How Does a Placepot Work? Placepots Betting Explained

To place a bet on the Placepot pool, bettors must select one horse in the first six races at their chosen British or Irish horse racing meeting. Any number of extra horses can also be selected for each race, but the more horses in the bet, the more the bet costs.

Placepots might sound complicated, but it is an easy bet to work out once you get your head around it.

The first step when explaining Placepots is working out how they are calculated.

When calculating the total cost of your overall Placepot bet, you simply multiply your chosen stake by the number of selections picked in six races. For example, if you have two horses in each race and your stake is 20p, your total bet would be: 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 0.2 = £12.80 (64 bets x 20p).

This example represents a very popular type of Placepot bet, but there are several different Placepot permutations with which to play. 

Here are two other popular types of Placepots:

• Straight Lines: Pick one horse in each of the first six races. Stake a minimum of £1 to play: 1 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 1 - One line with a £10 unit stake = £10 total spend.
• 4 Bankers: Pick one horse in four races and two in two: 2 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 2 x 1 - Four lines with a £2.50 unit stake = £10 total spend.

The two things to remember are that the minimum unit stake is 10p (on each horse selected), and that the Placepot dividend is paid to the pound. So you get the amount listed in the Placepot dividend for every pound you staked, with rounding occurring for incomplete pounds.

When calculating the cost of a Placepot, it’s important to know how your stake works. There are two minimum stakes in a Placepot: the minimum stake per line and the minimum total stake.

The minimum stake per line is usually 10p, although some Placepots have a minimum stake of 5p per line. The minimum stake for the total Placepot is £1.

So, if you wanted to place 50p (cents in Ireland) on a 20-line Placepot, the total stake would be £10.

If any horse you select for your Placepot bet is a non-runner (meaning they originally entered, but withdrew), your stake will be placed on the SP (starting price) favorite.

If there are co-favorites, your money will go on to the favorite with the lowest saddlecloth number (a number assigned to each horse in a race, typically displayed on the cloth under the saddle to identify the horse).

To win by betting on the Placepot, bettors must select a placed horse in races 1 through 6 on a selected race card. Your stake then goes into a pool divided between the winners. The average Placepot dividend is £407 from a £1 stake.

In addition to the Tote, you can bet into the tote pools and play the Placepot with other betting sites that provide Tote betting markets via their usual platforms.

The service is the same standard as Tote, except you won’t have access to pool updates or live payout information.

The bet will settle exactly like any other once the dividends are announced.

Placepot places change depending on how many horses run in the race.

The following table illustrates how places are paid out in the Placepot:

The beauty of a Placepot is that the amount you win is so variable.

To calculate the winnings for a Placepot, you first need to wait until all bets have been placed. From the final pot, 27% is deducted from the total pool for the Tote to keep, with the remaining 73% being divided amongst the winners.

So, if the total pool is £50,000, £13,500 will be deducted from the pot, with the remaining £37,500 divided between any winners (depending on the value of their winning lines).

The actual value you’ll be awarded from your winning Placepot will depend not only on your choices but also on the choices of other bettors. For example, the dividend will generally pay out more if fewer favorites place.

More bettors tend to lean towards the favorites, so if there’s an upset in a race, the dividend grows as players lose.

The smallest payouts come when the favorite places in every leg of the bet since they will have the shortest odds.

So, it pays to avoid the favorite when betting on the Placepot, if you can spot some longer shots that might place instead.

A popular Tote Placepot betting strategy involves picking a few banker selections while building a bigger group of runners in your Placepot for more unpredictable races. A Placepot selection is considered a banker if it is the only horse you choose in the race. It means you have put all your faith in that one horse.

Picking your Placepot bankers is a key opening step to building your Placepot. Look for a consistent horse that might not always win but always runs well and places most of the time, or go all in with the odds on a favorite who just shouldn't get beat.

Once you have your banker, or bankers, the aim is to pick at least two horses in each of the other races to increase the chances when the choice is less obvious.

If you enjoy betting on the Placepot, you might also be interested in betting on other race-by-race pool bets. The Tote Placepot has a wide array of horse racing pool betting options, all available to bet on through horse betting sites: