Kentucky Derby Betting Sites

The 2024 Kentucky Derby takes place on May 1st and figures to be yet another historic edition of the most famous Thoroughbred horse race in America. It’s one of the sports events on the schedule that transcends the sport itself and reaches out to casual fans as well. If you wish to be like millions of others and wager on the race, we’re here to help you by taking a look at the best betting sites for the Kentucky Derby in 2024.

Rank	Gambling Site	Deposit Bonus	Get Started
#1	BetUS	125% Up To $2,500	Visit Site
#2	BetOnline Sports	50% Up To $1,000	Visit Site
#3	Bovada Sports	50% Up To $250	Visit Site
#4	SportsBetting.ag	50% Up To $1,000	Visit Site
#5	MyBookie	50% Up To $1,000	Visit Site

Up to 20 of the best three-year-old horses in the nation will battle it out for the 147th Kentucky Derby on that fateful first Saturday in May. It’s a time much anticipated by the horse racing community, with both diehard fans and those who only watch once in a while getting excited well in advance of the race. Everybody likes to get their bets down on the Kentucky Derby, and that’s why knowing the betting sites that are best for that task is so crucial.

In the following article, we’ll talk at great length about the best 2024 Kentucky Derby betting sites. We’ll go into the details, and we’ll also talk about how you can sign up and place some wagers on the race. On top of that, we’ll tell you a little bit about horse racing betting in general, while also answering some of the most-asked questions about online Kentucky Derby racebooks.

Best 2024 Kentucky Derby Betting Sites

• BetUS – Our top-rated real money Kentucky Derby betting site.
• MyBookie – Best Kentucky Derby betting site for mobile betting.
• BetNow – Biggest horse racing betting bonus for the Kentucky Derby.
• Bovada – Most trusted brand in online Kentucky Derby betting.
• BetOnline – Fastest payouts of Kentucky Derby betting winnings.

We’ve done the research so that you can rest assured that the above recommendations are the best of the best when it comes to Kentucky Derby wagering sites. They all do a nice job in the various aspects of the online sports gambling experience:

• Lucrative Bonus Opportunities
• Reliable Customer Service
• Variety of Kentucky Derby Betting Odds and Wagers
• Fast Payouts of Winnings
• Large Selection of Secure Banking Options
• Easy to Use Betting Interface
• Rich Reputation and History
• Mobile Betting Capability

You can read more about these qualities below. For now, just know that you could choose any one of the sites from the list above and come out just fine. But if you really want to hone in on the best Kentucky Derby online racebooks, check out the next two sections.

BetUS – The Best Kentucky Derby Betting Site for 2024

MyBookie – The Best Kentucky Derby Betting App for 2024

How We Rate Kentucky Derby Betting Sites

Earlier in this article, we gave you a list of the very best Kentucky Derby betting sites. Needless to say, we didn’t just pick the first Kentucky Derby racebooks that came up on an internet search engine. We subjected them to our high standards and checked them for the characteristics that we listed above.

If you’ve never gambled online before, you might not have any idea of what those qualities mean or why they’re important. Once you do understand them, however, you’ll able to research Kentucky Derby betting sites on your own. Take a look.

Outstanding Reputation and History

The online sports and casino world is one that is very competitive and always filling up with more and more sites trying to get your business. Many of these platforms make bold promises about what they can deliver. But until they’ve been around a while and proven they can do it, you’re really taking a chance signing up with them.

That’s why we believe that you’re always better off choosing a Kentucky Derby online gambling site that has been in business for at least several years. These are the sites that are still around because they’ve proven that they can handle the business of their customers without issue. You just can’t get that same kind of assuredness from a new site that you would from one that has an established brand of excellence in the industry.

Safe and Trustworthy

When it comes to choosing where to bet on the Kentucky Derby online, this might be the most important of all. To gamble for real money at these establishments, you have to provide tidbits of personal information. In addition, you’ll have to provide financial data as well for your bankroll.

Just about every one of the other qualities that we’ve listed essentially play into this last one in a way. When you sign up with a Kentucky Derby betting site, the only thing you should have to worry about is who is going to win the race, not whether or not your money or personal information is in jeopardy.

Variety of Kentucky Derby Bets and Odds

While this article is focused on betting on the Kentucky Derby, we’re guessing that if you’re considering signing up for a gambling site, you want to do more than just bet on a single race. You might want to bet on other horse races, other sporting events, or maybe even casino games. Variety in what a site can offer is important because it will prevent you from having to sign up for a different site every time you want to put action on something new.

On top of that, the best Kentucky Derby betting sites will provide you with odds that are beneficial to the bettor. If you’ve narrowed down your choice to two potential sites, one way you can differentiate is to see which of them gives you the best odds on the Kentucky Derby if that’s going to be the focus of your betting. In that way, you’ll get more out of your wager if you win.

Generous Bonus Opportunities

Bonuses are a must at any real money gambling site because it’s one of the biggest advantages that online gambling has over its casino counterparts. The land-based casinos have to deal with overhead costs, so they can’t match what the gambling sites like those dedicated to the Kentucky Derby can do. That’s why you have to be ready to go shopping for the online Kentucky Derby racebooks that give you the biggest bonuses.

What’s exciting about the Kentucky Derby, for online betting purposes, is that it is such an important race that online betting sites often create promotions for it. If you do a little looking around, you’re bound to find some kind of bonus that will give your bet a little more oomph. And that can make a big difference, perhaps allowing you to make one more wager that turns out to be a big winner.

Wide Selection of Secure Banking Options

When we told you above about the best Kentucky Derby betting websites and the best Kentucky Derby betting apps, we included information about their banking methods. You’ll notice that both MyBookie and BetUS give you a wide variety of choices in this department. More choices give you much-needed flexibility in this department.

If you only have one or a few banking choices, you could run into a situation where you end up using a banking method that isn’t cost-effective for you. Worse yet, you might not have a way to pay for your bets or collect your winnings. With the best online racebooks, these problems rarely crop up because you have many choices on which you can fall back.

Fast Payouts of Real Money Winnings

If you see a lot of promises made by a betting website but don’t see a lot of guidelines and small print, it could be a bad sign. Issues could potentially pop up when you try to collect your winnings. Without any hard and fast guidelines on the procedure, you might wait forever to collect if you even get them at all.

You should expect the website you choose to have set guidelines on payback, and they should be reasonable in terms of the time in between when you request your pay and when you get it. If you win big on the Kentucky Derby, you’d like to see the fruits of those winnings in a timely fashion. The best Kentucky Derby can provide that for you.

Easy to Use Betting Interface

By the interface, we mean your interaction with the site or app in terms of getting from page to page. This also includes making changes to your account, placing bets, requesting payback, and so on. That should all be very simple for you, even if you’re not someone who has done a lot of online gambling before. The best real money Kentucky Derby betting sites are very good at making all this as streamlined and understandable as possible.

In addition, you shouldn’t have to worry about any site errors or technical issues that mess up your intended wager. That’s one of the reasons why the 2024 Kentucky Derby betting sites that you should choose are the ones that have proven they can handle a lot of action on one event. A site that crashes right as you’re about to make your Derby bet won’t be any good to you.

Mobile Kentucky Derby Betting Capability

It’s a mobile world these days, with everyone doing things for work or entertainment on the go with their phones, tablets, or other connected devices. That includes online gambling, at least at those sites that give you the option of going mobile. Having this option means that you can make a wager on the Kentucky Derby from any time and any place.

Others have downloadable betting apps that include everything the site has only tailored for the smaller screens of phones and tablets. Regardless of how they get it done, make sure any site that you choose gives you that opportunity with Kentucky Derby betting apps.

Reliable and Responsive Customer Service

When you use online horse racing sites to bet on the Kentucky Derby, it’s always a possibility that problems will pop up. This is true even if you’re using one of the sites that we’ve listed. The key is that the best Kentucky Derby betting sites will go out of their way to make sure to either fix your problem or make it up to you if it can’t be fixed.

Make sure that any site that you decide to join has multiple ways of contacting them, such as phone, email, or chat. It’s usually a good sign if the site is proactive in reaching out to you since they might be able to help you avoid problems before they come up. Customer service at top Kentucky Derby betting websites will definitely put your mind at ease.

2021 Kentucky Derby Betting Odds

What you see above are the most current betting odds for the 2024 Kentucky Derby. These Kentucky Derby odds have been changing with regularity since back in 2020 when many of these horses began their racing career. But since we’re now so close to the race and many of the horses in question have already finished their preliminary races, you should expect these odds to be fairly static from this point.

When you look at the 147th Kentucky Derby odds, you should start to think about your wager in terms of what you’re hoping to get for it. If you’re looking for a surer thing, consider the horses with the shortest odds. And if you want value, take a look at some of the long shots in the field instead, knowing that you can win a lot with them on a relatively small wager.

2021 Kentucky Derby Preview

In many ways, 2024 will be a return to normalcy in the sport. In 2020, due to the health crisis, the Derby was postponed until September from its normal spot on the first Saturday in May. That also removed the Derby from its usual spot as the first leg in the horse racing Triple Crown, as the Belmont Stakes actually preceded it in the order.

But in 2024, the schedule—at least—looks like the old days for the “Run for the Roses.” The Kentucky Derby will take place on Saturday, May 1st, 2024, which is indeed the first Saturday in May. And it takes place in its traditional home in the heart of the racing industry, at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.

Take a look at the details surrounding this year’s race.

Bets You Can Place on the Kentucky Derby

Many people who are new to the sport of horse racing get a bit overwhelmed by the terminology and jargon. In truth, wagering on horse races like the Kentucky Derby is a pretty simple process. It’s just a matter of getting the hang of the system.

Most horse racing bets on the Kentucky Derby are via a system known as pari-mutuel wagering. With pari-mutuel wagers, your odds are not set until the race begins. That’s because they depend on the bets of everybody else wagering on the race before they can be determined.

You will also find that some Kentucky Derby wagers, specifically futures bets, depend on a fixed odds system. When you’re betting with fixed odds, you can be assured that the odds you get when you make your wager will be in place no matter what. Take a look at the different wagers you can make at online Kentucky Derby betting sites.

Straight Wagers

A straight wager in horse racing occurs when you bet on a single horse in a single race. Straight wagers are the easiest ones to hit because you only have to worry about one horse performing up to expectations in the Kentucky Derby or any other race. That also means that, unless you pick a long shot, you might have to bet a lot of money to win a lot in return for a straight bet.

The most common type of straight bet you’ll find at Kentucky Derby racebooks online, and the most popular bet in all of horse racing, is the win bet. This requires the horse that you bet to finish first in the official order of finish. When you see odds listed for horses, like so-and-so is 4 to 1, they are referring to the win bet. And they’re simple odds to understand, as the first number is how much you win compared to the second number, which is how much you bet.

For example, if you bet real money on a horse to win the Kentucky Derby at 8 to 1, it means:

• You would win $8 for every $1 you bet if the horse wins.
• If your horse wins and you bet $2, you would get $16 in profit.
• The win price listed would be $18, which would be the $16 you won plus the return of the $2 bet.

Other straight wagers include:

Keep in mind that place and show wagers tend to pay less than win bets, simply because you the wagering pools have to split between two winners (for the place) or three winners (for the show). Also, place and show bets only pay off for those particular spots. For example, if you bet a horse to show and it wins, you only get the show price, not the win and/or place price as well.

If you do want to get the full range of prices for a horse in terms of straight wagers, you can make a bet known as an across-the-board. It means that you’re betting on the horse to win, place, and show in the same race, and it will force you to essentially pay for three bets at once. But an across-the-board bet is a good way to get a lot of value out of a horse while also hedging your bets at the same time.

Kentucky Derby Exotics

Exotic wagers are a way that you can generally win a lot more money than a straight wager in the Kentucky Derby, even with a small bet. But they are generally more difficult to win on a race-by-race basis. That’s because exotic bets include multiple horses in either a single race or multiple races.

In the case of the Kentucky Derby, there are several exotic wagers which will be in play at various real money Kentucky Derby online racebooks. They include:

• Exacta: Bet on the first two horses in the order of finish
• Trifecta (or Triple): Bet on the first three horses in the order of finish
• Superfecta: Bet on the first four horses in the order of finish
• Daily Double: Pick the winner of two races in a row
• Pick 3, Pick 4, etc.: Pick the winner of several races in a row

There are ways you can improve your chances of winning an exotic wager. The most common is to box your pick when Kentucky Derby betting online. This technique will be familiar to anyone who has ever boxed a lottery ticket.

With a boxed exotic bet, you get every possible combination included. For example, let’s say that you want to bet on a 5-8-9 trifecta at the Kentucky Derby. If that is the desired order and you didn’t box it, the only way you could win would be if #5 finished first, #8 finished second, and #9 finished 3rd.

If you were to box that Trifecta, however, you could win with the following results:

• 5-8-9
• 5-9-8
• 8-5-9
• 8-9-5
• 9-5-8
• 9-8-5

As you can see, you are covering six bets by boxing a trifecta. But you have to pay for these bets: whereas a Trifecta with no box costs you a minimum $2 bet, a full-priced trifecta box will cost you $12 (6 times $2.) It cuts into your profit margin to box an exotic wager, but it improves your chances of winning significantly.

One other special wager you might be able to find at Kentucky Derby betting sites is a Daily Double that also encompasses the Kentucky Oaks. The Kentucky Oaks is a race for three-year-old fillies that is held at Churchill Downs on the Friday before the Derby and is like its sister race. This special Daily Double requires you to pick the winner of the Kentucky Oaks as the first half and the winner of the Kentucky Derby, held a day later, as the second half.

Kentucky Derby Futures

Futures betting is pretty much the only way that you can bet on the Kentucky Derby and get fixed odds, meaning that you can lock them in and not have them change on you. The idea behind a futures bet is that you make it well enough in advance that you might be able to get favorable odds. You’d be trying to pick a winner of the Kentucky Derby well before it’s held, running the risk that your horse might not even make the race or might get unfavorable post position.

For example, if you want to bet on a horse to win at +1400, it means that you’ll be getting $1,400 back on a $100 wager, or 14 to 1. Once you make that bet, nothing can change those odds for good or bad. You can usually get much more value out of a win bet by doing it through futures betting at Kentucky Derby betting sites.

How Popular Is the Kentucky Derby?

In terms of sporting events, the Kentucky Derby is one of those events that tends to reach out well beyond the people who normally watch the sport. Part of the reason for that is because it’s become a kind of cultural event. People like to go out on Derby Day, no matter where they’re celebrating.

In many parts of the US, it’s a chance to go out and celebrate nicer weather after a long stretch of cold days. There is also a fashion element to it as well, as women are encouraged to wear hats and all who attend are expected to dress up nice. It doesn’t matter where you’re watching it, even if you’re far away from Churchill Downs in a casino or off-track wagering facility, the festivities are still a big part of it.

On top of that, you get the betting aspect of it, which rivals just about anything in the American sports world outside the Super Bowl. Take a look at the Kentucky Derby’s popularity compared to other big events:

Data Provided By: Statista

As far as how it compares to other American horse races, there isn’t really anything else that comes close. The other Triple Crown events (the Preakness and the Belmont) don’t quite match up. Occasionally, the Belmont Stakes gets a boost if a horse has won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes and has a chance to win the Triple Crown in that race, but even that pales in comparison to the Derby.

The only other event in the horse racing world that is national news year in and year out is the Breeders Cup, held late in the year and acting as a king of year-end championships for the sport. But even that possesses an appeal that caters more to hardcore racing fans. It comes nowhere near the Kentucky Derby in the way that race saturates the national consciousness.

How to Bet on the Kentucky Derby Online

For some people, betting real money on the Kentucky Derby in 2024 will be their first foray into online wagering. Luckily, it’s not that difficult of a process, even for newcomers. Take a look at how it’s done.

Kentucky Derby Betting Tips

Determine Your Goals Before Betting

Before you even get into worrying about who is going to win or what horses you like, decide what you want to get out of the race. Are you hoping to win a lot on a small wager, even if it means you run a higher risk of losing? Or are you okay with betting a lot to win a lot, which means making bets that are lot less volatile?

Once you determine this, you’ll know better how to approach the race. The good news is that, with 20 horses running, you’ll be able to get value no matter which way you wager. But knowing what you’re trying to achieve will help you pinpoint what kind of bet you want to make and which kinds of horses you want to include.

Consider the Distance of the Race

For many of the horses in the race, they’ll be racing at a longer distance than they ever have in their career. Some of them will thrive at 1 ¼ miles, while others will falter. Being able to tell the difference can help you toward a winning wager.

To do this, look for horses that were finishing well in previous races at shorter distances. This could be an indication that they have what it takes to make it the extra distance in the Kentucky Derby. It’s especially a good sign if they were passing horses or making up ground on their opponents (or extending their lead if they were out front).

The Human Factor in Horse Racing

Obviously, the horses are the stars in the Kentucky Derby, but expert handicappers know how important it is to consider the jockeys and trainers as well. When you’re dealing with a 20-horse field, a jockey’s ability to navigate in tight quarters and make the right move at the right time is crucial. Similarly, a trainer who knows how to get their horse ready for the big race can be important as well.

The flip side of that is that the jockeys and trainers who have enjoyed success in the Kentucky Derby before can sometimes carry a kind of tax with them in terms of their 2024 Kentucky Derby betting odds.

For example, any horse trained by Bob Baffert—who is the most successful trainer of Triple Crown horses in the modern era—is going to receive extra betting attention because of their attachment to him. Let’s check out the previous Kentucky Derby winners so you can see the success of Bob Baffert’s horses the past few years.

Year	Horse	Jockey	Trainer
2020	Authentic	John Velazquez	Bob Baffert
2019	Country House	Flavien Prat	Bill Mott
2018	Justify	Mike Smith	Bob Baffert
2017	Always Dreaming	John Velazquez	Todd Pletcher
2016	Nyquist	Mario Gutierrez	Doug O’Neill
2015	American Pharoah	Victor Espinoza	Bob Baffert
2014	California Chrome	Victor Espinoza	Art Sherman
2013	Orb	Joel Rosario	Claude McGaughey III
2012	I’ll Have Another	Mario Gutierrez	Doug O’Neill
2011	Aninal Kingdom	John Velazquez	H. Graham Motion

Timing Matters When Kentucky Derby Betting

Another part of the Derby equation you should consider is the timing of the race for the horses involved. The goal is to find a horse that is in absolute peak form on the first Saturday in May. And that could have as much to do as when their previous races were as it does with the form they showed in those races.

For example, many people who bet on the Kentucky Derby online like to hone in on horses making their second start off a significant layoff, as that’s often a time when horses come up with their best efforts. By contrast, a horse that might have shown drastic improvement in their previous start might have a hard time getting back to that level for the Derby. It’s all about determining which horses are in the sweet spot in terms of the timing.

Do Research to Develop Your Betting Strategy

As we said, there will be a maximum of 20 horses in the field for the Kentucky Derby. That means that, to make the most informed bet on the race, you have to keep track of a lot. It can be more than one person can handle, especially if you’re not the type that follows the races week in and week out.

Luckily, we can help you out. If you follow our betting blogs, you’ll find up to date information about the 2024 Kentucky Derby and all the horses in it. That will help you make solid wagers without killing too much of your time in the process.

Kentucky Derby Betting FAQ