ITV Pick 7 Explained

Currently, ITV is the biggest broadcaster of horse racing around the United Kingdom. As well as showing live races and many important fixtures, the popular TV channel also runs the Pick 7 competition. But what does the competition entail? What are the rules? How do you get started? We’re going to cover all this information in this guide!

itv prizes

What’s ITV Pick 7?

Also referred to as ITV7, this competition is run in conjunction with SkyBet and Sky Games. The idea is that you choose seven winners of horse races – if you get all seven selections right, you could stand to win as much as £250,000. With this in mind, some football fans will recognise this as similar to the Super 6, a competition where fans choose six scores and aim for perfection.

Normally, the ITV Pick 7 competition runs throughout Saturday afternoon. Yet, you might find special iterations of the competition during popular events on the horse racing calendar. While some races are jumps, others are flats. Either way, the aim remains the same – to choose seven correct horse race winners. Depending on the round, the prize fund can vary between £1,000 and £250,000.

Upcoming Pick 7 Prize Funds

How Does ITV Pick 7 Work?

First things first, this isn’t a paid competition (hooray!). So long as you have a SkyBet or Sky Games account, you can take part at no cost. The seven races are normally chosen in advance, so all participants in a given week’s competition will select horses from the same seven races. If multiple people choose the seven winners correctly, the pot is normally split between these winners.

What happens if nobody wins? This has happened plenty of times, and the person who got the closest is given a small reward. For example, this consolation prize is £100 for non-broadcast competitions and £1,000 for broadcast competitions.

It’s as simple as that – choose seven winners from seven races and you could win £250,000. If you’ve ever tried a seven-fold accumulator picking only race winners, you’ll know that ‘simple’ is not the word used to describe this task. Yet, you don’t need to pay to enter and it’s a great way to make horse racing events more exciting either for yourself alone or with friends.

ITV Pick 7 vs Seven-Fold Accumulator

Since we mentioned seven-fold accumulators in the previous section, you might wonder why you shouldn’t just do this instead. Firstly, the benefit of the ITV Pick 7 competition is that you don’t need to spend anything. Therefore, it’s a competition where you can play with your friends without requiring anybody to place any money.

Secondly, you could still win money even without all seven selections coming in (this doesn’t happen with seven-fold accumulators). If nobody picks all the winners correctly, you could win up to £1,000 for getting closer than anybody else.

Thirdly, you don’t need to spend hours researching and worrying about odds and prices. With no stake on the line and prizes fixed, value for money just isn’t important. Instead, you go back to basics and only worry about which horse will win each race. If you choose the correct horses, you’ll win the prize (this is split if others have also made the same seven predictions). In terms of the consolation prize, this isn’t split across multiple people. Instead, the person who submitted the closest guesses the earliest will win the amount – it pays to make your predictions early.

Why choose ITV Pick 7 over a seven-fold accumulator?

  • It’s free
  • You can win money even with an incorrect selection
  • Prices and odds are irrelevant because the prize is fixed

ITV Pick 7 Rules

Before getting involved in ITV Pick 7, it’s important to understand the rules. We’ve laid out some of the critical terms and conditions below:

  • Those who include a non-runner in their Pick 7 will have their selection changed to the starting price favourite.
  • The jackpot prize is awarded only to the person or people who have selected all seven winners.
  • A consolation prize is available to the most accurate Pick 7 (the one submitted earliest) if nobody wins.
  • All horses are considered winners in the event of a dead heat.
  • The jackpot is amended when a race from the Pick 7 is abandoned (this prevents ITV and Sky from having to cancel the Pick 7 entirely).

Getting Started with the ITV Pick 7 Competition

How to get started with Pick 7

If you feel compelled to get involved with the ITV Pick 7 competition, you’re not alone. This is a fun competition that allows you to build accumulators that you otherwise wouldn’t want to risk money on while also competing against friends. You could even have a competition between friends to see who can get the most selections correct each week. It’s free, simple, and only takes a few seconds.

Here is the process you need to follow to get started:

  • Firstly, you’ll need an account with SkyBet or Sky Games. Without an account, you will now be able to take part in the competition because these are ITV’s chosen partners. If you create an account, you’ll need to pass through the various verification steps before getting started.
  • Next, enter the most recent ITV Pick 7 competition and choose your horses. Whether you choose at random or perform a little research is entirely up to you. After all, you don’t lose anything if your selections are wrong.
  • After choosing your seven horses, it’s a waiting game to see if your selections were successful. While some will people get the first race wrong, others will get progressively more excited as the day goes on and their selections keep coming in. Remember, getting one wrong doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t win anything.

As mentioned earlier, you’ll typically find that the prize fund varies between £1,000 and £250,000. Pay attention to the different rounds, their prize funds, and when you need to submit your selections. Depending on how you like to play, you might only play in the games with the highest prize funds, or you might play in all the different competitions.

Alternatives to ITV Pick 7

When searching the market, you’ll find that ITV Pick 7 isn’t the only competition of this type. In fact, there are four alternatives that you might consider:

Beat the Drop (Paddy Power)

Padddy Power’s Beat the Drop

Firstly, all you need to do to win £250,000 in this competition is answer 20 questions correctly. With an account on Paddy Power, you can enter this competition once per day and potentially win £250,000. What makes this game fun is that you start with £250,000; your pot then decreases as you answer the questions. You then keep any money left in the pot when the final question is answered. If you’ve ever seen the Million Pound Drop on TV, you’ll recognise this format – you’ll split your money between different answers to retain as much cash as possible.

Don’t worry, Paddy Power doesn’t expect you to have advanced general knowledge. Instead, your first question might be who will win in a football game or whether a certain horse will place during an event. Over time, you’ll go through the different questions and aim to keep as much cash as possible.

Beat the Drop (Betfair)

Betfair’s Beat the Drop works in the same way, but the rules are slightly different. This time, you get £1,000,000 to start and then must work your way through 20 questions. As you allocate your budget across the different outcomes in a bet, you aim to keep as much as possible. Whatever you have left at the end enters your account. While some people split their funds between outcomes, others risk everything on one side.

Up For 8 (888sport)

888’s Up for 8

If you want to predict the outcome of eight football games for a chance to win up to £8,000, 888sport is your chosen platform. Each week, 888sport selects eight games and you need to decide whether one side will win or whether it will end in a draw. If Arsenal play Newcastle, you will decide between win, draw, and win. Not only do you get £8,000 for getting all eight predictions correct, but you also get a £1 free bet for each correct selection.

Super 6 (Sky Sports)

Sky’s Super 6

Since the success of the traditional Super 6, Sky Sports has since launched Super 6 Extra, and they’re both worth your attention. However, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Super 6 is a football competition like ITV Pick 7 whereby players try to guess the correct score on six fixtures chosen by the Sky team. If you get all six scores correct, you could win the jackpot of £250,000. If multiple people win, this jackpot is shared between the winners.

As with the other games we’ve seen, you can play along for free. The great thing about Super 6 is that you only need a Sky account to play along – the same account that you need for ITV Pick 7. Therefore, you can play both games without spending a single penny.

Over the years, Super 6 has attracted thousands of players around the country. So popular is the challenge that Sky has complemented it with an additional competition – Super 6 Extra. Here, you’ll need to answer six questions from a single match. If you get all six predictions right, you can win up to £5,000. The prize might not be as good as the original Super 6, but it’s another way to match a fixture more exciting.

Biggest Horse Racing Events and ITV Pick 7

So, you’ve learned all about the theory, but how does the ITV Pick 7 work in practice. Although the competition runs throughout the horse racing calendar, it really comes to life during the major events. For instance, this includes the following:

Grand National

As perhaps the most popular and well-known horse race in the county (and maybe even the world), the Grand National takes place just once per year. The event is so big that even people who don’t bet at any other time of year get involved with the Grand National. Typically, the Grand National is the final leg of the ITV Pick 7 – imagine going into the Grand National with only one leg to go to win up to £250,000.

Of course, those who win the ITV Pick 7 during the Grand National will need to predict the winner of the big event. A win during this event is an elite achievement considering that it’s the most-watched ITV horse racing event of the year.

Cheltenham Festival

During Cheltenham, it just so happens that each of the four days hosts seven races. Normally, this means that there is a competition each day. From Tuesday to Friday of this special week, you can take part in an ITV Pick 7 every single day. If you want to watch along, the third to sixth races of each day are typically shown on the ITV channel (the others are normally available elsewhere on the family of channels!).

The Derby

Arguably the largest flat race on the planet, this Epsom event is another that captures the imagination of bettors and fans. When The Derby is held, it’s an important part of the ITV Pick 7.

Royal Ascot

If you like Cheltenham but want flat racing, the event you’re looking for is Royal Ascot. Running across five days, you’ll find six races each day. Don’t worry, you’ll still get to enjoy an ITV Pick 7 every day because they simply add a race from another meeting to make it work. Ultimately, this means that there is a jackpot and consolation prize to be awarded every day for the week.

Summary

If you want a fun game with friends and a chance to win a huge jackpot without the normal betting risk, we highly recommend the exciting ITV Pick 7 game. Why not start playing today? Depending on the event, you could win up to £250,000!

 

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About the author

Carl Hughes

Editor

Carl Hughes

Editor

Carl Hughes is a leading expert on sports and casino betting. Carl began his career with a BSc in Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences from the University of Birmingham before working within the industry for some of the bigger names (GVC and Bet365) and has been praised as being "a leading sports betting commentator".