Grand National Betting Guide 2024: Making the Most of Aintree Festival

The 2024 Grand National is upon us, and it’s sure to provide profit-making opportunities for matched bettors with various bookmaker offers expected.

Aintree festival starts with Grand National Thursday on April 11th 2024, followed by Ladies Day on the 12th, and concludes with the main event on the 13th; Grand National day.

Three days of racing should provide ample opportunity to generate a good profit, with a number of valuable offers expected for the main event on Saturday and the days leading up to it.

In this guide, we explore how to make the most profit during the Grand National and Aintree Festival as a whole. 

The 2024 Grand National is set to be the biggest yet, as thousands of people attend Aintree for the three-day event.

It was predicted that there were over £250m worth of bets placed on the 2022 Grand National and it wouldn’t be unexpected to see that number increase this year.

Televised live on ITV, the Grand National attracts those who wouldn’t normally bet on horses with work sweeps, syndicates and the average Joe all getting involved.

Although the value of these customers is relatively low to bookmakers, it does give them the opportunity to increase their customer base and the best way to attract those customers is with free bets and promotions – which is great news for us.

Who Will Win the 2024 Grand National?

That’s the question on everyone’s lips.

Whether you’re a matched bettor or a regular punter, everyone wants to be able to pick the winner of one of the biggest races in the world.

In addition to this, some of the bookmaker offers require you to back a winning horse in order to receive a free bet and ultimately return a profit and so, along with finding close matches, it’s worth doing a bit of research into which horses have the best chances of winning.

With 40 horses running in The Grand National, picking a winner is no easy task.

Here are the current top 4 favourites, based on bet365 prices at the time of writing this:

However, based on previous winners, there are a few factors to consider which should increase your chances of backing the winner:

Staying Power

The Grand National is over 4 miles long, so it’s essential you back a horse which is proven over long distances.

Regulations mean that only horses which have finished fourth or better in a 3-plus-mile race are eligible to run, but with 30 fences to jump, it’s wise to pick a good jumper as well as a horse with stamina.

Age

Based on statistics, horses which are 8-11 years old have a better chance of crossing the finishing line first. The last time a 7-year-old won the National was in 1940!

Weight

Very few horses have managed to win the Grand National while carrying heavy weights.

It’s advised to back horses carrying weights of 11-03 or less. Only three horses have won the race carrying more than this in the last 25 years.

Grand National Betting Offers

Cheltenham proved to be a very profitable time for matched bettors, with many claiming to profit well over £1,000 throughout the festival.

For those that read the post about the record month here on Beating Betting, you’ll know I was fortunate enough to make over £1,200 on the Grand National race alone in 2021.

A full array of offers from the bookmakers for The Grand National will be announced in due course, but there are a few to watch out for based on previous years:

Bet365 Grand National Offer

For the past couple of years, Bet365 have offered a 50% refund as cash on all each way bets on the national. The maximum refund in previous years has been £125, meaning that matched bettors can make a profit of around £75 from the offer.

This has been the most popular bookmaker offer for The Grand National for a couple of years now and simply laying the win part and the place part of your bet can return an easy profit.

It is now confirmed that this offer is BACK for the 2023 Grand National!

Betway Money Back on the First ITV Race Every Day

Betway were one of the first to announce a money-back offer for the festival.

You can get your stake back as a free bet up to £10 on the first race shown live on ITV each day of the festival.

This simple offer should equate to around £7 profit each day, assuming you know how to matched bet it effectively.

Smarkets 50% Back on Losses

Smarkets are running a promotion for the fourth race of each day at Aintree where you can receive a 50% refund on losses up to a maximum of £10.

If you’ve still not joined this exchange, there is a £10 cash refund available for new customers when you sign up here, although the Aintree offer is only available to existing customers (i.e. joined before Aintree week).

You’ll need to opt into this promotion to be eligible, but it’s a great value offer that is available three days running.

Extra Place Offers

We’re expecting a number of bookmakers to be offering extra places on The Grand National and throughout the festival.

These offers provide potential profits should you selected horse finish in one of the extra places. A bit of luck is required with these but if you can find close matches, they can prove to be very profitable.

We’ve broken down exploiting each way offers right here on the site.

Boylesports and Paddy Power seem to be offering the most places for the main event, with both paying 6 places at 1/5 odds.

Bet365, BetVictor, Ladbrokes, 10Bet and NetBet are all so-far confirmed to be paying 5 places at 1/4 odds.

ITV Racing Offers

With ITV covering the festival, offers such as the Betfair 3/1 offer and Bet365’s 4/1 offer are available throughout the three days. Betfair offer a free bet up to £25 if you back a winner at 3/1 or more and Bet365 offer a risk-free bet on the next televised race if you back a winner at 4/1 or more.

Finding close matches are the key with these offers but with a number of eligible races each day, these will be popular offers for matched bettors throughout the festival.

How much profit can you make in the festival?

It’s hard to say what the expected profit will be from the offers until they are all announced.

With £50 up for grabs from Bet365 and £25 from betfair on every ITV race, it’s already safe to say that it should be a nicely profitable few days, and it’s worth putting in the time to find good matches for these offers.

A lot also depends on your bankroll and the stakes you can afford to put down on the extra place races.

Come Grand National day, there will be a large range of bookmakers that are all running promotions for you to take advantage of.

Full list of Aintree offers & step-by-step guides

This guide has been put together by the team at MatchedBets, who have also generously sent us to the Grand National too. We’ll have a video on our YouTube channel after we’re home and recovered from the event!

MatchedBets.com will list all of the available offers for Aintree and The Grand National, and will provide step-by-step guides on how to profit from each one of them. You can even receive notifications direct to your phone when new offers have been found.

MatchedBets recently joined forces with ProfitSquad to provide customers with more value and access to both services at no additional cost. Access to both matched betting services gives users more money-making opportunities and the use of a number of matched betting tools.

There are a number of matched betting tools you can use to help you profit throughout the festival.

The Horse Racing Matcher from MatchedBets will help you find the best matches on the races for the day and their Odds Matcher, which updates in real-time as the odds fluctuate on the bookmaker sites and exchanges, will help a lot.

Along with these features, members of MatchedBets now have access to a range of advanced matched betting strategies and advanced casino strategies along with Profit Squad’s own tools such as their Dutching Matcher, Each-Way/Extra Place Calculators and Each Way Dutcher & Advanced Casino Calculators (available to annual members).