# Early Prices Explained — Morning Odds in Racing 2026 _Early Prices are the morning board odds a bookmaker publishes before the off. What they are, which 12 of 13 books we rate offer them, and when they help._ *Source: [https://stablebet.co.uk/bookmakers/early-prices-explained/](https://stablebet.co.uk/bookmakers/early-prices-explained/) · last updated 2026-07-08* ## What Early Prices Are Early Prices are the fixed board odds a bookmaker publishes for a race in the morning — often from around 8am — before the Starting Price forms, so you can bet the day's racing at a known number instead of waiting for the off. Here is the plain version. You fancy a horse in the 3:15 and, by half past eight, the bookmaker has put up 6/1 against its name. You can take that 6/1 there and then, hours ahead of the race, rather than leaving your stake on the SP and only finding out what you got as the tapes go up. That is all an early price is: the market, open for business early, with a price you can act on now. Why it matters is straightforward. Betting to a known price means you are choosing your odds rather than accepting whatever the on-course ring settles on at the off. It also lets you get into a market early, before the day's money has moved things around, which is when a lot of punters who have done their form prefer to strike. And it pairs neatly with Best Odds Guaranteed: the early price is the number BOG upgrades from if the horse then drifts. One thing to be clear about: Early Prices are not a promotion. They are not a bonus, a free bet or a sign-up sweetener. Nobody is handing you anything. The bookmaker is simply quoting a price early and you either take it or you leave it. That honesty matters, because plenty of "features" are really marketing — this one is just the market being open. It does not shift the odds in your favour or beat the book: the bookmaker's margin sits inside a morning price exactly as it sits inside the SP. In our racing-product score, Early Prices carry a modest but real weighting, because morning markets are where much of the day's serious punting is done. For exactly how we weight it against everything else, see [how we rank](/bookmakers/how-we-rank/). ## How Early Prices Work ### The worked example **Scenario:** you like a horse and want £20 to win. At 8:30am the bookmaker's early price is 6/1. You take it. The race goes off at 3:15pm. **Outcome A — the horse shortens.** By the off it is 4/1 SP. Your bet settles at the 6/1 you took: £20 × 6 = £120 profit, plus your £20 stake back — **£140 returned**. Had you left it on SP you would have got 4/1: £80 profit, **£100 returned**. Taking the early price was the right call by £40. **Outcome B — the price holds.** SP comes in at 6/1, the same number you took. No difference either way — **£140 returned**. **Outcome C — the horse drifts.** By the off it is 8/1 SP. You took 6/1, so you settle at 6/1: **£140 returned**. On SP you would have had 8/1: £160 profit, **£180 returned**. Here the early price cost you £40 — unless your bookmaker also runs Best Odds Guaranteed, in which case the bet is upgraded to the 8/1 SP anyway. That is precisely why the two features pair up: BOG removes the one scenario where taking an early price can leave you short. So an early price is not a free win. It is a known number you lock in now — one that beats a shortening SP and loses to a drifting one, with BOG covering the drift. Over a run of bets it neither adds nor removes value on its own; it simply fixes the terms in advance. ### The conditions that always apply - **Win and each-way board prices, race by race.** Early Prices are the morning fixed odds on the day's cards, published meeting by meeting as the bookmaker works through them. - **Timing varies.** Many books price the biggest UK meetings first, from around 8am; smaller cards, and some Irish or evening fixtures, may not go up until later in the morning. "Early" is not equally early everywhere. - **They are live board prices, not a promise.** A quoted early price can be shortened, pushed out or suspended at any moment. The number you see is what is on offer then — not a rate held open all day. - **They replace ante-post once runners are confirmed.** Early prices are for declared runners on the day. They are a different thing from the speculative ante-post market, which prices horses days or weeks out, before final declarations. - **They are not SP.** If you want the Starting Price you leave the bet on SP; if you want a known price now, you take the early one. You are choosing between them. - **No opt-in, no bonus.** You take an early price simply by clicking it. There is nothing to claim and no promotion attached. ## Which Bookmakers Offer Early Prices ### Early Prices across the bookmakers we rate Of the 13 bookmakers we rate for racing, **12 publish Early Prices and 1 does not**. **They offer Early Prices:** Betfred, bet365, William Hill, Paddy Power, Ladbrokes, Coral, Star Sports, QuinnBet, 10bet, BetGoodwin, LiveScore Bet and Spreadex. **They do not:** HighBet. That split tells you something on its own: a morning board is close to standard kit for a UK-facing racing book. All the established high-street and online names publish it, and so do the specialist and challenger operators we rate — Star Sports, QuinnBet, 10bet, BetGoodwin and LiveScore Bet all put up early prices. If a book takes racing seriously, an early price tends to be the baseline rather than a bonus. It is worth saying plainly, though, that publishing an early price says nothing about whether that price is generous — it only means you can bet to a fixed number in the morning. ### What the absence tells you The one exception is worth a word, because it is not a scandal. **HighBet** is a leaner, newer racing operation. A smaller book carries the cost of pricing every card early differently from a bet365 or a Betfred with rooms full of traders, so a full morning board is one of the things that tends to arrive as an operation matures. It is a gap, but an understandable one for its size. The lesson: not publishing early prices does not make a book bad — it tells you where that book puts its effort. If morning betting is central to how you play, it is a real mark against them; if it is not, it may not matter to you at all. A note on **[Spreadex](/bookmakers/spreadex-review/)**, which used to sit in this section: despite being a spread-betting firm first, it now prices full fixed-odds cards the day before — when we checked on 17 July 2026 it had every runner priced overnight at Curragh, Market Rasen and Cartmel alike, at prices that generally sat in the top quarter of a 26-book comparison grid. Early prices without Best Odds Guaranteed is still a weaker combination than the BOG books offer, but the morning board itself is genuinely there. In our racing-product score, Early Prices carry a modest weighting — enough to separate two otherwise level books, not enough to sink a strong one. To see every operator side by side, browse all [bookmaker reviews](/bookmakers/), and for the full scoring method see [how we rank](/bookmakers/how-we-rank/). ## Are Early Prices Worth It? ### What you actually get Early Prices give you two honest things. The first is a known price to bet to: you decide your odds rather than gambling on wherever the on-course ring lands the SP. The second is access to the market early, before the day's money has pushed prices around. Neither of those is an edge in itself — they are conveniences, not a way to get ahead of the book. Be straight about the limit. Being early is not the same as being right. A morning price can be too short just as easily as too generous, and getting in first only helps if your judgement of the horse is sound. Early Prices hand you the chance to act on good form study; they do not supply the good form study, and they do not tilt the maths in your favour. The bookmaker's margin is baked into that morning number just as it is into the SP, so nothing here beats the book or turns a losing bet into a winning one. ### The catches to keep in mind - Morning prices are often shorter and more heavily margined than the late show, when competition between books tightens them up. - Timing is uneven: a book may price the feature meetings early and leave the rest until later, so "early prices" can mean mid-morning for the card you actually want. - Board prices move fast — the number you saw at 8am may be gone by 8:05. - On its own, an early price gives you no protection if the horse drifts; you settle at what you took. That is the job Best Odds Guaranteed does, which is why the two belong together. ### The honest bottom line Early Prices matter most to punters who do their form early, back overnight or in the morning, and want a known number rather than an SP lottery. They are close to irrelevant if you only bet at SP or in-running near the off — the morning board is just noise to you. And a book that does not publish them is not disqualified: it costs only a modest mark, not a verdict. Plenty of strong books earn their score elsewhere, and none of this changes the fact that the house edge is still in the price. ## Early Prices FAQ ### What time do Early Prices go up? Often from around 8am for the day's biggest UK meetings, with smaller cards and some Irish or evening fixtures priced later in the morning. It varies from book to book, so an "early" price on your chosen race may not appear as early as the headline meetings. ### Are Early Prices the same as ante-post? No. Ante-post betting is done days or weeks out, before final declarations, on horses that may not even run. Early Prices are the morning board for confirmed runners on the day of the race. ### Are Early Prices better than the Starting Price? Not automatically. Sometimes a morning price is bigger than the eventual SP, sometimes it is shorter. You are choosing a known number now over an unknown one at the off — there is no guarantee either way, and neither route removes the bookmaker's margin. ### Do I need to opt in to get Early Prices? No. They are not a promotion or a bonus. You take an early price simply by placing your bet at the price shown; there is nothing to claim. ### Do Early Prices and Best Odds Guaranteed work together? Yes, and that is rather the point. Where a bookmaker offers both, BOG upgrades the early price you took to the SP if the SP is bigger — so you get the known number now without losing out if the horse drifts. ### Do all bookmakers publish Early Prices? No. Of the 13 we rate, 12 do and one does not (HighBet). Always check the individual book if morning pricing matters to you.