The term “best odds guaranteed” is often misinterpreted. If you have seen this phrase used by bookmakers as part of their marketing, you could be deceived into thinking that they’re the bookies with best odds – a bit like how supermarkets will price match with other supermarkets.
What this actually means, however, is that you will receive the best odds on a given bet if the odds improve in the future. This is common with horse betting, as odds start out at a certain price for a certain horse to win, but soon change over time as the demand for that bets changes and/or news leaks about the horse and jockey.
Often known as BoG, this can help be sure that you can make the bet early without risking the price becoming more preferable in the future. This is great because prices do fluctuate a lot, and it can remove the headache of trying to time a bet. It could also open you up to arbitrage opportunities, if you have taken two bets that were priced at two different times, it’s possible that they could offer a win-win situation regardless of the result.
Unfortunately, Best Odds Guaranteed is usually only for horse racing (with a few bookies also extending this to greyhound racing too, like William Hill and Ladbrokes). Generally, it’s for all Flat and National Hunt race meetings in the UK and Ireland, but each company is different). And, to be clear, there are only two potential odds: the odds of when you place the bet and the odds when the race gets underway. If the odds fluctuate up and then down in between these times, you will not be guaranteed those momentarily preferential odds.
Best Odds Guarantee is certainly no myth. In fact, it’s becoming increasingly common for betting firms to offer these. Once one bookie offers something that’s attractive to customers, other companies get left behind until they match this kind of value. Ladbrokes and Coral, for example, reacted to smaller firms offering Best Odds Guaranteed fairly swiftly by offering it themselves.
Odds boosted bets
There are other ways to get some extra value out of your bets via improved odds. This is with the odds boosted promotions, which are entirely separate from best odds guaranteed. Instead, this is where the bookies offer outright enhanced odds that are well above their market rate. This will usually be for a specific bet, such as “Arsenal to win 2-1 and Nketiah to score first”. Whilst this bet may not have been your first choice, higher odds mean higher potential winnings, often leading to a re-evaluation of whether this bet is worth taking.
These are often for new customers, but not always. They’re often on special events too, like the Super Bowl, meaning that they’re not something you can rely on week in, week out, unlike Best Odds Guarantee.
For all sports betting promotions, be sure to read the Terms and Conditions. Bookies understand how important T&Cs are to customers and how frequently they’re read, which is why they’re usually written in a concise bullet point format.
