Tote Betting - Tote Placepot

Tote Placepot

The Placepot is identical to the Quadpot except it operates over the first six races of a race card. All UK race meetings have six races as a minimum, occasionally seven and rarely eight, but the Placepot is always operated on the first six. This bet is very popular as it has the potential to allow a gambler involvement in the whole of the race card. The minimum bet is 5p. Here is a worked example:

The first race the gambler has opted to choose two horses. Maybe the gambler isn't confident of his abilities or maybe it is a large field and the gambler feels unable to just place one horse. On race two the gambler has elected to roll with the favourite, whatever it may be. In the final race the gambler has chosen three selections. This is often driven by the motive that if the gambler reaches the last race and still has a bet on, he doesn't want to lose out in the last race by only having one selection. The number of combinations in this bet is therefore 2 × 1 × 2 × 1 × 1 × 3 = 12. The gambler has decided to risk 20p per bet, so the total cost of this bet is £2.40.

If after the first race the gambler has failed to pick a selection which was placed then the bet is over. If a selection is placed, then the bet continues, and the winnings are transferred as the stake on the second race. In this example, horse 2 may be placed and horse 7 unplaced, which means the bet continues – but there are now only 6 valid combinations for winning left.

If the gambler is lucky and managed to get through to the end, then the Tote will calculate the dividend for a £1 unit stake. In this example the Tote is going to declare the dividend as £30, and the lucky gambler has 2 winning combinations. Two combinations at a stake level of 20p is 40p, so 40% of £30 is £12, a profit of £9.60.

If a favourite is placed in every single race the Placepot payout is typically as low as it can get, and it could be anywhere from £3 to £15, although anything less than £6–£7 is quite unusual. If favourites fail to finish in the places for half of the races then something around the £40–£200 could be anticipated, placepots of over £25,000 have been known but they are extremely uncommon. However there isn't a science to guessing what the placepot might be, the placepot dividend is the calculation of the number of tickets left divided by the pool money.

There are a couple of additional rules which affect the operation of the Placepot (and indeed the Quadpot/Jackpot/Scoop6). If a selection becomes a non-runner it will be replaced by the Starting Price favourite. Where there are joint favourites and the gambler has selected to roll on the Favourite, then the horse with the lowest race card number will be taken. If the favourite withdraws (for instance, the horse refuses to enter its starting gate) and the market has no time to select a new favourite the horse with the next shortest odds will become the favourite. It's rare for a race card to progress without a couple of non-runners so a gambler will be affected by these rules from time to time.