Best odds guaranteed explained for UK racing bettors

Detailed summary

What are the best odds guaranteed, which bets and races does it cover, and how does it work with each-way bets?

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Best odds guaranteed (BOG) means racing bettors receive either the starting price or the odds they took when making the bet on a horse, whichever is bigger, for a specific race.

Best odds guaranteed is a standard perk among the best betting sites, and means that if the price on a horse shortens significantly before a race or drifts out, the punter always gets the best number available.

Our guide to how best odds guaranteed works on horse racing betting sites, why it’s only available for horse racing and greyhounds and what happens when you place an each-way bet or the selection is a non-runner.

Below are the betting sites offering best odds guaranteed on UK and Irish racing. We’ve split the bookies up based on when the horse racing betting offer becomes active on their platform.

For example, a £10 win bet taken at 3/1 returns £40. If the horse drifts to 4/1 at the off, BOG pays at 4/1 and returns £50, stake included. If it shortens, you're still paid at 3/1. You can't get a worse price than the one you took, though the bet can still lose.

The BOG process is all automatic, so the punter does not need to do anything except enjoy the potential extra winnings, without worrying about lesser returns.

Horse racing is the main sport with a published starting price for every race, which is what makes the comparison possible. Football and most other sports settle at the price taken, so the same guarantee can't really be offered.

Some greyhound betting sites extend BOG to greyhounds, so check the terms. Most restrict it to UK and Irish racing, and some add big meetings abroad. It's always worth reading the T&Cs.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Evening Standard. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.