How to place a bet on the Melbourne Cup?
The Melbourne Cup, to be run Tuesday, November 2 at Flemington Racecourse, is one of the most exciting races of the year. Known in Australia as The Race that Stops the Nation, as the day is a public holiday in Victoria, the 3,200-meter turf race offers a purse of $8 million, with $4.4 million and an iconic trophy going to the winner of the race.
The Melbourne Cup has been run since 1861 when Archer won its first renewal. Great winners in the history of the Melbourne Cup include Phar Lap, Makybe Diva, Rising Fast, Rain Lover, Vintage Crop, Hall Mark, Might and Power, and Peter Pan. It is one of the most iconic days in world sport.
The race is also an excellent betting race every year, with over twenty horses typically entering. This makes it an excellent chance to find longshots and cash exotic tickets that pay handsomely. You will not want to miss the Melbourne Cup!
Melbourne Cup Betting Sites
Do not worry if you cannot make it to Australia to watch the Melbourne Cup in person! Thanks to online sportsbooks, millions of people are enjoying the convenience of betting the Melbourne Cup from anywhere, using their laptops, tablet, or smartphone. You can get the best odds, trusted deposit and cash-out options, and bonuses that make wagering rewarding and fun!
These are the best sites for betting the Melbourne Cup online:
Las Vegas Melbourne Cup Odds
As the race draws closer, Melbourne Cup odds can change. Sometimes they change because of performance in a prep race. They can also fluctuate due to comments made by trainers or observers about how the horse is coming into the race. They can even change due to how other horses are doing since interest in one horse means another live horse may get ignored in the sportsbooks.
Your best bet is to make an account at one or more of the best sportsbooks, track the odds, and get ready to place your bets when you are getting an overlay on a horse you think will win the race.
These are the odds on the likely Melbourne Cup favorites as of April 6, 2023.
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| Incentivise | TBA | TBA | TBA |
| Spanish Mission | TBA | TBA | TBA |
| Twilight Payment | TBA | TBA | TBA |
| Realm of Flowers | TBA | TBA | TBA |
| Tralee Rose | TBA | TBA | TBA |
Melbourne Cup Betting Odds Explained
When betting on the Melbourne Cup, you may see the odds presented in any one of three common formats. This convenient guide explains all three formats. Read it, and you will know exactly what odds each sportsbook is offering you, and how to compare.
- American (+350): This format, often used in American-style sports betting money lines as well, reflects how much money you will win on top of your stake if you bet $100 on the horse. So, if you bet $1 on a horse at +350 odds, you will win $3.50 plus get back your stake, for a total of $4.50. This is the most common odds format in American sportsbooks.
- Fractional (7-2 or 7/2): This format mirrors what you will see in programs or on tote boards at an American racetrack. It shows in the fractional form how much you will win on top of your stake if your bet comes in. If you wager $1 on a horse at 7-2 odds, you will win $3.50 and also get back your $1 stake, for a total of $4.50.
- Decimal (4.50): This format, popular in European and Canadian sportsbooks, represents what you get back if your horse wins per dollar that you bet, including your stake. So, if you bet $1 on a horse at 4.50 odds, you get back $4.50. That sum includes your initial bet plus the $3.50 profit from your horse winning.
Thus, +350, 7/2, and 4.50 are equivalent to each other, simply expressed in different ways by different sportsbooks.
Best Sites for Melbourne Cup Betting
There are many options for online sportsbooks, which makes choosing the best Melbourne Cup wagering site seem difficult at first. Fortunately, you can depend on our betting experts. They know online betting, and they have taken the time to evaluate the best online sportsbooks and recommend the ones that offer the best odds, features, and bonuses.
These are the best sportsbooks where you can wager on the Melbourne Cup online. These are trusted sportsbooks that will all have excellent Melbourne Cup markets as the race gets closer. It is a good idea to sign up for more than once, so you can compare odds and bonuses and make the most profitable wagers as the race draws closer.
Why We Choose These Sites?
Our experts chose these sites because they give bettors everything they need to have a great experience betting horse races and sports.
Even though there is always an element of chance in betting, do not take a chance with where you place your bets. You need a trustworthy sportsbook: one that gives reliable deposit and cash-out options, that is easy to use, that gives you the best Melbourne Cup betting odds, and that offers the best bonuses.
There are many online betting sites out there. Our experts have evaluated the market and identified trusted betting sites. They know which ones give you real Vegas odds, smooth user interfaces, and the best bonuses for different styles of wagering. If you sign up for our top sportsbooks, you can be confident that you will have a fun and profitable a betting experience as possible!
Melbourne Cup Betting Tips
Once you have signed up for an online sportsbook, it is time to think about wagering on the race. Even before the field for the Melbourne Cup firms up, you can get ahead of the rest by learning some of the handicapping concepts and patterns for the Melbourne Cup. Keep these in mind, and you will be on your way to a profitable day.
Distance Ability
The Melbourne Cup covers 3,200 meters of ground, just shy of two miles. This means a horse needs to be a real stayer to get the distance. It is worth looking through each horse’s past performances to see how well they handle such long distances.
These are older stayers, so many of the top contenders do have form at similar distances. Having a strong pedigree for long distances helps, but most of the time you will have plenty of information on their racing history to know how well they handle the trip.
Racing Class
The Melbourne Cup is a Group 1 race that draws a large field of high-quality horses. Most winners of the race, including each of the last 17 winners, have already won a race at the Group level.
Age
The Melbourne Cup is open to horses aged three and older. Though Rekindling (2017) won the race at age three and Cross Counter (2018) and Vow and Declare (2019) won it at age four, five or six is a more typical winning age.
Prep Races and Tracks
In general, back form at Flemington is a positive, but it is good to look for horses who raced at Caulfield or Moonee Valley last time out. Over the last twenty years, six winners took their final prep race at Caulfield. Five others tightened their screws in a race at Moonee Valley.
The Caulfield Cup at Caulfield and the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley are the classic preps at those tracks. Though the Cox Plate is only 2,000 meters, significantly shorter than the Cox Plate, it is such a high-class race that horses who do well there and have back from going 3,200 meters or close to it often improve on the step-up in trip.
When looking at horses who are based in foreign countries, horses who have taken a prep in Australia before racing in the Melbourne Cup tend to do better than those who ship straight from their bases to Melbourne for the race. Locals or not, most winners have raced in the last month, and many have raced in the last two weeks.
Trainers
Horses from all over the world can and do win the Melbourne Cup. Though more winners hail from Australia than any other country, over the last twenty years horses from Ireland, Singapore, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, and Germany have all won the race.
In the last ten years, two trainers have won the race twice. Australian trainer Robert Hickmott won with both Green Moon (2012) and Almandin (2016), and Irish trainer Joseph O’Brien has won with both Rekindling (2017) and Twilight Payment (2020). Joseph O’Brien has had far better luck lately than his father Aidan, who has run 0-for-17 with Melbourne Cup horses in the last 20 years.
Melbourne Cup Betting Resources
In addition to these betting tips focused specifically on betting the Melbourne Cup, read these helpful articles to learn more about how to bet on horse racing. You are most likely to make money if you bet smart, and betting smart means knowing about the range of wagers, the horses in the race, and how to manage your bankroll to make the most of it.
