There is no better feeling in gambling than watching the horse you backed to win a ding-dong battle down the home straight. Money won is twice as sweet as money earned, crypto won is as sweet as it gets!
Which crypto sportsbooks offer racing
Crypto gambling is a young person’s game, while horse racing appeals more to older bettors. For that reason, most of the top crypto sportsbooks don’t offer racing betting, but there are a few who do and one who does it very well.
All of these crypto racebooks also offer greyhound betting.
Sportsbet
Sportsbet is one of the best crypto sportsbooks overall and they have by far the best racing product.
The card for each race shows detailed information, form and stats for all runners (pictured above).
You can get a fixed price, starting price or tote odds (definitions below) depending on what country the race meet is in. The fixed price odds are usually a lot better than the tote odds (as seen in the video below).
The racebook has live streams of Australian and New Zealand gallops, trots, jumps and greyhounds. The stream is brilliant, it has wonderful race calling and analysis and it provides a flowing connection between one race and the next. The stream makes betting so much fun.
Unfortunately, the stream tends to freeze for no reason. My other gripe is that the stream won’t display full screen, only in a medium size box.
Winning payouts are very quick, only taking about 2 minutes.
Unfortunately Sportsbet block bettors from Australia, the UK and the USA, people from those countries should consider the other options below. For everyone else, Sportsbet is the best place to bet crypto on horse racing.
Cloudbet
The Cloudbet horse racing product features Australian and UK racing with the racecard displaying basic information for all runners. They offer competitive fixed odds, despite the limits on individual bets being quite low at this stage.
They’re currently in the process of updating their racing package to include more markets such as individual horse match-ups, multiples, quinella, and quinella place bets. They’re also set to introduce live streaming and more betting options with the inclusion of greyhounds and trots.
Bettors from the UK and the USA will unfortunately not be able to place wagers at this truly phenomenal sportsbook that’s currently ranked the highest on BitEdge.
Video comparison
Fixed odds, starting price and tote odds
Fixed odds
Fixed odds means the racebook displays the odds for a bet and if you take that bet at that time, you get those odds. The odds will change over time but your bet is fixed at whatever the odds were when you made your bet.
This is almost always how sports betting works.
Starting price
Starting price (SP) is the fixed odds at the time the race starts. If you take a SP bet bet you don’t know what odds you will get until betting is suspended at the start of the race.
Tote odds
Tote odds means the totalizer collects all the bets into a pool, then pays out the winners from that pool, after taking a cut for itself. If you take a tote bet you don’t know what odds you will get until betting has closed. The final odds are determined by the size of the pool and how much was bet on each selection; which is not known until betting has closed.
Tote is also known as parimutuel or mutual betting.
Horse racing bet types
Win
Betting on which horse will win the race.
Place
In US racing a place bet is betting on a horse to finish 1st or 2nd. In Australian and New Zealand racing it’s betting on a horse to finish 1st, 2nd, or 3rd (unless there are less than 8 runners, in which case it’s just 1st or 2nd).
Show
In US racing “to show” is betting on a horse to finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd.
Each way
Betting the same amount on a horse to win and to place. So “1m฿ each way” is 2 bets;
- 1m฿ win bet
- 1m฿ place bet
Across the board
In US racing this is betting the same amount on a horse to win, place and show. So “1m฿ across the board” is 3 bets;
- 1m฿ win bet
- 1m฿ place bet
- 1m฿ show bet
Exacta
Betting on which horses will come 1st and 2nd in the order.
Quinella
Betting on which horses will come 1st and 2nd regardless of the order.
Trifecta
Betting on which horses will come 1st, 2nd and 3rd in order.
Quaddie (Aus & NZ)/Super trifecta (US)
Betting on which horses will come 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in order.
Daily Double
Picking the winner of 2 races. Which 2 races count towards the daily double is announced by the track each day.
It’s the same as parlaying 2 separate bets, but in the context of a tote pool, you get better value. That’s because there is 1 pool for the daily double, so the tote only takes its cut of the pool once. Whereas if you parlayed 2 separate bets, the tote would take its cut twice.
Pick 3,4,5,6
Picking the winner of the given number of races. Which races count is announced by the track each day.
It’s the same as parlaying the given number of separate bets but in the context of a tote pool, you get better value. That’s because there is 1 pool for the whole pick bet, so the tote only takes its cut of the pool once. Whereas if you parlayed the given number of separate bets tote would take its cut the given number of times.