{"id":429,"date":"2016-10-17T10:41:22","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T10:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bettingwebsites.org.uk\/?page_id=429"},"modified":"2023-02-08T15:35:40","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T15:35:40","slug":"tote-and-totepool","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bettingwebsites.org.uk\/articles\/horse-racing\/tote-and-totepool\/","title":{"rendered":"Tote and Totepool"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may well be used to placing bets at a regular bookie where the starting price is declared and you can take it or leave it.<\/p>\n

Well Tote betting is a little bit different, with a dividend being declared instead. There are also some fantastic opportunities to win some large jackpots from more diverse and interesting, albeit more difficult, bet types.<\/p>\n

Best of all, it doesn\u2019t have much of a learning curve, so novice bettors can get to grips with it in no time and add to the scope of their betting possibilities.<\/p>\n

History of the Tote<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Cheltenham<\/p>\n

The history of the Tote goes back to the 1920’s, before high street gambling was legal in the UK. There was a big problem with illegal off-course bookmakers at the time, so action was taken by none other than Winston Churchill to combat this.<\/p>\n

The 1928 Racecourse Betting Act set up the Racehorse Betting Control Board. The aim here wasn’t just to deal with the illegal off-course gambling problem, but to find a way to ensure that some gambling revenue was re-invested into the sport of horse racing. This led to grants being made to horse-racing related societies and the sponsorship of races beginning with the Tote Investors Cup at Kempton in 1956.<\/p>\n

More legislation took place in 1961 with the Betting Levy Act. This created the Horserace Totalisator Board which became known as The Tote. 11 years later, the Tote opened its first high street betting shop and these have grown in number over the years to the point where they now employ more than 4000 staff. Further expansion happened in 1992 with the introduction of ToteDirect; this channelled tote bets from other high street bookmakers into tote pools so tote betting is now accepted in more than 7000 betting shops around the UK.<\/p>\n

\"betfredThere were attempts made to privatise the Tote in the late 1980s but 1995 saw the Conservative Government abandon the plan. The return to power of Labour changed all this though, and the 2004 Horserace Betting and Olympic Lottery Act proposed privatisation once more. At one stage it looked as if a racing consortium and Tote staff bid would be successful, but it was rejected due to it being backed by private equity.<\/p>\n

Betfred eventually bought the Tote in 2011 making them the only bookie legally allowed to offer this type of betting in the UK, but in 2018 the monopoly in pari-mutuel betting ended, meaning that anyone with a licence could offer these services.<\/p>\n

The Difference Between Tote & Fixed Odds<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Dividend\"With fixed odds betting<\/a> you know what you stand to win before you place your bet. Your odds a shown upfront and you can choose a stake that offers a potential return which you think is worth the risk.<\/p>\n

Tote betting is not quite the same thing. It is also known as pari-mutuel betting and it originated back in France in the 19th century. Pari-mutuel betting is when any number of hopeful bettor\u2019s stake money on the same race and all of their stakes go into one pot.<\/p>\n

After the bookmaker takes a cut and tax is paid, the remaining money becomes the prize and is divided between those who backed the winner.<\/p>\n

Is it More Profitable?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

On average punters can get around 7% better returns via pooled betting, but this really does vary depending on how many people a) bet on the race, and b) pick the winner. Often the dividend paid is similar to that of the SP (starting price), but there are times when it will be considerably higher, for example when an unexpected horse that not many people have bet on ends up winning. In this situation, the pot would be split between fewer people so each winner would get a larger piece of the pie.<\/p>\n

If you are looking for huge wins from Totepool betting then Jackpot and Scoop6 bets are where you should be focussing your attention; massive amounts of money can be won here and millionaires can be created.<\/p>\n

Types of Tote Bet<\/strong><\/h2>\n

ToteWin\/Place<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"ToteA ToteWin is a nice simple bet on the winning horse and is available on any race. If it wins, so do you.<\/p>\n

The minimum stake for a ToteWin bet is \u00a32, and all winning bettors share the pot. It won\u2019t buy you a new house, but it can be more valuable than a fixed odds bet.<\/p>\n

A TotePlace is a bet on a single horse, but that horse can potentially come 1st<\/sup>, 2nd<\/sup>, 3rd<\/sup>, or 4th<\/sup> and your bet still wins. This does, however, depend on the number of runners in the race:<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Runners<\/th>\nWinning Places<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
4 or Less<\/td>\nTotePlace Unavailable<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5-7 Runners<\/td>\n1st, 2nd<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8-15 Runners (handicap)<\/p>\n

8+ Runners (non-handicap)<\/td>\n

1st, 2nd, 3rd<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16+ Runners (handicap)<\/td>\n1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

So a 3rd<\/sup> placed horse would count as a winning bet in a race with 10 runners, but not in a race with 7 runners.<\/p>\n

Exacta <\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"ToteThe Exacta is the Totepool equivalent of the Computer Straight Forecast (CSF). It can prove to be a better bet than the CSF with recent statistics showing a higher win using the Exacta in two out of three races. The minimum stake is \u00a32.<\/p>\n

To be a winner you need to select which two horses will finish 1st<\/sup> and 2nd<\/sup> in the race, but you also need to select them in the right order. So if you bet on Monkey Socks to finish 1st<\/sup> and Daydream Believer to finish 2nd, <\/sup>and they actually finished the other way around, your bet would lose even though you picked the right two horses to finish in the top two spots.<\/p>\n

There are two others types of Exacta:<\/p>\n