An Ante Post Betting Guide for Beginner to Intermediate Punters
Most beginner punters don’t start their betting experience by considering Ante Post betting. However, there’s good logical reasoning as to why that should change. Which we will explore in this look at this particular type of wager.
If one question dominates the thoughts of most bettors worldwide, it is, “How can I get better odds on a bet?” Landing a winning bet is a great feeling, but doing so knowing that you have backed that selection at the longest odds possible makes it even better!
Why? Because you’ve landed the winner at the maximum odds possible! But, have you?
In terms of pre-match betting, many punters elect to use odds comparison sites to help them secure good value odds. They are useful, but in order to fully use this tool to its maximum potential, you do need to have as many different sports betting accounts as possible with many different providers as possible.
This can prove to be somewhat difficult to administrate properly, as well as being somewhat expensive when you add up the cost of all those deposits you will need to make. Even if you do get access to multiple Welcome Offers (like this great Welcome Bonus at bet365 Sport) and similar.
However, there is another option and it is one readily available at sites just like the popular bet365 Sport. That is Ante Post (sometimes called ante-post, antepost or even futures) betting.
So what is ante post or futures betting? How does it work? What benefits does it offer punters and are there any negatives that you should be wary of? In this article, we are going to delve into this particular form of betting to discover just how it can be a potentially better value way to place bets.
But only if you are willing to compile a little research and be patient!
What Is Futures Or Ante Post Betting?
Ante Post betting is a bet placed on an event well in advance of the time that the event will be contested. Because the event will take place in the future and is not going to happen within the next day or so, this type of bet is also called ‘futures’ betting by many companies.
Ante Post tends to be a term used in Horse Racing or Greyhound racing, Futures markets (or similar) tends to be the term used in other sports, such as football, tennis, golf, etc.
This type of betting is surprisingly popular and there is a good chance that you will have made a bet of this type in the past without even realising you were doing so. For example, some of the most popular types of futures or ante post bets are:
- Placing a bet at the start of a season on a team or individual to win a selected trophy. For example, backing Manchester United to win the Premier League, or backing Rory McIlroy to win The Masters.
- Backing a horse to win a selected future race (so for example, you could pick 2024 race winner I Am Maximus to win another Grand National, which takes place in April).
- Backing a footballer to be a top goalscorer in a competition for the season. Such as backing Mohamed Salah of Liverpool to be leading goalscorer in the Premier League.
There are as many types of futures or ante post bets as there are sporting events, but it is fair to say that these markets are generally more prominent with the most popular sports.
What Are The Risks Of Ante Post Betting?
There are some additional risks to you when factoring in a futures or ante post bet. Any bet that is placed on an event in the future does run the risk of a number of external factors influencing the bet, or even making your selection non-viable.
For example, let’s say you picked a horse to win in a standard ante post bet on a forthcoming Aintree Grand National. But in the run up to the race, your selection was injured, or entered into a different race, or was just withdrawn from the race. In all these cases, then your standard ante post bet would be a loser as the horse would not run in the race.
Similarly, if you back a footballer to be the top goalscorer in the Premier League and your selection gets a long-term injury just a few games into the season, or is transferred away from the club to a team outside the Premier League, then the chances are that they are not likely to be a realistic winner of that bet.
It is these external risk factors that put some punters off futures betting as so much can happen over the time from placing the bet to when the market is finalised.
However, the flip side of this is that because of these risks, you can often get much better odds on selections for ante post or future markets, than you can when standard pre-race or pre-match odds are made available much closer to the event start time.
Can I Reduce the Risk when Ante Post Betting?
NRNB Betting Markets
The good news is that you now can reduce the risk when ante post betting thanks to an exciting market available at most top bookmakers for many top horse racing events.
This market is known as the Non-Runner, No Bet (NRNB) market and it is an alternative to the standard ante post bet.
In an ante post bet, if your selection does not run in the race, then your bet is a loser. However, with a non-runner, no bet selection, if your selection does not run in the race, then your betting stake is returned to you, rather than you losing the bet.
That’s great news for punters and you may wonder why anyone would want to bet on ante post markets, compared to NRNB markets but there are a number of reasons why this is the case:
- Odds for NRNB selections tend to be lower than for standard Ante Post bets. This means smaller returns than you would have landed if you placed the bet as an ante post bet.
- Not all markets have NRNB selections available (such as betting on who will win the Premier League or Six Nations. The teams competing in these events are known and will not change, so there will not be a ‘non-runner’ in these events).
Cash Out Options
Another way to mitigate a risk on a futures or ante post bet is to use any available Cash Out options with your chosen bookmaker.
Some of your ante post bets will qualify for a cash out offering, depending on what has happened in the markets over the time since you placed the bet. In some cases, you may be offered less to cash out your bet than you staked, in some cases, you may be offered more.
For example, if you place a £10 bet on England to win the 2026 World Cup Finals in January 2025, and by the end of 2025, England have qualified for the finals, you may find your cash out offer is slightly more or around the same as your original bet. Ostensibly because England have improved their chances of winning the bet by qualifying for the finals.
But, if England failed to qualify outright for the 2026 World Cup Finals and were instead forced into a playoff, then your cash out offer may be much less than your stake as England’s chances of qualifying, let alone winning the tournament, are smaller. If England failed to qualify, then your bet would be a loser.
Cash out is an option, but knowing when you should use it, is very much a skill that requires research, patience and bravery, especially when the cash out offers increase as your bet gets closer to winning!
What Are The Benefits Of Futures or Ante Post Betting?
As we mentioned above, there are major positives to futures and ante post betting and the biggest of these is the better value odds you can get when you place bets on this market, compared to much closer to the competition being completed.
One famous example came at the start of the 2015/16 season in the Premier League. Back then you could have backed Leicester City to win the Premier League title at odds of 5000/1.
However, by the time we had reached March or April, much closer to the end of the season, with the Foxes and Tottenham leading the title race, the odds on them winning had been slashed to a much lower price.
And Leicester did go on to claim a stunning Premier League title victory that season.
At the time of writing, another example of how Ante Post bets can work in your favour is betting on Liverpool to win the Premier League at the start of the 2024/25 season.
At that point, the Reds had lost manager Jurgen Klopp and Manchester City and Arsenal had been the two teams battling it out for the title in the previous two years. As such, the Reds odds at the start of this campaign were between 7/1 and 9/1 in most futures markets. Well behind City and Arsenal who were the two favourites.
Fast-forward to the present moment, now in the futures market, Liverpool’s stunning start to the season now sees them as huge 1/4 favourites to win the title. Arsenal have drifted to 7/2, while Manchester City are now 100/1. Yet there will be punters who backed Liverpool in the ante post market at odds of 7/1 to 9/1.
Another benefit of ante post or futures betting is that it can make seeing how a season or event rolls out more exciting. For example, imagine you have backed Chris Wood of Nottingham Forest to be the Premier League top goalscorer with an ante post bet of around 20/1. Then in the final game of the season, he and Mo Salah are neck and neck on 28 goals. Suddenly, a game involving Nottingham Forest, that you may have not had much interest in ordinarily, now becomes hugely important as you want Chris Wood to win the bet, so you want him to score more than Mo Salah in that final game!
What Futures or Ante Post Betting is Available at bet365?
The great news is that bet365 Sport offers an extensive range of futures betting across a myriad of markets.
Football and Horse Racing both offer a wide range of futures betting markets, but you can also find futures betting across almost all sports.
For example, you can bet on which driver will win this year’s F1 World Championship, who will win the World Snooker Championship in May, who will win the Women’s European Championship football tournament and who will land the PDC Premier League Darts trophy?
Another bonus is that bet365 organises each sport’s popular Futures betting options into a separate section on the site. You just need to click on the sport and then the ante-post or futures option to bring up the wide range of markets and bets available to you.
Are There Any Futures Markets Worth A Flutter At Bet365 Right Now?
Yes, just take a quick look at any sport and then in the ante post or futures betting sections for that sport and you will see a wide range of these types of bets available for every sport. Some of the most popular options available each year include:
Football Futures Popular Bets
- Premier League Winners
- Champions League Winners
- FA Cup Winners
- Carabao Cup Winners
- Premier League Top Goalscorer
- Europa League Winners
- FIFA World Cup Winners
- European Championship Winners
- Copa America Winners
- Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga or Ligue 1 Winners
Horse Racing Ante Post Popular Bets
- Grand National Winner
- 1000 Guineas Winner
- 2000 Guineas Winner
- The Derby Winner
- The Oaks Winner
- St. Leger Winner
- Cheltenham Gold Cup Winner
Other Sports Outrights or Ante Post Markets
- Six Nations Winner (Rugby Union)
- Masters, US PGA, US Open and British Open Winners (Golf)
- Australian, French, US Open and Wimbledon Winners (Tennis)
- F1 Drivers’ Championship Winner (Formula 1)
- Super Bowl Winners (American Football)
- NBA Finals Winners (Basketball)
- World Series Winners (Baseball)
- Stanley Cup Winners (National Hockey League)
- PDC World Darts Champion (Darts)
- World Snooker Championship Winner (Snooker)
As you can see, the list of futures or ante post markets is extensive across a wide range of sports. With a bit of research to help inform your bets, and the ability to stick with a bet and be patient, futures or ante post betting is a great addition to your betting armoury!
