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What Is Value Betting In Horse Racing?

Author: Devin Erickson-Sheehy | Last Updated: September 28, 2023

Value betting in horse racing is a term that means you wager not on the horse you think is most likely to win but rather on the horse or horses that offer a higher return on your bets. 

How to find the value in betting on a horse race?

Here is an example. Let’s say you’ve narrowed a field down to four contenders, which you rate as having the following odds of winning:

  • Horse A (40 percent)
  • Horse B (25 percent)
  • Horse C (20 percent)
  • Horse D (15 percent).

When you look at the odds a few minutes before post time, you see that Horse A is going off at even money (or 1-1), Horse B is 3-1, Horse C is 8-1, and Horse D is 9-2.

In this example, Horse C is the clear value horse. His odds of 8-1 are more than 50 percent higher than you estimated, while the other horses are either lower or in line with your prediction.

This horse racing betting system in finding value in the given lines and odds requires you to be able to make fairly accurate assessments of horses’ abilities and their likelihood of winning, of course, which is a skill that takes time to perfect.

The more you practice it, the better you will get. Check the latest odds over at TVG or AMWager.

Devin Erickson-Sheehy

Devin is a diehard New York sports fan and betting expert. He supplies a wealth of knowledge about everything online gambling, providing readers with up-to-date tracking on the latest trends, industry news, and betting offers.