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Tote review: Is the home of the Placepot worth signing up for?
Tote review in which we scour the UK’s racing pool bets operator’s site, including welcome offer, Placepot, Scoop 6 and Ten To Follow games
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The Tote was founded in 1928, when the Racecourse Betting Control Board was set up by Winston Churchill, and has since become the leading pool betting operator in the UK. A permanent fixture on racecourses, it is as well known for its single-race markets as for multiple bets.
It was sold by the Government to Betfred in 2011, and acquired by the UK Tote Group, a consortium of racehorse owners and breeders, in 2019. The new ownership has already overseen the return of the popular Tote Ten to Follow game.
Now the Tote presents the new Tote.co.uk, a website that is as stylish and simple to use on mobile as its on desktop.
It comes with a good new customer sign-up offer, as well as the Tote Guarantee, an offer for existing customers. Scroll down to find out what Telegraph Betting makes of these incentives and the site as a whole in our Tote Review.
- Check out the latest free bets to use on this week’s horse racing action
Tote offers for existing customers: The Tote Guarantee
Bettors who are familiar with the concept of best odds guaranteed will be pleased to hear of the Tote Guarantee, which is like a pool betting version of this well-known offer.
That guarantee is as follows: “The Tote will never be beaten by SP on winning bets.”
If you can give yourself a winning Tote win bet you will often be paid out at a much larger price than the SP, or starting price, which is used by the mainstream fixed-odds bookmakers.
This is especially likely if you’ve picked a horse that relatively few other bettors in the pool have backed. In 2019, the Tote win odds beat the SP of the winner in 2887 races.
However if the SP used by the fixed-odds bookmakers is bigger than the Tote win payout, the Tote will pay you out at the SP instead.
T&Cs: we’ll always pay at least SP on Win bets and if the Tote dividend is greater, we’ll pay out at that price. Tote.co.uk, Tote.ie, Tote App and selected UK and Irish racecourse customers only. Promotion applies to Tote win bets and the win part of each way bets on all UK & Irish races. Limits apply. Full terms and conditions available at https://tote.co.uk/promotions/tote-guarantee. 18+ BeGambleaware.org.
A tailor-made home for Tote players
At last! In recent years Tote pool betting online had been becoming slowly harder to access.
Traditionally fixed-odds bookmakers facilitated online bettors in accessing the Tote pools through their sites, though it was seldom well signposted. In the years following the privatisation of the Tote, routes of online access to its pools became fewer still.
The new Tote.co.uk consigns this annoyance to the past in user-friendly fashion.
Website look and feel
Arriving at Tote.co.uk, the first thing that strikes the bettor is the simplicity of the layout, which displays the Tote’s unique horse racing betting offerings and nothing else besides.
It’s a pleasing antidote to online sportsbooks that bamboozle the user with in-play Uzbek second division football, when all they want to do is to submit their Plumpton Placepot.
The Bet Types tab gives access to the full gamut of Tote bets: Tote win, Exacta, Trifecta, Swinger, Placepot, Jackpot and more. Adding selections for these occasionally in-depth wagers is pleasingly smooth thanks to an interface designed with them in mind.
NB: There’s also separate sections of the site, accessible by a discrete menu in the top-right of the site, where customers can access slots games and the Ten To Follow game.
Could be more educational for new Tote players
It’s understandable the first group of bettors the Tote thought about when creating the new Tote.co.uk were players with a pre-existing love of their products. Mission accomplished.
The new site is very good at explaining bets such as the Exacta or the Placepot to newcomers, but there could be more help in terms of the level of detail that needs to be provided for new customers if it’s to entice those who have no idea what a Quadpot is, for customers to get to know such bets.
For example, the complexities of how stakes multiply as legs increase could be better explained to a newcomer.
Could a more in-depth educational section be the next step in switching-on a whole new generation of players to the joys of their unique products?
Conclusion
It’s evident that the site has based itself on being simple and easy to use in terms of visual experience and this has led to a nice design of the new Tote.co.uk.
The site is a dream to navigate, whether it’s the particularly elegant approach to signing up or moving between the various bet options and putting those bets together.
Unique Tote pool betting games are at the centre of the site rather than a peripheral extra, meaning there’s little reason to place a Tote bet through another online sportsbook going forward.
These same unique games are well-enough explained as you move through the process of placing a bet, but more information for absolute beginners will be crucial in helping the long-running Tote pools from reaching the level of audience their fun games deserve.