What is a placepot?

The placepot is the UK and Ireland’s most popular form of pools betting, giving bettors a shot at winning big from small stakes

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If you’ve ever been into a high street betting shop, visited a betting site or been to a race meeting, the chances are you’ll have seen the word placepot dotted around.

A placepot is a much-beloved bet type, popular among horse racing bettors, and is unique in the gambling world as bettors compete against one-another for a bigger share of the prize fund.

On the surface, all you have to do is pick six horses to place in the first six races of a card to win a share of the jackpot.

But there’s a bit more to it than that and we’ve put together a guide on what is a placepot, how it works and more.

Placepot bets explained

Pool betting is an older form of gambling, pre-dating online bookmakers and betting apps, but it remains popular and is a bet that people enter, paying a certain price, and having to predict a number of outcomes.

The winner (or multiple winners) are those who correctly predict the most results, and take a share of the prize fund.

The placepot follows those rules. Punters make selections for the first six races of a specific meeting and if all those selections win or place, they’ll get a share of the prize pool.

The placepot’s popularity stems from the potential to win big from very small stakes. The average placepot payout in 2023 was £466, while punters have previously scooped as much as £91,774.50 from a £1 stake.

How does a Placepot work?

A placepot works with the Tote pool betting system. A bettor can choose one or more selections in each race, which are known as lines.

If you add multiple lines in each race, also known as perm betting, the chance of selecting a horse that goes on to place will increase. However, the total stake is determined by line, and the more lines you have, the greater the stake.

It is a simple bet that doesn’t need a horse to win, just finish within the places of a race. Here’s how they work out how many places they’ll be paying out on:

Number of runners	Places in placepot
Four or less runners	1st
Five to seven runners	1st & 2nd
Eight to 15 runners	1st, 2nd & 3rd
16 runners or more (non-handicap)	1st, 2nd & 3rd
16 or more runners (handicap)	1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th

The stakes are collected into a pool that is shared among the winning tickets.

The Tote, who run the placepot, take 27 per cent of the total pool, with the other 73 per cent making up the prize fund, which can reach £1 million during the big festivals.

Benefits of placepot betting

Placepot betting has lots of advantages, including the potential for higher payouts from a smaller stake.

For those looking for sustained interest in more than just one race, a placepot bet gives you a vested interest in all six races and can be considered a low risk option compared to some other bets on horse racing betting sites.

Placepot betting strategy

For most punters, the important thing is to keep the number of lines per race and, therefore, the total stake to a reasonable amount. The minimum stake for each line is is just 1p and the whole bet can cost as little as 50p, but things can quickly get out of hand if you have multiple horses in each leg, or intend to wager more than the minimum.

One option is to choose just a single horse per race you feel has a better than average chance of at least placing for the most part. These are often referred to as your banker selections.

This placepot strategy can help keep the total stake amount down and gives you more bankroll to play with in the races with bigger fields or where you don’t have a strong fancy.

It is common to have a mix of favourites and outsiders. It’s advisable not to go for just the favourites as plenty of punters will do that and any placepot payout will be much smaller as it will be shared between more bettors.

Calculating placepot payouts

Calculating a Tote placepot payout can be complicated, but they are designed to show what a punter wins from a £1 stake.

Any potential winnings depend not only on the amount staked but also on the size of the pool and the number of winning tickets, both of which can fluctuate massively.

Today’s placepot sizes tend to vary significantly but are traditionally higher at weekends, so let’s use the example of a £250,000 placepot for a Saturday meeting at Newmarket.

The prize pool is £250,000 and there are 1,000 winning tickets. In that case, the sum would be:

- £250,000 X 73 per cent = £182,500

- £182,500/1,000 = £182.50

So for every £1 staked, the placepot payout would be £182.50. To then work out your placepot payout, multiply your stake per line by the number of winning lines you’ve had.

If you find it challenging to calculate the potential dividends, there are placepot calculators that can do the work for you, or you can check the Tote website after the latest placepot results to see what the estimates are.

Understanding placepot rules

As with any bet, there are terms to be aware of with a placepot horse racing bet.

The first is the minimum stake per horse is 1p, while your the total amount you stake must be at least 50p.

There is no limit on how many horses you can back per race.

Be aware that if your selection is a non-runner, your bet will automatically switch to the starting price favourite. If there are joint-favourites for a race, your bet will go on the horse with the higher racecard number.

Placepot bet example

An example of a placepot bet would be to choose the winners of six races on day one of the Cheltenham Festival.

You can choose more than one horse in each race in the large-field handicap contests.

If there are six races and someone chooses two in the first, two in the second, one in the third, two in the fourth, three in the fifth and two in the sixth (2 x 2 x 1 x 2 x 3 x 2) that would mean a total of 48 lines. In this case, a 10p stake per line would make the cost of the bet £4.80.

Placepot vs other Tote bets

The placepot is not the only bet type offered by Tote, who run several prize pool options for horse racing punters.

They all operate in a similar manner to a placepots, with payout dependant not only on your stake but also the size of the pool and number of other winners.

Comparable bet types to the placepot include the jackpot, where punters need to pick the winner of the first six races at that day’s chosen meeting.

The quadpot requires you to pick four horses to win the third, fourth, fifth and sixth races. Most established and new betting sites offer the quadpot, where returns tend to be lower than the placepot.

Finally, there’s the Tote Scoop6. Here, you’ll need to select the winner of each of the six races chosen by Tote from a variety of cards, and the minimum stake is £2. If there’s no winner of that day’s Scoop6, the jackpot rolls over.

Tote offer free bets as part of their sign-up offer, which can be used to wager on a placepot or any other prize pool variety on offer.

Responsible gambling

Remember to always gamble responsibly and be careful with bets such as placepots that you don’t wager more than you can afford to lose.

Betting should only ever be considered a form of entertainment and never used as a way to make money. Always assume a bet is going to lose and make sure that is part of your calculations.

Gambling can be addictive so make use of the safer gambling tools on betting apps and websites. These include deposit limits, loss limits and self-exclusion options. These are often found in a dedicated safer gambling section.

Should you wish to seek help for gambling-related issues, there are several charities and healthcare providers who offer support and information.

• NHS Help
• GambleAware
• Gamblers Anonymous

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