When it comes to the sheer volume of money wagered on it, Cheltenham Festival betting is right up there with the biggest betting events on the sporting calendar.
Read about the history of the Festival, why it’s such a great event to bet on, what to look at in terms of the best Cheltenham betting sites, how to make your money go further and which types of bets are available on it.
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The Cheltenham Festival’s history goes all the way back to 1860 when it was first known as the Grand National Hunt meeting and included the National Hunt Chase, originally held at Market Harborough. Though the following year it was actually held in Cheltenham, over the next few decades, it was staged at alternative racecourses, most notably Warwick.
In 1902, Prestbury Park developed a new Cheltenham Course, which included a brand-new stand, a bigger paddock and, crucially, a drainage system that allowed for racing to take place even in rainy conditions. Since 1911, every edition of the Festival has taken place at Prestbury Park.
Every year, it’s staged in mid-March and hosts a total of 28 races, including several Grade 1 events, which is the highest level for jump racing. These include the Gold Cup, the Stayers Hurdle, The Queen Mother Champion Chase and the Champion Hurdle.
The Cheltenham Festival is arguably the most important meeting on the National Hunt racing calendar, with a higher quality of horses and races than even the Aintree Festival, which includes the Grand National. So that’s your first reason: Cheltenham Festival betting involves watching and betting on the cream of jumps racing, which in turn means you’re betting on high-profile horses.
Due to huge interest within the horseracing community, the build-up to the Festival will provide more insight, opinions, stats and Cheltenham betting tips than just about any other UK-based racing event. This provides plenty of opportunities for you to be aware of lively outsiders at high prices and to have the full picture regarding every race.
Next, the Festival is big business at betting sites for Cheltenham, and one of the best ways for them to attract interest from punters is to make Cheltenham betting offers available to new and existing customers. These include free bets, boosted odds, extra places and money-back specials. You can benefit from plenty of betting offers for Cheltenham.
Lastly, racing fans in the UK will be able to watch 24 of the 28 races live on terrestrial channel ITV, an increase from last year. And even if you’re not in front of the TV to watch them, many Cheltenham betting sites will stream all the races, so there’s a good alternative way of following all the races for free.
There are lots of decent sports betting sites out there covering the Festival but how do you know which are the best Cheltenham betting sites? These are some of the features to look out for when picking a bookie for Cheltenham Festival betting.
If you’re a veteran when it comes to horse racing betting, this will all be familiar to you. If not, here’s how to go about betting on this great event.
You can visit our Cheltenham Festival betting guide for more information and guidance when placing your bet.
When it comes to Cheltenham Festival betting, there are lots of different betting markets and also types of bets to strike. Here are some of the best.
The most obvious and popular type of bet on the Cheltenham Festival is to predict which horse will win a particular race. Ante-post Cheltenham betting means betting on the race months in advance, though punters should be aware that at some betting sites, if you bet ante-post and the horse doesn’t run, you lose your money. Other sites refund bets on horses that aren’t entered in the race.
When betting on the ‘day of the race’ markets, those are the horses whose entry has been confirmed in the race so barring anything extraordinary, they’ll run.
It’s always advisable to bet at sites offering Best Odds Guaranteed. That means you’ll be paid out whatever odds are bigger: the ones you backed the horse at, or its Starting Price.
With each-way betting, half of your stake is placed on the horse to win and the other half on the horse ‘to place’, which could mean a Top 3,4 or 5 finish, depending on the number of horses in the race.
If the horse wins, you get paid out on both parts of the bet. If it ‘only’ places, you’ll only be paid out on the place part of the bet.
With Tricast betting, you need to pick the horses that will finish first, second and third in the correct order. Because this is such a difficult thing to do, the odds on a winning Tricast bet are huge. That said, not all Cheltenham betting sites offer it in the first place.
Here, you’re betting on which jockey will win the most races across the Festival as a whole. This is an example of an Outright/Specials betting market as opposed to a race-specific one. Punters should be aware that in the case of two or more jockeys tying on the same number of wins, the tie-breaker is which one has the most runner-up and/or third-place finishes.
When it comes to the biggest races at the Cheltenham Festival such as the Gold Cup or Champion Hurdle, the Cheltenham odds on them are sometimes available as much as a year in advance, with bookies often pricing up their markets almost as soon as that year’s race has finished.
Serious punters are advised to do two things in order to always secure the best odds when betting on Cheltenham.
The first is to compare the odds to see which sportsbook offers the highest odds on a particular horse and bet there.
The second is to check whether the horse you fancy is available as an Odds Boost at higher odds, for that extra bit of value.
As with any form of horse racing betting, there are no foolproof tips that guarantee winning bets and turning over a profit. But here are some things to do ahead of Cheltenham 2025 to put you on the right path.
Long-term stats certainly play their part when it comes to Cheltenham betting, although the recent form of the horses is a crucial consideration. Here are some Cheltenham stats to be aware of:
