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What Is The Maximum Bet On Betfair?

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Different betting sites impose different rules regarding maximum bets and maximum winnings. While these are unlikely to affect the average punter, they can make a big difference to high rollers. Here, however, our focus is on Betfair and other betting exchanges.

Fundamentally, you are not betting against the bookmaker, but instead you are betting against other punters. So, at a basic level, there should be no maximum amount you can bet. But is that really the case?

Drilling down through the Betfair terms and conditions, while Betfair does not stipulate a maximum allowable bet, it does specify maximum payout limits. These are dependent on the market, varying according to the sport and, in the case of football, to the division and/or event. Here is a summary of these limits, but don’t worry, they are unlikely to affect many of us.

Football maximum payouts

The maximum payout Betfair allows is £1 million, though this is restricted to top divisions and competitions including the English Premier League, UEFA, Bundesliga, World Cup and more. For lower leagues such as Leagues 1 & 2, Scottish Premier League and the UEFA Europa League the maximum payout is £500,000.

Horseracing maximum payouts

Betfair offers a maximum payout of £1 million for most national hunt and flat racing. However, for ante-post markets, the limit is £100,000.

Tennis and golf maximum payouts

Betfair limits the maximum payout for tennis and golf to £500,000

Other Sports Maximum Payouts

Typical maximum Betfair payouts are:

  • – Snooker – £100,000
  • – Darts – £250,000
  • – Greyhounds – £25,000
  • – Rugby World Cup – £100,000
  • – NFL American Football – £100,000
  • – NBA Basketball – £100,000

Other exchanges

Naturally, what Betfair and all other betting exchanges have in common is the stipulation that your maximum bet is the amount of cleared funds you have in your account less your potential liabilities. But apart from that do the other exchanges impose limits on the maximum bet?

Smarkets  

Smarkets state that the minimum stake is £0.05, and the maximum stake is £99,999.99 if the market allows. However, if you are inclined, you may bet more than this on any market by splitting your stake into multiple smaller bets. 

Betdaq

Betdaq does not impose on maximum bets on its betting exchange, but the business also runs an online casino where it has maximum payouts from multiple bets. The maximum payout to any one customer from multiple bets is £250,000 in any single day’s business.

Matchbook

Matchbook does not stipulate maximum bets or maximum winnings.

Finally

One of the significant benefits of betting exchanges, especially for high rollers, is that there are no restrictions on maximum bets. All too often bookmakers impose ridiculously low maximums to punters who prove to be successful. The bottom line is that if the market can sustain it and you can find another punter willing to match it, then you can bet as much as you wish to.

Want to start winning on Betfair? Check out this top trading system on Betfair

 

 

 

 

Cheltenham 2019 – Day Four Diary

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I am tracking my results from this year’s Cheltenham festival here on the blog and the first three days all produced a profit which is excellent stuff.

On to Friday then, which is Gold Cup Day of course but there were plenty of other high quality races to enjoy too.

Just a reminder that I am using a twofold strategy this week, which is:

1. To use all the bookies offers, brought together via Profit Maximiser; and

2. Use two of my favourite tipsters – Quentin Franks Racing and the Bet Alchemist – to find the best bets for Cheltenham. Both have excellent records at the festival so I am following their tips for the week.

By combining the above two together, this should give me a good chance of beating the bookies this week.

So how did this strategy get on today? Let’s have a look below.

 

Day Four Results

It’s been a great week so far with a profit of £608 made to date, so let’s hope we can finish things off in style.

Here are my results from the final day of the Cheltenham festival. My stakes were £20 per point (or £10 each-way) once again.

 

1.30 – Triumph Hurdle

A disappointing start to the day with the favourite Sir Eric from Quentin Franks finishing nowhere, but with bookies offering money back on the first race my stake was returned so no harm done.

Profit/Loss from Race: £0

 

2.10 – Handicap Hurdle

The day got a lot better in the second race with Ch’tibello winning at 12/1 (BOG) for the Bet Alchemist, and his other tip We Have A Dream finishing second at 33/1. That’s quite an effort picking the 1-2 in the race, just a shame we didn’t have a forecast on it!

Profit/Loss from Race: £198

 

2.50 – Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle

No return in this race with both Quentin’s tip Lisnagar Oscar and the Bet Alchemist’s selection Salsaretta failing to make the grade. 

Profit/Loss from Race: -£40

 

3.30 – Gold Cup

Well once again my free bet from Bet365 was wasted as Quentin’s tip Clan Des Obeaux finished fifth. If I’d “matched bet” those free bets during the week I could have made an extra £120, but then again wouldn’t have had the excitement of a potentially big win. 

There was also the Bet Alchemist’s tip Belshill which came up short too. 

Profit/Loss from Race: -£20

 

4.50 – Grand Annual Challenge Cup

With no bets in the 4.10 it was on to the 4.50 and unfortunately both of the Bet Alchemist’s tips finished well down the field in this one. 

Profit/Loss from Race: -£40

 

5.30 – Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle

To round off the week the Bet Alchemist managed a place with Defi Blue at 14/1, whilst his other selection was never in it. 

Profit/Loss from Race: £5

 

TOTAL PROFIT/LOSS FROM THE DAY: £103

So that’s it for the festival and what a week it’s been! A profit made every day and an overall return of £711 profit from Cheltenham this year.

The strategy of combining the bookies’ offers with the tips from two of the best tipsters out there certainly worked very well. Sometimes Cheltenham can go against you in a bad way when you’re having lots of bets each day so I’m really pleased to have come away with a strong profit from the week. 

The highlight of the festival from a betting point of view was probably the Bet Alchemist picking the 1-2 today and the 1-3 yesterday, which is an excellent effort. From a racing point of view it’s difficult to get away from Paisley’s Park win yesterday and Al Boum Photo’s victory in the Gold Cup today. 

That’s all from me for Cheltenham this year, it’s back to reality tomorrow from a racing point of view but I hope you enjoyed the festival and had a few winners too, whether from following tipsters or your own selections. 

 

 

 

 

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Cheltenham 2019 – Day Three Diary

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I am tracking my results from this year’s Cheltenham festival here on the blog and the first two days went very well, with a profit made on both days.

Onto day three then, which is referred to as St Patrick’s Day at Cheltenham and there were some cracking races on the card today.

Just a reminder that I am using a twofold strategy this week, which is:

1. To use all the bookies offers, brought together via Profit Maximiser; and

2. Use two of my favourite tipsters – Quentin Franks Racing and the Bet Alchemist – to find the best bets for Cheltenham. Both have excellent records at the festival so I am following their tips for the week.

By combining the above two together, this should give me a good chance of beating the bookies this week.

So how did this strategy get on today? Let’s have a look below.

 

Day Three Results

After a good start on the first two days with a profit of £287, I was hoping to continue the progress today.

So here are my results from Thursday at Cheltenham. My stakes were £20 per point once again.

 

1.30 – JLT Novices Chase

A good start to the day with the Bet Alchemist picking the winner, Defi Du Seuil, at 3/1. My other bet on the race, Lostintranslation from Quentin Franks, was second but with bookies offering money back on the first race my stake was returned so no harm done. 

Profit/Loss from Race: £60

 

2.10 – Pertemps Network Final

A great result in this one with Sire Du Berlais just getting home by a neck for Quentin Franks at 7/1. There was also a place for Cuneo from the Bet Alchemist at 16/1, although his other tip Boyhood finished out of the places. 

Profit/Loss from Race: £142

 

2.50 – Ryanair Chase

No tips from my tipsters in this race but I did have a free bet from Bet365, which once again failed to deliver for me as the other free bets from Bet365 have also done this week. This time I went for Road to Respect which finished third.

Profit/Loss from Race: £0

 

3.30 – Stayers Hurdle

Just the one bet in this race and it was on Supasundae from the Bet Alchemist, which sadly finished 7th so a loss here.

Profit/Loss from Race: -£20

 

4.10 – Stable Plate

No bets from Quentin on this one but two from the Bet Alchemist, with one placing at 8/1 in the form of Spiritofthegames, whilst the other one Azzerti finished down the field, which in effect cancelled each other out.  

Profit/Loss from Race: £0

 

4.50 – Mares Novices Hurdle

No return in this race with Quentin’s tip Posh Trish disappointing. 

Profit/Loss from Race: -£20

 

5.30 – Challenge Cup Handicap Steeple Chase

A great result for the Bet Alchemist, who managed to pick the first and third-placed horses, with Any Second Now winning at advised odds of 10/1 and The Young Master finishing second at 22/1 (BOG). 

Profit/Loss from Race: +£159

 

TOTAL PROFIT/LOSS FROM THE DAY: £321

So a cracking day in the end, with the luck finally going our way. An excellent profit of £321 on the day, taking our total profit for the week to £608.

The festival wraps up tomorrow with the feature race being the Gold Cup, so let’s hope for more of the same and to finish off a great week in style. 

 

 

 

 

Will Faugheen Have One Last Hurrah in Stayers’ Hurdle?

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Faugheen will try to do what only one 11-year-old has since the mid-1920s – win the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

This popular Irish raider has enjoyed a glittering if somewhat injury-hit career landing nine Grade 1 races for trainer Willie Mullins and owners Rich and Susannah Ricci. Faugheen has always got the three-mile trip of the Stayers’ Hurdle after winning his maiden point-to-point as a four-year-old.

An impressive bumper win and novice campaign under Rules followed. After starting at staying trips, Faugheen dropped down in distance to two miles for the first of his three Punchestown Festival victories.

He became known as The Machine, as reported on www.theguardian.com, when landing the Champion Hurdle in 2015, but after taking the Irish equivalent at Leopardstown the following year spent a lengthy spell on the sidelines. Faugheen has won two of seven starts since his injury, but by far his most impressive performance of his later career came in the Champion Stayers last April.

Penhill belied his own long racecourse absence to win the Cheltenham race 12 months ago, but Faugheen was smartly away at Punchestown to make all and beat his younger stable companion by 13 lengths. As that other Mullins mount is now an injury absentee, the veteran is their Stayers’ Hurdle first string.

 

 

Faugheen hasn’t won since Punchestown – finishing second to Sharjah in the Morgiana Hurdle when back down over two miles, then falling at the penultimate flight when trailing Apple’s Jade by two lengths at Christmas. The Stayers’ Hurdle has cut-up in the meantime, with reigning champion Penhill one of a few big names to miss the race.

Absences for Samcro and Apple’s Jade, who goes down the Champion Hurdle route, have left Faugheen as second-favourite to Paisley Park in the Cheltenham Festival betting at https://www.paddypower.com/horse-racing/cheltenham-festival. He’s into 7/2 for the Stayers’ Hurdle, but that price is as much a reflection of the sudden dearth in quality in the race which gives him every chance.

With the exception of Supasundae, who has proved a versatile and consistent Grade 1 performer at a variety of distances, most other hopefuls have question marks hanging over them. Bar Paisley Park, Faugheen and Jessica Harrington’s horse who could also run in the Champion Hurdle, there are big prices available on the rest of the possible field.

Paisley Park is a horse on a serious upward curve as his www.racingpost.com profile shows and entitled in the circumstances to be a warm favourite. Faugheen, who is four years older than Emma Lavelle’s stable star, comes with sentiment attached. He’s been a public horse in the spotlight for a long time and this might be the best opportunity for one last hurrah that he’ll get.

A weak renewal of the Stayers’ Hurdle may be a loss to racing and the Cheltenham Festival, but a major gain for Faugheen. The way is clear from him to be involved in the finish, because there aren’t that many horses on paper who look capable of winning it. If he can go to the well one last time, then The Machine might just be back in the winners’ enclosure.

 

 

 

 

Tipster Lands 50/1 Winner!

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We really hope you are signed up to our number one recommended horse racing tipster Quentin Franks Racing, because yesterday Quentin advised the following tip:

15:35 Southwell – Fair Alibi 2pts win @ 50/1

And guess what? It won!

So that’s 100 points profit from one bet and takes Quentin’s haul for February to an astonishing 135 points profit. Some tipsters don’t make that in a whole year!

And that’s not just a fluke either – Quentin has been consistently delivering for his members over recent months:

January: -13 points loss
December: +27 points profit
November: +30 points profit
October: +47 points profit
September: +71 points profit
August: +19 points profit
July: +12 points profit
June: +21 points profit
May: +27 points profit

That’s over 380 points profit since last May and over 1,360 points profit overall! Or over £13,000 profit to just £10 stakes.

That’s the reason Quentin is our number one recommended horse racing tipster.

We hope you were on that winner yesterday but if not then make sure you don’t miss any more winners like that and get signed up asap.

You can check out Quentin Franks Racing for yourself here. 

 

 

 

 

Cheltenham Festival: Ged Mason describes Clan Des Obeaux as a ‘class horse’ ahead of the Gold Cup

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Fresh from landing the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing Day, Clan Des Obeaux co-owner Ged Mason has lavished praise on the seven-year-old horse.

It was the first ever top-level victory for Clan Des Obeaux under jockey Harry Cobden, and punters will be quietly confident he can make a big impression in the Gold Cup at the Cheltenham Festival in March.

Mason’s Comments

Clan Des Obeaux does have history at Cheltenham Festival, finishing second on three of his four visits and Mason believes the King George winner is primed for the big prize.

“Cheltenham is a totally different type of track and he’ll have to cope with a likely fierce gallop, but Clan Des Obeaux is a class horse and only just turned seven so he’s improving all the time,” he told the Racing Post.

“The race can be a bit like the FA Cup final [Gold Cup], sometimes it throws out a different result, but he’s run well there in the past. He’s just out on the journey at the top and Paul [Nicholls] says he’s come out of the King George well and in good order. Paul has been in this situation plenty of times and knows how to get the best out of his horses and to get them to peak on big days.

“I’ll wear the carpet out at home and in the office when we get close to the race. I get nervous and butterflies in the stomach – but that’s why you do it really.

“The pressure will be on a little – sometimes it’s nice to be the underdog, like at Kempton – but at the same time there are some very talented horses he’ll come up against and it will be competitive, as ever,” he added.

 

King George win

Clan Des Obeaux’s dramatic Boxing Day victory has certainly catapulted him into the discussion when it comes to landing the Gold Cup, but Mason recalls the nerves that engrossed him during the race. Even taking several nudges from TV host Jeremy Kyle!

“I was in the stands taking in the atmosphere when it came to King George time on Boxing Day, but I tend to get quite nervous when the race is on and feel every jump. I was quiet until the second-last fence, at which point Jeremy Kyle elbowed me to say we had a chance, and then I started to scream and shout him home!”

Maybe Mason will want to call on the ITV daytime star for further inspiration ahead of the March 15th showdown at Prestbury Park, where thousands of punters will be eagerly awaiting to see how Clan Des Obeaux runs.

If the King George win was anything to go by, expect Clan Des Obeaux to be mixing it with the big guns as his victory at Kempton proved he is more than capable.

Even the more fancied Thistlecrack and Native River fell victim to Clan Des Obeaux’s prowess and stamina, and Mason will want to see more of the same when the Cheltenham Festival comes around.

You can check out all of the latest ante-post odds for Cheltenham right here: https://www.betfair.com/exchange/plus/horse-racing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheltenham Festival 2019 News

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With only about a month and a half to go, the Cheltenham Festival is not giving the internet a break. For those whose interest in the race revolves around wagering, it is very important that you keep yourself posted on the events as they unfold if at all you are to make the best decision.

For all the others, well, waiting for the competition to kick off may be enough but it will do you no harm to be on top of the news. In fact, there is no better way to enjoy the race than developing your own expectations and having the race prove you right or wrong. It doesn’t matter if you will be betting your money to that effect or not.

To begin with, the entries for the novice races at the festival have already been released. For the two and a half mile JLT Chase, of the 52 entries, the most significant names to be featured include LostinTranslation who is the Ante-post favorite. His performance last term, especially in Mersey Novices’ Hurdle at the Aintree Festival where he emerged second, is one of the reasons why the horse’s victory is anticipated by most fans.

Coupling this with the fact that the seven-year-old beat Defi Du Seuiland in the BetBright Dipper Novices Race that took place on the first day of 2019, his stars are shining way too much for anyone not to expect good performance from him. In addition to Defi Du Seuiland, other horses owned be J.P. MacManus expected to be featured in the race include Le Richebourg and Winter Escape.

Of the three, Defi du Seuil is the most promising especially given the fact that he is seeking to prove himself after his campaign last year turned out to be disappointing. Other horses of interest in this race include La Bague Au Roi, Dynamite Dollars, Vinndication, and Kalashnikov.

If you have been considering trying your hand at gambling, cheltenham betting will most certainly be a perfect place to start from. Many betting sites are offering mouth-watering bonuses especially to punters signing up for the first time.

For instance, with bet365, for every new account, there is a deposit bonus of 15% going up to $100. The latest betting offers relating to Cheltenham include a trip to Cheltenham and Non-Runner No Bet from “Paddy Power”, tickets to attend the Gold Cup from Betfred and wager £5 and get £30 at BetVictor. BetVictor also has an offer for giving you your money back but you first have to meet certain conditions.

If you are looking for a bet to place, it is important not to back the horse with the highest prospects of winning, as the odds given are usually very low. Although these horses are usually more likely to win, they also suffer great losses and for that, wouldn’t it be better to lose money in a bet whose returns would have been higher? Having read that, for the JLT Novices’ Chase it would be advisable to go for Defi du Seuil to win and not LostinTranslation. The odd for this bet in many sites revolves around 10/1.

After Saturday, the 26th of January, the next meeting that is scheduled to take place at Cheltenham will be the event itself. There is around £354,000 of prize-money on Saturday’s card. Included in this amount is BetBright Trial Cotswold Chase’s £100,000.

Backing up this prize is a Graded heats stack, which is also quite significant in the festival. There also may be the revealing of Racing Post Arkle and Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle clues at Doncaster. Nevertheless, Town Moor highlight on the Sky Bet Chase is expected to provide more pointers for the Randox Grand National. Finally, concerns raised by the Paul and Clare Rooney on the racing course were addressed by leading owners who assured everyone that the course is “first class”.

 

 

 

 

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Members Choice Awards – Best Horse Racing Tipster 2018

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As we move towards the end of our awards season here at Honest Betting Reviews, it is time to honour the Best Horse Racing System/Tipster of 2018, as voted for by you. 

This is the perhaps the most competitive category of all, with the largest number of tipsters and betting systems to choose from. It is also the sport with the arguably the greatest number of professional gamblers and the tipsters with the best returns. 

So it was no surprise that the vote for the best horse racing service was hotly contested and very close, with so many strong contenders to choose from. Here is how the voting went down:

In third place was the excellent Quentin Franks Racing, a service that has amassed an incredible £12,000 profit to just £10 stakes at an ROI of 19% since starting up four years ago. It is no surprise to see Quentin on the list and to be honest we would have been shocked if he hadn’t made the list!

In second place is a betting system we reviewed some time ago and gave a passed rating to. It’s extremely popular and has won numerous other awards, so again we are not surprised to see it make the higher echelons of the voting.

Yes you may have guessed it, in second place was the betting system Little Acorns. It’s a very simple system that looks to churn out small but consistent monthly profits, building a betting bank over time and many people report great success from using it. 

So well done to Little Acorns on finishing second but now we move on to the service you voted the Best Horse Racing System/Tipster of 2018.

And the winner is…

…Bet Alchemist!

A big congratulations to Nicky Doyle and the whole team at Bet Alchemist on scooping the award. Here is what Nicky had to say when we informed him about the win:

“Great news to hear Bet Alchemist has been awarded Best Horse Racing Tipster of 2018!

“Honesty, Value and Educational advice are just some of the qualities we like to bring to the table while being 100% on the punters side of the fence. Thanks very much to everyone who voted for the Bet Alchemist service.”

It’s a richly deserved award for a service that has delivered just shy of 900 points profit for its members since 2010. We originally reviewed Bet Alchemist  back in 2016 and gave it a resounding passed rating and it is continued to perform strongly since then. 

The service specialises in National Hunt racing and has delivered 44 points, 58 points and 74 points profit in each of the last three NH seasons, which is very good going indeed. They regularly churn out winners at juicy prices of 16/1, 20/1 and higher for their members. 

And the great news is they are offering a special deal of just £10 for the first month of the service, which you can check out here.

So there you have it, well done again to the Bet Alchemist on winning Best Horse Racing Tipster of 2018 and thank you to all of you who voted. 

We’ll be back soon with the final two awards of the season. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Members’ Choice Awards – Best Sports System 2018

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Next up in our series of the HBR Members’ Choice Awards is the accolade of Best Sports System 2018. 

So far we have had the award of Best Football System which went to Goal Profits and Best Matched Betting Service which went to Profit Maximiser. 

Now it is the turn of those services that either focus on sports other than the “big two” of horse racing and football, or combine a range of sports into one service.

There are a wide selection of other sports tipped on including golf, tennis, cricket, NFL, darts and many of the other almost limitless other sports you can gamble on these days. So it is quite a wide playing field and this was a competitive category. 

It is often in these more niche services that you find the best value and some of the most successful tipsters, so we were intrigued to see how the voting would go in this category. 

Well it turned out that the cream rose to the top and some top quality services made it to the “medal positions.”

In third place was the very popular and successful Golf Betting Expert, a tipster who continues to deliver stellar returns for his members, averaging over £280 per month profit to just £10 stakes and over 30% ROI over the course of three years tipping. And not to mention he just bagged a 22/1 winner last week to get 2019 off to a great start too!

Then in second place we have Robert Fraser’s Tennis Tips, proving that tennis is a popular but often overlooked sport to bet on. Robert has returned over £2,500 profit to date at a respectable return on investment of 10% and no doubt members are gearing up for the 2019 season with the Australian Open just about to get underway. 

So now we move on to the winner of Best Sports System 2018. 

It is perhaps no surprise to long-term followers of Honest Betting Reviews that we had a runaway winner in this category, with the winner garnering nearly twice as many votes as the second place service. 

Yes, the resounding winner of the award was Sports Spread Betting!

Well done to Max who runs the service on the success and much warranted recognition of his hard work.

Since the service began in August 2017 Max has made just shy of 4,000 points profit, including over 2,000 points last year which is an outstanding return. 

It remains the only spread betting service we have reviewed but just shows that finding your own betting niche can be a very profitable approach. Max certainly seems to have done that with his own statistics database which he uses to identify value in the spread betting markets.

The service is reasonably priced too at just £25 (+VAT) per month, which is a snip considering what some tipsters charge for results nowhere near as good as Max’s. 

You can check out Sports Spread Betting here. 

So there you have it, the Best Sports System of 2018 as voted for by you, the members of Honest Betting Reviews.

We’ll be back soon with the next award shortly. 

 

 

 

 

 

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“Lay to Lose”/Minimum Bet Guarantee – What It Means For Punters

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One of punters’ biggest gripes at bookmakers over the years has been their predilection for closing or limiting the accounts of winning customers. 

This has led to many bettors feeling the whole game is rigged against them, as not only can bookies set the odds in their favour but they can also shut you down if you win. 

As a result there has been a backlash against the practice of closing or limiting accounts in recent years, led in part by groups such as the Horseracing Bettors Forum. 

Such efforts have led to a successful campaign in Australia for example for the implementation of MBL (Minimum Bet Limit) of between AU$1,000 and AU$2,000 per race, depending on the class of race. 

That means bookies have to accept bets with winnings up to those amounts, regardless of whether the punter has had their account restricted in the past.

This is great news for punters in Australia and we are starting to see a move in the same direction in the UK and Ireland, with a few bookies offering minimum bet guarantees (or “lay to lose” as it is also called) on horse racing.

Let’s take a look at which bookies have started to guarantee to lay bets on UK and Irish racing to win up to a certain amount.   

 

Minimum Bet Guarantees UK Bookmakers

 

Here is the current state of play:

Bet Victor – A very comprehensive bet guarantee offer, Bet Victor will accept bets to win up to £500 on all UK and Irish races, from 11am on the day of the race.

This applies to both win and each-way bets and is provided as a separate Guaranteed Bet market alongside the normal markets.

Betfair Sportsbook – Similarly to Bet Victor, Betfair Sportsbook will accept bets to win up to £500 on all UK and Irish races, from 10am on the day of the race.

This is win-only though and does not cover each-way bets. 

Skybet – This is a little more restrictive than the above two at the current time, with only class 1 and 2 races covered, but they will accept bets to win up to £500 from 10am onwards on the day of the race.

Coral/Ladbrokes – These two bookies currently only provide a minimum bet guarantee in their shops and not online. 

They will accept bets to win up to £5,000 per customer (from 9am) – to include all Channel 4 races and up to £2,000 per customer (from 11am) – to include all non-televised Class 4 and above handicaps, Listed and Group/Graded races in the UK.

William Hill – trialed allowing bets to win up to £5,000 in shops and £1,000 online for races shown on ITV only. Further news is awaited as to whether this will become permanent. 

[Please note all of the above are correct at the time of writing and subject to change. Please see the individual bookmakers for the terms and conditions of each offer]. 

 

Dawn of a New Age?

With a number of UK bookies now offering a minimum bet guarantee, it would appear to herald the dawn of a new age for the punter. Restricted accounts have been the bane of punters for years, ending the budding career of many successful and professional bettors and wrecking otherwise effective betting and trading strategies. 

However, whilst the minimum bet guarantee is a welcome development, a number of questions about it still remain. 

Firstly, it should be noted that with Bet Victor for example, sometimes the odds for the Bet Guarantee market are not as good as for the normal market. This does rather devalue the offer and we would hope that in time they will move to eliminate any difference and offer the same odds on the minimum bet market. 

Secondly, will the bookies allow punters to use the minimum bet guarantee to arb, match bet and do other low-risk forms of betting/trading? There appears to be some contradiction in this, as whilst they say they will accept all bets, the bookies also have T&Cs saying they have the right to ban anyone who is arbing.

So what will they do? The evidence from forums we have seen is that so far the bookies seem to be allowing arbing, but it remains to be seen if that will continue to be the case. 

Thirdly, will this expand to cover a wider timeframe? Much of the value in horse racing is in the evening before racing, but it is questionable whether bookies would be willing to offer a minimum bet guarantee for early prices. If they did it would be a very positive development for punters. 

And will other sports be offered too or will this just be restricted to horse racing? In Australia they have recently moved to expand the MBL to cover greyhound racing, which is encouraging. It would be great to see it expand to cover sports like football, tennis and golf too. 

Ultimately it will take some time to see how this all plays out and whether it will herald a new age for the punter, but the fact that a number of bookies and offering a “lay to lose”/minimum bet guarantee is very welcome news and hopefully is a sign of more to come. 

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