One of the fastest growing industries over recent years, especially since the dawn on the internet age, has been online gambling. The Brits and the Irish in particular absolutely love to bet and gamble online, we do so on sports betting sites, sports betting apps, and some exciting online casinos, if you like to gamble but haven’t yet indulged in online casino games, click here to give it a try. Looking at sports betting in particular, we have recently learned that horse racing in Ireland is now a £2 billion industry, and today we are going to look into why it is so popular, and why the Irish punters love nothing more than placing bets on the horses.

The Early Days

To get an idea as to why horse racing is popular, we first need to look back at its beginnings, and racing in Ireland goes back a very long way. The earliest recording of racing in Ireland has been as far back as 110 BC, where there are mentions of chariot races and horse racing without chariots. The earliest evidence of modern racing as we know it, is 1603, when a royal warrant was issued to give the mayor of Derry permission to host a horse race.

Rural

Another important point to consider is that Ireland has always been rich, rural land, in generally speaking much of that rural lifestyle still exists. The result of the is greater knowledge about horses, and a general love for the horse racing world. There are 26 race courses in Ireland, which is particularly impressive given the relative small size of the country. These race courses are all highly active and well attended too, with over 100,000 people turning out for races in the past year. Thanks to the level of rural land which there is, there is plenty of space to breed racehorses, and to of course, to create race tracks.

Thoroughbred

Horse racing and breeding is an institution in Ireland and it helps to make a strong part of its culture, and its economy too. Thoroughbred breeding in particular is big business, with these horses making up 35% of the equine population. Owing to the money involved in breeding these horses, the economy is greatly boosted, as these horses generate around 229 million Euros per year. Experts suggest that the reason why so many thoroughbred horses come from this part of the world is thanks to the climate and the geography of the nation, coupled with the fact that there is such a high level of expertise within Ireland, thanks to the generations who have been doing this for a number of years.

Horse racing Ireland is not just popular amongst the domestic fans, it is also incredibly popular for many people living in the UK and further afield, evidence of which we can see thanks to the betting patterns on the Irish horse racing markets. If you think horse racing, it immediately conjures up images of great Irish thoroughbreds and generations of expert trainers, and that trend looks set to continue in the future.