Keirin Betting

What keirin is and where you can bet on it

Keirin is a track cycling betting product run under Japan's public sports betting system, alongside horse racing, boat racing and auto racing. Riders sprint around a banked velodrome track over roughly 2,000 meters, and you bet on the finishing order. Races are held at 43 velodromes across Japan, and the race calendar differs from venue to venue, so on most days several meetings are running somewhere in the country¹.

You can buy tickets four ways: at the velodrome itself, at an off-course ticket sales office, by push-button telephone voting, or through internet voting as a registered member⁶. Off-course offices also run what is called inter-venue off-course sales, where they sell tickets for races being held at other velodromes, so you are not limited to whatever is happening at your local track⁶.

Before each race the riders do a warmup lap around the banks, where they decide who will ride in each line. This is an important information gathering opportunity for bettors, since the line positions chosen during the warmup shape how the race will play out⁷.

The biggest event of the year is the KEIRIN Grand Prix, a single-race event whose winner takes a JPY 100,000,000 prize⁹. Night races and Midnight Keirin, held at 33 velodromes, extend betting into the evening and late night¹⁰.

Anyone can buy tickets, with one exception: people working at the velodrome that day, such as those collecting entry fees, selling tickets or handling security, may not buy tickets for the meeting held at that venue¹¹. Buying from unauthorized sellers, including overseas internet operators, carries severe punishment under Japanese law, so stick to the official channels described on this page⁸.

The seven bet types and how odds work

Keirin has seven bet types, plus two multi-race tickets²:

The standard bet is the 2-rider exacta, where you predict the first and second place riders. For high payouts, the 3-rider trifecta asks you to nail the first three in order. For casual play, the 2-frame quinella is the easiest to hit, since it groups riders into frames and lets either order win¹². Note that some bet types are not sold for certain races, so check what is on offer before you plan your bets¹².

Odds show how much a winning ticket pays and are key information for deciding how much to buy¹³. They work as a simple multiplier on your ticket price. For example, if the 2-rider exacta odds for rider 1 first and rider 7 second are 4.5, a JPY 100 ticket pays 100 x 4.5 = JPY 450³. Longshots pay dramatically more: the same JPY 100 ticket at odds of 9418.5 for a 2-3 or 6-8 finish pays JPY 941,850¹⁴.

Odds and probability figures are usually shown for the standard 9-rider race format, so a race with a different field size will have different combinations available¹⁵.

How to place a bet at a velodrome or off-track betting site

Betting in person at a velodrome or off-track betting site follows the same steps everywhere⁵:

1. Pick up a mark card (the betting card) at the facility. Cards are placed at each venue for anyone to take¹⁶.
2. Fill in the card: mark the velodrome you want to bet on, the bet type, the race number, your prediction, and the purchase amount. Mark "前日" if you want previous-day betting. Use a pencil and draw thick lines over the marks¹⁷.
3. Insert the card and your purchase money into the ticket machine.
4. Take the printed betting ticket and wait for the race¹⁸.

You must fill in the mark card before you can purchase a betting ticket, so allow a few minutes for this, especially on a busy race day¹⁹. The card also has a cancel field you mark when canceling a bet¹⁷.

Betting windows open at 8:00 AM on race day and close 3 minutes before each race's scheduled start time. Previous-day sales run from 6:30 PM the evening before until 8:00 AM the next morning²⁰.

Payouts: collection period and locations

Winning tickets pay out within 60 days of the race day⁵. You collect at the velodrome where the race was held, at an off-course ticket sales office, or at a place designated by the race organizer²¹.

If you take a winning ticket to a different velodrome from the one that sold it, the payout is possible if that venue sells the ticket off-course, but it may take longer than usual, and some off-course venues cannot process it at all¹¹.

One detail worth knowing: fractions of less than JPY 10 in any payout are rounded down and not paid. The remainder goes to the organizer's revenue and is used for fan services such as free shuttle buses¹¹.

Refunds when a race is canceled

If a meeting is canceled by rain or another cause before the 5th race has run, and the meeting is postponed to the next day, ticket purchases for the unheld races are canceled and the purchase money is refunded²². For telephone and internet voting members, the refund goes back to your account automatically, since the association holds your tickets on your behalf.

Once a bet is placed it cannot be canceled under any circumstances, so check your selections carefully before confirming²³. Also note that accounts with no betting activity for one year or more are canceled in sequence under the telephone voting agreement, so if you plan to come back after a long break, you may need to register again²³.

How to register for the Net Bank Service

The KEIRIN Net Bank Service, abbreviated KNB, is the service that lets you bet on keirin races via the internet or telephone²⁴. Registration is done online, by smartphone or PC, and takes about 10 minutes if you already hold an account at a participating bank. Once it is complete, you can use both internet voting and telephone voting immediately⁴.

The registration flow has six screens, and the broad steps are the same whichever bank you use²⁵:

1. Terms of use. Read the terms, select "agree" and press "submit". If you select "do not agree", the application cannot proceed²⁶.
2. Account confirmation input. Enter the information needed to confirm your bank account. All fields on this screen are required, and fields marked with (*) are required throughout the process²⁷.
3. Bank authentication. You are moved to your bank's website account authentication screen, where you conclude an account transfer agreement (direct debit)²⁷.
4. Member registration input. Enter your member details; fields marked (*) are required⁶.
5. Member registration check. Your entered information is displayed. If it is correct, press the "apply" button; if not, press "back" to correct it²⁸.
6. Application complete. Log in from the KEIRIN.JP top page and start betting⁶.

The participating banks are PayPay Bank, Rakuten Bank, Docomo SMTB Net Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (with SMBC Direct), Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, and Japan Post Bank (Yucho)⁴. Each has its own account requirement, covered in the next section.

What if you don't have an account yet

You need an ordinary deposit account at a participating bank before you can join the Net Bank Service, since that account is where your betting funds are withdrawn from and your payouts are returned to²¹. The specific requirement varies slightly by bank:

• PayPay Bank: an ordinary deposit account, opened on the PayPay Bank website if you do not have one²⁹
• Rakuten Bank: an ordinary deposit account, opened on the Rakuten Bank website³⁰
• Docomo SMTB Net Bank: an ordinary deposit account, opened on the Docomo SMTB Net Bank website²⁷
• Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation: an ordinary deposit account with SMBC Direct registration⁶
• Mitsubishi UFJ Bank: an ordinary savings account with your cashcard already received²⁵

Most of the online banks let you open the account entirely on their website, which is the fastest route if you do not already bank with one of the six. Once the account is open, return to the Net Bank Service registration form and continue from the account confirmation step.

Deposits, transfers and withdrawal times

Internet betting works through a dedicated account: you deposit money for betting into the account, then buy tickets on the voting screen³¹. Deposits are accepted from 7:00 to 17:00, extended to 21:00 on night race days and 23:50 on midnight race days. On previous-day sales days, deposits run to 23:50 and again from 0:10 to 7:00 the next morning².

Transfers from your ordinary bank account to the betting account are free up to 2 times per day; from the 3rd transfer onward, each costs JPY 75³².

There are limits on how much you can bet. A single bet is capped at JPY 99,900, and you can place up to 3,000 bets per day. One application covers up to 25 bets of 999 tickets each, or up to 50 applications of 999 bets when voting by PC². Note that a "bet" here means a race number, bet type, combination and ticket count bundled together, and each deposit instruction, settlement instruction and transfer request also consumes one of your daily bets, not just voting³³.

Ticket face amounts must be multiples of JPY 100²¹.

For getting money out, unused amounts, payouts and refunds can be settled back to your ordinary bank account at any time during settlement hours, without waiting for all races to end. In addition, a monthly lump-sum settlement is made in principle once a month, after telephone voting closes, for all users who still have a balance³². Winnings from internet betting are transferred to your registered bank account³¹.

Online betting screens and Dokanto!

On KEIRIN.JP you can select races 1R through 12R for normal betting. Finished races cannot be selected, and races cannot be selected when the betting method is Kimeuchi or Dokanto!³³. The closing time for betting and the scheduled start time are shown on the race screen, and any changes are displayed in red, so keep an eye on that if a race is delayed³³.

Dokanto!7 and Dokanto!4two are the two multi-race tickets sold alongside the seven single-race bet types². These ask you to pick winners across several races in one ticket, which makes them harder to hit but capable of large payouts. They are bought through the same voting screens as the regular bet types.

Midnight Keirin, held at 33 velodromes, requires free membership registration through the internet before you can buy tickets¹⁰. Night races and Midnight Keirin tickets can also be purchased through telephone and internet voting²².

Netkeirin points: price and how they work

KEIRIN Official Points are awarded according to your betting amount as an internet voting member. Refunds and bets placed through private sites are not included in the calculation¹¹. Points expire 60 days from the day after your most recent betting date, so any activity resets the clock²³.

Points cannot be used for betting. What you can do with saved points is enter draws and exchange them for prizes and benefits. Points are consumed even if you do not win the draw, so treat them as a small side benefit of betting rather than a bankroll²³.

For more on Japan's other public betting products, see our pages on horse racing in Japan, boat racing and auto race, or the wider guide to gambling in Japan.