How to Start a Horse Racing Tipster Website
A horse racing tipster website publishes selections before racing, each with an advised price and stake, keeps a public record of every result and earns commission when readers join the bookmakers it recommends. To start one, pick an angle you can cover all year, launch the site, join licensed bookmaker affiliate programs and let a results record that includes the losers earn your readers' trust.
The short version
- Pick an angle: jumps or Flat, a region, the big festivals, each-way value or data.
- Publish tips before racing with advised prices and stakes in points.
- Record every bet and publish your strike rate and ROI.
- Join bookmaker programs licensed where your readers live.
- Follow the ASA's tipster guidance: no guaranteed winners, no cherry-picked profits.
- Build festival hub pages and an email list months before Cheltenham.
Start now and the calendar is on your side: a site launched this autumn has almost six months to build a record and rankings before the 2027 Cheltenham Festival (16 to 19 March) and the Grand National (10 April), the jumps season's two biggest betting events.
How racing tipster sites make money
A tipster site never takes a bet: that's the bookmaker's job, and the licensing it involves is compared in how to start a gambling website. Free tips bring readers in, and the income comes from one or both of these:
| Model | How it pays | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Bookmaker affiliate commission | A one-off CPA per new depositing customer, a revenue share or a hybrid | Revenue share swings with racing results; check negative carryover and qualifying rules |
| Paid tips or subscriptions | A monthly, seasonal or festival fee | Consumer law on renewals and cancellation, and ASA rules on profit claims |
Bookmaker deals work like casino deals (see how affiliate programs work), with one racing twist: volatility. A bookmaker's margin depends on results, so a Festival week in which well-backed favourites keep winning can leave your revenue share negative for the month, and negative carryover deducts that deficit from later months.
Charging for tips adds income and duties: clear prices, renewal and cancellation terms, and profit claims that stand up. The government said in August 2026 that the subscription rules in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 would take effect in January 2027, adding renewal reminders, online cancellation and a cooling-off period after certain renewals, so check the final rules before you take payments.
Never place bets for customers, either. The Gambling Commission's view is that a tipster who does so in return for payment or commission needs a licence.
Choose an angle
National newspapers, racing media and bookmakers' own news sites all publish daily tips, so "horse racing tips" is a search a new site is unlikely to win. Own something narrower:
| Angle | What you cover | When it's busy |
|---|---|---|
| Jumps | Novice form, stamina, ground and ante-post markets | Late October to the end of April, peaking at Cheltenham and Aintree |
| Flat | The draw, pace, two-year-olds and the Classics | Turf from the Lincoln at Doncaster (late March or early April) to the November Handicap, with all-weather racing through the winter |
| A region | Irish racing, Scottish tracks or one course you know inside out | All year; Irish highlights include the Dublin Racing Festival, Punchestown and Galway |
| The big festivals | In-depth previews of Cheltenham, Aintree and Royal Ascot | In bursts, so evergreen guides must carry the quiet months |
| Each-way value | Place terms, extra places and big-field handicaps | All year, busiest when bookmakers add extra places at the big meetings |
| Data-led | Ratings, draw, pace and trainer statistics, with the method published | Any code; the method page is your product |
Each-way specialists start from the standard terms: a handicap with 16 or more runners pays four places at a quarter of the odds and one with 12 to 15 pays three at a quarter, while other races of eight or more runners pay three at a fifth. A site that shows how those terms change the maths of a bet, and flags the extra-place races each morning, has a clear reason to exist.
Pick the angle whose calendar you can cover all year; a Cheltenham-only site goes quiet for months. Tipping football instead? Read how to start a football betting tips website.
What a trustworthy tipster site publishes
Daily tips with advised prices
Publish before the first race with the course, off time, selection, bet type, advised price and stake in points. Note when you published and which bookmakers offered the price, because a price only means something if readers could take it. Two or three sentences per horse on the ground, trip, handicap mark or draw show your working and give search engines original text.
Previews of the big meetings
The 2026 Cheltenham Festival ran 28 races over four days, seven a day, and the Grand National field is capped at 34 runners. That calls for a preview per day once final fields are known, with ante-post guides in the weeks before. For Flat sites, Royal Ascot, five days from Tuesday to Saturday in June, plays the same role.
Guides for occasional punters
Cheltenham and the Grand National bring in readers who bet a few times a year. Guides to each-way settlement, racecards, Best Odds Guaranteed, non-runner no bet and Rule 4 deductions rank all year and lead them to your tips.
Keep a public results record
Readers judge a tipster on the record. Publish every bet, including losers and non-runners, in a table they can check:
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Date and race | Course and off time |
| Selection and bet | Win or each way, with the place terms on the day |
| Stake | Points, from a fixed staking plan |
| Advised price | The price when the tip went live, and the time |
| Starting price (SP) | The official SP, so readers can compare |
| Result and profit or loss | In points, at the advised price, or at the SP where it was bigger and the bet qualified for Best Odds Guaranteed |
Strike rate is winners divided by bets, times 100. Return on investment (ROI) is profit divided by total points staked, times 100. Publish both: a tipster backing 10/1 shots can win one bet in ten and still show a positive ROI, while one backing short-priced favourites can win four in ten and lose. Neither number predicts the next bet.
If you advertise winners or profits, you need proof. The CAP guidance on betting tipster services says to lodge every selection with an independent third party before the race, keep the date-stamped records and count ante-post stakes lost to non-runners. It urges basing track-record claims on starting prices; advised prices should be ones a reputable bookmaker offered for long enough for readers to back them.
Build the site with the Horse racing tips template
The Horse racing tips template gives you a working racing site at sign-up, so you start by editing rather than building. It creates:
- Three content categories: Racing Tips, Race Previews and Betting Guides, linked from the header, plus contact and privacy pages.
- Seven example posts: a daily tips card with a NAP, next best and each-way pick; a "How we pick our tips" page with a staking plan and results table; Cheltenham Festival and Grand National guides; and guides to each-way betting, reading a racecard and Best Odds Guaranteed.
- Racing settings: home page meta tags for racing searches, a "Get the tips by email" newsletter sign-up, a Featured offers widget for your bookmaker links and a GamCare link in the header.
Then pick a look. The racing template comes with Broadsheet, a theme designed for tipster sites: cream paper, racing green and brass, serif headlines and a racecard with jockey silks for your daily selections. Basic and Neon are there too, and you can change colours and fonts any time in your admin. See it on the live horse racing demo, or compare every niche on our templates page.
Before you promote the site, work through the example content:
- Replace the example tips card. Its horses, such as Harbour Lights at "Example Park", are invented to show the layout.
- Rewrite "How we pick our tips" with your own method, and swap the example rows for real results.
- Add your bookmaker links in the admin panel: unlimited, country-targeted and ranked, so UK visitors see only the bookmakers you've enabled for the UK, in your order.
- Set meta tags for each post and connect your own domain when ready; until then the site is live at yoursite.casinoaffiliatehost.com.
Every site includes user accounts, comments, newsletter sign-ups and email campaigns, and it's free for 6 months during our beta with no credit card required. Weighing up WordPress? Read WordPress theme vs website builder.
Choose bookmaker affiliate programs
Most large bookmakers run affiliate programs, and networks offer several brands through one account. Apply once a few weeks of tips are live: programs review sites before approving them, and an unedited template is an easy rejection. Check:
| Check | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Licence | A Gambling Commission licence for British customers (search the Commission's public register), and a licence in every other market you target |
| Best Odds Guaranteed | Whether it covers UK and Irish racing, from what time on race day, and any payout cap. Readers following advised prices will ask. |
| Racing offers | Extra places on big handicaps, and non-runner no bet on ante-post markets before the major festivals |
| Commission model | CPA, revenue share or hybrid, and what makes a customer qualify |
| Negative carryover | Whether a month when punters win is carried forward against future commission |
| Tracking and payment | Sub-IDs for each tip and page, reliable reports and a record of paying on time |
Some bookmakers restrict individual accounts, cutting maximum stakes or removing concessions such as Best Odds Guaranteed, so read customer complaints before you rank a brand first. Our step-by-step casino affiliate guide covers applying and tracking.
Compliance for racing tipsters
In Britain your site answers to two sets of rules. The ASA's advice on tipster ads notes that the CAP Code's gambling section doesn't deal specifically with tipsters, so claims about your tips fall mainly under the general rules on misleading advertising and substantiation, while your bookmaker links and offers follow the gambling rules too.
- No promises. Don't state or imply that tips are very likely or certain to win, likely to make a profit or a source of long-term income. "Guaranteed" claims and long-term profit claims have both led to ASA rulings against tipsters.
- Profit claims need context: the period, the total stakes and the price basis. The ASA's advice cites a press ad claiming over £2,800 profit in a couple of weeks, ruled against because the advertiser couldn't show that figure was typical.
- Genuine testimonials only, used with written permission and never as proof. Since 6 April 2025, UK consumer law has also banned fake reviews and reviews that hide an incentive.
- 18+ and safer gambling messaging on every page, with support links such as GamCare, which the template already puts in the header.
- Bookmaker offers follow the gambling rules set out in our guide to UK affiliate rules. One change that hits racing sites: since 19 January 2026, GB-licensed operators can't run promotions that mix betting with casino or other products, so copy pairing a free bet with casino spins has to go.
- Disclose affiliate links and label paid placements.
This is general information, not legal advice. The codes and guidance change, so check the current versions before you publish, and take specialist advice before you sell tips.
Grow traffic around the racing calendar
Racing searches follow the fixture list, so publish before interest peaks. Give each big meeting one permanent hub page, such as /cheltenham-festival, and update it every year rather than starting a new URL each March, so links and rankings build on one address.
| Meeting | When | What to publish |
|---|---|---|
| King George VI Chase, Kempton | 26 December | The Boxing Day Grade 1 for staying chasers, and its Gold Cup pointers |
| Dublin Racing Festival, Leopardstown | Two days in early February | Eight Grade 1 races in 2026, and key Irish form for Cheltenham |
| Cheltenham Festival | Tuesday 16 to Friday 19 March 2027 | Ante-post guides from January, then a preview for each day |
| Grand National meeting, Aintree | Thursday 8 to Saturday 10 April 2027 | An each-way guide, then a runner-by-runner guide once the field is set |
| Royal Ascot | Five days in June, Tuesday to Saturday | Daily previews for Flat readers |
Your email list is the one channel a search update or a social network can't take away. Send the day's selections before racing and the results afterwards, losers included, to people who opted in.
On social media, settle every tip publicly after the race. Networks restrict gambling content and paid gambling ads in different ways, so check each one's rules before you promote a bookmaker.
Common mistakes
- Editing the record. Deleting losers, re-dating tips or quoting only your best month destroys trust, and CAP's guidance warns against presenting a good spell as typical.
- Advising prices nobody could take. A 12/1 that lasted two minutes isn't a price your readers got; show the SP alongside it.
- Leaving out non-runners. Lost ante-post stakes belong in the record.
- Tipping every race. A dozen selections a day thins out your reasoning and your record.
- Launching a fortnight before Cheltenham. New pages rarely rank that fast.
Frequently asked questions
How do horse racing tipster websites make money?
Mainly through bookmaker affiliate commission: a one-off CPA, a revenue share or a hybrid for each new customer who joins through their links. Some also charge for premium tips, which brings consumer-law duties and closer scrutiny of any profit claims.
Do I need a licence to run a horse racing tips website in the UK?
Publishing tips and earning affiliate commission generally doesn't need a Gambling Commission licence, provided you never take bets or handle stakes. The Commission's view is that a tipster who places bets for customers in return for payment or commission does need one.
Can I charge for horse racing tips?
Yes, but you are then selling a service: make prices, renewals and cancellation clear, and keep profit claims to what an independently proofed record shows. New subscription rules under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 are due to take effect in January 2027.
What should a tipster's results record include?
Every selection with the date, race, bet type, stake in points, advised price, starting price, result and profit or loss, plus running totals for strike rate and ROI. Keep losers and non-runners in, and never edit a tip after the race.
Can I start a horse racing tips website for free?
Yes. CasinoAffiliateHost is free for 6 months during beta with no credit card required, and the Horse racing tips template sets up racing categories, an example tips card and betting guides for you to edit.
18+ only. Gambling can be addictive. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice, so check the rules for each market you target. If gambling is affecting you or someone you know, visit BeGambleAware.org.