How do bookmakers calculate the Cheltenham betting odds?
Horse racing remains one of the UK’s top sports and much of this comes down to the majestic festivals that racegoers can enjoy each year. The Cheltenham Festival is easily one of the most popular and is held at the iconic Cheltenham Racecourse.
Spread over four days of intense action, it is thought that more than 250,000 fans make it to Prestbury Park each year to watch the best trainers, jockeys and horses compete. With a massive 14 Grade 1 contests to marvel at, those who make it in person or watch online always have an amazing time.
As you would expect, the Cheltenham Festival is also hugely popular with punters and sees plenty of betting action. This is from experienced horse race bettors and more casual punters looking to have a flutter. One thing that is key for anyone to understand before diving in is how odds work for festivals like this and how bookies calculate Cheltenham betting odds.
How do Cheltenham betting odds work and what do they tell you?
Odds really are essential to understand when betting at events like the Cheltenham Festival 2024. They tell you how likely the bookmaker thinks a horse is to win the race, and also how much money a winning bet will pay out.
The lowest that odds can generally go at popular platforms like the Betfair Exchange are 1/100. This means that the bookmaker feels the horse in question has a 99% chance of winning. While this is not guaranteed, it is useful information to ponder when researching which horses to back in Cheltenham Festival races.
In addition, odds of 1/100 show that a bet of £100 would generate a £1 profit. Knowing this is not only useful for seeing what return a bet like this would deliver but also how much value it offers. Many people, for example, would feel that risking £100 to make only £1 is not worth it.
On the flipside of this, a horse may have much bigger odds – even up to something like 100/1 to win. These kinds of odds show that bookies feel the horse has little chance of winning (a 1% chance, in fact!) but punters would get a much better payout if this were to happen.
If we look at horses that are odds-on in the market, they have a greater than 50% chance of winning, which many punters at events like Cheltenham value. A 4/11 shot, for example, would have a 73.3% chance of winning in the bookie’s eyes, which can be handy to know when deciding if placing a bet on the horse in question is worthwhile.
How do bookmakers calculate Cheltenham Festival betting odds?
Horse racing as a sport is full of famous names – from legendary Staffordshire trainer John Porter to Red Rum, Sir AP McCoy and more. It is also home to some truly iconic events to bet on, with the Cheltenham Festival being a superb example. Anyone planning on placing wagers at Cheltenham, though, should first take time to research how bookies calculate odds for its races.
In truth, bookmakers spend a lot of time working out odds for the festival. This sees them using a specific formula to set the odds for each race, which show the probability of a certain event happening. They then add in a little wriggle room for profit, as this is where they make their money.
Once this formula has been used to set the odds for every horse, the percentage chance each has of winning is added up to form the market. A perfect market at Cheltenham should come to 100% when the probabilities of each horse winning are added together. Anything extra is the percentage profit the bookie makes on the entire race. It is common to see Cheltenham markets adding up to figures like 103%, for example.
Which bookmakers offer the best Cheltenham Festival odds?
When they calculate odds for the Cheltenham Festival, some bookies will offer better prices than others. It is key to find the bookmakers who do this, as this means you get a bigger payout if your bet wins. An easy way to do this is using an odds comparison site such as Oddschecker to find the best odds at all the top sportsbooks for each race of the festival.
Another good tip is to focus on popular sportsbooks that are well-known for offering great value odds and other promotions for Cheltenham betting. William Hill, for instance, always has some of the best odds around on races like the Stayers’ Hurdle, and a Best Odds Guarantee that sees the bookie match the price of a horse if it drifts in the market after you back it!
Paddy Power and bet365 are also two safe, secure places to bet on the Cheltenham Festival that offer their own Best Odds Guarantee. BetVictor is another excellent choice for best value Cheltenham odds and is known for outstanding customer support, secure payment options and a seamless mobile betting experience.
Cheltenham Festival betting odds calculated carefully
Bookies use a specific formula to calculate Cheltenham betting odds, which shows how likely a horse is to win the race. This is something that is done for each race in the festival and helps to show punters not only how much a wager will return but also how probable it is that a horse could win the race.