The best advance deposit wagering sites offer large bonuses, sophisticated handicapping tools, features such as live streaming and very quick payouts. This guide will shine a light on the best horse racing betting sites in the country for advance deposit wagering. We will explain their key attributes, helping you find one that suits your requirements as a horseplayer. You will also learn how to sign up for advance deposit wagering, how to make a deposit and how to place a bet.

Best Advance Deposit Wagering Sites For Horse Racing

Our reviewers went into great detail when assessing the overall quality of each advance deposit wagering site in the country. This allowed them to ultimately identify the top two ADW sites. The sites we have highlighted allow you to bet on hundreds of horse races each day in a secure, regulated environment. They also offer a wealth of useful features, exciting promos and loads of betting options.

TwinSpires Advance Deposit Wagering

This elite advance deposit wagering site is named after the iconic twin spires perched atop the grandstand at Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby. Owner Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) launched TwinSpires as a pari-mutuel horse racing betting site in 2007. It made a brief foray into online sports betting and casino gaming in recent years, but CDI has now wound down those operations to focus solely on horse racing.

TwinSpires offers a very impressive online racebook, which provides very detailed past performance data, along with results, replays, scratch information and news of changes and carryovers. BRIS Super Horse Stats are freely available to all TwinSpires horseplayers, but there are also pro options that you can check out if you would like to take out a paid subscription.

You can also enjoy live streaming of hundreds of races each day, and the racecards are exceptionally detailed. There are excellent features such as BetShare, which allows you to create bets and share the cost among friends, before watching the race together via a live stream. It covers a very broad selection of US and international races, with a wide array of pari-mutuel betting options available. TwinSpires offers a $200 sign-up bonus, along with various ongoing promotions and enhanced betting offers. 

TVG Advance Deposit Wagering

TVG is another highly sophisticated advance deposit wagering site. Flutter Entertainment – the world’s largest online gambling company, with brands including FanDuel, PokerStars, FOX Bet and Betfair – owns TVG. It has a highly-rated mobile app and a user-friendly website. The app is very convenient, but you will be able to harness the various value-added features in a more seamless fashion when using the desktop site.

This ADW operator is similar to TwinSpires in many ways, as it offers live streaming, video replays and immensely detailed past performance data. They are both pari-mutuel wagering sites, so the payouts are the same. TwinSpires offers more statistics and guides than TVG, along with a slightly broader range of banking options, and it is available in more states. However, the welcome bonus at TVG is more generous, as it offers a 50% up to $200 bonus, compared to 25% up to $200 at TwinSpires. Both sites charge deposit fees, but TVG will waive the fee on your first deposit of $50 or more on Monday through Thursday each week.

There are also some interesting promotions at TVG. They include cash back if your horse comes in second or third on some races and Pick 4 insurance. There are some great handicapping contests at TVG too, so it is advisable to register with both TwinSpires and TVG. Flutter Entertainment has another horse racing betting site, FanDuel Racing – which uses turnkey technology from NYRA – but TVG is more sophisticated.

What is Advance Deposit Wagering?

Advance deposit wagering simply means placing bets on horse races via a funded account. It can apply to bets placed online or over the phone, but it primarily refers to betting on horse racing at sites and sports betting apps such as TwinSpires and TVG.

Most online gambling requires an advance deposit. For example, you will need to fund an online sports betting or casino gaming account before placing wagers or playing slots and table games. However, there are some credit shops that allow horseplayers to bet on races without requiring an advance deposit. Instead, they allow players to rack up a tab, and they settle your account at the end of the month. However, they are rare, and most horseplayers use advance deposit wagering sites.

How We Review Advance Deposit Wagering Companies

We focus on eight key areas when reviewing advance deposit wagering sites. They are laid out below to give you an insight into our process. TwinSpires and TVG both performed very well across the board, whereas their competitors fell short in a few areas.

Sign-Up Offers

The advance deposit wagering industry is reasonably competitive, so racebooks need to provide horseplayers with a compelling incentive to sign up. We assessed the quality of each ADW site’s betting welcome offer, focusing on the size of the offer and the simplicity of the release requirements. The bonuses at TwinSpires and TVG stood out. There are also some crossover promotions between TVG and FanDuel Sportsbook, as they are owned by the same company, which can be beneficial if you like to bet on sports and racing.

Existing Customer Offers

The best advance deposit wagering sites provide their existing customers with a series of enhanced betting offers each week. The deals include cash back if your horse finishes second or third, or money back if one leg of a bet such as a Pick 4 lets you down. There are also handicapping contests to enter, which result in free bet credits, and you can receive free bets on big races. Sites such as TwinSpires also offer “bet and get” deals, such as a $5 free bet if you wager $100 in a single day on races in Hong Kong.

Customer Service

We test out the customer service on offer at each advance deposit wagering operator when conducting our reviews. The best ADW sites offer 24/7 support via multiple channels, including phone, live chat and email. The agents respond rapidly when you get in touch, and they are unfailingly patient, polite and friendly. Elite advance deposit wagering sites train their representatives well, ensuring they can answer a range of questions about betting on horse races, so you can look forward to quick, efficient support whenever you need help.

A Range of Horse Racing Markets

The leading advance deposit wagering sites offer lots of pari-mutuel betting options. You can bet on the win, place or show on each race, or you can opt for an across-the-board wager, a win/place, a win/show or a place/show. They also offer exactas, trifectas, superfectas, Pick-5s, boxed exactas and trifectas, exacta wheels and so on. You can combine picks from different races for wagers such as daily doubles too. They offer broad wagering limits to suit all budgets too.

Withdrawal Speed

It is advantageous to find an advance deposit wagering site that processes and approves payout requests quickly. Nobody likes waiting for days on end to receive their winnings, so the best ADW sites release your funds rapidly and provide quick withdrawal methods such as a branded Play+ card and PayPal. We monitored the withdrawal speeds at each site and factored them into our reviews. Our reviewers also focused on the ease, convenience and safety of the withdrawal process, the breadth of the payout limits and the selection of payment methods provided.

Mobile Betting App

The top advance deposit wagering operators offer native sports betting apps that can be downloaded via the App Store on an iPhone or Google Play on an Android device. They make it very quick and easy for you to place bets. This is very important for horseplayers, as races go off every few minutes and they often need to move swiftly. It is deeply frustrating to be denied the opportunity to bet on a race if the app crashes or takes too long to load, so we focus on the speed, accessibility and reliability of each ADW app. The best horse racing betting apps organize the information, including past performance data, in a seamless fashion for mobile bettors, and they offer sharp mobile live streams, resulting in an excellent all-round mobile betting experience.

Is the Website Easy to Use?

We also focus on the accessibility and user-friendliness of the website. Horse racing betting sites can be daunting for beginners, so the best operators take the fear factor out of the equation and make it easy for you to access information and place bets. They offer betting 101 guides to help, and they make it simple to find specific races. The top advance deposit wagering sites are also very easy for seasoned horseplayers to use, allowing you to quickly locate races you are interested in, grab the information you are looking for and get your bets on effortlessly.

Is There Live Streaming of Races?

It is important to find a site that offers reliable live streaming of races from around the country and across the globe. That saves you from having to flick from the betting site to a streaming platform and back again when wagering on races. You should be able to bet on races, watch them unfold and enjoy replays all in one place, while also benefiting from advanced handicapping tools, detailed news and statistical information, analysis, picks and much more. That is certainly the case at advance deposit wagering sites such as TVG and TwinSpires

States That Allow Advance Deposit Wagering

Illinois was the first state to permit advance deposit wagering on horse races via the Illinois Horse Racing Act of 1975. Connecticut, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania quickly joined the party. By 2011, 28 states had expressly permitted advance deposit wagering, while another 13 were in a legal gray area, as they had not prohibited it. There are now just 10 states that do not allow residents to bet on horse racing online.

These are the states that allow advance deposit wagering: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Best ADW Sites Offers

The leading ADW sites offer hundreds of dollars in bonus credits as an incentive to sign up. This gives you an exciting opportunity to bet on horse races with house money. You just need to make a deposit and play it through a certain number of times to release the bonus funds, which will then have a simple 1x rollover requirement. Players can then benefit from a steady stream of additional, recurring offers at elite racebooks such as TwinSpires and TVG, including money back specials, free bets and handicapping contests.

ADW Payment Methods

The best advance deposit wagering sites provide customers with a wide array of secure, convenient payment methods. TwinSpires stands out by accepting Visa, Mastercard, Play+, PayPal, PayNearMe, Green Dot MoneyPak, online banking via PayWithMyBank, VIP Preferred/ACH, a paper check, EZMoney, MoneyGram or a wire transfer as payment options. The limits vary de[pending upon the method selected, and you can find the details within the cashier section of the site or the mobile app.

How to Sign Up to an Advance Deposit Wagering Site

It is easy to sign up for an account with an advance deposit wagering site. You can follow these steps:

1. Click the green button next to one of the advance deposit wagering sites featured on this page. That will take you through to the site and ensure you receive the best betting welcome offer .
2. Click “Join Now” or “Sign Up” to open the registration form. Fill in your personal details – first name, last name, date of birth, email address, home address, cell phone number and the last four digits of your SSN. The IRS requires all online wagering sites to collect your SSN to report any taxable winnings you might earn.
3. Choose a username and password. Agree to the terms and conditions, and complete the form.
4. The site will use your information, including your SNN, address and date of birth, to verify your state, age and identity. This is reassuring, as you know it is a legal, legitimate site and not a scam. You may pass KYC (Know Your Customer) checks automatically, or you may be asked to upload additional documents – such as a driver’s license and recent bill – to confirm your identity.
5. When your account has been validated and approved, you can make your first deposit to redeem the welcome bonus.

How to Place a Bet With an Advance Deposit Wagering Company?

The best advance deposit wagering sites make it easy to place bets. At TwinSpires, simply select “Bet Now” and then “Today’s Races” to browse a list of upcoming races that you can wager on. At TVG, go for “Racing” and then “Racing Schedule.” Click or tap on any race, and the card will appear. It will provide information about each horse – name, saddlecloth number, jockey, trainer, recent results and so on – along with information about the type of race, the condition of the track and the prize money. 

If you are on TwinSpires, the default bet should automatically be set to win – a simple wager on which horse will finish first – but you can change it to options such as place, show, exacta, trifecta and so on. You can also choose your bet amount, either by selecting a pre-determined option – ranging from $2 up to $2,500 – or by using “OTHER” to manually enter a stake.

Click on the circle next to a horse and it will appear on your betslip. You will see the number of the horse you have chosen and your bet amount. Click “Submit Bet” to place the wager. You can also click on multiple horses to add them to the betslip and wager on all of them. If you win, you will be paid out after the race, based on the pari-mutuel dividend.