A Beginner’s Guide to Betting on Horse Racing in South Africa

Horse racing is one of the oldest sports and it’s especially popular in South Africa. It is an entertaining sport to watch, but even much better, you can get to win cash while having fun by betting and watching the race.

Betting gives you an adrenaline rush that makes you part of the match and that makes it more entertaining. South Africa has strict gambling laws against online betting. That is why betting in other sports like football is not so common in the country.

Here are the types of horse racing bets you need to understand:

• To win: you win the money when the particular horse you’ve selected to win the race actually wins the race.
• Place: this bet applies when you select a horse to qualify for a place position
• Swinger: you pick two horses in a race and place them together in a swinger. The selected horses have to finish amongst the first 3 for you to win.
• Each way: this is a combination of a place and a win bet, this is really popular amongst punters.
• Trifecta: this bet means that your horse selection has to win in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in that exact order!
• Exacta: unlike the swinger, you have to select the horse finishing in the first and the second place in that exact order.
• Quartet: you choose horses to finish in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place in that order. This bet seems quite ambitious and getting it right seems really impressive.
• Double: In this bet, you get to select the horses that win two consecutive races, generally known as the leg 1 and leg 2.
• Jackpot: the jackpot constitutes of four races, you get to select the winners of the four races usually referred to as led 1 to 4.
• Pick 6: The pick six constitutes of 6 races and requires you to select the winners of the six races usually referred to as leg 1 to 6.
• Place accumulator: you select a horse or more to finish in the first, second or third place of all the seven races.
• Bipot: you choose one or two horses to finish in the first or second places of all the 6 races of the Bipot.

Steps of Placing a Bet

The thrill in watching a horse race is in placing a wager. For novice players the process might feel intimidating but the rules are very simple.

Just follow the following simple steps:

1. Choosing your horses: from the list of horses, choose your favorite contenders, note their name and number and decide on the amount of money you are planning to bet on them.
2. Choosing the type of bet: from the list of betting options explained earlier, choose the type of bet you are more familiar with. It might take some time to get familiar to all type of bets but definitely different bets have different possibilities of winning. Make sure you choose the bet with a high winning probability.
3. Decide the site: this is where you get to place your bet. It’s more likely that you will place your bet at the racecourse but online sites are available as well.
4. Give the betting operator your combinations: you tell the operator the horse number for the horse you are betting on, the amount of cash you are placing on them, the race and the type of bet you are placing.
5. Take a close look at your ticket: you need to keep your ticket safely as it is the only wayyou actually get to claim your winnings at the end of the race.

Top Tip

It is advisable to place your bet from the racetrack. This is because the process of deciding what type of bet to place, which horse to choose as your contender is much easier when assisted by betting operators available in the racetracks. Normally, they have the history of each contenders at their fingertips therefore assisting you make better choices. All though this sport in other African countries, many South African punters have found peace in these kinds of bets.

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