For newcomers to betting on horse racing, the go-to standard is to open a bookmaker account and use their fixed odds offering to place your win and each way flutters.<\/p>\n
For many, the possibility of using the Tote and the various bet types available doesn\u2019t even cross their mind, and yet it\u2019s possible that you could be leaving money on the table by taking the bookies\u2019 prices as opposed to diving into the Totepool.<\/p>\n
So should you be betting on horse racing using fixed odds or the Tote? Let\u2019s see if we can draw up some concrete answers.<\/p>\n
![\"Tote](\"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/tote-logo-400px.jpg\"){kind=logo}
You probably know how fixed odds betting works by now. The bookmakers analyse a race, assign odds based on the win probabilities of each horse on the card before building in their margin or \u2018overround\u2019 to help them balance their book \u2013 sort of like the house\u2019s edge at a casino.<\/p>\n
The Tote, meanwhile, is more like a lottery. Punters pick out their horses (there are different coupons and bet types available) and feed their stake into the total prize pot. This is then divvied out to those with winning betslips.<\/p>\n
The Tote was, once upon a time, very popular before punters seemed to turn their back on pool betting for a while.<\/p>\n
However, the venture was taken over by firm Britbet in 2019, and they have helped to reinvigorate interest in the Tote \u2013 schemes like the World Pool, a global initiative to increase the amount of bets (and thus prize money) placed helping with that.<\/p>\n
The Totepool and fixed odds are two very different ways to bet, with often wildly different payouts into the bargain.<\/p>\n
![\"How](\"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/HOW-TOTE-BETTING-WORKS-765px-2.jpg\")
The Totepool still has odds for each horse, which act as the basis for your bets, and it\u2019s the price you take and the amount you stake that ultimately determine your payout with the Tote \u2013 it\u2019s very similar to fixed odds betting in that regard.<\/p>\n
The key is that your return is based upon the overall pool size and how many winning tickets there are, with your payout calculated as a proportion of the prize fund.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s say that you\u2019ve back Three-Legged Wonder with the Tote in the 14:00 at Haydock. There\u2019s \u00a310,000 in the pool and \u00a31,000 of that has been bet on your horse. The calculation is 10,000 divided by 1,000, which leaves a winner\u2019s dividend of \u00a310. This is then multiplied by your stake to work out your full return, so if you had wagered \u00a35 for instance then you would be paid \u00a350.<\/p>\n
Whether that would be a \u2018better\u2019 return than provided by fixed odds would depend upon the price offered by the bookmakers, of course. And because you don\u2019t know the make-up of a Tote pool in advance, knowing which will pay out better is not always an exact science.<\/p>\n
![\"Odds\"](\"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/odds-400px.jpg\")
You\u2019d need a dataset of thousands of races before you could draw any conclusions as to whether the Tote pays better than the SP more often than not.<\/p>\n
Even then it wouldn\u2019t necessarily mean that\u2019s the best way to wager on the races you are interested in.<\/p>\n
But to offer some context, here are the first six winners from a card at the Punchestown Festival.<\/p>\n
You can see the winner, their SP payout and their Tote dividend side-by-side:<\/p>\n
| Horse<\/th>\n | SP Win<\/th>\n | Tote Win<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|---|
| Ballybawn Belter<\/td>\n | \u00a311.45<\/td>\n | \u00a310.42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Sandor Clegane<\/td>\n | \u00a32.69<\/td>\n | \u00a32.54<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Grangeclare West<\/td>\n | \u00a32.32<\/td>\n | \u00a32.21<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Gaelic Warrior<\/td>\n | \u00a31.60<\/td>\n | \u00a31.59<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Fastorslow<\/td>\n | \u00a326.49<\/td>\n | \u00a320.05<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| A Dream to Share<\/td>\n | \u00a31.55<\/td>\n | \u00a31.53<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n Whether it\u2019s a few pennies or pounds, you can see that the SP typically paid out at a higher rate than the Tote in the win market.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a caveat: these races were won either by the favourite or a fancied horse, so there would have been more winning Tote tickets and, therefore, payouts would have been lower. Where an outsider prevails, there\u2019s generally fewer winning Tote players \u2013 meaning that your dividend is greater.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another interesting titbit to consider. The Tote have launched their \u2018Tote Guarantee\u2019 promotion, which matches the SP when your pool payout is lower. However, if the Tote prize is greater than the SP, you\u2019ll still get to keep the higher amount.<\/p>\n You should note that the Tote Guarantee isn\u2019t available for every race\/meeting, but when it is there\u2019s certainly an advantage to be had in considering pool betting over fixed odds.<\/p>\n Other Tote Bets<\/h2>\n
If you want to wager in a win only or each way fashion, you\u2019ll typically get a better return from the SP than you would the Tote \u2013 assuming the previously mentioned offer isn\u2019t in play.<\/p>\n |
![\"Tote](\"https:\/\/www.rulesofsport.com\/betting\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/tote-trifecta-765px.jpg\")
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