Pool Betting – What It Is and How It Works
Pool betting is an alternative to fixed odds, exchange or spread betting, in which all stakes on an event are pooled, a commission is subtracted, and the remainder is divided among the winning bettors. This page explains how pool betting works and where it is offered online.
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How Does Pool Betting Work?
The concept of pool betting is straightforward. Anyone who has entered a winner-takes-all sweepstake has already taken part in a pooled bet: all the entry fees were gathered (pooled), the names were drawn, and the winner received the pot. Pool betting at UK betting sites or companies works in much the same way.
Pool betting on horse racing has been around since 1928, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, Winston Churchill, wanted a way for people to bet on horses safely rather than through what were then illegal bookmakers. A proportion of the money generated via pool betting would also go towards the sport of horse racing itself. This led to the establishment of ‘The Tote’.
Pool bets could be placed with the Tote at horse racing courses across the UK. All bets for a particular race were pooled, tax and a commission subtracted, and whatever remained was redistributed among those (by and large) who had backed the winning horse. The Tote also began opening betting shops and, via Tote Direct (set up in 1992), allowed Tote pool bets to be placed at high street bookmakers. Although no Tote betting shops remain today, Tote betting is still available at UK betting shops and online via desktop sites or a pool betting app.
With Tote pool betting, the winning pool is split into dividends. If the pot (once the commission is removed) is £100, and the three winners staked £7, £2 and £1, the pot would be shared as £70, £20 and £10, with each dividend being £10 per £1 staked.
The Tote and How Its Pool Betting Works
As noted above, the Tote has existed since 1928, but was originally found at racecourses only. It later appeared in its own betting shops, and then in the betting shops of other brands. Like most things in the 2020s, the Tote has also moved online. The usual Tote bets are available, and the size of each pool is displayed, which indicates the likely share attached to a winning bet. There is also a range of options, as the Placepot is generally available at a number of meetings (usually five or six, in the UK and Ireland).
Regular Tote bettors can also take part in the ‘Tote Tournaments’ series, competing with other Tote users for a place on the leaderboard. The leaders then qualify for the World Pool series Finale, where the top prize is £10,000.
The Tote covers more than horse racing pool betting alone. Through the Tote betting site, users can reach ‘Colossus’, a separate company offering pool-style football games that can be played either individually or as part of a syndicate, with the option for users to set up a syndicate of their own.
In March 2024 the Tote added another element: fixed odds sports betting. This is a full sportsbook covering the sports normally found at a sports betting site, with one exception — horse racing. The Tote’s focus for horse racing is pool betting, which is why horse racing is not offered for fixed odds betting here.
Points to Note:
- A long-established provider of pool betting in the UK
- Fixed odds betting too (but not on horse racing)
- Pool betting is available on football too, via Colossus
Points of Difference:
- Returns from the same selections can be higher with fixed odds than with pool betting, though this varies and neither guarantees a return
Pool Betting with the Tote
There are now several ways to bet into Tote pools beyond simply selecting the winning horse. Below is a description of the bet types that are commonly placed each day across the UK.
Win
The simplest bet type – a horse is selected from the race in question to finish first. If that horse is first past the post, the stake shares in the winning pool.
Place
Almost identical to the win Tote pool, except that the selection needs to place rather than win. What qualifies as a place differs from race to race and depends on the number of runners and the race type.
Exacta
The fixed odds equivalent is known as a forecast. With an Exacta, the bet covers the horses that finish in the top two positions in a race. There are two types of Exacta – a Straight Exacta, where the first and second horses are named in order, and a Reverse or Combination Exacta, where the two horses can finish first and second in any order. A Combination Exacta involves two bets – horses A and B to finish in the order AB, or in the order BA.
Quinella
A Quinella is another name for a Reverse Exacta. The term ‘Quinella’ is now seldom used at UK pool betting sites.
Swinger
The Tote swinger allows a little more leeway than an Exacta. Two horses are selected, and both must finish in the top three for the bet to take a share of the winners’ pool.
Trifecta
A Trifecta involves picking the three horses that finish in the top three positions in the correct order. There is also a Combination Trifecta, which amounts to six bets, as all possible orders are covered. If the horses are named A, B and C, the six possible finishing combinations are ABC, ACB, BAC, BCA, CAB and CBA. Only the single combination that matches the actual order returns a dividend.
Placepot
The Placepot is among the more widely used horse racing betting pool bets. Each day, six races are selected from the UK racecard. For each race, a horse must be selected to place. Where all six selections place, the bet shares in that day’s Placepot. As above, the definition of a place depends on the number of runners and whether the race is a handicap or non-handicap.
Quadpot
There are two definitions of a Quadpot. With the first, and more common, all selections come from the same meeting, covering races three, four, five and six. With the second, the site offering the Tote pool selects six races, and four of them must be covered.
With either version of the Quadpot, horses are selected to place along the same lines as the Placepot.
Jackpot
This carries the highest guaranteed pool in official pool betting, with a minimum betting pool value of £10,000. A UK meeting is selected, and the bet involves naming the winners of the first six races. Correctly doing so happens rarely, so dividends on a small stake can be large, although the likelihood of achieving it is very low.
Scoop6
This is a separate Tote pool bet that runs every Friday and Saturday. On each of those days, six races are selected across the racecard, and the winning horse in each must be named. Scoop 6 bets (or ‘lines’) have a fixed cost of £2 per single line, and multiple lines can be taken using the same selections or different ones.
Colossus
Colossus is a separate entity from the Tote, although Colossus bets can be placed via the Tote and other betting sites. These are pool betting wagers on football and horse racing. With football, the bet usually involves picking 5, 6 or 8 winning teams from a selected range of matches, while horse racing pools cover either a win or place six. Colossus bets can be placed individually or through syndicates, where stakes are pooled and any returns divided among members.
Football Pools Betting
Before being eclipsed by the National Lottery, football pools gambling was one of the most widely followed forms of betting among ordinary UK folk. Companies such as Littlewoods, Vernons and Zetters would run football pools, allowing people to fill in coupons in which they predicted which eight English or Scottish football league games would end in an all-score draw.
Players were awarded points (3 for a score draw, 2 for a no-score draw, 1.5 for an away win and 1 for a home win) and could enter in various ways, with all monies collected then shared (once the administration fee and tax had been deducted) between the entrants who scored the most from their eight highest point scoring games. The maximum possible score was 24 points, which would usually mean the entrant shared the pot with no one else. Interest in pools betting was such that large winners became widely known, such as Irene Powell who won £882,000 in 1979 (worth £6 million today).
The football pools still exist today but not in the classic sense, and interest in them is minimal.
Pools Betting Tips and Strategies
Want to bet with Pools betting? Then here are three tips that should help to get you started.
Don’t Trust to Luck
Many people who take part in pool betting use the ‘lucky dip’ features, especially online. These generate selections at random rather than on form, so the approach is closer to buying a lottery ticket than to studying a race. Pools betting still allows the form of the runners to be taken into account, and selections can be considered with the same care as any other kind of bet.Swim Against the Stream
One characteristic of pools betting is that a prize pot is shared between all winning entrants, so a payout depends on how many others have the same result. For that reason, some bettors look at races where the favourites are priced long and select second or third favourites instead, on the basis that fewer people may share the pot. This does not make a winning outcome any more likely.Double up at a Bookies
With pool betting, you are, in effect, placing a six-selection acca. Some bettors also place a matching accumulator at a fixed odds sports betting site alongside their pools selections. Stakes can be small, because returns on an accumulator multiply: six winners at an average price of 2/1 would return over £700 from a £1 stake, although results of that kind are rare. Potential returns can be worked out with our acca calculator.
Where Can I Bet on the Tote Online?
The main method of betting on the Tote online is at the Tote site itself, which is linked below. It covers all of the Tote’s betting options, such as the widely used Placepot, plus the Quadpot, Swinger and Colossus. The Tote functions as a fully-formed sports betting site as well, so pool betting and fixed odds betting sit alongside each other.
As explained earlier, the Tote can also be accessed at other sports betting sites in the UK, via Tote Direct. This is an extension of the betting shop Tote Direct service, which allows Tote bets to be placed at some UK betting shops. Online, Tote betting is also available at Betfred and Betfair.
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- Horse Racing specialist
- Home of the Placepot
- Bigger Pools, Better Value
Conclusion
Pool betting works differently from fixed odds betting, spread betting or exchange betting. Any return depends on the size of the pool and how many other entrants have a winning selection, so where winners are few a pot is divided between fewer people, and where they are numerous each share is smaller. The sections above outline how the main pool betting formats compare.
FAQs
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