Horse racing and betting go together like masala curry and white bread. You won't hear anyone talk about horse racing without mentioning betting odds and the bookie's favourite to win the race. While Soccer gets all the media hype, Horse Racing is still one of the most adored sports in South Africa and a darling of the betting industry. 

Hollywoodbets has been around for longer than online betting in South Africa and Horse Racing is a popular offering for punters big and small. Below you’ll learn everything you need to know about how to bet on horse racing at Hollywoodbets, how the various bets work, plus promotions you can claim right now online.

Hollywoodbets Horse Racing

At Hollywoodbets you'll find Mzansi's biggest selection of horse racing odds and markets covering meetings in South Africa, the UK, Australia, the United States, , Ireland and Sweden. Even for first-time racing punters, the simple site layout and mobile experience means that Hollywoodbets Horse Racing is easy to get the hang of. If you want to play the Tote rather than place straight bets, that option is also available at Hollywoodbets for all the same meetings and races.

Straight vs Tote Betting

Instead of taking fixed odds or a starting price with a bookmaker like Hollywoodbets, you can also take a pool bet on horse racing called the Tote. This type of horse racing bet works like a lottery, where the money received from all the bets is placed together and a share ("dividend") is distributed between all the winners. Hollywoodbets pays you the same dividend on winning bets as declared by the Tote.

Types of horse racing bets available at Hollywoodbets

Hollywoodbets has by far the biggest selection of horse racing bets available in South Africa. Where many other online bookmakers only offer Win or Place bets on horse racing—if they even offer it at all—team purple has more than 10 different bet types available for each race. Some are quite straightforward while other bets require horses to win or place across multiple races and will take a bit of time for new players to understand.

Here's a list of the various horse racing bets available at Hollywoodbets and what they mean:

Win Bet: Bet on a horse to finish first.

Place Bet: Bet on a horse to finish either first or second.

Double: Bet on the winner of two consecutive races.

Swinger: Bet on two horses to finish in the top three positions in any order.

Pick 3: Bet on the winner of three separate races.

Pick 6: Bet on the winner of six separate races.

Exacta: Bet on the first two finishers in the exact order.

Trifecta: Bet on the first three finishers in the exact order.

Straight Line Jackpot: Bet on the winners of four consecutive races. A straight line jackpot is when you pick one horse in each of the four legs.

Permutation Jackpot: Bet on the winners of four consecutive races. You can pick more than one horse in each leg of your jackpot, but it will cost you more to take the bet for a chance to win the full dividend.

Bipot: Bet on a horse to place either first or second in six separate races.

Place Accumulator: Bet on seven horses to place (1st, 2nd or 2rd) over seven consecutive preselected races.

Quartet: Bet on the first four finishers in the exact order.

How to play the Hollywoodbets Jackpot Mixa?

If you want to take a Jackpot Mixa bet on Hollywoodbets, click the ‘Horse Racing’ tab located on the main menu. Then click on "South Africa" and select the Jackpot Mixa of your choice. When you select a race, it will be on the Win/Place bet type by default, so change it to "Jackpot" to place your Jackpot Mixa bet.

Hollywoodbets Punters Challenge

At every race meeting hosted at the Hollywoodbets Greyville and Hollywoodbets Scottsville tracks, you can win your share of R10 000. The Hollywoodbets Punters Challenge is free to play if you Learn more about the Hollywoodbets Punters Challenge and how it works.

You can also win R1 million if you correctly predict all the winners on a KZN race day in the Million Mania competition. This grand prize increases by R25 000 every meeting it's not won, so R1 million is the absolute minimum winners will walk away with! 

How to place a horse racing bet on Hollywoodbets

1️⃣ Visit Hollywoodbets and  to your online .

2️⃣ Click "Next Race" to bet on whichever races are coming up or select "Horse Racing" on the main menu for more options.

3️⃣ Choose a country to see the various race meetings available. Your alternative options are "Punters Challenge" or "Bet with Tote" (see descriptions above).

4️⃣ Select a race meeting.

5️⃣ Select the race number and associated starting time.

6️⃣ Click the odds alongside any runner (horse) for a straight win bet or click "View Exotics" to see which other bets are available.

7️⃣ After making any selection, click "Add to Betslip" and continue.

8️⃣ When you're done, click to expand the betslip at the bottom of your screen.

9️⃣ Enter your stake (the amount you want to bet) and click the green "Submit" button to confirm your bet. 

Hollywoodbets Racing Schedule

Check out this regularly updated schedule for all the daily horse racing on offer at Hollywoodbets.

Hollywoodbets Irish Objection Promotion

If you bet on a horse that finishes first but the win is awarded to another horse because of an objection, then Hollywoodbets will refund your stake in full. This promotion applies to single Win bets only (no multibets).

Hollywoodbets Horse Racing Tips

Every day you can get new Learn more.

Want to learn more about how to bet on horseracing">Betting Guide homepage to find bookmaker reviews, promotions, betting tips and more.