Many sports fans enjoy betting on their favourite sports as much as they enjoy following them. These days, there are loads of betting shops and online sportsbooks where you can place bets on all sorts of sporting events. From international tournaments to regional competitions and everything in between, the range of events you’re able to wager on is huge.
Most of the betting options typically available at a real-life or web-based sportsbook are sports ha are practised all over the world. But what about racing? That is to say, animal races that typically involve horses or dogs. Where does racing come into it?
Betting on Racing at Sportsbooks
If we compare sports and animal racing, it’s clear that the former is the bigger of the two, by far. Having said that, racing is still an industry of a decent size itself. For several centuries people have been training animals and racing them. With horses, skilled jockeys ride them and hope to guide them along the race track to victory. With dogs, they’re released and run around a track in pursuit of an artificial lure. The greyhound is the most common dog breed used for races.
You should find that most sportsbooks, whether land-based or online, have betting options for both horse and greyhound racing. At online sportsbooks especially, big-name sports including football, tennis, basketball and cricket, are promoted and given more prominence. Horse races gets promoted a fair bit, though greyhound races aren’t usually given as much attention.
How Sports Betting Is Branching Into Racing
So how is sports betting branching into racing? The truth is, the two industries have long been merged together. For the past few decades at least, you’ve been able to bet on horse and greyhound races just about anywhere that offers sports betting.
Sign up to an online sportsbook and you should find opportunities to place bets both on human sports and on animal races. Many sportsbooks have an app you can download and through this you can bet on sports and races. As for betting shops, again you should find racing options available alongside sports ones.
Sportsbook operators have to offer betting for as broad a range of sports, races and other events as possible. If their range of options is limited, punters may end up going somewhere that has more choice instead. The betting market is very competitive, so a betting site won’t do well it all if it doesn’t have enough betting options and can’t keep up with its competitors.
Where Does It Go From Here?
Right now, sports betting and racing betting are two industries that exist side by side. They’re similar in many ways, though there are a few key differences, namely the fact that sports betting covers dozens of sports and is very popular indeed, whereas racing betting only covers a handful of races and is the less popular of the two. Having said that, the two involve the same practice of placing a bet and hoping for the best.
So where does it go from here? The two areas of betting will no doubt continue to be prevalent for many years to come. Sportsbooks will continue to support racing betting because it’s still a sizeable industry that attracts many punters keen to spend their hard-earned money.
