Tote betting is a unique type of betting that’s special to horse racing. Instead of playing against the bookie, your stake is dropped into a communal pot, and you compete against fellow bettors to see who wins. You’ll win dividends depending on how much you staked and how many people bet on the winning wager. At its core, the tote isn’t hard to understand, but it can be overwhelming for new punters, so let’s take a closer look at what tote betting is and how you can get involved.
The Tote itself was established almost a century ago, in 1928 by Winston Churchill, and was controlled by the government up until 2011. While it’s now privately run by Betfred, it still offers a look into the history of horse race betting as a whole and remains popular among British punters.
At its core, tote betting is a form of lottery bet. You bet on an outcome and win from a shared pot of the collected stakes. How much you win doesn’t depend on odds but rather on how much you choose to stake and how many winners there are to share the prize with. So risky bets are likely to pay out much higher as fewer people will have bet on it. In this way, even very small bets can turn out to pay hand over foot if you happen to win an unlikely wager.
Tote betting couldn’t be more simple; in many ways, it’s far easier than fixed-odds betting. There are plenty of types of tote bets to place on races, and we’ll go over each type later, but for now, let’s look at the basic way that tote betting works.
First, you want to know which race you want to bet on and find it on the Tote sportsbook — some other sites allow you to make tote bets, but they all come back to this single pool. You can search by race time and then figure out what market you’re betting on.
Now, just pick the bet you want to place and add it to your bet slip. Each bet will have dividends listed above it, and you’ll see an approximated return on your slip once you’ve entered how much you want to wager. This number is based on how many people have made bets and how much is currently in the pool — just remember that this is never guaranteed and can change rapidly up until a race starts.
Tote then continues to collect wagers to the pot until the race happens. Once the result has been reached, the pool will be split across the event depending on what kind of wager is being paid out. Tote then takes managerial deductions (this percentage changes between markets), and the final pool is split between the winners.
From this final amount, you will receive winnings proportional to both how much you wagered and how many people won — so if you wagered £20 while someone else wagered £2, you would receive more of the pool.
From what we explained, it may sound like there’s only one way to place a tote bet, but there are actually many different types of tote bets you can place, each with their own risks and benefits. Let’s take a closer look at the most popular types of bets to place on the tote:
Win and Place bets are the simplest kinds of bets you can place on the tote. A plain Win bet is where you bet on which racer you think will take first place, and if you’re right, you win. The place bet is similar but gives more leeway, where you win if your racer places, not just takes first. Whether a Place bet is available for a race and how many places will count depends on how many racers are competing:
4 or fewer — Win outright
5 to 7 — 1st or 2nd
8 to 15 — 1st, 2nd or 3rd
16+ handicap — top 4
Many people will make a Place and a Win bet at the same time for an each-way bet, and it’s so popular that the tote sportsbook has a shortcut for it when you make a Win bet.
If you’re feeling extra confident in your predictions, you could instead opt for an Exacta bet. In this wager, you pick out the racers you think will take first and second. And if you want to cover your bases, you can instead choose a reverse Exacta, which is the same bet placed twice, but one is the reverse of the other.
Since this outcome is much less likely than a regular Place bet, you could win far better dividends with an Exacta. You don’t have to limit yourself to just a reverse either; you can also add more exacta variations to cover all of your bases. Just remember that this is essentially stacking bets up on top of one another to better guarantee yourself a payout — so the stake will go up the more eventualities you account for.
If an Exacta bet just doesn’t feel like enough, you can instead go for a trifecta bet! This is almost identical to an Exacta bet, except that you bet on which racers will come in first, second and third for even bigger potential winnings. And, just like with an Exacta bet, you can make separate bets for all of the permutations of your top three to cover your bases. Another common trifecta is the ‘banker’ trifecta, where you have a racer you bank on being first, with your other two options covered by two bets.
The jackpot and placepot totes are probably what the tote is most famous for, thanks to its chances to win huge prizes on very small wagers. They’re very similar to each other but have a couple of key differences.
Each day, a raceday is selected for the jackpot, and to win it, you just have to predict the first six winning racers. You’re allowed to add as many potential winners to your betting card as you want, but each one will add more to your stake. On the bright side, with the jackpot’s penny bets, you can make many tiny wagers to increase your odds at a portion of that jackpot, which is always a minimum of £10,000.
The Placepot works the same way but is more lenient and is available across all official UK and Ireland races. Just select six racers to place (not just win) on your chosen betting day, and if you get all six, you’ll win a portion of the pot. Placepots, like jackpots, can also have additional selections for every race, and you can wager pennies too, so you can inflate your chances of winning without inflating the price.
Tote betting obviously offers a unique betting experience, and it has various unique advantages, too. The main one is obviously the pool betting element — by betting through a variable payout, you can luck into huge windfalls for comparatively small wagers depending on how many people have bet and how much money there is to go around. This is true across a wide range of different bet types, whether you opt for the classic tote Exactas or more traditional multiple bets.
Tote betting is also particularly ideal for larger racing events such as Cheltenham or the Grand National. With the jackpot and placepot bets, you routinely bet across many races and keep the entire raceday lively. And these bets have some of the best logistics on win-to-stake ratios. Even better about the placepot is that your picks don’t even have to win; they can merely place.
More fundamental advantages come down to the nature of betting against other players rather than the sportsbook. Tote betting works more like a lottery than traditional betting, so you can get a greater sense of community and shared stakes, knowing that any winnings you make or losses you sustain come from and go to other people, not just a faceless sportsbook. There’s also a greater sense of transparency at the Tote since the sportsbook takes a flat rate instead of directly profiting from losses.
There are many very obvious differences between tote betting and the traditional fixed-odds betting that we’re used to. Pool betting leads to inherently variable outcomes, although the tote guarantee means you’ll never receive less than the starting price when you win. Meanwhile, fixed-odds betting, as you might guess from the name, will return the same result every time, regardless of how many people and how much is wagered on a specific market.
Another obvious difference is that tote betting is restricted to horse races. While the Tote sportsbook website (the official home of the Tote) does feature betting on other sports, this isn’t tote betting but the more traditional fixed odds offerings. So, while pool betting is available elsewhere, the tote itself is limited to horse racing, and unless you have an interest in the races, you won’t find anything to catch your eye.
However, if you are interested in horse racing betting, tote betting is quite regularly a better option, especially if you enjoy those large multi-bets or are hoping to make very small wagers. The placepot and jackpot bets at the tote are particularly good if you want to make large bets with excellent payout potential. Even better, these huge windfalls are possible with very small stakes!
If you’re looking at high rewards from low stakes in traditional betting, it’s because your odds are very long, and since tote bets are actually much more likely to pay out, they’re better for smaller budgets in the long run. But tote betting doesn’t have exact payouts, and dividends can change drastically right up until a race starts. So, if you value better control and exact numbers in your betting, you might choose to stick with traditional sportsbooks.
Like any kind of betting, there are a few things you can do to improve your odds when making tote bets. Here are a few of our top recommendations for how to make smarter tote bets:
As with any bet you make, having a basic understanding of what you’re betting on will help you to make more informed decisions. When it comes to the tote and horse racing, things to look at include the history of a racer’s trainer, the horse’s pedigree and the reputation and experience of the jockey. Other details it’s worth taking into account are things like the racer’s recent performance or the going on the raceday itself. All of this will help you judge which racers have a chance at placing.
Additionally, you should thoroughly understand the kind of bet you’re placing. You can find detailed descriptions above, and the tote offers long explanations on its website, too. This allows you to better control your odds, combining your knowledge with betting probability.
The tote can offer you a lot of information about the pool you’re betting into before you place your wager. Since your profit relies entirely on the size and popularity of a pool, it’s always a good idea to look at the pool before committing. Unpopular bets in very popular pools will consistently deliver higher profits for smaller wagers (assuming you win the bet, of course). Meanwhile, safe bets on smaller pools will have much smaller payouts on average, as there’s less money spread among many people.
Since tote betting can be done at such small stakes, it can be worth looking for potentially lucrative pools, even if they’re unlikely. For such a small risk, you can be staring down huge winnings.
One of the greatest strengths of tote betting is the potential for high payouts on tiny wagers, so you should make sure that you take advantage of it! Even if you’re putting money on some very unlikely outcomes, when you’re only risking 50p for it, it’s hard to argue against taking the chance, especially when such a small bet can return hundreds of pounds when they do payout!
As such, we recommend that you put your fingers into many different pots and mix some of these low-risk, high-reward bets in with your more realistic betting.
This is important no matter what kind of betting you’re engaging with, but you should always ensure you have complete control over your budget and spending. Nothing will ruin your raceday faster than losing more than you can afford to. The simplest way is just to set a budget and stick to it, but at the tote and many other sportsbooks, you can set specific deposit, wagering and loss limits if you need some help keeping your spending in check.
Tote betting is available across all UK and Ireland horse racing, but it’s notable that some events are better for tote betting than others — namely popular events that have at least six races a day. And while less of an issue for us here in the UK, it should be noted that international races won’t benefit from the tote in the same way.
Here are some of our favourite racing festivals for the tote:
Cheltenham Festival — You can’t say ‘racing festival’ without thinking of Cheltenham. This event is regarded as one of the most important racing festivals in the world, and every year, we see four straight days of high-stakes races. Each day has seven races, perfect for those exciting placepots, and you’ll always find plenty of research and tips in the lead-up.
The Grand National — When you think of racing, it’s hard not to consider the Grand National. This race is so popular that it routinely draws in fans from everywhere, even ones who don’t normally bother with the sport. The surrounding festival is also fit to bursting with prestigious and exciting events. You’ll find placepots every day, and those large multiples have plenty of betting fodder.
Royal Ascot — If you’re after something a little more refined, you can’t get more refined than the Royal Ascot. The air at the Ascot racecourse may be high-class, but anyone can get involved with the excellent flat races we see here every year. There are enough races each day for those exciting placepots, and all the best horses gather, with plenty of info and tips spread around to help inform your bets.
While these are some of our favourite racing events to bet on, it should be noted that any raceday that gets a significant amount of attention (like our three picks) is good for tote betting because it’s popular. The more people who are betting into a pot, the larger the prize pool! Tote betting is reliant on the popularity of an event to pay out well, so we recommend paying attention to those huge events under the public spotlight.
Tote betting is one of the more cost-effective ways to engage in gambling, but that doesn’t mean it should be exempt from responsible gambling practices. It’s vital that you learn to manage your betting habits and take full advantage of any tools presented to help keep them in line — responsible gambling tools aren’t just for people who struggle with addictions but are for everyone!
Here are some easy, actionable things you can do today to help keep your habits in line:
Set a limit — all sportsbooks have some kind of limit you can set to help you keep to your budget. You can opt for deposit, loss and wager limits on your account on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You can also set time limits if you want to make sure you’re not perusing the site for too long.
Monitor your expenses — one of the easiest ways to stay abreast of your gambling habits is to take note of how much you end up spending. Keeping detailed notes of the amount you wager, how often you play, and when you’re most likely to overspend can help you stay on top of your own behaviours and correct them. Many online gambling sites will have tools available that will give you all of this information automatically.
Tell a friend or family member — we recommend relying on the people around you to help stay in check. It’s well known that it’s easier to stick to a behaviour change when you’re being held accountable by someone else. So, reach out and find someone who’s willing to help keep you healthy.