayUp, Bet365 and co will all offer these types of bets, while they’ll also allow you to bet on a ‘quadrella’ – which requires you to pick the winner of four consecutive races. In some cases, certain bookmakers will also let you put on a same race multi, which lets you pick multiple outcomes from the same race – such as two or three different horses to finish in the top four.

Top racing meets

The most common races on which Australian punters bet on are those which take place in Australia. These meets take place around the country, with mid-week races generally in the country with the exception of certain city meets which are often on Wednesday. Then, come Saturday, generally the bigger races are run, many of which are in major cities at the biggest racetracks in the country. These are the races for which there is the biggest quantity of bets, and for which bookmakers will often offer the most promos.