Horse Racing analyst Will Smith provides a 20/1 EW 1-star * ante-post selection for Saturday's Bet365 Scottish Champion Chase at Musselburgh.
Betting, whether it be on football, horse racing, snooker, or even slots, should be fun. However, the aim for most people when placing bets is to make a profit and maximise their returns. One way to do this in the long term is to place your bets at the best odds. After all, the bigger the odds, the bigger your returns when your bets win.
Not all bookies offer the same odds with some being significantly bigger or smaller than others. We’ll be showing you which bookies have the best betting odds, why finding top prices matters, and explaining some popular promotions such as Best Odds Guaranteed that can help you win more from your bets over time.
Odds are the foundation of betting. They determine your potential returns and reflect the probability of an event occurring. Simply put, the higher the odds, the better the return on a winning bet.
Placing your bets at the best odds has several advantages.
Here is an example of how shopping around for the best odds can have a hugely positive impact on your returns from betting.
Let’s say that you placed one bet on sports for 100 days and used the same bookmaker that you have been using for years for all of your bets.
Your bookmaker offers odds of Evens (2.0) for each of your bets and you place a £20 bet each day.
50% of your 100 bets win at odds of Evens (2.0).
Now let’s say your friend shops around for the best prices on the same bets. They’re able to find bookmakers that are offering slightly higher odds of 2.3 on each of the bets.
50% of their 100 bets win at odds of 2.3.
As you can see, by comparing the odds of several betting sites and placing your bets at bigger prices, your returns can be much greater. Factor this in over thousands of bets you may place and there is a significant difference in your overall returns.
Several bookmakers stand out for consistently offering the best odds across various sports markets. Below you’ll find our top recommendations for bookies with the best odds. However, it’s important to remember that although these bookmakers often top the odds comparison charts, they will not offer the biggest prices on all markets, every time. That is why we recommend having betting accounts with several bookmakers so that you have the choice of multiple odds when placing any bet.
For new customers at bet365. Min deposit requirement. Free Bets are paid as Bet Credits and are available for use upon settlement of bets to value of qualifying deposit. Min odds, bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. Time limits and T&Cs apply. Registration required. 18+ gambleaware.org #ad
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New customers only. 7 days to place qualifying bet of £10 at 1/1 (2.0) to receive 4 x £10 Free Bets: 1 x £10 football, 1 x £10 horse racing & 2 x £10 Bet Builders. Free Bets cannot be used on e-sports and non UK/IE horse racing. 7 day expiry. Exclusions apply. Stake not returned. 18+. Full T&Cs apply. GambleAware.org #ad
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Best Odds Guaranteed is a popular promotion offered by many bookmakers, particularly for horse racing and greyhound betting. Although the number of bookies offering BOG has declined in recent years, it is still offered by some of the top brands and definitely worth taking advantage of when available.
When you place a bet on a horse or greyhound race, the odds can fluctuate up until the race starts. This means that if you place a bet at a price and the odds improve before the race begins, you could potentially miss out on higher winnings.
But with Best Odds Guaranteed, you don’t have to worry about missing out on those better odds after you have placed your bet. If you take a price on a selection and the starting price (SP) ends up being higher, the bookmaker will pay out at the higher odds. This applies to both win and each-way bets.
For example, let’s say you place a bet on a horse at odds of 5/1 with Best Odds Guaranteed bookie bet365. However, by the time the race starts, the starting price for that horse has increased to 7/1. Normally, you would be stuck with the lower odds of 5/1. But with Best Odds Guaranteed, you would be paid out at the higher odds of 7/1 if your horse wins.
Fortunately, many reputable bookmakers offer Best Odds Guaranteed, so you have plenty of options to choose from. Some popular Best Odds Guaranteed bookies include Bet365, Virgin Bet, BetGoodwin and BetVictor, just to name a few. To find bookmakers that offer Best Odds Guaranteed, view the table further down this page.
Although you are not guaranteed better prices when placing your bets with a bookmaker offering Best Odds Guaranteed, it’s likely that you will still receive higher returns over time by doing so compared to betting with a non-BOG bookie.
We’ve listed over two dozen of the best offer Best Odds Guaranteed bookies and shown whether they offer BOG on horse racing, greyhounds or both. You can also take note of when the promotion is activated each day with each bookmaker in the far right column.
As you can see, there is a very good choice of UK Best Odds Guaranteed bookmakers, and some cover more types of races than others. Make sure you choose a bookie that best fits your needs. If in doubt, open an account at more than one bookmaker. It’s advisable to do this anyway as then you can shop around to always get the best prices and promotions.
Always check the terms and conditions, as BOG often applies to bets placed on the day of the race.
Best Odds Guaranteed with greyhounds works in the same way as it does in horse racing.
Just as in horse racing, the odds for greyhound races frequently change up until the off. In fact, greyhound prices are known to change rapidly in the minutes leading up to the race. Therefore, it’s sometimes difficult to know whether you’re placing your bet at good odds or not.
However, when BOG is available, you can place your bet at any price and if the starting price is greater, the bookie will pay out at those odds, resulting in greater returns should your selection win.
Although Best Odds Guaranteed is one of the most common betting offers available at online bookies, it’s slightly less common on greyhound races. However, there are still a number of bookmakers that offer it.
Here is a list of Best Odds Guaranteed bookmakers that offer the promotion selected greyhound races:
Bookmaker | UK Horses | Irish Horses | Greyhounds | Multiple Bets | Valid From | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
bet365 | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | 8.00 am | ||
BetGoodwin | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | 7.00 am | |
BetVictor | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | 9.00 am | |
Fafabet | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | 8.30 am | |
BetUK | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | 11.00 am | |
Talksportbet | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | 9.00 am |
Let’s take a look at a real life example of how this works. Here we’re looking at a UK horse race. In this example it’s a Saturday afternoon and we’ve picked the 16.35 at Fontwell. We’re looking to place a bet on the favourite, Magoo.
It’s around 11am so there are still over 5 hours to go until the race starts.
We think that the horse is likely to be popular with punters in the betting market, so we decide to take an early price in the hope of getting better odds. We can see that Magoo is currently available at 7/2 which means a £100 stake would return £450 if the horse wins.
If we’re right and the odds reduce before the race starts (which they often do), then we’d be feeling pretty smug about getting on at this higher price.
However, on this occasion the horse didn’t prove as popular with the punters as we expected. The horse actually went off at an SP (Starting Price) of 5/1. But crucially, it won!
Now because we placed this bet with a bookie that offered Best Odds Guaranteed, our winning bet will be paid out at the higher price of 5/1, and not the 7/2 that we initially took. This means a return of £600 instead of £450, meaning we made an extra £150 profit thanks to this offer!
So to summarise, here’s what happened.
Hopefully this gives you some idea of how valuable this offer is. Now that you know what a difference it will make, do you really want to place your next bet with a bookie that doesn’t have this offer?
All bookies that offer BOG do so for single bets, whether they’re a straight win bet or placed each way. However, not all bookmakers offer Best Odds Guaranteed on multiples.
Multiples include bets such as accumulators (win & each way), Lucky 15s, Lucky 31s and others.
If you place any type of multiple on horse racing, by betting with a bookie offering BOG on that bet type can significantly increase your winnings should the price of one or more of your selections drift.
Below is a list of bookmakers that offer Best Odds Guaranteed on multiples.
Many punters prefer to get their bets on as early as possible. This may be because there are favourable early prices or that they simply want to place their bets for the day and get on with other things. However, it’s important to realise that BOG only applies after a specific time of the day and that time can vary depending on the bookmaker you are placing your bets with.
Here is a list of bookmakers that offer Best Odds Guaranteed, ordered by the earliest times of the day that you can place your bets and still qualify for BOG.
There’s no limit to how far odds can drift in horse racing which is one of the reasons why Best odds Guaranteed can be one of the most profitable promotions out there.
Some bookies do limit how much can be won from Best Odds Guaranteed races and this applies to the additional winnings that you receive from the promotion and not just your overall returns or profit.
For example, if you placed a £10 bet at 4/1 and your horse went off at a starting price of 6/1 and won, you would receive £70 in returns rather than the expected £50. This means that £20 extra winnings have been paid which is applicable to the max winnings shown below for each bookie.
Bookmaker | Max Additional Winnings | |
---|---|---|
bet365 | No Limit | |
Betfred | No Limit | |
Netbet | No Limit | |
BetDaq | No Limit | |
BetGoodwin | £50k | |
Virginbet | £50k | |
Coral | £50k |
With dozens of UK betting sites online, finding the ones offering the best odds can be challenging. However, there are several ways to make the search easier.
There are some great odds comparison sites that takes the headache away from finding the best odds at bookies. Keep in mind that they don’t compare the odds of all bookmakers and that we recommend combining this with your own research along with having accounts with the sites recommended on this page.
Having accounts with several bookmakers allows you to pick and choose the best odds for each bet. Taking a quick look at which bookmakers are offering the biggest odds for your bet doesn’t take as long as you think and you’ll get an idea of which ones consistently have the top prices pretty quick.
Look for price boosts, enhanced odds, and Best Odds Guaranteed offers. All of these promotions can significantly increase your returns over time.