There are only relatively few sports that are genuinely available all year round. Many sports, such as Football, Cricket, all forms of Rugby, Golf and even Tennis all tend to run to their own 
season. This means that at certain points of the year it is not so easy to bet on these sports.
Horse racing however is different because with both types of horse racing being so popular in the UK, flat racing and National Hunt, each type has their own season and they overlap nicely. Flat racing runs from spring through to autumn and the jump season running from autumn over the winter into spring.
It is this year-round availability that has helped make horse racing one of the most popular sports to bet on, along with its long history and symbiotic relationship with the bookmaking industry.
As such, when it comes to its importance to sports betting sites, horseracing cannot be underestimated. While very few sites don’t offer betting on this, most UK-based sports betting sites will have extensive betting options for horse racing each day, as well as a number of other features, promotions and offers aimed at retaining the valued horseracing punter.
With that in mind, we are now going to take a closer look at how SkyBet performs when it comes to the horseracing punter. What are the most popular bets available, how do their odds compare with other sites and are there any other offers, features and promotions available on the site that will entice horseracing punters to sign up?
Remember if you want to take advantage of any of the offers or features in this article, you need to be a customer with SkyBet. Click here for all the latest news on the best Sky no deposit bonus available for you.
What horse racing markets are most commonly available on SkyBet?
Once you’ve logged in to your SkyBet account and navigated to the horseracing section, it is relatively easy to peruse the selection of markets available. Each of the days races is organised into a different card –one card per venue and you simply click on the race on the card that you wish to bet on to bring up the information specific to that race.
This then loads up the specific Racecard for the race you are interested in, listing all the runners, the trainer, the jocket, the form for the horse, its weight any previous prices available on the horse and what the current price is for Win and Each Way betting.
At the bottom of the list of runners, any non-runners are displayed in red and you can also bet on the unnamed favourite and unnamed second favourite as well as making Forecast and Tricast bets in this section.
It’s fair to say that these bets are the most popular forms of bet on SkyBet, although you can of course add several selections from different racecards to your slip and place any number of accumulator or multiple bets too.
That’s just the bets for each days race. There are also an extensive number of ante post bets available for a wide range of races which you can view on the ante post betting page, which is of particular interest for punters who place bets weeks or months in advance of a race taking place.
SkyBet offers the full range of bets for horse racing fans as well as options to cash out certain bets at certain times and you certainly won’t be short of betting options if you decide to wager with the site.
Are there any other horseracing offers or promotions available?
SkyBet offers a number of promotions and offers each day. First up is their Best Odds Guaranteed offer which is the same offer that many other bookmaking sites in the UK have for punters. This 
guarantees that no matter what the price is at the time you place your bet on the day of the race, until the race starts, if your horse wins, SkyBet will pay you out at the higher price.
Also each day under the Specials tab in the horseracing section of the site, you can find a list of Specials. These are bets that are slightly different to the usual bets listed above for races which you can place with SkyBet. These can include special bets on trainers or jockeys, bets to do with the favourites at each race in a meeting or enhanced accumulator bets where the price awarded is greater than that of the combined odds of the selections.
In addition, SkyBet also have their Price Boost promotion which runs across the site and which each day may offer enhanced prices for certain selections in certain races. Obviously the number of these on offer changes each day but they are good value bets as usually a Price Boost offer by Sky is the best market price available for that selection.
What features are available on the SkyBet site for punters to use?
There are a number of other features available on the SkyBet site specifically for horseracing punters. Once is the Bet & Watch feature which allows punters who make a bet of £1 or more on any UK and Ireland race to watch the race streamed live on the SkyBet site. All you need to do is log in a few minutes before your race starts to catch the live stream.
Another very useful resource is that SkyBet’s parent company have also snapped up the rights to the UK’s most famous horseracing Newspaper/website, Sporting Life. SkyBet now has close links with the Sporting Life website which brings you all the latest horseracing, news, tips, racecards and results which is an ideal resource for researching your next tip or just getting the latest news about a potential meeting.
Another great feature is the A-Z section within the horseracing section as this allows you to search for any horse, trainer or jockey in the industry and bring up all the latest statistical information on them.
Lastly, SkyBet has its own resident tipster in Sky Sports and Racing Post TV presenter Alex Hammond, who gives punters the benefit of her wisdom and providing punters with her Tip of the Day, which is also viewable on the Sky Sports website.
How do SkyBet’s horseracing odds compare with other bookmakers in the UK?
It’s easiest to do this by selecting a race at random and seeing how the SkyBet odds compare to other bookmakers. In the race we selected (the 13:50 at Windsor on Monday 5th October 2015) SkyBet offered the best market price available for five of the 15 confirmed runners. This included a best price of 13/2 for the second favourite that day.
For the rest of the runners, SkyBet’s price was generally in or around the best available within a point or two. For example, the favourite in that race, Picansort, was generally a 4/1 shot with most bookmakers and SkyBet was one of those offering that price.
What this means is that extrapolated over each race and assuming similar kinds of odds, SkyBet generally offers very competitive odds on every horserace and this only improves when you factor in offers and Price Boosts on the site (there were no price boosts available on this race, these were standard market odds offered by SkyBet).
Overall, how does SkyBet rate as a horseracing betting platform?
SkyBet gave their horseracing section a major revamp just a few months ago and the new service is certainly is an improvement over the old. It’s easier to navigate and there’s a lot more information readily available on each horse in a race than ever before.
The number of promotions and features on the site is consistently high and the odds on offer on the SkyBet site, especially when offers and Price Boosts are factored in, are generally the market average or better.
With an improving live streaming service now available, SkyBet is a genuinely outstanding option for UK horseracing fans and with further improvements mooted in the future, the site is likely to only improve over time.
That’s good news for any current SkyBet customer, or any thinking of becoming a customer in the future. So if that’s you, why not join today and enjoy some top quality horseracing action with SkyBet?
