The Melbourne Cup is the main Thoroughbred horse race in Australia. It is run every year at 3pm on the first Tuesday of November at the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. The race is a 3200-metre race for 3-year-olds and older. It is considered the richest two-mile handicap race in the world.
Betting on the Melbourne Cup is huge in Australia and the race is beginning to get more publicity elsewhere in the world.
Best Sportsbook For Betting On Melbourne Cup
- Built for American bettors
- Wide variety of competitive betting lines
- Easy to navigate betting platform
- Accepts players worldwide
- Competitive betting lines
- Fast & easy deposits and withdrawals (including Bitcoin)
How To Bet On The Melbourne Cup Online
Opening an online betting account is very straight forward, but to make it that much easier I have put together a quick 3 step guide to signing up at an online sportsbook for you.
Bet On Melbourne Cup – Sign Up Guide
- Open an Online Betting Account – We recommend three sportsbooks above, each of which are trusted and popular betting sites serving your location. Visit any of these sportsbooks to open an account.
- Fund Your Account – After you’ve created your account you will need to go ahead and make a deposit in order to have money with which to bet on the Melbourne Cup. Click on ‘Deposit’ after logging into your account and choose from one of the many deposit methods available. If you have any trouble making a deposit I suggest you contact customer support and they will help you out.
- Place Your Melbourne Cup Bets – You are now ready to bet on the Melbourne Cup. Head to the ‘Racebook’ of whichever sportsbook you joined, find the Melbourne Cup (likely under the Australia A heading), and go ahead and place your bets. Then sit back and watch to see if your horse can win the race.
Melbourne Cup Betting Tips
Here are a couple basic tips to help you turn a profit betting on the Melbourne Cup this year. Check out our horse racing section to find more general horse race betting tips.
- Steer Clear of Favorites – The general Australian public loves taking the favourite, which can result in the odds of the favourite shortening further than they really should. When the horses have weight added as well it can be very difficult to predict which horse will have the best chance at winning. I suggest taking a longer shot that is being given an outside chance of winning.
- Do Your Research – The more you study and research the horses the more information you will have when it comes to betting on the Melbourne Cup. Knowledge is power in betting and wagering on the Melbourne Cup is no different.
Melbourne Cup History
The Melbourne Cup was first run in 1861 with seventeen horses contesting the race on Thursday, November 7th. The first race was a winner take all affair with £710 and a gold watch on the line. That first race was quite eventful with two horses dying during the race and a long shot horse “Archer” coming from behind to take the championship.
In recent years the race has become even larger with foreign-trained horses being able to participate in the race and over 100,000 viewers watching the race nowadays. Last year horse ‘Gold Trip’ won the Melbourne Cup with a time of 3.24.04. The total purse was A$8,000,000 last year plus the trophies, which were valued at $250,000.
To learn more about the Melbourne Cup I suggest checking out the Melbourne Cup wiki page.