General
These rules apply to every bet placed with Irish Racing Race Clubs, whether on horse racing in Ireland and Great Britain, on virtual racing or on the Win Pool. They are part of the Terms and Conditions; where the two differ on a betting matter, these rules apply. By placing a bet you confirm that you have read them.
To bet you must be 18 or over, resident in the United Kingdom, and hold an account in your own name. All stakes, prices and returns are in pounds sterling (GBP).
Prices
Prices are shown as fractions by default. A price of 5/2 means £2.50 profit for every £1 staked, so a £10 win bet at 5/2 returns £35 — £25 profit plus the £10 stake. You can switch to decimal prices in your Profile or with the toggle on the bet slip; the same price is then shown as 3.50, which already includes the stake (£10 × 3.50 = £35). Both formats describe the same bet.
Prices can move up to the off as money comes in and the field changes. The price that counts is the one on the slip at the moment your bet is accepted — never a price shown earlier or later.
Stake limits
- Minimum stake: £0.10 per bet (for an Each-Way bet, £0.10 on each part).
- Maximum stake: £1,000 per bet.
- A stake cannot exceed your available balance. Deposit limits you have set in Responsible Gambling are enforced when you deposit, not when you bet.
We may apply a lower maximum to a particular race or customer where we consider it necessary; if we do, the slip will tell you before you confirm.
Placing a bet
- Open a race on Racing or Virtual Racing and tap the price next to a runner.
- The selection goes to the bet slip in the dock at the bottom of the page. One selection per race: tapping another runner in the same race replaces it, tapping the same runner again removes it.
- Choose the market — Win, Each-Way or Win Pool — and enter a stake, or use the quick chips.
- The slip shows the total stake (double for Each-Way) and the potential return including the stake. For the Win Pool no return is shown, because the dividend is not known until after the race.
- Press Place bet.
A bet is a single selection in a single race. Multiples, forecasts and other combination bets are not offered on this site. You can place further bets on the same race, but each is a separate bet with its own stake and price.
When a bet is accepted
Pressing Place bet sends a request. Before the bet is accepted the system checks three things:
- The race is still open. Betting closes at the off. For virtual races it closes at the scheduled start time shown on the race.
- The price has not changed. If the price moved between your tap and your confirmation, the bet is not accepted. The slip shows the new price and asks you to place again. A bet is never accepted at a price you did not see.
- Your balance covers the stake. If it does not, the bet is not accepted and nothing is deducted.
A bet is accepted only when all three checks pass. You then see a confirmation on the slip and the bet appears in My Bets under Open Bets with its date, event, selection, price, stake and potential return. The entry in My Bets is the record of the bet; if it is not there, the bet was not accepted.
Once accepted, a bet cannot be cancelled or changed by you. It stands until it is settled, or until it is made void under these rules.
Late bets
If a bet is accepted after the race has actually started — for example because the feed that tells us the race is off was delayed — the bet is void and the stake is returned. This applies whether the bet would have won or lost. The same applies to a virtual race where a bet was recorded after the scheduled start.
Markets: Win, Each-Way, Win Pool
Win
Your selection must finish first. The return is the stake multiplied by the price, plus the stake. If the race is a dead-heat for first place, the stake is divided by the number of runners in the dead-heat and settled at the full price on that part; the rest of the stake is lost. A £10 win bet at 4/1 in a two-way dead-heat is settled as £5 at 4/1, returning £25.
Each-Way
An Each-Way bet is two bets in one: a win part and a place part of equal stake, so the total stake doubles. £5 each-way costs £10. The win part is settled as a Win bet. The place part pays if your selection finishes in one of the places, at a fraction of the win price.
| Runners at the off | Places paid | Place odds |
|---|---|---|
| 8 or more | 3 places (1st, 2nd, 3rd) | 1/4 of the win price |
| 5 to 7 | 2 places (1st, 2nd) | 1/4 of the win price |
| Fewer than 5 | Win only | Each-Way not offered |
Example: £5 each-way at 8/1 in a ten-runner race. The horse finishes second. The win part (£5) is lost. The place part pays at 8/1 ÷ 4 = 2/1: £10 profit plus the £5 place stake, so £15 is returned on a £10 outlay. Had it won, both parts would pay: £45 from the win part and £15 from the place part, £60 in total.
The place terms shown on the slip when you place the bet are the terms that apply. They are not changed afterwards if the number of runners changes — see Non-runners. A dead-heat for a place is settled in the same way as a dead-heat for the win: the place stake is divided by the number of runners sharing the position.
Win Pool
The Win Pool is pool betting, offered under our Pool Betting licence. Your stake does not take a fixed price; it joins a pool with every other Win Pool stake on that race. After the race the pool is divided among the winning stakes and a dividend is declared per £1 staked. The return is not known when you bet. The full rules are in Pool Betting rules below.
Settlement
Bets are settled from the official result — the result declared by the racecourse or governing body after the weigh-in, including any stewards' amendment made before the "weighed in" announcement. Settlement is automatic and normally completes within minutes of the official result. Virtual race results are published within about a minute of the race finishing and settled at once.
Winnings are credited to your balance and can be used or withdrawn straight away, subject to the withdrawal rules. In My Bets the bet moves from Open Bets to Settled Bets, showing the status — Won, Lost or Void — and the actual return.
Amended results
If a result is amended after settlement — for example following an enquiry or a disqualification announced after "weighed in" — we may re-settle the affected bets on the corrected result. Any difference is applied to your balance: an extra return is credited, and a return paid in error is deducted. If the deduction takes the balance below zero, the shortfall is taken from your next deposit or winnings.
Where the result shown on the Results page differs from the settlement of a bet, the official result prevails.
Non-runners
A runner that is withdrawn before the race, or is declared a non-runner by the starter, is a non-runner. Any Win or Each-Way bet on a non-runner is void and the full stake is returned to your balance. The bet shows as Void in Settled Bets.
Bets on the other runners in the race stand. The place terms of an Each-Way bet already placed are not changed when a non-runner reduces the field: if the slip showed three places at a quarter of the odds when you bet, that is how the bet is settled, even if fewer than eight runners go to post. We do not apply a Rule 4 deduction or other price reduction to bets already accepted.
If your selection is declared a non-runner and is later reinstated, the void bet is not reinstated; you would need to place a new bet at the price then available.
Cancelled, abandoned and postponed races
If a race is cancelled, abandoned or declared void by the governing body, all bets on the race are void and stakes are returned. This includes a race that is started and then voided, and a race where no official result is declared.
If a race is delayed but still run on the same day at the same course, bets stand. If it is postponed to another day or moved to a different course, all bets are void and stakes are returned. A meeting that is abandoned part-way through voids only the races not run.
A Win Pool on a cancelled or voided race is refunded in full to every participant.
Suspended markets
We may suspend a market or a whole race at any time — typically when there is a delay at the start, a false start, a problem with the price feed, or a report of a non-runner that has not yet been confirmed. A suspended race shows the status Suspended, its prices are greyed out and the slip will not accept a bet on it.
Bets already accepted before the suspension stand and are settled normally, unless the race is later declared void under the rules above. If the market reopens, prices may differ from those shown before the suspension.
Obvious errors
An obvious error (sometimes called a palpable error) is a mistake that is plain on its face: a price that is clearly wrong compared with the market for that runner, prices offered on the wrong race or the wrong runner, a market left open after the off because of a technical fault, or a settlement made on the wrong result.
Where a bet has been accepted because of an obvious error we correct it: the bet is void and the stake is returned to your balance. Where a bet has been settled in error we re-settle it correctly, and the difference is applied to the balance as described under Settlement. We will tell you what was corrected and why. We do not use this rule to void a bet simply because the price later looked generous; it applies only where the error would be evident to a reasonable customer.
Virtual racing
Virtual races are computer-generated events. The runners, their prices and the result are generated by the game system using a random number generator. They are not linked to real horses, greyhounds, jockeys, trainers or races, and nothing that happens at a real racecourse affects them. A virtual race is a game of chance presented as a race.
A new race starts every three minutes, round the clock, on three virtual tracks:
| Track | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Rosemount Park | Horses | 6f |
| Kilcarn Downs | Horses | 1m |
| Ashbourne Oval | Greyhounds | 480m |
The following rules apply to virtual racing in addition to the general rules:
- Betting closes at the scheduled start time shown on the race. A bet recorded after that time is void.
- The result is the result generated and published by the game system. It appears on the Results page within about a minute and cannot be amended.
- Win and Each-Way are offered with the same place terms as for real racing. There are no non-runners in virtual racing.
- If a virtual race fails to run or a result is not generated because of a technical fault, all bets on it are void and stakes are returned.
- Past virtual results do not indicate future results. Each race is generated independently.
Pool Betting rules
The Win Pool is operated under our Pool Betting Remote licence. Licensed and regulated in Great Britain by the Gambling Commission. These rules apply to every Win Pool bet.
- One pool per race per market. Every Win Pool stake on a race goes into that race's Win Pool. Pools are not combined across races or with fixed-odds bets.
- Minimum stake £0.10. The maximum is £1,000 per bet. Units are counted in pence.
- No fixed price. A pool bet has no price at the time it is placed and the slip shows no potential return. The pool total shown before the off is indicative and changes as stakes are added.
- Dividend. After the official result, the pool is divided by the total of winning stakes and declared as a dividend per £1 stake. The dividend is rounded down to the nearest penny. Your return is your stake multiplied by the dividend; it includes your stake.
- Dead-heat. If two or more runners dead-heat for first, the pool is divided between them in proportion to the stakes on each, and a separate dividend is declared for each winner.
- Non-runners. Pool stakes on a non-runner are refunded in full and removed from the pool before the dividend is calculated.
- No winning units. If no stake in the pool is on the winner, all stakes in that pool are refunded.
- Void races. If the race is cancelled, abandoned or void, or no official result is declared, the pool is refunded in full.
- Amended results. If the official result is amended after the dividend has been paid, we may recalculate the dividend and apply the difference in the same way as for fixed-odds bets.
Because the dividend depends on how other customers have bet, a Win Pool return can be higher or lower than the fixed-odds return on the same runner. Neither is always the better option on any given race.
Questions and disputes
If you believe a bet has been settled wrongly, first compare the entry in My Bets with the official result on the Results page. If you still think there is an error, write to support@irishracingraceclubs.com or use the form in Contact Us, quoting the bet reference from My Bets. We will look at the bet record and the official result and reply with what we find.
If you are not satisfied with the answer, you can raise a formal complaint. The procedure, the timescales and the route to an independent alternative dispute resolution body are set out on the Complaints page. Raising a complaint does not affect your right to take the matter further.
These rules may be updated. The date at the top shows the current version; changes apply to bets placed after the change, never to bets already accepted.