Quinella Bet Explained: Win Big with Two Picks

Horse racing is right up there as one of the Top 2 or 3 sports that most people bet on at just about any one of the hundreds of betting platforms on the internet.

One of the beauties of betting on horse racing is that there are plenty of betting options to suit all styles of wagering and at very different sorts of odds on any given race.

Whereas the vast majority of racing punters will play the winner market or bet on a horse on each-way terms, these are by no means the only wagering options.

One type of horse racing betting that can prove to be extremely profitable, albeit being notoriously hard to crack, is the quinella bet. There’s a bit more to it than for most other markets so the first step is to get your head around it by understanding what is quinella betting, how it works, how it’s different to other similar bets and how payouts work if you happen to nail one. That’s what we’ll be looking at. 

What is a Quinella Bet? 

If you’re familiar with betting on the reverse forecast market on horse racing at fixed odds betting sites, then you’ll probably already know what is a quinella bet.

It’s about picking which two horses will finish first and second in a particular race. Crucially, the exact order in which they finish doesn’t matter so in that sense it’s actually easier to do than with a straight forecast/exacta bet (see below).

With quinella betting you can choose three, four, five or more horses (depending on the number of runners in the race) to finish in the Top 2 with the ‘catch’ being that with each extra one you add, the more it will cost you.

First things first, why is it not the same as a reverse forecast bet that also involves picking which two horses will finish first and second in no particular order?

The answer is that reverse forecast bets are placed at fixed odds. The betting site will state which odds Horse A is available at to win, what odds Horse B is available to win at and subsequently, the Quinella price of Horses A and B in the reverse forecast to finish first and second. So, when placing your bet, you’ll know in advance how much you stand to win if you pull it off, to the nearest cent.  

Quinella bets are pools bets

Quinella bets are a type of pool betting, which in the UK is run by the Tote. 

Unlike fixed odds betting where payouts are determined by the odds and stake of your wager, pools betting is more a case of the laws of supply and demand. The more people in the pool that bet on the same outcome as you that went on to win, the less of the pool you’ll be paid out, though the stake you wagered also affects the payout. Obviously the more you staked, the greater a share of the pool is yours. 
 

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Differences from Exacta

Exacta betting also involves picking which two horses will finish first and second in any given race but demands you specifying the correct order.

So, let’s say you like Red River and Blue Lake and think they’ll both finish in the Top 2. Your Quinella bet will be a winner if they do so, irrespective of the order in which it happens.

In an Exacta bet you’d have to correctly pick that Red River finishes first with Blue Lake in second.

Of course, there’s nothing stopping you backing both outcomes, although it will cost you twice the stake.  

It goes without saying that because picking the exact order is much harder, it’s far more difficult to have a winning exacta bet than a quinella one. 

Understanding Payouts in Quinella Betting

The first thing to understand is that most pools betting punters tend to pick favourites in their quinella selection.

Though favourites by definition have a much better chance of finishing first or second, it means that the money in the pool will be shared by a lot more people when favourites do end up 1 and 2 in the race.

So, it’s up to you to decide whether you’d prefer regular wins with smallish payouts by backing favourites. Or much less regular wins with far bigger payouts by picking outsiders, or a combination of favourites and outsiders.

At the time you place your selection, the pools will give you a dividend estimate, which is basically a guess about how much you’ll win personally, if that selection wins. The estimate is based on your stake, and how many people and how much money has been wagered on that outcome in total, although the exact dividend won’t be known till betting on that event closes.

One factor that seriously determines the size of the pool is the race itself and the day of the week it falls on. There will be far more money in the pool in a big Saturday race than a random one on a Wednesday afternoon.