What is the Tote placepot and how does it work?

The Tote Placepot is one of the most exciting ways to bet on horse racing. Instead of backing a single winner, you pick horses to place in the first six races at a designated meeting. If they all place, you win.

The Tote Placepot is a pool bet, where all participants contribute to an overall prize pool. When all six races have been run, successful bettors each receive a share of the pool. In this guide, you’ll learn how the Tote Placepot works and we’ll also explain how to add extra options with the Quadpot and permutation bets.

What is the Tote Placepot?

The Tote Placepot is one of the most popular options for UK Tote betting and horse racing as a whole. It covers the first six races at a specific meeting each day, and your goal is to pick at least one horse in each of those races.

You don’t necessarily have to pick the outright winner (although a winner still counts) your selections simply need to finish in a place. Note that the number of places available in each race will vary according to how many runners there are.

The Tote Placepot works similarly to an each way accumulator bet by including selections from multiple races. And in the same way, each selection must come through for you to get a return. However, there is one key difference between these two options. Unlike a traditional fixed odds accumulator, the Tote Placepot is a pool bet.

All stakes go into a shared pool. When all six races have been run, the Tote takes a percentage commission, and the remaining pool is split among the winning tickets. Therefore, Tote Placepot payouts depend on how many other bettors are successful, and the fewer winners there are, the bigger your share of the pool will be.

Tote Placepot pros and cons

Pros and Cons

• Small stakes to suit casual bettors
• Horses only need to place, not win
• Perm bets let you add more than one horse
• Quadpot provides an extra chance to win

• All six horses must place to win

How does the Tote Placepot work?

If you’re new to pool betting, don’t worry. We can show you how a Tote Placepot bet works.

1. Visit the Tote: Click any of the promotional links on this page to go directly to Tote’s official website.
2. Sign up for an account: Create an account by entering your name, date of birth, address, and email address. As a new customer, you'll qualify for the Tote welcome offer.
3. Make a deposit: Add funds to your account by selecting “Deposit” under the Wallet section. You can use Visa or Mastercard debit cards, and the minimum deposit is £5.
4. Go to the Placepot tab: Navigate to the Placepot tab to view the selected meeting. Each day’s Placepot is available from 4 pm the previous day.
5. Make your selections: Pick at least one horse in each of the six races. You can add extra horses in any leg to create a permutation bet, but remember, your total stake rises with every extra selection.
6. Choose your stake per line: On the Tote website or app, the minimum bet is 1p per line, and the overall minimum per Placepot is 50p. If your total bet comes in under 50p, simply increase your stake per line to meet the minimum.
7. Wait for the result: You’ll win a share of the Placepot pool if one of your horses places in each leg. Your payout is based on the Tote dividend per £1 and the number of winning lines you hold.

Key facts about the Tote Placepot

Here are the key facts you need to know about the Tote Placepot.

If you’d like a closer look at how the Tote works overall, and what to expect from the user experience, check out our full Tote UK review which covers everything in detail.

The Quadpot: A ‘second chance’ option

Before you start developing a Tote Placepot strategy, it’s useful to understand what the Quadpot is and how it works as it's closely connected to the Placepot. The Quadpot is another type of pool bet, which focuses on the last four races of the Placepot options (races 3, 4, 5, and 6).

Opting in means that if your Placepot bet is knocked out in the first or second leg, the Quadpot offers you another chance to win a share of a separate pool. In the same way as the Placepot, your selections only need to be placed, and the Tote dividend (payout) is calculated on a £1 stake. Again, your return depends on the Tote dividend for the Quadpot pool, your stake per line, and how many winning lines you have.

Permutation bets explained

One of the best features of the Tote Placepot (and Quadpot) is that you’re not limited to picking just one horse per race. You can include multiple selections in any leg, creating what’s known as a permutation bet, or ‘perm’ for short.

This is one of the most popular Placepot strategies because it increases your chances of winning by covering more possible outcomes. But of course, there’s a trade-off. Every extra horse you add also increases your total stake. That’s because each possible combination of your selections counts as a separate line.

The total stake is calculated by multiplying the number of selections per leg. For example, if your picks look like this: 2 x 1 x 3 x 1 x 2 x 1, that equals 12 separate lines. If you stake 50p per line, your total stake would be £6 (12 lines x £0.50 per line).

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Is the Tote Placepot a good bet?

The Tote Placepot is an excellent bet. In fact, we’d go as far as to say it’s one of the best value bets you can place on horse racing. The main advantage is that you can potentially land unexpectedly large payouts from relatively small stakes.

To give you an idea, the average Tote Placepot payout in 2023 was £466, and over the last five Cheltenham Festivals, the average £1 winning Placepot returned £7,126. Those kinds of returns are rare with traditional fixed-odds betting, especially when your horses don’t even need to win, only place. You can also add a Quadpot, covering legs three to six, and giving you a second chance if one of your first two Placepot picks don’t perform. Ready to give it a go? Follow one of the links on this page to visit the Tote and join today’s Placepot.

Tote Placepot FAQ