Tote Betting Guide
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The Tote is historically renowned for paying more on outsiders but now things have changed. Tote.co.uk now guarantees you get the best of both worlds with Tote+. Tote+ is our new enhanced dividend for digital customers which now means Tote beats SP 60% of the time. And, if the dividend still falls short, we’ll top your winnings up to match it.
That’s not say win bets are always best placed at Tote. If you have a strong fancy the day before a race or first thing in the morning, you’re better off putting your bet on with the bookies and taking advantage of those price boosts. BUT, if you’re betting race to race you should be betting at Tote.co.uk to ensure you’re getting the best value.
Known as forecasts and tricasts in the fixed odds betting world, Exactas (1st and 2nd home) and Trifectas (1st, 2nd and 3rd home), often provide big payouts for punters who think they’ve cracked the race result. There are three ways to play:
1. Straight – the simplest type, simply pick the first two/three home in the correct order.
2. Combination – If you think you’ve found the first two/three home but are unsure on the order this is the option for you.
With this bet you will include the six possible order permutations with your selections finishing in the first three. You need to remember that by placing a Tote Exacta/Trifecta of this kind, you are essentially having six bets.
Adding multiple horses to your bet, or perming a trifecta/exacta gives you a greater chance of winning. The minimum stake for the trifecta is just 1p per line with a total minimum stake of 50p, this means you can keep your total stake within your limits on those bigger combinations. Large field’s tend to see the biggest payouts for exactas/trifectas, this is when you should look to perm your selections to find the first two/three home.
3. Banker - if you think you’ve found a banker for the first one home but are undecided on who will follow you can lock in the first place and then select your permutations of any other number of horses to finish second/third by selecting "Any Order" for the other two horses.
The Tote compares favourably to the bookies forecast/tricast with the tote+ exacta and trifecta beating the bookies equivalents 77% of the time.
Keep your eyes peeled for rollovers on Tote bets, the main one’s to be aware of are;
• Jackpot: Select the winning horse in each of the 6 races across the meeting selected by the Tote.
• Scoop6: Select all 6 winners from 6 races selected by the Tote across Saturday’s meetings.
• Trifecta: Pick 1st, 2nd & 3rd in the race.
When the pots aren’t won, they roll on to the next big meeting which means you’re basically playing for dead money, the potential payout has grown but you still have the same chance of winning, this never happens with traditional betting.
The Trifecta rollover is every weekend on a selected race and follows the same principle, the Tote+ trifecta beats the bookies tricast 77% of the time as it is, but it can swamp the tricast payout in the trifecta rollover race. The rollover race is advertised on page 2 of the Racing post every Saturday as well as on the Tote website.
The nation’s favourite racing bet… the Tote Placepot. You don’t even need to find a winner to land the pot and it’s available on every UK and Irish race meeting. All you need to do is pick a horse to be placed in the first six races on the card, and with penny perms there are multiple ways to play
- Pick more than one selection in legs which you are less confident, and where you feel you’ve found a banker just stick with one.
- If an outsider or two have caught your eye you could double them up with a more confident selection. But be aware if all the favourites win and you’ve played multiple lines the payout may be small and not cover your overall stake, however, if a couple of long shots place and the favourites don’t turn up you could earn yourself a handsome payout.
- You can check how many tickets are left and what % have which horse at totepoolliveinfo.com, so not only will you be cheering on your horse to place but cheering on the rest not to, double the enjoyment!
You may have heard of World Pool if you’ve watched any of the biggest flat races of the season this year. World Pool sees money from 20-countries’ totes including Hong Kong, Australia, France and the USA all betting into one pot, it’s effectively bettings equivalent of the Euro millions lottery. The key to making the most of a World Pool day is to predict where the mountain of Far East money is going to land, and then play the runners who’ll go under the radar.
If globally recognised jockeys like Ryan Moore or Frankie Dettori are on the warm favourite, they’ll be an even shorter price in the pool. Steer clear and back them with your traditional bookmaker. If you fancy one ridden by someone your non-racing mate hasn’t heard of, chances are it could be less popular than it should be in the multi-country tote pool – which means bigger payouts.
The biggest pools (and biggest opportunity for freaky dividends) are the Quinella (first and second in any order) and the Swinger (pick two to finish in the first three). The Swinger is less well-known in the UK, but in Hong Kong it’s the most popular bet by far and we regularly see pools of over a million pounds.
There are also commingled days with the PMU (French Tote) betting into the pools. The French love nothing more than getting stuck into a short priced favourite, particularly in the Place pools. Back in March when we saw the PMU bet into the Tote pools for the first time at Newcastle, there were a number of horses which actually would have paid more for a place than winning, it’s worth looking out for theses days/races as they can throw up unexpected dividends and you’ll have the home advantage of UK racing knowledge to pit against the foreign money.
The Scoop6, responsible for the first racing bettor millionaire, runs over six selected TV races on a Saturday. You need to pick a horse in each race and if you get six winners you win your share of the Jackpot amount. The fewer people who win, the bigger the jackpot. If nobody picks all six winners, the money rolls on to next Saturday. Only £2 per ticket per line, small stakes really do mean big possibilities.
The part of the bet most often overlooked is the placepot consolation. Yes, you can win a life-changing amount of money for your £2.00 stake if you get all the winners, but if all your picks manage to get placed you still get paid and its worth considering that when making your selections.
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