5 Profitable Betting Strategies for the 2023 Kentucky Derby

One of the things that bettors do as the 2023 Kentucky Derby approaches is strategizing a profitable betting strategy. Strategizing is crucial to make significant profits from any other horse racing event.

Because of that, tips on strategizing your bets are highly sought by bettors looking to increase their chances of profiting. 

In this article, we have decided to compile five of the profitable betting strategies that successful bettors use in their Kentucky Derby betting journey.

Bet on The Favorite

If you’re a bettor betting for a horse racing event, it’s common sense to put your money on the favorite. Favorites are horses with significant potential to win over their rivals. Betting on the favorite, especially if it has relatively low odds, can give you an amazing return. 

One proof of this strategy is the 2022 Kentucky Derby, where the favorite Epicenter finished the race second but still provided his bettors’ significant return. You need to remember that there are many ways to place your bet. So, no matter whether the favorite horse will finish first or not, you can still profit, depending on the type of wager you choose. 

Among the 2023 FanDuel contenders, Forte is the favorite to win. He currently has 3-1 odds. If you want to increase your chance of winning and profiting significantly, you might want to put your money on him this upcoming Kentucky Derby. 

This strategy will only yield good results if the favorite has a high chance of winning with odds that are not too low, between 2-1 and 5-1. Given that Forte has a 3-1 odds, he is an excellent candidate to use for this strategy. 

Find Value Bets

Aside from the favorite, other possible derby contenders can provide you with better profit. You can use the value bet strategy to determine the horse that provides the best value. Value bets have a greater likelihood of a given result than the odds imply. 

If you want to use this strategy for the 2023 Kentucky Derby, you must learn to identify horses that bookies have underrated. This underrated contender is also referred to as the long shot. If you think the long shot has a hidden advantage that could surpass the favorite and bet on them, you get a much better value.

You need to have a skill in identifying a long-shot horse for this strategy. However, if you’re inexperienced or aren’t confident with your skills, you might want to stick to the first strategy, where you will rely on the favorite to win. We also have more strategies below that could work out for you, so you better keep reading. 

Betting on Multiple Horses

If you’re looking for assurance and think that betting on the favorite or the long shot alone won’t be enough to give you profit, then you might want to try this next strategy. This strategy is where you bet on multiple horses at the Kentucky Derby rather than one. It’s popularly known in the horse betting industry as the “Dutch Betting System.”

Using Dutch betting, you can still profit if one of your chosen contenders wins the race, even though the other horses you bet on don’t win. The trick here is to spread your wager across the contenders and select the runners with the highest chances of winning. 

This strategy will only be effective if you know how to identify horses with a good chance of winning. To do this, you can gather vital information about the derby contenders by researching. This way, you can make an informed decision. As a result, you’ll be able to increase your chance of choosing the right horses that will bring you profit. 

The 80/20 Strategy

Another suggestion for a strategy that you can use for this year’s Kentucky Derby that will provide you with a significant return is the 80/20 system. This strategy requires you to wager 80% on the place and 20% on the win. 

That said, you will notice that this strategy leans more toward the place than the win, as it is where you’ll make a significant difference. For example, if you are betting $10 for the Kentucky Derby, $8 should go for the place, and $2 must be placed for the win. 

Wager on Exotic Bets

The last strategy you should consider in the 2023 Kentucky Derby is exotic bets. Sure, exotic bets are a more complicated type of derby wager, but they can offer a promising return on investment. 

Exotic bets involve foreseeing various results, like the winners of multiple events and the exact order of finish. For example, if you choose trifecta, you can choose three horses that will finish the race first in exact order. 

It’s tricky, right? That’s the only downside of this strategy. But when you get to predict the right horses and their exact order of finish, you’ll be rewarded significantly. 

Final Thoughts

There are so many strategies that you can choose from this coming May 6. Study each strategy above and identify which one will suit you best. 

Most strategies we have shared above are pretty straightforward to understand. You won’t have to worry even if you are a newbie bettor. Of course, the info could help seasoned ones, too.