Tote Betting Explained
Here we will explain what Tote betting is and how Tote betting works. Tote betting is available at every Jockey Club Racecourse in the UK. Tote betting differs from standard odds betting with course bookmakers, as the Tote offers you a pool bet. When you place a bet with a regular bookie, you know what odds you are getting as you get the fixed odds displayed at the time, with the Tote you won’t know until the race had finished. Eg if you were placing a bet on the 2.00 at Cheltenham and you had bet on horse number 4, the Tote would then add up all the money taken on that race; they would then take out their percentage, and the remainder would be divided between the amount of winning tickets. This is known as the Tote pool, it’s very similar to when you buy a lottery ticket or enter a slip in pools betting. All the money on that race goes into a central pool, Tote then take a % and whatever is left is divided between all the winning tickets. So if you have backed a favourite and a lot of other people have also done the same then your winnings maybe less than a regular bookie, but if you have backed an outsider and not many others have you could win a considerable lot more. With the Tote, you can place a bet on all the standard markets such as; win singles, each way and place bets, Exacta, Trifecta, Placepot and Scoop6.
The Scoop6 is a very attractive bet offered on a Saturday, and to win the main prize, you must pick all six winners from 6 predetermined races. These are usually six televised races from around the UK. However, if all 6 of your selected horse place then you will win a share of the place fund, along with anyone else who is in the same boat as you. This can often accumulate to very large wins and some famous big winners have won upwards of £500,000, one such example was a punter backing Frankie Dettori to win every race he had in a day and walked away with 1/2 a million.
The Placepot is a wager that the punter must pick one horse from each of the first six races at the event they are at. Then all six of your selected horse’s must place, as soon as one of your horse’s fails to place then your bet is a loser. Then at the end of the first six races all the winners share the pot between them, so the less winning tickets there are, the more money you will win.
Tote Quadpot is very similar to the placepot, but it is only races 3-6 at the meeting. You will need to pick 4 horses and all 4 will need to place. The payout works the same as the Placepot, if you have 4 places horses then the pot will be split between all winning tickets.
Tote Exacta works in the same way, a straight forecast does with a standard bookie. As with all the Tote betting, the price of the forecast will depend on the dividend at the end of the race. A forecast is where the punter has to predict the correct order of the horse finishing first and second.
Tote Trifecta is where the punter must pick the first three horses in the race, but they must also be in the correct order. This is extremely difficult to do, so the Tote payout for this is normally very high. Trifecta races must have at least 8 horses running in it.
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