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In-Depth Trotting Betting Sites Guide: Best Trotting Bookies 2024

Growing in its popularity as a spectator sport in the UK, trotting is available at an increasing number of online bookmakers. In this guide, we review the best trotting betting sites and share our hints and tips so you can get the best value and develop your betting strategy.

Luke Andrews: Editor-in-Chief at BestBettingSites.com
Written by: Luke Andrews
Updated on: 31.01.2024
Horses racing while pulling sulkies and their drivers.

Top 5 Trotting Betting Sites

  • 🥇 888sport ✪ Our Top Operator ✪ Best Trotting Betting Site
  • 🥈 bet365 ✪ Top-Notch Livestreams ✪ Top Welcome Bonus
  • 🥉 Mr Green ✪ Good for Mobile ✪ Trotting Bet Builder
  • Grosvenor ✪ Top Trotting Odds ✪ Quickest Withdrawals
  • Unibet ✪ Best Trotting Betting Bonus ✪ Secure Transactions

Our five recommended bookmakers are household names, and they all feature something unique. Punters can get either better odds, more markets, or simply a great offer. Thus, we’ve prepared a listing of each sportsbook and the category where it excels. Have a look at the best trotting betting sites.

Best Trotting Betting Sites by Category:
🏆 Best Trotting Betting Site 888sport
💰 Top Trotting Payouts Grosvenor
📱 Best for Mobile Trotting Betting Unibet
🔄 Easy-to-Use Trotting Bookie Mr Green
⚡ Best Livestream Platform bet365
🔎 Top Trotting Acca Boosts bet365
🎁 Best Welcome Bonus Unibet
📈 Top Trotting Odds Grosvenor
🔝 Top Trotting Bookmaker 88sport
🆕 New Trotting Betting Site Mr Green

As all our featured bookmakers are both regulated and licensed by the UK Gambling Commission, you can bet with confidence whoever you choose.

Before we recommend a sportsbook, we fully review its services and give an independent and impartial opinion. Until the end of this trotting betting guide, you’ll read a lot more useful information, so we better get on with it.

Trotting Betting Odds

The odds that top online bookmakers offer can tell us a lot about the company. And if other aspects of the service, such as customer service, payment speed, markets offered, etc., are the same, the odds a bookmaker offers can be a deciding factor.

The sad fact is that many punters don’t know if they’re getting good value or not; most of them use one bookmaker and take whatever price is offered. That’s why we suggest registering at multiple sportsbooks, so you can shop around for the best price.

Therefore, to compare our top five trotting betting sites, we collated the odds offered for the sport at our five bookmakers. Using twenty race meets, we compared the payouts for all the runners in a race. This allowed us to calculate the profit margin on the average per tournament.

Once we knew the level of profit (known as the vig), we were able to work out the return to player (RTP) percentage. The findings from our research can be seen below;

Average Odds for Trotting Tournaments
Trotting Betting Site Finnish Derby Prix d’Amerique Elitloppet Swedish Derby
97.35% 93.55% 97.75% 95.93%
95.82% 97.22% 95.48% 95.81%
92.82% 94.82% 93.98% 92.18%
93.28% 94.22% 92.67% 91.81%
94.11% 94.31% 90.98% 90.81%

The data showed us that there is little variance overall and no variance between four bookmakers. Now, this may seem suspicious, but before we all start claiming conspiracy theories, there is a simple explanation for this.

Four of the companies listed here use Kambi to provide their sports betting platform. Kambi features 65 sports with 250,000 pre-match and 120,000 in-play events, explaining why the odds are the same. The difference between Kambi’s odds was minimal, and bet365 averaged 96.64% RTP compared to 96.08%.

What Tournaments do the Bookmakers Offer?

While trotting may not have the same popularity in England as flat or jump racing, over the border in Wales, it is taken a lot more seriously and competitively. In 2019, there was 29 different locations in which Welsh trotting took place.

One of the biggest competitions held in the UK is the STAGBI Future Broodmares’ Race. Organised by STAGBI, the approved registration organisation with the UK, the annual race is open to any registered mare four years old or over.

Just over the channel in France, trotting is big business and a sense of national pride. France offers two specialties: harness and mounted trotting races. More than 11,000 races take place in France each year, and like many Brits’ holidays in France, interest in the races has increased recently.

The Paris-Vincennes winter meeting is the highlight of the French trotting season. The races include the Critérium Continental, Grand Prix de Bourgogne, the Prix Ovide Moulinet, and the Prix de France. Check out our bet365 review for an option covering the Australian trotting races as well.

Common Betting Markets for Trotting

As the sport involves racing horses, you won’t be surprised to know that many of the bets available for horse racing are also available for trotting. It’s worth mentioning that not all markets feature at all bookmakers, but here are some of the most popular events;

Trotting horse to Win

A sulky and a driver on a racecourse The most popular bet in trotting betting, you are deciding which horse will win. Some events, such as the Finnish Trotting Derby, Prix d’Amerique and Elitloppet open betting for the tournaments many months in advance, whereas local meetings book may not open till days before the event.

Another option you have on a ‘to win’ bet is to make it ‘each way’. This means if your horse finishes in the top three, you will see a return. Your stake doubles when you make an each-way bet and the odds are normally reduced by a quarter. For example, in the next Elitloppet race in 2020, the favourite Vitruvio is listed at 7/1 for the win or 9/4 each way.

Top Earning Horse Odds

Bundles of cashAs trotting is a global sport, there are several leagues and tournaments taking place over the calendar year. A popular betting market is which horse will the biggest earner in that event. One such market is ‘Leading North American-Based Money Winning Horses’. You can find similar markets for the Paris-Vincennes winter meeting and the UK’s STAGBI Future Broodmares’ Race.

Virtual trotting

A trotting race in progress, with a close-up of a sulkyWhilst not really a betting type, virtual trotting is just too good for it not to get a mention. Available at many bookies, the virtual action takes place at Etruria Stadium. However, if you didn’t know the action wasn’t real, you’d have believed it is the real thing, it’s spectacular. Similar to video horse racing which used to be popular in amusement arcades, the latest technology used makes this as engaging and enthralling as betting on the real thing.

Trotting Live Betting

In many sports, the bookmakers allow bets to be placed once the event has started. Live betting has revolutionised gambling by letting you watch the action before you bet. Unfortunately, due to the fast-paced nature of the sport, no bookmaker currently offers live betting on trotting.

For some sports with in-play markets, we suggest checking out our cricket betting sites and football bookmakers. These sports are two common options for the best live betting sites if that’s your preference.

Another innovation the sport misses out on is the new ability to cash out while the event is still taking place. On selected markets, once the action starts, the bookmaker offers you a price to ‘cash out’ your bet.

This figure they offer could be higher or lower than your original bet. However, the slight delay that bookmakers need for the cash-out functionality means it’s not practical for trotting betting.

Bookmaker Bonuses for the Sport

One of the biggest issues you’ll find when betting on trotting is that not all the events are covered. It’s the same when it comes to the offers. Many of the betting bonuses are valid for trotting, even if they aren’t necessarily catered toward it.

Two sulky's and a 888sport logo
  • The Best for European Trotting
  • Excellent Odds
  • Great for In-Play Betting
ESSA, IBAS, Licensed by:

The site above deserves a mention for its new customer welcome offer. It features generous terms and fair conditions and one of the PayPal betting sites. Remember though, offers like this are optional, and best avoided if you can’t meet the requirements. Also, we can’t stress enough the importance of double-checking the terms before accepting.

Trotting Betting Strategy

Over the years, we’ve found that the type of bet you place is as important as what you place it on. Having at least a basic knowledge of some of the available betting types can boost your winnings or give a degree of forgiveness when you miss a pick.

To boost your winnings, accumulators are the path to riches. In an accumulator bet, you place bets in several races and the winnings rollover from one race to another.

For example, if we placed four separate £10 wagers for a horse to win at 4/1 and all four horses won, we would receive a total of £200 (£10 returns £40 at 4/1 plus the stake = £50 per bet, times four).

If, however, we placed a £40 four-fold (an accumulator bet with four selections) bet, this would pay out an incredible £25,000. This is because when the first horse won, your £50 winnings went onto the 2nd horse, and this pattern repeats with all the winnings re-invested.

While you may be disappointed in receiving £200 rather than £25,000, if just one of the horses didn’t win, the £150 that you would have received by placing singles would be reduced to zero if you had placed an accumulator. It’s a case of balancing risk and reward.

Another trotting betting tip is to repeat your bets but reduce the stake. If we plan on placing a £10 accumulator, we often break that bet down into 4 x £2.50 accumulator bets. This gives you the option to cash out some wagers while letting the rest go full term.

If you are interested in finding out more about accumulator bets, you can read about these bet types and many more by visiting our betting calculator page.

Interesting Facts and Stats

So, now you know how to bet on trotting, and our guide should have also given you some ideas on what you’d like to bet on, we are going to put betting aside for a short while as we take a closer look at the sport.

Trotting History

An historic trotting raceYou only need to watch the sport in action to see the similarities to chariot racing and be reminded of the 1958 classic Ben Hur. Believed to have originated around 680BC, chariot racing was a huge crowd pleaser at the ancient Olympic Games. And while Charlton Heston’s race in the film took a year to plan, a month to shoot and used 78 horses and over 700 actors, we reckon the first races that took place in Ancient Greece was spectacular affairs.

Trotting in Europe

The European flagIt was Britain who was responsible for the spread of trotting in the modern era. In the 18th century, the “sport of kings” became popular with nobility. In a quest to produce the ultimate trotting horse, the English created a new breed. The foundation sire of this breed was the English Thoroughbred Messenger (1780–1808), he was exported to the United States in 1788. Messenger’s bloodline would dominate the sport stateside even to this day.

England’s success at breeding and hosting races ignited a trotting war with France. The French-bred a new breed of horse called the Trotteur Fançais. This breed originated from the cross of Thoroughbred English from the Norfolk region and Norman mares. The French even to this day are highly protective of their breed and have Trotteur Fançais only races.

Equestrian Best Rider

A close-up of a riderThose who know the sport well, refer to Boyd Exell as the ‘champion of champions’ and it’s easy to see why the equestrian world rate the four-times World Champion so highly. Growing up in Australia, a fortunate introduction by Excell’s teacher to a carriage driving friend, enticed the youngster into the sport.

A short while later, Boyd claimed the Australian Pairs Championship, aged just 16. Deciding to move to the UK, he made a massive impact on the world of carriage driving by winning the FEI World Cup Driving Championship seven times, alongside his four world titles.

Stateside, Australian-bred import None Bettor is sending shockwaves through the sport and could well become a legendary horse. The horse has won 9 of 11 races since arriving in America. Two third-places in his first two races gave little indication of the results that were to come.

Trotting for UK Punters

Trotting online betting is easy, but it’s finding a bookie that accepts these bets that can be the difficult part. Despite being very popular in Wales and hugely successful in Europe, especially France, trotting betting is still a niche market.

However, the good news is that we feel any of our listed trotting betting sites give you everything you need.

Questions and Answers about Trotting

We love hearing your feedback and suggestions for our site, and if you have any questions regarding Trotting betting or any other topic, you are welcome to drop us an email at info@bestbettingsites.com.

🏆 What are the best trotting betting sites?

The best trotting betting sites offer many opportunities to play with the best odds, as well as generous bonuses and regular promotions. The top recommended bookies for harness racing also offer many other sports markets and different betting types.

🎁 Are there any good bonuses for betting on trotting?

Betting on trotting has many differences compared to other sports. Luckily, there're some great bonuses and promotions that can be used on harness racing. Get the best trotting betting bonus from our top recommended sportsbook and get a head start of your venture.

💡 What are the best trotting betting tips and strategies?

To win at any sport, you need to be fully prepared, aware of all pros and cons and know that there're no guarantees. That's why we recommend following some of our pro trotting betting tips that could be handy if you implement them in your strategy.

🏇 How can I find out when Trotting meetings are held?

As trotting is a relatively obscure sport, it can be difficult to keep up to date with results and news. The Welsh Trotting website is a great source of information. English results and breed information can be found at STAGBI’s website.