Newbie's Guide to Match Betting on the GeeGee's

There isn’t really any difference between horses and any other sport in terms of what you do, as in you find close odds and back and lay.

The differences are basically the amount of cash you need and the speed in which the odds change. And liquidity at the exchange can be a problem as well, but big races at the weekend are fine.

If you are simply trying to hit a refund if 2nd place, its literally just a matter of picking a horse and hoping it comes 2nd. you can increase your chances by doing a different horse at another bookie if they are doing the same offer.
Or you could back the same horse at a bookie that does a free bet if you win (like 365 or betfair) that way you would get a freebie if you win and a freebie if you come second.

The other main techniques include using price boosts, extra places and each way arbing. These can be quite advanced and are definitely not for the newbie.

Basically with a price boost, you take the enchanced price at the bookie and either fully lay to get a small guaranteed profit, or underlay so that if you win you get more but break even if you lose.

Each way arbing is more complex as it involves 1 back bet and 2 lay bets and is similar to price boosts, in that you are looking for an arb. This won’t happen in every race, only in a “bad each way race” (bookies term, not mine) ie a race with a very specific set of circumstances.
In an extra place race, the idea is that you bet E/W on a horse and if it comes in the extra place you win both the back bet and the lay bet. These can be extremely profitable, but you really need a few bookies doing the offer to make it worthwhile doing. Unless you can get on a few horses the chances of getting the extra place are very low.

There are a few pitfalls with horses. If there is a non-runner the bookies can (and do) implement “rule 4” which states they can reduce the odds by a certain percentage depending on what the odds of the horse withdrawn is. This isn’t too bad when you have laid the bet at the same time as the exchange will do similar, the problems occur when you haven’t laid yet and need to do extra calculations so you don’t lay too much.

The other non-runner issue is for each way arbing. If a race that has over 16 runners has enough withdrawn horses that the number of runners drops below 16 the number of places being paid will also drop, but the exchanges will NOT drop the places, so you could be in the position of losing both back and lay. The same is true for over/under 7 horse races.

HTH

I should point out many bookies now do “2nd to SP” which means you have to come second to the favourite when the race starts. these are much trickier to hit and usually only worth doing when there is a clear favourite.

for more info on E/W arbing see this thread, but as I say, its quite an advanced skill so probably best left until you are comfortable with betting on horses. It was well over a year before I started with each way.

https://matchedbettingblog.com/topic/my-theory-beyond-matched-betting/