There’s far more to Grand National betting than just picking a horse and hoping for the best.
While everyone will have their own methods for picking the potential winner, one thing is for sure: the quality of the bookmaker you choose to place your Grand National bets at is arguably the most important choice of all.
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The Grand National isn’t just another horse race. Not only is it the horse race, it’s the most-bet-on annual sporting event in the whole of the UK.
Online sportsbooks reported there was around £500 million bet on the three-day Aintree event as a whole in 2023, with £150 million of that down to Grand National betting alone, and the 2024 edition smashed that record.
Its global appeal is one of the reasons for the amounts of money traded on it, notably in the week leading up to the event and particularly in terms of the day of the race betting. The race is broadcast live in over 140 countries to an audience of 600 million people.
The total amount wagered on Grand National betting was 700% more than any other race in the UK in 2024, the next-most being the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Also, 82% of bets were for £5 or less, highlighting its recreational betting element compared to other events.
Additionally, 30% of participants betting on the Grand National were either making their first-ever bet, depositing for the first time, or betting for the first time since last year’s race.
It's not just big money when it comes to betting, either. The current prize money for the race as a whole stands at £1 million, with £500,000 of that going to the winner.
If you like to bet on horse racing, particularly this most challenging and exciting of races, there is no shortage of Grand National betting sites where you’ll be able to do so. It’s hard to think of a UK-based bookmaker that doesn’t offer plenty of Grand National betting markets around the race and run Grand National betting offers related to it. Most non-UK betting sites that do offer racing will also offer betting markets on the race.
But as ever, not all of these sportsbooks are of equal quality, and we’re here to help you by pointing you in the right direction to the very best ones.
The best betting sites for Grand National give you an enjoyable experience from the first moment you land on their site. That includes making it easy to open an account and deposit, giving you some of the top Grand National betting deals, offering decent odds about whichever horse(s) you’re thinking of backing, providing some good on-site content along the way to help you with your bets, plus a few other important extra features.
Whereas it’s hard to select the single best betting site for Grand National, the betting sites we list are licensed and secure and will boast all the features just mentioned. Let’s look at some of them in a little more detail.
If you’re opening a new account, the first thing you can bank on is that you’ll receive a nice welcome offer.
To claim the offer, you’ll normally have to make a deposit and/or place bets for a particular amount before you can receive the sign-up bonus, which will probably be in the form of a free bet or as a deposit match bonus.
Though the free bet can almost certainly be used for betting on the Grand National, it can also be used to bet on various sports competitions outside racing, such as Premier League football or tennis.
Customers should be aware that with the vast majority of free bets, you’ll only be paid the winnings from the free bet should it go on to win, not the value of the stake itself. On the flip side, most winnings from free bets don’t have wagering requirements, meaning you can withdraw the profits immediately if you wish.
Security refers to such things as the site protecting itself from cyber attacks thanks to the use of software. Taking bets, settling them correctly and fairly, and allowing customers to withdraw their winnings quickly and without unnecessary hassle is another aspect of security. All sportsbooks listed on AskGamblers are licensed and secure.
As for their Customer Support Team, it should be available 24/7 (or almost), can be reached via multiple methods such as live chat, email and telephone and most importantly of all, they have the knowledge and experience to deal with your query or problem in a professional and helpful way.
Getting your money in and out of your account is one of the most important aspects of betting online, so it’s crucial that the process is quick, easy and secure.
The best Grand National betting sites accept numerous payment methods, including debit cards, a choice of e-wallets, bank transfers and, in some cases, cryptocurrencies. Most deposits are instant these days, but due to processing times and security checks, withdrawals can take between 1 and 10 days for the money to reach you.
It’s a competitive world out there among betting sites looking to attract customers to their Grand National online betting markets. Though being a great sportsbook in general based on the criteria just mentioned certainly helps when it comes to attracting new customers and keeping existing ones engaged, one of the most productive strategies for bookies is to offer the best Grand National betting offers on the market.
These offers should be varied, available to all or most customers, and provide real value. For example, a free bet for just £1 with 2x wagering requirements on any winnings offers poor value, but a free bet for £5 with no wagering requirements on winnings is a pretty good offer.
Here are some of the most popular Grand National offers.
A reminder that each-way betting means that half of your bet is on the horse to win, with the other half on the horse to place.
Extra places offers mean that, for example, rather than you needing your horse to finish in the Top 3 for a place payout, you’ll still get paid if it finishes Top 4.
Ante-post bets aren’t an example of an offer as such, but rather an opportunity for the savviest punters to secure high prices on horses by backing them months in advance of the race and before they start to find the form that suggests they could go on to win the Grand National.
Ante-post markets are a way for sportsbooks to see action on their markets months and even a year in advance of the biggest races, such as Breeders Cup Betting, the (Epsom) Derby, Gold Cup or Kentucky Derby.
Sportsbooks are often happy to increase their regular odds on certain horses to attract the interest of value-seeking punters. For example, rather than a horse being 3/1, it might be 7/2 thanks to the Boost. A small difference but an important one to racing bettors who appreciate the significant difference in those boosted odds.
This is often related to ante-post bets rather than being a stand-alone offer, as such. Though most sportsbooks will refund bets on horses that aren’t entered into the race in the days leading up to it, some will state that if the horse doesn’t run, the stake won’t be returned.
On the other hand, a non-runner no bet means just that: if your horse doesn’t actually run, you get your money back, a sort of safety net.
There is considerable debate over when the first Grand National was run. Some sort of race with ‘National’ characteristics was definitely run between 1836 and 1838, with the first two won by The Duke and the 1838 version by Sir William.
The debate concerns where the race took place with many arguing the race was held at Maghull rather than its current home of Aintree. Though there’s plenty of evidence to suggest those three early editions were, in fact, held at Aintree as well, the 1839 edition is normally the first one to be classed as a Grand National, won by Lottery.
A key date was 1834, when the race began being a handicap rather than a weight-for-age race, meaning the best horses (based on their ratings at the time) were given extra weight to carry in relation to the weaker horses in the race.
Between 1916 and 1918, Aintree Racecourse was occupied by the War Office as part of the First World War effort. The race still went ahead and was run at Gatwick course, which later became Gatwick Airport, but these three editions are generally not considered to be Grand Nationals as such.
A notable running was the 1928 edition when Tipperary Tim won at odds of 100/1 after fog and heavy ground meant that 41 of the 42 starters failed to complete the race. Billy Barton’s jockey fell, remounted and completed the race, but it was the big outsider who won it.
Another important landmark was the race being moved to a Saturday (rather than being run on a Friday as had been the case up to then) in 1946. It’s been run on a Saturday ever since.
Since 1946, only on two occasions was it not run: in 1993, a false start caused chaos, with many horses going on to complete the race, while others remained at the starting post in the midst of the confusion; it was declared void. Then, in 2020, it was called off as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Perhaps the most famous win of all came in 1973. Superstar Red Rum was up against the Australian runner Crisp, who was carrying 23lbs more than Red Rum as the top horse in the race.
With Red Rum a good 15 lengths behind Crisp, the latter started to tire in the final strides as a result of the extra weight and was pipped at the post, with Red Rum winning by just three-quarters of a length, the closest finish ever.
Red Rum won the following year, finished as runner-up in the next two editions, but came back to win in 1977, becoming the only horse to win it three times, a record that stands to this day.
The Grand National isn’t just another horse race. It’s arguably the toughest of any race in the world, has one of the biggest prize pools on offer and with over 600 million TV viewers worldwide in over 140 countries, is the most-watched horse race in the world.
Betting-wise, it’s the biggest event of the UK sporting calendar, and though many hardcore racing fans who bet on racing all year round also contribute to the volume of bets and total turnover of Grand National betting, it’s likely to be the one event that recreational punters tend to get involved in, even if it’s the only event they bet on all year.
Even then, the Grand National is about far more than just betting and seeing who wins; it’s very much a part of UK culture.
If you’re one of the many punters wanting to chance your arm on this great race, remember that your choice of bookie is extremely important. From higher odds on offer to bigger and better Grand National offers, choosing a great sportsbook will make a big difference to both your bank balance and overall experience.
Another tip from us is to take in as much knowledge and insight as possible before putting your money down. Websites specialising in horse racing, stats analysis by the likes of Timeform and the Racing Post, previews by respected racing journalists and sites offering tips by tried-and-trusted tipsters are all great sources to consider before placing your Grand National bets.
