Racing News
	Tuesday 11th February 2020

Cheltenham Festival 2020: where to get the best betting value

As we race towards British springtime, attentions begin to turn to the upcoming Cheltenham Festival 2020. The renewal of this world-renowned national hunt horse racing event begins on Tuesday 10 March with four days of pulsating action coming to a climax on Friday.

There’s still much work to be done by trainers, owners and jockeys between now and the Cheltenham roar going up to welcome the big races, but bookmakers have made their antepost prices available and that has caused to a flurry of activity amongst backers.
There’s more to picking a winner

Bookmakers are vying for your attention at this time of year. They know we love a bet on the Cheltenham Festival and upcoming Grand National and they would prefer us to place our stake money down with them, ignoring the competition. How does a bookie stand out from the crowd in such a competitive market? By being more generous than their rivals, of course.

Betting has changed and it’s no longer enough to back the right horse in the correct race. You must do it at the best possible odds and have the standout promotion working in your favour. Most online betting sites and apps promise us the best service, but they can’t all be telling the truth? Which bookies offer the best value for Cheltenham and which are little more than hot air?

Doing your research is key before betting at Cheltenham. Not only must you carry out the research needed to back the winning horse at Prestbury Park, you must also do your homework on the bookmakers covering the event too. This takes time and patience but you can find horse racing betting sites ranked and graded on their offers and odds. This helps speed up the process and frees up more time for you to concentrate on the runners and riders.

Promos worth knowing about

Promotions and special offers on horse racing come in all shapes and sizes, including welcome bonuses, free bets, money back, extra places each way, non runner money back and price boosts. Below you’ll find a selection of the most popular with a brief explanation attached to each.

Extra places

Some bookmakers aim to stand out from the crowd by offering both new and existing customers extra places in some races at the Cheltenham Festival. This appeals to each way backers targeting an outsider or big price selection. When making an each way bet, the more places available means an increase chance of making a profit on the race.

If most firms are offering each way terms of 1/4 the odds a place 1-2-3, a bookie may enhance that to 1/4 the odds a place 1-2-3-4. In that case, it makes perfect sense to bet with the firm offering the extra slot.

Competitive odds

Backing a 10/1 winner at Cheltenham is great but not if you could have had the same selection at odds of 16/1 simply by shopping around for the value. What to know before placing your bet? Getting the best price possible on your picks is important when it comes to making a profit, either over the course of the festival or the season.

It may seem like a small difference in most cases and not worth the hassle, but those margins soon build up into a healthy balance. Before making your bets, check a respected odds comparison website to see which bookie is offering the most generous odds. It’ll make all the difference.

NRNB

NRNB stands for non runner no bet and is one of the most important promotions to a punter placing antepost selections. If making an early bet, you risk the chance of losing your stake money if you back a horse to win a race and it doesn’t make the final field.

It could suffer an injury, be aimed at another contest or fail to make it through the various declarations stages. With NRNB, bookmakers will refund stakes if your selection fails to run in the race you backed it to win. Any returns will be paid in cash to your betting account balance. Non runner no bet is worth looking out for when attempting to beat the rush and get in early with your Cheltenham festival bets this year.