If you’ve had a look at our list of recommended bookmakers then you’ll appreciate that it really is a competitive industry. That is even more evident when you bear in mind that those are just the bookies that we think you should have an account with and that there are plenty of less reputable companies out there, too. It’s not uncommon for a bookmaker to come up with clever ways to win over punters from their competitors, with free bets and price boosts often all the range.
A quick look through our list of the best bookies will have seen a phrase pop up again and again, too – Best Odds Guaranteed. This is a perfect example of an offer that bookmakers put forward to try to win people over and it’s one of the very best ones for horse racing fans. Here we’ll have a look at exactly what the offer entails, what you need to look out for and how you can take advantage of it when it comes to betting on horse racing. For best prices deals specifically for the Cheltenham Festival see our dedicated Festival BOG page..
Bookmakers Offering BOG
What Is Best Price Guaranteed in Horse Racing?
The really good news about Best Odds Guaranteed is that it’s really easy to understand and the title tells you pretty much everything you need to know. A bookmaker that offers this deal, which is sometimes referred to as BOG, promises that you will be paid out at the best price you could have got from a race. The easiest way to explain it is to look at a made up example.
Say you place a bet on the Queen Mother Champion Chase in the morning and the odds you get are 5/1, but the horse you bet on actually goes off at 8/1 and wins. Well, in the past that was just hard lines and you’d have to take a gamble of when to place your bet. With a bookie that has the Best Odds Guaranteed offer, however, you’ll be paid out at 8/1 rather than the 5/1 you took.
Of course the reverse of that is also true. If you placed a bet at 8/1 and the Starting Price was 5/1 you’d still end up getting paid at 8/1. It’s win/win for the punter and you’d obviously be mad to place a bet with any bookmaker that doesn’t do the offer when it’s available.
Major Best Price Guarantee Terms
As with pretty much every offer in the betting industry, all bookmakers have their own rules and regulations for how the Best Odds Guarantee gets applied. For example, don’t assume that just because a bookmaker says that have a Best Odds Guarantee that it applies to the race that you’re betting on. Pretty much all of them cover UK and Irish horse racing, but if you want to bet further afield you may need to bet with a specific bookie (see our table at the top of this page).
Other things that you might want to look out are whether or not the offer applies to both Win Singles and Each-Way bets. You will also want to know whether or not there’s a minimum bet you need to place in order to trigger the offer. Sometimes bookmakers want you to bet a minimum amount to qualify.
Bookmakers apply the Best Odds Guaranteed offer usually only on the day of the race, this means you will only be promised the better price if you bet using the early prices (usually available form around 9am on the day of the race) or the board prices.
Some bookies provide best odds guaranteed ante-post in the run up to the really big meetings, like the Cheltenham Festival, but it is rare. If you bet ante-post as a general rule you will not get best price cover also. Given that some bookies have odds on Cheltenham races up to a year in advance (known as ante-post), this stops you from taking advantage of wildly outrageous odds too far in advance of the races.
One of the most important things that higher stakes punters will want to note is if there’s a maximum payout that the bookmaker will give through the offer.
When it comes to payouts, that can make a huge difference if you like to bet big. Say, for example, that you’ve placed a £1000 bet on a horse rated at 30/1. When it goes off it’s actually 45/1. The original bet would have seen you pick up £30,000 in winnings, but the Best Odds Guarantee would mean you’d win £45,000. That’s a difference of £15,000 and some bookmakers might put a limit of £10,000 extra on their BOG offer, so you’ll only be paid £40,000 not £45,000 in that example. Coral are the best place to go if you think this may apply to you as they have no special limits.
Odds Boost Your Own Bets
Offers that allow you to odds boost your own bets is a way of bringing in customers or, at the very least, stopping punters from leaving to go to a competitor. As with most offers that are designed to do make bookmakers competitive, it didn’t take long before some of them tried to find ways of doing something a bit different. The perfect example of this is the Odds Boost offer.
This is something done by Ladbrokes and William Hill (called Bet Boost) and is essentially an added cash bonus that you can apply to any bet you like. It’s a way of trying to win business rather than just maintaining it, so if you can take advantage of it then you really should. It’s one of the reasons we constantly encourage you to have accounts with as many bookmakers as possible.
Back to the offer itself, odds boost basically allows you to take any single, each-way or straight multiple bet you like and boost the odds. The odds boost amount varies but is in the region of 5-10% the original odds. For example, 10/1 would be boosted to 11/1. All winnings are cash, Ladbrokes and William Hill have a stake maximum per bet of £200 and no minimum.
Ladbrokes and William Hill both offer one boost per customer per day, Ladbrokes for any bet in the sports book that you like, William Hill for any racing. Both however also run additional odds boosts for every race at a select jump meeting each day. For the Cheltenham Festival therefore, where they are very likely to run it, you could possibly boost your odds for all 28 festival races,.
The best bit about odds boost is you are still eligible for BOG, so if your boosted price is still lower than the SP you will get upgraded.
How To Use Best Price Guarantee At Cheltenham
When it comes to how exactly this offer will help you out when it comes to betting on Cheltenham, it’s all about getting your bets in early. Bookmakers love the Cheltenham Festival and often put forward really good odds quite early in the day. If a bookie says you can take advantage of their Best Odds Guarantee after 10am on the morning of races then have a look at the odds first thing. Sometimes you’ll be able to get a decent offer on then, but you’ll also know that if the odds lengthen as the day goes on you won’t have missed out by going big early doors.
Given the sheer volume of money placed on say the Cheltenham Festival, it’s not a shock that odds move throughout the day. Big bets on horses can see their price shift dramatically, so knowing that you’re in a position of getting paid at a big price when you place your bet or a bigger one if your horse goes long as the day day progresses is a weight off. Obviously if a bookmaker doesn’t have restrictions in place about when your bet is placed then you’ll want to get ante-post bets in as soon as you can. You’ll need to look out for the terms and conditions to make sure of that, though.