Started by Sir Winston Churchil in 1928, the Tote has been at the heart of British racing for close to a century and continues to play a leading role in the sport across the globe, including title sponsorship of the Tote Chester Cup and other leading races across the season at Chester Racecourse.
The UK Tote Group: Unlike betting with a fixed odds bookmaker, the Tote is a pool betting provider. As owners of the Tote, the UK Tote Group is aiming to put pool betting back at the front and centre of the betting landscape given the role it can play in helping to fund British racing. The UK Tote Group is owned by a consortium of over 150 individual investors who care deeply about British racing and its future and are actively involved in the sport as racehorse owners and breeders. These include a number of familiar names with significant investment in racehorses in Great Britain and abroad, including the Racehorse Owners Association which represents 8,000 British racehorse owners.
Pool betting: The Tote is fundamentally distinguished from fixed-odds betting as customers bet into a pool with each other, and do not bet against a bookmaker, which means they are able to welcome winning customers and never restrict a customer for being successful.
Like the National Lottery, the pool betting model offers customers the opportunity to win a large amount from a small stake. The Tote Placepot optimises that as the bet that allows you to win without having a winner, requiring your selection to be placed in the first six races at your chosen meeting to win a share of the pool. You can play from as little as 1p a line at tote.co.uk, and the Tote now have a minimum of £100,000 in the Placepot pool at one meeting everyday, including each day of the Chester May Festival.
Greater value with the Tote: In addition to that, new initiatives such as Tote Guarantee, which always gives SP or better on win bets and Tote+ boosting the dividend when you play direct with the Tote website or app, mean there’s great value on offer when betting with the Tote.
Connection to British horseracing: The Tote’s founding principles imbued it with a unique connection to British racing, now with a modern global outlook and a continued commitment to reinvest betting revenues into the sport. The Tote’s contribution to British (and Irish) racing includes a presence on all 59 UK racecourses, paying the Horserace Betting Levy as well as a further contribution of at least £50 million to UK racecourses over seven years. The Tote is also a central part of the creation of World Pool which is generating significant new revenues for racecourses via increased media rights payments generated by global pools, supports the Racehorse Owners Association Sponsorship Scheme benefiting owners with over £7.5 million in tax savings each year and gives 5% of gaming revenue to racing charities every year.
