Online horse betting favorites win about a third of the time. Does that mean you can win money betting the favorite every time in horse betting?
The answer is no. The returns are just not high enough in online horse betting to take favorites in every race.
Online horse betting favorites overall will lose you about 10-15 percent of your bankroll if you bet them every single race. If you took all of those favorites in online horse betting to place you would cut down your losses to about 5 percent or so. Horse betting handicappers may take some favorites but they won’t play them all. They will try and go against online horse betting favorites they believe are beatable. Just so you know how difficult it is to bet favorites and make money in online horse betting let’s look at some percentages.
If you want to make a decent return in online horse betting taking favorites you are going to have to win have of your bets if the odds are 7-5 or so. You will have to win about 40 percent of your online horse betting wagers if the odds are 2-1 or so. If you have an online horse betting favorite at 3-1 odds you will still need to win about a third of the time to make money. There are just too many times favorites don’t pay enough in horse betting. The biggest problem with taking favorites is the track take. Remember that the track takes out about 15-20 percent of the money being wagered. They don’t pay back everything which makes online horse betting difficult if you are betting favorites every race. That is why many horse bettors will look for value or they will play the exotics like the exacta, trifecta, superfecta or multi-race bet options.
If you really want to bet a lot of favorites in online horse betting you better be prepared to lose money. You might be able to take a few favorites in some exotic wagers but betting them straight is just not a good long term idea in online horse betting.