The Cheltenham Festival takes place during 11 – 14 March this year and Cheltenham Betting will soon be upon us and across the nation, well over £500 million will be wagered on the outcome of the 25 races so get your free bets ready. The Festival will attract about 240,000 people over the four days with online betting fans adding to the unique fever generated by this meeting.

The Festival represents the first leg of the Spring Double, the second being the Grand National meeting. While the latter offers a majority of handicap races, the Cheltenham meet features a diverse set of races both with and without handicaps, thus producing a different approach to sports betting tactics.

The Grand National Handicap System poses greater challenges of winner prediction, but longer odds, for followers of online betting, while Cheltenham offers non-handicap races which, although having shorter odds, tend to yield clear favourites.
Online betting enthusiasts will, however, still have the opportunity to pit their wits against the bookies because Cheltenham has a history of occasional, unexpected long-odds winners nosing home and providing rich reward for those with an eye for the unpredictable. Nevertheless, form is still the key at Cheltenham and it is worth noting that, statistically, previous festival winners have a better of chance of winning at subsequent festivals. What’s more, it’s rare for a horse carrying over 11 stone to win in the handicap races.