What is tote sports betting?

On this very site, you’ll find endless articles looking at different sports to wager on, different types of bets you can place, different strategies to put into place and other tips that will help you get the most out of your betting experience. What most of them have in common is that they refer to fixed odds betting at the best sports betting sites.

Fixed odds betting simply means that you’re betting against a bookmaker at pre-determined odds and when placing your bet, you know how much you’re going to lose if your bet loses and exactly how much you’re going to be paid out if it wins.

This is in contrast to wagering at betting exchanges, where you’re betting against other customers, and to spread betting, where at the time you place your bet, you don’t know how much you could potentially win, or lose. You’ll only know once the event is over. If you were betting on the number of goals in a football match, you’d only know what the exact win (or loss) is when you know how many goals there were. 

Exchange betting meets spread betting?

So, what is a Tote bet? The answer is it has elements of both of the two just mentioned. Here you’re betting against other Tote customers like you would on an exchange but not in the same way. Unlike at an Exchange, it’s not some customers laying the odds and other ones backing them.  In fact, non-one is laying odds here because there aren’t any! So, in this sense, it’s different to all three: fixed, exchanges and spread betting.

It's similar to spread betting in that you don’t know how much how much you’re going to win on the Tote when you place your bet, but for different reasons, as we’ll soon see. But different in that you do know how much you’ll lose if it doesn’t win; you’ll only ever lose the stake you put down at the time you strike the bet.

How payouts are shared in Tote betting

When betting on the Tote, you’re putting money into a pool, along with all the other Tote customers. If your bet loses, that’s that. So, what is a Tote win bet?

Tote betting follows the laws of supply and demand.  With no odds involved, the more Tote punters that have bet on a particular horse, the less each of those customers will win. The fewer customers that have bet on a certain horse, the more each of those will win. And the bigger the stake added to the pool of money, the bigger the slice of the pie they’ll get.  

How Tote Betting Works

Let's keep it simple and say you’re betting on the winner of the Grand National.

You like the horse Coko Beach. Remember that with Tote betting there are no odds involved but of course, if you want an idea of the horse’s actual chances of winning the race, you can check what the fixed odds bookies are offering on it.

There’s no minimum or maximum limit you can place on Coko Beach. It could be as little as 1 unit or as much as 10. It goes without saying that the more you wager, the more you’ll win if Coko Beach goes on to win.

However, you won’t know when placing the bet exactly how much you’ll go on to win. This will only be known when the Tote betting for that race closes, at which point everyone will know a) how much is in the Tote pool for that race and b) how many people wagered on each horse and for what amount.

Having said that, the Tote will tell you the ‘projected dividends’ of each horse based on how much money has been bet on it up to that point.

If Coko Beach goes on to win, the number of customers who picked it and the stake you contributed to the pool will then determine the exact amount you’ll win.

Types of Tote Bets

The vast majority of Tote betting is done on horseracing with a lot of it going on to the winner of a particular race. But those aren’t the only types of bets on offer.

What is a Tote Exacta bet? 

Here you’re picking which horses will finish first and second in a race. 

If you place a straight Exacta, you need them to finish in the correct order. E.g. Horse C wins: Horse F comes second. 

Alternatively, you can place a reverse exacta where you pick the two horses finishing first and second but not in a particular order; you just need C and F to finish first and second in either order. Here you’re placing two bets, so it will cost you double the stake of the straight Exacta. 

What is a Tote Trifecta Bet? 

It works the same way as the straight Exacta but rather than predicting which horses will finish first and second, you need to predict which horses finish first, second and third. So, it’s obviously much harder to do. 

What is a Tote Exotic bet? 

A Tote Exotic Bet refers to a series of different bets that can be placed on several horses in one race, and different horses in multiple races, either to win or to place. The two bets we’ve just looked at are examples of Exotic bets. 

All these are examples of Tote Exotic Bets, too. 
•  Tote Exacta
•  ToteTrifecta
•  ToteSwinger
•  ToteJackpot
•  ToteScoop6
•  TotePlacepot
•  ToteQuadpot