What is a 'rails' bookie?

Bookies generally fall into one of two categories. There are the larger 'corporate' bookies, and the smaller 'rails' bookies.

Rails bookies are the ones that have historically taken bets in person at the racetrack (by the rail). Over the last couple of years many of them have moved online, especially during the covid lockdowns.

Rail bookies are usually easy to spot because their websites all look pretty similar. This is because they pay for white-label software that they then just add their own colours and logos to.

Examples of rails bookies are: BetDeluxe, TexBet, RobWaterhouse, CrossBet, and SouthernCrossBet.

The trend of rails bookies moving online has been great for us as matched bettors. However, it is not all good news.

Rails bookies do not have anywhere near as many customers as the big corporate bookies do. In fact, with some of them you might even get a call from the owner when you open an account. This means that they can pay more individual attention to each account, and can be quicker to gub as a result.

The low number of customers also means that they can run into financial difficulty more easily than larger bookies. When this happens it is common for them to make it difficult for people to withdraw by imposing additional ID requirements, or by locking accounts completely. For this reason, it is best not to let large amounts accumulate in rail bookie accounts.