How to Bet on Kentucky Derby?
The most prominent horse racing event in the world, the Kentucky Derby is known as “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports” for apt reasons. Find the best Kentucky Derby odds from the BetUS online sportsbook, home to this prestigious Grade I stakes race that takes place every first Sunday of May.
As the first leg of the Triple Crown, the Derby is 10 furlongs (1 ¼ miles, 2 km) long and raced on a dirt track. The household name in horse racing is littered with online sports betting odds. Bet on Kentucky Derby odds remains ever so popular.
Kentucky Derby Odds: What You Need To Know
You can find Kentucky Derby odds and other horse racing odds from the BetUS online sportsbook. Find these odds via the “Racebook” or the “Horse Racing” section of the sportsbook.
You’ll want to access the Racebook to get the full range of Kentucky Derby odds. The sportsbook has Derby odds but is mostly limited to the Futures or Outright bets.
How to Bet on the Kentucky Derby: Racebook Odds
There are many different ways on how to bet on the Kentucky Derby. With the BetUS online racebook, you can find these Kentucky Derby odds easily. When you find the Derby odds, you have one of three options to bet (labeled “Horse” in the “Bet Type” option above the table):
- Win: bet on a horse to finish first
- Place: bet on a horse to finish second or first
- Show: bet on a horse to finish third, second, or first
When you bet on Kentucky Derby odds, your payout is determined by what you select. A “Win” pays more than a “Place” and “Place” pays more than a “Show”. The payout is the same regardless of what place the horse finishes when “Place” or “Show” is concerned.
Alternatively, you can choose to wager with “Win-Place” or “Win-Place-Show” and the your payout is determined by what place the horse finishes in.
When you find the table, you can type in the amount you want to bet on any of the three options. After you input your bet amount, select “Add To Bet Slip” to load your Kentucky Derby odds bets.
You can either “Save” your bets if you want to think about them, “Remove All” to start over, or “CONFIRM” to place your wager/s.
Kentucky Derby Odds: Reading the Odds
The Derby odds are usually displayed as a fraction or the “Money Line”, meaning what the odds and potential payout is for the horse.
These Kentucky Derby odds are displayed with a “/” between two numbers like 6/1 or 15/1. This means you can win $6 or $15 for every $1 dollar you bet if the horse finishes first. The payout is adjusted if you choose “Win”, “Place, or “Show” with “Win”.
You can calculate your potential payout with this formula:
- Wager x (Numerator/Denominator)]
More Kentucky Derby Betting: Other Methods to Bet
The Win-Place-Show isn’t the only Kentucky Derby odds option. There are “exotic wagers” that are available. These are:
- Exacta: bet on two horses to finish first and second in the exact order hence the name. For double the wager, you can box your bet to ensure a win even if they switch places.
- Quinella: this is essentially a box exacta with the difference being the cost. It costs more to place an exacta but the payout is typically bigger.
- Trifecta: bet on three horses to finish first, second, and third in the exact order like an exacta but with three horses. Like the box exacta, you can also do a box trifecta for additional costs and payouts.
- Superfecta: bet on four horses to finish from first to fourth in the specific order.
- Double: place two separate wagers just like a two-leg parlay; both wagers must win.
- Pick Four: select the winner (first-placed finisher) of four consecutive horse races
To select an exotic wager, select the drop down menu of the table where it says “Bet Type” (the default Win-Place-Show format is labeled “Horse”) then select from the Kentucky Derby odds, the exotic wager of your choice from the dropdown menu.
You can also select the race you want by selecting the “Race #”.
How to Bet on the Kentucky Derby: Sportsbook Futures/Outrights
When you access the Kentucky Derby odds from the sportsbook, you’ll find the Futures or Outrights. This is more straightforward and you simply select which horse you think will finish first and win the entire thing.
You already know the fractional format on how to bet the Kentucky Derby. There are two other formats display from BetUS:
American Odds
This lines teams with a positive (+) or negative (-) number. A positive indicates how much you win on a $100 bet and a minus indicates how much you have to bet to win $100.
If you’re not wagering $100, you can use these formulas to calculate your potential winnings:
- For plus odds: Stake x (Odds/100)
- For negative odds: Stake / (Odds/100)
Decimal Odds
Self-explanatory, these Derby odds reflect how much you win for every $1 wagered. Unlike the American odds, the decimal odds show the total payout rather than the profit:
- Wager x Decimal odd number
You can change the odds format by selecting the dropdown from the “Kentucky Derby Odds” on the upper right corner of the table.
