Great Britain has a longstanding love affair with horse racing, making it the second largest spectator sport in the nation with a history that dates back for centuries. Horse racing has also been good to the British economy with over £3.7 billion of annual revenues, especially during racing events like the Cheltenham Festival and the Royal Ascot that attracts thousands of British and foreign spectators every year.

With the popularity of the sport also comes the opportunity to bet on horses to win some good money while feeling the thrill and drama of being in the races. And if it's your first time to place a bet on horse racing in the UK, here are some basic tips to keep in mind:

Learn about the different types of horse racing bets
Before you start looking at the list of available free bets for the week, it's very important to learn about the most common types of horse racing bets first:

Win: A great first bet to place, a win is as basic as it can get — you are betting on a horse to win a race.
Straight forecast: This involves choosing two horses and predicting their correct finishing order.
Each way: Here, you get to place two bets, one on a horse that you think will win and the other horse to "place." This place order will depend on the number of horses in a race but it will most likely be in the top three.
Tricast: This is a bet with one of the biggest possible wins, but you have to be precise in predicting the first three horses to finish the race in the right order.

Discover some tricks on choosing the winning horse
While it's probably your first time to bet on horse racing, you may not be a stranger to betting in general and will have some instincts when it comes to picking winners. But aside from looking for racing tips worthy of following, it's also very important to keep these tricks handy when choosing your winning horse:

Know your jockey: This strategy is pretty simple: good jockeys will never ride on bad horses. So, before you place your bets, make sure to know who are the top jockeys in the business are. If you see Frankie Dettori or Ruby Walsh on the track, for instance, then it's best to place your bet on their horses because they'll have a higher chance of winning.
Learn about the odds: If you really want to take horse race betting seriously, it pays to learn about the odds of horses on the race. By tracking whether their odds have increased or decreased in the last few events, it would be easier for you to determine which horse has a better chance of winning and which ones you should pass up.
Take a closer look at the horses: You may be betting online but it doesn't mean that you can't examine your horses before betting on them. If you're streaming a race or watching it on television, try to observe the horses in the paddock to see which ones are sweating or agitated so you can avoid placing your bets on them.
Steer clear from favourites: The word favourite can be deceiving in the world of horse racing because once a horse is called one that means it has some of the lowest odds and may not be favoured to win.
Think about superstitions: A lot of people who bet on horse racing believe in the power of a hunch. So, if you feel good about a horse or its name, number or colour, then you can always take a risk every now and then.

Explore the world of tote betting
While most bettors play in regular bets, you can also try tote betting or pool betting, which is basically betting without any known odds. The operator will only reveal the odds after all the betting is complete. Once the results are in, the prize pool will also be divided by the number of winning tickets.

Other options include tote exacta pick where you need to choose the first two horses in the right order, tote swinger pick where you need to predict two horses to finish in the top three and tote trifecta, which is similar to exacta but you need to predict the top three horses in the right order. The third option is a high dividend bet, which means that if you guess the top three correctly, then you can win big prizes.

So, are you ready to place your bets in one of the horse racing events in the UK?