How To Bet On Horse Racing At FanDuel

FanDuel Racing has a generous offer for new players looking to bet on horse racing. You can get two $20 no-sweat first bets on the Breeders’ Cup after signing up.

2 $20 No-Sweat First Bets

• Who: New users only
• When: Oct. 31 to Nov. 2, 2024
• Where: AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, ID, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MT, NH, NM, ND, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SD, VA, WA, WV, WY

Terms and conditions apply.

Before you start wagering, it’s important to know how the betting odds work.

FanDuel Racing uses fractions, a common odds format used in horse racing (i.e., 5/1 or 13/2).

You might be more familiar with American odds. For example, 5/1 odds are equivalent to +500 odds. In both cases, you could earn $500 in profit on a $100 wager.

Similarly, a horse with 13/2 odds is equivalent to +650 odds.

As usual, the favorite in a race will always have the lowest or shortest odds.

The odds for your bet will be whatever they are at post time when the race starts, regardless of what they were when you placed your bet. So, if you bet on a horse with 9/1 odds and those odds shorten to 7/1 by the start of the race, your bet will then have 7/1 odds.

This is unlike traditional sports betting, where you lock in the odds when you place your bet.

Now that you know how horse racing odds work, you’re ready to start making some bets. Let’s dive into the different types of horse racing bets, starting with straight bets.

Straight Bets

There are three main types of straight bets:

• Win Bet: Horse finishes 1st
• Place Bet: Horse finishes 1st or 2nd
• Show Bet: Horse finishes 1st, 2nd or 3rd

The most straightforward way to wager on horse racing is to simply pick which horse will win. Think of this like a moneyline wager where you’re betting on which team will win. In horse racing, this is called a “win” bet.

You can also bet on a horse to finish first or second, which is called a “place” bet.

A “show” bet is a wager on a horse to finish in the top 3. These bets have lower odds and payouts than a “win” bet because they are more likely to occur.

You can also combine multiple straight bets. You can bet on a horse to win, place and show, or any combination of those outcomes. Betting on a horse to do all three is called an “across the board” bet.

The benefit of combination bets: Unlike a parlay, you do not need every component of the bet to hit. If you bet on a horse to win/show and it shows but doesn’t win, you still earn a payout for the show part of the bet.

Exotic Bets

If you want to get more creative, exotic bets may be for you.

A common type of exotic bet is the exact finishing order:

• Exacta: Correctly picking 1st and 2nd place
• Trifecta: Correctly picking 1st, 2nd and 3rd place
• Superfecta: Correctly picking 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place

Picking the correct finishing order is more difficult, so these bets come with higher odds and payouts than basic straight bets.

You can reduce some of the risk on these bets by making them a “box” or a “key” bet.

A box bet covers all possible combinations of your wager. So if you box a trifecta, your bet still wins as long as you correctly pick the horses that finish in the top 3, even if you get the order wrong.

A key bet involves picking the winner of the race along with a combination of horses that will finish behind it. You must get the winner correct to win, but you just need to have the right horses (not the correct order) for second, third and/or fourth place.

These states require you to download a separate FanDuel Racing app to wager on horse racing: AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, ID, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MT, NH, NM, ND, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SD, VA, WA, WV and WY.

You can also bet on horse racing through FanDuel’s affiliate, 4NJBets, in New Jersey.

Photo by Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images