Other Options For Legally Betting On The Kentucky Derby

One of the best parts about being a horse racing betting enthusiast in this day and time is that there are so many ways you can place your wagers on “Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports.” Not only is horse racing wagering widely legal throughout most of the United States – being a protected activity according to various state laws and several federal laws as well – but there are also actually plenty of other options for legal Kentucky Derby betting that weren’t available even a few years ago. Case in point: all the leading legal horse racing wagering sites, and that includes those based here in the US as well our top rated offshore racebooks, offer mobile betting apps for smartphones so you can take your hobby with you wherever you find yourself on Derby Day.

We’ll take a quick look at some of the most popular legal Kentucky Derby betting mobile apps available through the official racebook of Churchill Downs, that being TwinSpires.com, and a few of the best offshore options in the booming online horse racing betting segment of the internet wagering marketplace. Read on to find out what makes these award winning mobile racebook apps the modern horseplayer’s best bet in the fast moving horse racing betting world of today.

Legal Kentucky Derby Betting Mobile Apps

It was not that long ago, actually, that the only way to place a wager on horses and races was to actually be at the track where the race in question was taking place. If you wanted to bet on the legendary Kentucky Derby then you would have to be at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, in person, dressed to the nines, on race day, crowded into the stands alongside more than 100,000 other spectators. Later developments like off track betting terminals in slot machine parlors or casino racebooks in various states came into being thanks to the advent of simulcast technology and the legal provision to do so – the Interstate Horse Racing Act of 1978. Nowadays though, most of the action among horseplayers takes place online at legal racebook sites protected by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), and one of the most exciting developments in the rapidly growing field are legal Kentucky Derby betting mobile apps.

As previously mentioned, legal horse racing wagering apps come in two broad flavors: in the US domestic racebook market, players have access to state sanctioned mobile apps courtesy of sites like TwinSpires.com, while the overseas legal racebook market has several sites with mobile offerings of their own. Each variety of legal Kentucky Derby betting mobile apps has its own comparative strengths and weaknesses, but not even veteran horseplayers may be up to speed on all the nuances that go along with each type, which is where our guide to mobile racebook apps comes in.

Though we will get into the particulars of each type of app on offer at the various legal Kentucky Derby racebook sites, we should point out that one key feature is consistent across all available mobile wagering platforms. That is, these apps are free to download from their respective sites and they have all been optimized to work on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices running either the Apple iOS or the Android operating system.

TwinSpires Horse Racing Betting App

When you are dealing with an organization – some would even say an institution – as big as the Kentucky Derby, it kind of goes without saying that the show runners at Churchill Downs will have farmed out the development of an official wagering service for the race and track. This is the case of TwinSpires.com, the official online horse racing betting sites of the Kentucky Derby. Named for the famous architectural centerpiece of the Churchill Downs original grandstands, TwinSpires.com’s claim to fame is that it was the first domestic online sportsbook to launch a mobile betting presence.

Though initially limited to iPhone users only, the TwinSpires.com mobile app eventually branched into an Android offering as well, though the Android version is more correctly characterized not as an individually specialized app, but rather as a mobile version of the main website optimized for use on Android devices.

Using The TwinSpires.Com Mobile Betting Platform

Nevertheless, whichever version a horseplayer chooses to use, the result is largely the same: users will be able to sign up for free and access their wagering account anytime, anywhere, provided they can reliably connect to a high speed WiFi source or even their cellular providers’ data services (extra rates may apply). Wagering options like handicapping information, field numbers, post positions, trainer bios, jockey records, injury reports, total scratches, morning lines, current betting odds, other statistics and race metrics and so on are all available right at your fingertips (or in this case the tips of your thumbs).

Actually using the TwinSpires.com mobile racebook app is as easy and convenient as using the site’s desktop version. All you will need to do once you have successfully logged in is to choose the wager type from the dropdown menu, pick the horses you like and the places in which they will finish and then choose the amount of money you would like to wager. You will be able to choose between vertical bets as well as exotics like an Exacta or Trifecta bet, and, finally, there are also options for making straight, box and keyed box wagers as well.

The bottom line: using the iPhone or Android version of the TwinSpires.com mobile horse racing betting platform is a cinch. If you are familiar at all with using the desktop version you will find the mobile version easy to pick up and immediately start placing wagers. All your relevant account information is available and all the betting tools a savvy horseplayer needs are right where you would expect them to be, so if you are on the go come Derby Day (or even if you are waiting in line for a refill on your mint julep) you can use the official legal Kentucky Derby app with no problem.

Legal Offshore Kentucky Derby Betting Apps

Even though betting on horses and races is widely legal in the United States, there is still a huge market for overseas operators looking to offer additional wagering options to horseplayers here in the US. While most states of the 50 do not prohibit and even protect betting on horse races, there are a few that ban the activity, and some of those states without legal Kentucky Derby betting even have racetracks and pari-mutuel ‘books of their own, merely disallowing internet wagers to be placed from within their borders. In that case, legal offshore Kentucky Derby betting apps are a crucial investiture on the part of the foreign-based sports betting operators – the most prominent of which are Bovada, BetOnline, and SportsBetting.

Sites like those are our favorite for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that they are 100 percent legal for US horseplayers to use while generally offering better odds and significantly higher betting limits than domestic options. Additionally, all of those aforementioned industry leading legal offshore betting sites make mobile horse racing wagering apps available for their users at no additional charge. These apps can’t be found on the Apple App Store (formerly known as the iTunes store) or the GooglePlay store (for Android users), and instead are available directly through their associated website’s mobile or desktop sites.

Using Offshore Racebook’s Legal Kentucky Derby Betting Apps

Whichever way you come by downloading your legal offshore Kentucky Derby betting app, you will find the apps to be, in essence, a mobile optimized version of the desktop site, so that means your user experience will be highlighted by simplicity and well thought out page layout. Every one of our most highly recommended offshore racebooks you decide on prioritize security, safety and speedy deposits and withdrawals, and that holds true with their mobile apps as well, so don’t hesitate to try one (or several) out when you get ready to place some wagers and pick some ponies before post time.

All the options you would normally find on the desktop versions of sites like Bovada, BetOnline, and SportsBetting are available via their mobile apps. You can quickly locate the racebook section of each online sports betting shop, usually by way of a menu on the side bar or a drop down menu at the top of the page. All the usual options for placing wagers on races like the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes or Breeders’ Cup Championship – among many other weekly races at horseracing tracks across the country and around the globe – are available as well with just the click of a touchscreen.

The top rated legal Kentucky Derby betting apps we recommend for our readers feature betting line types ranging from the usual Win, Place or Show odds, to Exotic wagers like Exacta, Trifecta, Superfecta or Quinella, as well as boxed or keyed bets are available. Typically, the actual odds you will find at overseas sites, as well as the minimum and maximum wager amounts will be better and higher, respectively, than the odds and limits found at domestic racebooks. This is supposed to be offset by the impression of broader legality on the part of racebook sites based in the US like TwinSpires.com (which, though a good resource for more casual players, is not as advantageous for a seasoned horse bettor).

However, contrary to what you may be inclined to think right out of the gate, so to say, all the offshore legal Kentucky Derby mobile betting apps that we think are the best bets in this hotly contested segment are just as legal to use as their desktop relatives. It all comes down to the way the individual federal and state laws regulating horse racing betting are written. The bottom line is this: our top rated mobile apps from offshore racebooks are pretty much the only way for residents in some states to legally place wagers on the Kentucky Derby and other premier horse racing event. Because the countries in which these betting sites are based are not beholden to any federal or state anti-gambling laws in the first place, you can bet with confidence knowing that your investment is covered by fully licensed and regulated foreign owned businesses rather than some shady bookie around the corner.

Top Sportsbooks for Legal Horse Betting