UK Horse Racing League Betting Offers 2024

Horse racing has been one of the country’s favourite sports for hundreds of years, pitting thoroughbred animals against each other in a test of speed, stamina and intelligence. The only thing that the sport has been lacking is the ability to find a genuine way to make it a team event, which we know from the likes of football and rugby that sports fans love to watch. It is arguably the only thing that horse racing has been missing.

Until, that is, the Racing League was confirmed as a viable idea. Soon the likes of racehorse owners, jockeys and trainers jumped on board, happy to see the sport find a way to truly put itself on the table with other much-loved sporting events. Essentially being akin to the Ryder Cup in golf, the Racing League is a team racing competition that boasts over £2 million in prize money for the participants.

The inaugural event in 2021 and the follow ups in 2022 and 2023 were great successes and given this is a very different form of racing there are many unique markets for this event to bet on compared to normal racing.  In 2022 the format was revamped with the original 14 sponsored teams (e.g. the 2021 winning team TalkSPORT) replaced by 7 regional teams who will compete in a total of 42 races. Ireland, London and the South, Scotland, the East, the North, Wales and the West, and Yorkshire make up the regions.  Wales & The West won in 2022 and Ireland in 2023.

Being new the bookies will also want a slice of the pie, which means attractive deals for customers.  Below we list some of the best promotions for the racing league, further down you can read about the format, schedule and more.

Racing League Betting Offers for 2024

This event has not started yet, please check back nearer the time. For other offers see our main loyalty page.

Where The Meetings Be Held?

In 2021 the British Horseracing Authority chose four venues for the Thursday evening meetings to take place with Newcastle and Lingfield playing host to two of the meetings each and Doncaster and Windsor hosting one each. In 2022 Newcastle again hosted twice and Lingfield just the once with a new course, Southwell, added.  In 2023 Great Yarmouth and Wolverhampton were added and no track held two meetings.

From 2022 all meetings are are now broadcast live on ITV as well as Sky Sports television, this means you can take advantage of lucrative ITV racing offers from betting sites. The courses open in the afternoon, with local bands and other attractions on offer to those that have come to watch the racing.

Natural Evolution Of Horse Racing

Horse racing sits behind only football in terms of being the largest spectator sport in Great Britain. The country’s economy benefits from horse racing to the tune of £3.7 billion, with the likes of the Grand National, the Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot being bonafide major events in the British sporting calendar. In spite of all of that, the appeal to sponsors for horse racing isn’t the same as it is for other major sports.

The Racing League is aimed at evolving that aspect of the horse racing industry, changing the sport’s perception as one that is for the elite, linked heavily to gambling and complicated to understand. The format is intended to by easy to understand, gripping and filled with excitement. The Chief Executive Officer of CHR and former Swindon Town Football Club Chairman, Jeremy Wray, came up with the idea to change the way the sport is seen and thought of.

Racing League Format

In 2020, the British Horseracing Authority gave the go-ahead for the Racing League to get underway the following summer. When they did so, it was also confirmed that the calls of racehorse owners for increased prize money had been answered. Each race had a £50,000 prize attached, which was enough to ensure that owners and trainers alike were suddenly keen on their horses entering the competition.

The Racing League originally worked by having twelve teams, with each team having between two and four trainers, three jockeys and a squad of thirty horses.  Each team was sponsored with team TalkSport winning the inaugural version.

For the second edition the format was changed with now just seven teams representing regions across the UK and Ireland.  These are: Ireland, London and the South, Scotland, the East, the North, Wales and the West, and Yorkshire.

There are now 7 jockeys in each team that ride exclusively for that region. They will race in 7 races at each meeting, up from 6 in the inaugural year, across six different Thursday evenings.  The limitation on the number of trainers per team and the number of horses has been lifted.  Each race will have 14 runners and that will include two from each regional team.

The Team Manager will decide which horse will run in what race, as well as which jockey will ride the horse.  The managers for 2023 were:

• Kevin Blake – Ireland
• Linda Perratt – Scotland
• Leonna Mayor – Yorkshire
• Mick Quinn – The North
• Frankie Dettori – The East
• Jamie Osborne – Wales & The West
• Matt Chapman – London & The South

Originally the limit on trainers and horses meant the event was seen as too restrictive.  In 2022 over 125 trainers signed up and the number of jockeys increased to 49 meaning it is far more open and competitive compared with its first iteration.  There are also the associated stable staff needed to keep the horses healthy and happy.

Each meeting features six races over a mix of distances:

• 5 furlongs
• 6 furlongs
• 7 furlongs
• 8 furlongs
• 10 furlongs
• 11 furlongs
• 12 furlongs
• 15 furlongs

All race are open to horses 3 years old and above with a handicap rating of 0-90. £50,000 is paid to the winner of each race.

The Racing League has, however, kept the rule in which a jockey is allowed to carry a whip but can only use it for safety purposes or for corrections and is not allowed to use it to ‘encourage’ the horse to run harder or faster. The horses then earn points according to their finishing position in the race, with the points going towards the team’s overall total. The team with the most points at the end of the six nights of racing will win.

There are 100 points available per race and they are distributed as follows:

Teams can also play a ‘joker’ in two of the 42 races across all events as long as they are 12+ runners. The joker gives the team double points in that race, e.g. winning a race with a joker played would give 50 instead of 25 points.

The Money

Each race will have a prize pool of £50,000 attached to it, meaning that the series overall will be worth £2 million plus.

The prize money will be broken down in order to mean that the higher a horse finishes in the race, the more money they will win.

The team that wins the overall league will also receive a bonus, with prize money shared between the owners, trainers and the jockey.

At the end of the competition there is a £50,000 winner-takes-all prize for the winning team along with a £35,000 prize pool to the winning team jockeys.  The jockey that scores the most points individually will also win £20,000.

Previous Winners

Why It Is Interesting For Punters

The main reason that the Racing League is so popular is that it is horse racing but with a twist. From a betting point of view, punters can place wagers both on the outcome of each individual race and the overall winner of the league.

This concept makes it similar to football in the sense that you can bet on a team and on their individual matches. It moves horse racing out of being a sport in which each race is an individual thing and into the realm of the overall outcome being important.