Melbourne Cup is not only one of Britain's largest betting days, it's also one of the most anticipated and celebrated. As a result, punters throughout the world flock to wager on this historic event, taking advantage of its enormous betting packages, exciting front-running, and many great memories from the hundreds of races staged throughout the years.
There are a multitude of opportunities for punters to get involved, such as working closely with NG bookies who offer promotions on the day of the race, making place bets at various locations, and placing bets through early-morning and fixed-odds markets.
So whether you're a big fan of betting on your favorite horse or chasing after the best odds, being familiar with how the various types of betting markets work can help give you an edge before you make a bet.
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Melbourne Cup Betting Offers
If you are planning on having a punt, make sure you don't miss out on promotions that are available through the online bookies.
The Nigerian bookmakers are keen to sign up new customers during the frenzy of the Melbourne Cup but make sure you do your homework and compare the bookies. Our detailed bookmaker reviews gives you the lowdown on all the best features each bookie offers on Cup Day.
Melbourne Cup Early Markets
There are always many punters who are keen to have a bet in the Melbourne Cup early markets. Should you have a go? First, make sure you understand how early markets work.
Early markets are what you bet into if you’d like to have a bet before the final field and barrier draw is finalised. The early markets for the Melbourne Cup go up a long time before race day – usually just after the previous year’s race is run! As there’s still plenty of uncertainty about the field, and there’s a lot of horses in the market, you can generally lock in some really great odds. The downside, however, is that early markets are “all in”. This means that there’s no refund if your horse doesn’t make it into the Melbourne Cup field – you just lose your stake. So there’s a reward, but there’s also a risk!
The biggest advantage: extraordinary value can be secured on a given runner! It's not uncommon for horses to be quoted at huge prices before going on to jump at only single-figure odds. The bottom line: if you get it right it can be very rewarding!
The biggest disadvantage: your horse might not be there on Cup day. Despite the extraordinary value that can be found, there are inherent risks in diving into early markets. The main one is that, for whatever reason, your horse may not make the 24-horse field. There is simply no way of knowing exactly what the makeup of the final field will be until after it is announced on Derby Day.
Market Movers
Early Markets can change drastically for any number of reasons. The following are just some of the factors that can greatly influence the shape of the Melbourne Cup market:
- A horse winning one of the Melbourne Cup ballot-exemption races
- A horse winning or running well in any of the key lead-up races
- A horse succumbing to injury or performing particularly poorly in the lead-up
- A trainer declaring a horse in (more so for international horses) or out of contention
- As well as a range of less knowable factors such as stable confidence, betting plunges stemming from uncertain sources, etc.
A horse that manages to win one of the Melbourne Cup ballot-exemption races (gaining them automatic entry into the final field) will often attract a flood of money, which in turn causes its price to decrease significantly.
Overseas horses are also subject to significant price fluctuations. These tend to occur after a trainer announces their plans to target the race, or following an important win or eye-catching performance from a Melbourne Cup perspective.
How to find the best Melbourne Cup horse odds
For those punters wanting to get involved in early markets, you can gain a great advantage by comparing the odds between bookmakers. Bookies will often be in rough agreement on a horse's price, but more than a few horses do get under their guard and the price discrepancies can be big!
Before placing your bet on a runner, we suggest you use an odds comparison tool like the ones we offer for the major Spring races to ensure that you find the best available price. It really pays to back a horse at its best odds as you don't want to see it win and soon realise your collect could have been significantly larger if only you'd shopped around.
How to win with Place bets
Picking the Melbourne Cup winner is hard … you are dealing with a big field of 24, all of whom are high quality horses. There’s a lot to take into account such as form, jockey, weight, the barrier draw and heaps more.
An option many take is a place bet. All bookies offer Melbourne Cup odds for the win and the place, and with such huge betting pools, you can still secure some great odds for your horse to run in the first three. The odds are obviously lower, but so is the risk.
In fact, the large field size means that many horses are competing for only a few places, which in turn inflates the Place dividends. The catch is that the odds reflect the relative difficulty of finding one of the first three home. Still, it's significantly easier than finding the winner of the Cup and is a good bet type for those wanting to increase their likelihood of a win but at slightly reduced returns.
An All-In market is a market offered before the final field has been determined. Most of the horses in the Cup's All-In market will not make the field, hence the seemingly generous odds on offer.
Tote vs Fixed odds
There are two types of Win bets available to punters betting on the Melbourne Cup: tote odds or fixed price odds.
Totaliser Odds
Totalisor (or Tote) betting is where the money goes into a pool and the odds you receive aren't known until after the Cup is run. Its odds could shorten or lengthen depending on what percentage of money in the win pool is wagered on that horse between the time you placed the bet and the eventual close of betting.
Tote prices can be misleading if there is not much money in the pool. The Melbourne Cup tote odds are only a reliable guide to a horses eventual starting price after a large volume of bets has been placed, this will generally have occurred within a few hours of the scheduled start time of 3 pm, Tuesday 3 November.
Fixed Odds Betting
The other Melbourne Cup betting option is fixed odds.
Placing a bet on a fixed odds market allows you to lock in a price. The only instance where the odds may change is in the case of a scratching(s), where deductions may apply.
Fixed odds betting is available before the Melbourne Cup field is finalised; these betting markets are usually referred to as 'Early Markets', 'Future Markets', 'Feature Markets', or 'Ante-Post' and are considered 'All In' markets. Betting on such markets can help punters secure good value on their preferred runner. These bets are not subject to deductions from scratchings; however, if your runner is scratched you are not entitled to get your money back, hence the term 'All In'.
Once the field for the Cup is finalised, regular fixed odds rules apply, meaning scratchings will result in deductions and that if your runner is scratched or declared a 'non-runner' your bet will be refunded.