Learn how to bet on UK greyhound racing with our full betting guide plus advanced betting strategies and tips explained.
Top bookies to bet on greyhounds races
Greyhound Betting Overview
Greyhound racing continues to be a regular social event for many people across the UK. Plenty of food, drinks and betting action can be expected at a ‘night at the dogs’ and little sports betting knowledge can turn a fun night out into a profitable night out.
Aside from the social side of the sport, many people take greyhound racing very seriously, taking the time to learn how to bet on greyhounds and study the in-depth form guides to create winning strategies. It’s our aim in this guide to show you how to win at the dogs, we’ll let you in on the best inside tips and give you everything you need for when you next hit the tracks for some greyhound betting.
Greyhound Racing – The Basics
The UK has 23 licensed greyhound racing tracks and the overall sport is fully regulated by the GBGB – Greyhound Board of Great Britain. This means that UK punters have the choice of betting on dogs live at the tracks, and also in the comfort of their own home with the numerous online betting sites, with all the main betting markets fully covered at the big bookies.
If it’s real-life racing you want then you don’t usually have to travel far as there are top tracks in London, Birmingham, Nottingham, and Sheffield. The greyhound season includes various racing categories that reflect the running quality and age of the dogs, you’ll also notice other one-off Invitation Races and Minor Open Races, but the top events are known as the Greyhound Derbies. These ‘Derbies’ all have a minimum £50,000 prize fund with around 180 dogs competing over six rounds.
UK Greyhound Derbies
- English Greyhound Derby
- Scottish Greyhound Derby
- The Northern Irish Derby
Race Categories
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Category One
- Minimum £12,500 in prize money
- Run between one and four rounds
- Must be completed within 18 days
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Category Two
- Minimum £5,000 in prize money
- Run between one and three rounds
- Must be completed within 15 days
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Category Three
- Minimum £1,000 in prize money
- Run between one or two rounds
- Must be completed within nine days
Race Structure
If you’re a beginner when it comes to how to bet on dogs then jumping straight into betting strategies is a foolish mistake. If you don’t fully understand what you are betting on then how can you expect to create a winning betting strategy? Let’s start at the top, first up, all greyhound racing within the UK follows a standard color scheme. This makes it easier for everyone when they are placing bets and following their dog around the track.
The colors are based on traps from which the dogs are released at the start of each race.
Traps are not just there to help you identify which dog is which, the colors also represent the handicaps with traps 1-2 used for the slower and/or out-of-form dogs.
This is one of the most fundamental aspects and understanding which trap is the best trap to bet on greyhound racing is going to help you in the long run, but for now, here are the colors and trap numbers found in UK dog betting:
Greyhound Trap Colours
- Trap 1: Red with a white numeral
- Trap 2: Blue with a white numeral
- Trap 3: White with a black numeral
- Trap 4: Black with a white numeral
- Trap 5: Orange with a black numeral
- Trap 6: Black and white stripes with a red numeral
- Trap 7: Green with a red numeral
- Trap 8: Yellow and black with a white numeral
Next up, we’ll explain the biggest greyhound betting markets and show you how to find the best greyhound racing odds.