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Irish Bookies

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Best Irish Bookmakers

There are several renowned high street Irish bookies and most are now trying their hand at offering online betting. Irishness and betting are synonymous so it follows that Irish Bookmakers are among those challenging for market share in the, still relatively new, phenomenon of online bookies.

Guide to Irish Bookies

Paddy Power were first to market and are reaping the rewards of their boldness, heading the market with more than 4 times the business of all other Irish bookmakers combined.

Boylesports, with their impressive retail estate of 140 shops, have made some impressive online strides in recent years and will be hoping that a new website helps them to grow their market share.

Celtic Bookmakers, have the next biggest in terms of retail estate but they have no online offering worth speaking of; preferring to rely on their resource heavy call centre.

BetPack.com represents a joint effort by bookmakers Tully, Bambury, Hacketts, Mulholland, Terry Rogers and Track to compete with the other 2 main players in the market. They have just recently set up a white label website supplied by British bookmaker, Stan James. Marketing thus far has been done through the shops only but time will tell if they are willing to splash a bit more of the cash to really get their teeth into a hyper competitive market.

BetChronicle.com is the online representation for Chronicle bookmakers and act more as a Betdaq tracker rather than a traditional fixed odds bookmaker. Both Betdaq and Chronicle are owned by a certain Mr Dermot Desmond.

Betting with Irish Bookies

If you are new to online betting then we suggest that you sign up to Irish bookies, or any bookmaker, who is willing to offer you the best deal in terms of free bets for signing up. It is often advantageous to open several accounts so that you can shop around for the best odds available.

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Cheltenham Best Price Guaranteed – BPG

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If you are thinking of having a punt at this year’s Cheltenham Festival make sure that you are availing of Best Price Guaranteed, or BPG for short. This is a phenomenal offer that, after a slow start has been adopted by all of the top online betting bookies.

It is a special offer that basically guarantees all early and board prices against the SP… so if you back Red Rum at 10/1 on the morning of the big race and the horse goes off at odds of higher than 10/1 the you will be paid at the higher price if your horse wins.

Best Price Guaranteed Explained

Let’s do an example:

  • It’s 10am and, following one of Genie’s tips, I have decided to back Red Rum in the 2:30 at Cheltenham.
  • After searching for the best available price I can see that I can back him with Paddy Power at 10/1 so I stick on a cheeky tenner.
  • At race time Red Rum has drited to 12/1.
  • Red Rum wins the race.
  • Paddy Power pay me at the higher price of 12/1, meaning a profit of €120.

Had I bet with another online bookie who did not offer BPG then I would have been paid at the 10/1 price meaning I would have won €20 less. It may not seem like a big difference in isolation but over time this can make a real difference to your overall profit.

Best Price Guaranteed costs online betting companies who adopt it an estimated 2.5% of turnover so it is an extremely generous offer and long may it continue for the punters.

Cheltenham BPG

Genie says that you should only really back horses with online bookies who do offer Best Price Guaranteed as it can make such a difference to your performance over time. All of the online betting companies listed in the below table do offer BPG as well as a generous free bet sign up bonus so they do come highly recommended for Cheltenham betting in 2010.

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Cheltenham Top Jockey Betting

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Online betting at Cheltenham doesn’t just revolve around the horse specifically. A number of specials markets are available and the most popular of these is betting on who will the festival Top Jockey (the jockey who will ride the most winners).

Ruby Walsh Top Jockey Dominance

Ruby Walsh looks like the man to beat again this year. He’s understandably a red hot favourite, having won the award 4 times in the past 6 years. This year he looks to be in better shape than ever. He will be onboard several hot favourites as he and Paul Nicholls look to do the jockey/trainer double once again.

Amazingly AP McCoy has not won this prestigious honour since 1998. 2010 represents the best chance that he has had for a number of years as he saddles some good rides. How Tony would love to roll back the clock one more time and make it a popular and much deserved third title.

Ruby heads the betting at 1/2, followed by Barry Geraghty at 5/1. AP McCoy is next at 7/1. Then it’s Robert Thornton (14/1) and Paul Carberry, Richard Johnson and DN Russell all available at 33/1.

The odds are reflective of the likelihood that Ruby will win but. Opposing Ruby with anything but a passing flutter would be foolish but, like I say, this is the best chance that Tony McCoy has had for years at claiming the crown and it could come down to his heads up in the Cheltenham Gold Cup with Ruby where I expect that Denman will beat the odds and give AP success in the festival’s flagship event.

Cheltenham Top Jockey – Past Winners

Past winners of the Cheltenham Top Jockey honour include

2009   Ruby Walsh

2008   Ruby Walsh

2007   Robert Thornton

2006   Ruby Walsh

2005   Graham Lee

2004   Ruby Walsh

2003   Barry Geraghty

2002   Richard Johnson

2001   no winner – festival cancelled

2000   Mick Fitzgerald

1999   Mick Fitzgerald

1998   AP McCoy

1997 AP McCoy

If you are new to online betting then betting on the Cheltenham Top Jockey could be a good way to start. It gives you a passing interest in the 26 races and you will be surprised how much you can pick up from just a passing interest. Be sure to check out our free bets guide to get the best sign up offers with the top online bookies.

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Online Bookies

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Online Bookies and free bets guide

Knowing which online bookie to use is an important point of note for any punter.  As there are many to choose from this might seem like a daunting task. To help make your job of selecting a bookmaker easier Genie will be rating a number of online bookies and keeping track of each of their sign up offers.We’ll also provide the best free bets avaialable relating to each of our bookmaker partners.

A couple of points to note when selecting which bookmaker to use are the following:

  • Customer service: It is essential that all online bookies should have an excellent quality of customer service. As with all online services there should be an offline form of contacting customer services. All our selected partners have a live chat facility and call centre to ensure transparency and immediate action for customers.
  • Sign up offers: There is no point signing up to an online bookmaker if they do not offer you an initial bonus or free bet. Simply put, if you are not offered a sign up offer then you shouldn’t sign up as there is better value to be had elsewhere.
  • Generous odds: As the online betting industry has become increasingly competitive, many bookies offer enhanced odds, moneyback specials and generous odds on certain markets. This is something that is not necessarily offered by traditional bookmakers. When selecting which online bookie to use it is important to select one that provides value for your money.

Current reccomended online bookies and their free bet offers are highlighted below

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Paddy Power Dunguib Moneyback Special

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They’ve raised the bar once again with moneyback specials for the Cheltenham Festival. Ireland’s leading online betting company, Paddy Power, have just blown away the competition again this year by announcing that they will give money back on all losing bets on the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle if Dunguib wins the race. Paddy Power will give cash back on win singles and the win part of each way singles. Simply put; this is the most generous cashback special offering of any bookmaker in the history of online betting.

I’ll try not to bore you but to explain why this is so generous I’ll give you a little maths. Dunguib is currently priced at 10/11 and, if this was a 100% book, then we could say that the horse has a 52.3% chance of winning the race. In reality it is not a 100% book but the fact remains that Dunguib has approximately a 50% chance of winning; meaning that Paddy Power have a 50% chance of making the biggest moneyback payout in online betting history.

Even without the cashback special, Menorah is the value bet in this race, so I would strongly advise opposing the favourite with a punt on this classy animal. With the evergreen Richard Johnston onboard and the anally retentive PJ Hobbs doing the groundwork this horse will be well prepared to run a big race. Menorah’s last run was at Ascot on Feb 20th, resulting in defeat for the 5 year old who started the race at 1/2. Anyone who watched the race would have seen the horse smack the last fence, putting paid to his chances. This is a classy horse and well worth a punt at the 10/1 available with Paddy Power.

Current race odds from Paddy Power are:
10/11 Dunguib
4/1 Get Me Out Of Here
9/1 Oscar Whisky
10/1 Menorah
10/1 Blackstairmountain
18/1 Flat Out
20/1 Dan Breen
22/1 General Miller
66/1 Vino Griego
80/1 Fiulin
100/1 __BAR__

Basically sticking a pin in the paper for this race represents value when betting with Paddy Power. The refund on the win part of each way singles means that the value lies largely in the each way market. Genie will be backing a few runners in the race and he suggests you do the same. Remember, even if they all lose, you have a greater than 50% chance of getting your money back.

Paddy Power, with their Dunguib money back special, have once again put their neck on the line. They are certainly the best online betting company at drumming up publicity. They might be riding for a severe hiding on this one. On top of all this you can still get a €20 free bet if you join Paddy Power today.

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