Five Practical Ways to Bet Smarter in 2026

Make Win Betting Your Foundation
If your aim is long-term profit, win betting should be your foundation. It’s the most straightforward and transparent market to analyse, and far more manageable from both a staking and psychological point of view. Exotics and multis look attractive because of the potential payouts, but the takeout is higher, and the true chance of collecting is far lower than most punters realise. That creates a much tougher starting position before skill even comes into play and leads to brutal losing runs. Keep it simple. If you can’t make money backing horses to win in single races, multis and exotics won’t fix the problem; they’ll magnify it. Use them sparingly for entertainment, not as a profit strategy.

Bet Value, Not Certainty
You don’t need supreme confidence on every bet. Accepting some uncertainty is often where value lies. A horse unproven at the distance, in the conditions, or coming off a flat last start doesn’t have to be a deal-breaker if the price compensates. Good betting means taking calculated gambles when unknowns exist. Real confidence comes from the price feeling worthwhile, not from having every factor ticked. That mindset sharpens decision-making and improves long-term results.

Prioritise Pace and Handy Runners
Horses that race on the speed or just off it consistently outperform those settling well back. Over the past five years, single-figure chances more than three lengths off the lead at the 800m have returned a 24% loss on turnover, with those four lengths or more even worse. By contrast, runners within three lengths of the lead returned minus 3.6%, with leaders the most profitable performers. You don’t need to nail the speed map to use this edge. Simply avoiding horses you’re confident will settle well back is a powerful filter. Backmarkers are far more exposed to pace variations, traffic, and luck in running, and are often forced to sustain higher speeds for longer just to get into the race. Favouring pace and handy runners requires discipline, but over time, it removes a major source of poor-value bets and drastically improves long-term results.

Lean Into Good Favourites
A blanket bias against favourites is one of the quiet profit killers in betting. On average, the favourite’s price is closer to its true winning chance than any other runner, and market losses on turnover increase the further you move away from the top pick. Dismissing favourites on principle means ignoring the part of the market that often offers the path of least resistance to profit. Good favourites deliver higher strike rates, shorter losing runs, and a far smoother ride than longer-priced runners. Back them when the price feels right, pass when the risks outweigh the odds. Managing losing runs is one of punting’s hardest challenges, and good favourites do more to solve that problem than almost any other betting habit.

Never Be Casual About Price
Price discipline is one of the most underrated edges in betting. Many punters do the hard work finding winners, then casually give that edge back by taking whatever price is easiest. Over time, that habit alone can turn a winning approach into a losing one. Even a small lift in your average dividend compounds quickly, improving returns by 5% to 10% on turnover without increasing risk or stake size. The aim isn’t perfection, it’s giving yourself options across providers and consistently looking for the best deal for your money, including using bonuses when they’re available. If you want to maximise profit, you can’t afford to be casual about price.