Placing a bet

Stake 
The amount of money you are willing to gamble - be it a cautious £2 (minimum) or a rather more flamboyant £500. 

Odds  
Also referred to as the 'price' is a way of expressing the probability of a horse winning a race.  If you picked a winner, your winnings (also known as 'returns') are calculated according to your horse's odds.

Odds Against 
If your horse's perceived chance of winning the race is less than 50/50 it is described as odds against e.g 2/1, 7/1, 15/2, 50/1 etc and if your horse wins you receive your stake back plus the stake multiplied by the odds against it.

Odds On
If your horse's perceived chance of winning the race is more than 50/50 it is described as odds on e.g 1/2, 4/7, 3/10 etc and if your horse wins you receive your stake back plus the stake multiplied by the odds on it.

Even Money (or Evens)
If the perceived chance of your horse winning the race is 50/50 it is described as evens. In this case if your horse wins you will receive your stake back doubled.

Long Odds or Short Odds  
Sometimes, instead of a horse's odds being expressed as a fraction, you might hear that they are simply 'long' or 'short'.  Odds that are said to be long (e.g. 50/1) point to the fact that a horse is very unlikely to win the race.  Conversely, short odds (e.g. 2/1) indicate that a horse has a good chance of winning.

Good luck!

The Tote is available on-course and is a pool betting service (like a lottery). This means that for each race, all the money for the different bet types are put into one pool and then shared out amongst the winners after each race.

Your betting on the racecourse with the Tote supports racing, with the majority of revenues flowing back to that racecourse.

There are several bet types available with the Tote such as win, place, each way (win and a place bet) and an exacta (picking the first two in the correct order).  

One of the most famous tote bets is the placepot which rewards customers who can pick a horse to place in each of the first 6 races. The average dividend of the Placepot is over £454* to a £1 stake so it is a fun bet where you can a large amount for a small stake.

The Tote has a minimum bet of just £2 and accepts cash and card across all courses making it one of the most convenient ways to place a bet on-course with large payouts available for relatively small stakes

You also have the option to place a ‘Lucky Pick’ bet, which is similar to the lucky dip on the National Lottery. However, the Lucky Pick is designed to be smarter than a random lucky dip as it uses a special formula which is weighted towards the more likely outcomes in an event.

Whatever way you make your selection- by choosing your favourite jockey silks or studying form, there are plenty of betting options and the friendly Tote team are always on hand to help with your selections.

 (*for the 12 months leading to October 2018)