Potential Trends and Industry Developments for the Horse Racing Betting in the Future of UK
A pack of horses in action during a race.
Horse racing is one of the earliest forms of athletic competition known to man. The people of the Eurasian steppes (what is today parts of Ukraine and Kazakhstan) domesticated horses roughly 6,000 years ago, and racing likely came about sometime after that out of a natural spirit of competition.
Ancient cultures like the Egyptians, Romans, and Babylonians all took part in some form of equestrian games, whether horseback riding or in chariots. The history of betting on the races isn’t quite so well defined by anthropology, but we can trace it at least as far back as antiquity, with the Romans notorious for their love of gambling and gamesmanship.
In the modern era, horse racing (and betting) can trace its roots to the early 17th century, when King James I established the Newmarket Racecourse, establishing what would become one of the most famous racing venues in the world. The market for betting on horse racing is much more robust in the United Kingdom than it is in other countries (perhaps unsurprising, given its constant endorsement by the British Monarchy throughout history), with odds offered on races around the world every day, from the relatively underground competitions to racing mainstays like the Royal Ascot or Kentucky Derby.
Horse racing is the second most popular sport in the UK today, drawing roughly six million in-person spectators each year, a number only surpassed by football. If you want to bet on the races (or any other sports, domestic or abroad), make sure you make use of these promo codes available at a handful of mobile betting sites in the UK. Odds can vary dramatically from sportsbook to sportsbook, so shop around before placing your wagers to ensure you’re getting the best possible return for the stake you place.
Even with that robust sense of history and tradition, the sport isn’t immune to change: something can’t survive for millennia without a healthy dose of flexibility. Here’s a look at what’s new to the horse racing betting industry today, and what might change in the future as the world of online gambling continues to evolve.
Right now the biggest changes to occur in the world of betting on the races aren’t in the UK: they’re across the pond in the United States. Horse racing has long occupied a peculiar niche in the world of betting in the states: even after the federal government moved to totally outlaw sports wagering in the 1990s, betting on horse racing remained a protected (and permitted) category.
That’s because of the unique form that betting on the races takes. Instead of having wagerers bet against the house at sportsbooks (often given an unsavory reputation in the states in those days because of a lack of regulation, unlike the globally known casino brands today), they’d place parimutuel bets, pooling money together and determining the payoff odds based on how much money was placed on each horse, then meting out the winnings from the shared pool.
Parimutuel betting is still the name of the game when one goes to the horse races in person, but the advent of mobile betting has made the pendulum swing in the other direction, with sportsbooks fielding wagers on the races, often in a parimutuel style.
Online betting makes parimutuel betting available to the entire world (although sportsbooks are still split between geopolitical entities like countries, provinces, states, and the like) With the exception of the American Triple Crown of the Kentucky Derby, Belmont, and Preakness Stakes, horse racing hasn’t been as popular in the United States: after all, it’s called the sport of kings, not the sport of presidents.
Now that brands like DraftKings (which recently got the green light to take bets on the races in Massachusetts) are getting in on the action, expect the dominos to fall swiftly. DraftKings is debuting a new app, DK Horse, that’s designed specifically to take parimutuel bets on the horse races, and it’s been approved in 10 states so far.
Mobile betting launches are typically timed so that they’ll debut ahead of massive sporting events like the Super Bowl or the World Cup, capitalizing on an influx of new customers with promotions and added media attention in order to maximize the amount of money spent. It’s no different with horse racing, as the app is set to start taking bets ahead of the Kentucky Derby, and it wouldn’t be too surprising to see more states ram through legislation ahead of the May 6 race. For the states that lag behind, expect the cycle to continue with Preakness and Belmont, or to begin anew ahead of the 2024 Triple Crown.