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What is a Tote Placepot and how does it work?
All you need to know about the popular Tote Placepot pool bet, which can give you a tidy profit if you pick 6 horses that place
What is a Placepot and how does it work?
The Tote Placepot is a widely recognised and highly popular pool bet that requires bettors to select a horse that places in the first six races of a particular meeting to win a return.
It operates via the Tote pool betting system, with bets being accepted by most leading online sportsbooks that then pass the stakes on to the pool.
The size of the pool grows as more participants play the Placepot at a given meeting, where a smaller number of winning combinations across the six races leads to larger winning dividends.
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How does a Placepot work?
When making a Tote Placepot bet, you have the option of choosing one or more selections in each race, which are known as lines in Placepot terminology.
By adding multiple lines in each race, your chances of selecting a placed horse increase.
However, keep in mind that the total stake is determined per line, meaning that the more lines you add, the greater your stake will be.
To determine the number of lines, simply multiply the number of lines in the first race by the number of lines in the second race, then multiply that by the number of lines in the third race, and continue with this process until you’ve done so for each of the six races in your Tote Placepot.
Calculating the number of lines in your Placepot (example)
How much does a Tote Placepot cost?
There are two minimum stakes to bear in mind when it comes to the Placepot, the minimum stake per line and the minimum total stake.
The minimum stake per line is 10p, although some operators may allow 5p lines. The minimum total stake is £1. As a result a minimum of 10 lines is generally needed if you want to go with 10p lines.
For example, if we played 50p lines on our example 48-line Tote Placepot above, the total stake would be £24.
How are Tote Placepot places determined?
Popular with both occasional punters and, at the feature meetings in particular, often targeted by more serious bettors, the Tote Placepot is available at all meetings in Britain and place rules are the same as a regular single each-way or place bet.
What places count towards the Placepot?
How is the Tote Placepot prize pool calculated and shared?
A deduction of 27 per cent is taken from the total pool, then the remaining 73 per cent is divided among the winners.
For example, if the pool is £100,000, the deduction will be £27,000. This means £73,000 will be split among the winners relative to the value of each winner’s winning Placepot lines.
Generally, the fewer favourites that manage to reach a place, the more the dividend will pay. This is due to the tendency of favourites to be popular picks among Placepot players. When a few favourites fail to place, a large number of Placepots often fall down as a result.
How do I calculate my Tote Placepot winnings?
Tote Placepot winnings are published to show what a bettor wins in return for a £1 winning bet. How much you have won will depend on how much you staked per line and how many of your lines were successful.
The number of winning lines you have is calculated by multiplying the amount of successful lines in each leg together to get your total.
To work out how much you have won, multiply your stake per line by the amount of winning lines you have. Your winnings will then be either that percentage of the published £1-stake winnings or a multiple of the published dividend.
For example:
If the Placepot is paying £1,000 to a £1 stake and you have four winning 20p lines then you have a total of 80p in winning bets. You win £800, or 80p-worth of the £1 winnings published.
Or:
If the Tote Placepot pays £350 to a £1 stake and you have two winning £1 lines, your total of £2 of winning bets means you win £700.
How many lines should I have in my Placepot?
Some punters will try just a single line, selecting just one horse in each of the six races. This “straight line” bet is a bold approach, but there have been some mighty dividends paid out to those lucky enough to have hit on the right results.
On the first day of the 2019 Cheltenham Festival, one lucky punter played one £2 line and managed to pick four winners and two runners-up in the first six races.
There were plenty of big shocks on the card and the winning dividend paid a whopping £91,283.10 to a £1 stake.
There were a total of 10.5 winning tickets out of a pool of £958,481.10, but because our lucky bettor did a straight £2 line they bagged a double dividend, meaning winnings of a stunning £182,567.80.
However, most punters prefer to make multiple selections in the more competitive races to give themselves a better chance of winning.
Tote Placepot strategy
Banker legs
For the vast majority of Tote Placepot players, keeping the number of lines per race and therefore the total stake to a reasonable amount is a matter of importance.
Picking just one horse in a race (or "leg" in Placepot terminology), where the favourite appears highly likely to win and almost certain to place, allows you to keep your total lines down and potentially utilise an extra selection in a more competitive leg.
Target vulnerable favourites
If going with one or two banker legs is a pragmatic Placepot ploy, then identifying vulnerable favourites to avoid in your selections is a strategy from the opposite end of the spectrum.
The fewer favourites that place, the higher the Placepot dividend is likely to be for those who succeed in selecting one or more winning lines. This is because a substantial number of players will include the favourite among their selections.
Leaving vulnerable favourites out of your lines can keep you in the hunt for a big payout if your pick makes the places and the market leader fails to do so.
Competitive big-field handicaps are the most obvious type of race in which to try this strategy as the favourites tend to finish unplaced more often.
Multiple lines in competitive races
If you’ve managed to keep your total lines down with a banker selection in one leg, it can free you up to make an extra selection in one of the trickier Tote Placepot races.
With a placed horse needed in all six legs of the Placepot to win your share of the dividend, don’t be afraid to go three-handed to give yourself the best chance of keeping the bet alive.
What happens if one of my Tote Placepot picks is a non-runner?
If a selection is a non-runner, you automatically go on the SP favourite. If there are joint or co-favourites, the highest racecard number carries your money.
So if No 1 and No 4 are joint favourites, it is No 1 that will represent you in place of your selected non-runner.
Find out more about horse racing betting
Visit our horse racing betting section for more straightforward guides to betting on racing including: