Gambling.com Rating: 9.3/10
Our Verdict: A household name in British horse racing, Tote is the best pool betting site in the UK.
Tote is one of the UK’s most unique bookmakers thanks to its pool betting model.
When betting with the Tote, the money staked on a race or event is pooled together. If you back the winner you get a share of the pool prize (rather than a payout at fixed-odds).
Pool betting can result in bigger wins - but you don’t know your potential payout until after betting closes, so you can’t lock in a price upfront.
However, if you want to bet at fixed-odds as well as on pools, Tote offers these markets for 27 sports outside of horse racing.
The site and app function well and I was able to claim a high-value welcome offer as a new customer.
On the downside, I found that Tote only accepts debit cards, while the live streaming service is generally limited to racing only.
But if pool betting interests you, I highly recommend Tote as a reputable bookmaker backed by nearly 100 years in operation.
Category | Score | Reasoning |
---|---|---|
Sports & Markets | 10/10 | Pool betting markets along with fixed-odds options. |
Promotions | 9/10 | Strong welcome offer - most regular promos are horse racing-focused. |
Payments | 8/10 | Quick withdrawals but e-wallets not supported. |
Customer Support | 10/10 | Helpful customer support with reliable live chat function. |
Reputation | 10/10 | Tote is a household name founded in 1928. |
User Experience | 10/10 | Site and app are well-designed and easy to navigate. |
Mobile Platform | 9/10 | Highly-rated mobile betting app with handy features. |
Responsible Gambling | 10/10 | All the responsible gambling tools I expect from a licensed bookmaker. |
Live In-Play Betting | 10/10 | Good in-play functionality with live graphics to follow action when streams aren't available. |
Value of Odds | 8/10 | Pool bets can result in bigger wins, while fixed-odds service is competitive. |
Gambling.com Rating: 9.3 (Highly Recommended)
Find out more about how we rate betting sites.
I found Tote’s welcome offer was really straightforward to claim.
After betting £10, I received a £10 free sports bet and £20 in Tote credits once my bet settled.
The £10 bet is for a fixed-odds market, while £20 is for betting on racing pools - so the offer allows you to try both styles of betting. There's also 20 free spins for the Tote online casino.
Bet £10 get £30 deals are on the more generous side when it comes to welcome offers - although sites like Spreadex and Betfred have bigger sign-up deals than Tote.
Here's a quick look at how the offer compares with welcome bonuses from rival bookmakers:
Bookmaker | Qualifying Bet | Free Bet Bonus |
---|---|---|
Bet £10 | Get £30 | |
Bet £5-£15 | Get £15-£30 | |
Bet £10 | Get £30 | |
Bet £5 | Get £20 | |
Bet £5 | Get £25 | |
Bet £10 | Get £60 | |
Bet £10 | Get £50 |
Tote’s promotions are largely focused on horse racing.
You won’t find the same range of promotions for sports like football that sites like bet365 and LiveScore Bet offer.
But the racing-focused promos are varied and valuable. They keep me returning to this site on big race days.
Here are five of my favourite Tote promotions:
Promotion | Description |
---|---|
1. Tote Stayers Club | Loyalty credits for placing six or more bets in a week. |
2. Tote+ | 10% boosted pool payouts on selected races. |
3. Tote Guarantee | Win bets paid at pool dividend or official starting price - whichever is higher. |
4. Placepot Insurance | Stake refunded if you lose placepot bet in the first leg. |
5. Money-Back Deals | Tote refunds a percentage of losses for selected meetings. |
Horse racing betting is where the Tote has made its name.
The placepot is my favourite type of Tote pool bet, where I choose a placed horse in each of the first six races at a meeting, with the chance to win big from small stakes.
Over the last five Cheltenham Festivals, the average placepot payout for a £1 winning bet has been £7,126.
There’s also a good selection of racing promotions to choose from.
Tote+ gives your winnings a 10% boost, while the Tote Guarantee ensures that all winning pool bets pay out at least as much as the fixed-odds starting price - or even more.
I also like the Stayers Club - a weekly loyalty scheme that rewards regular bettors with up to £10 in Tote Credit.
Streaming is available for all UK and Irish races. I watched every day of the Cheltenham Festival live on the Tote app last year. Unlike with other bookmakers, you don't need to have placed a bet to watch a stream.
"If you're a serious racing punter, you should consider the Tote for pool betting."
Tote holds its own when compared to the UK’s best best football betting sites.
I found 220 betting markets for a Premier League match between Brighton and Liverpool - similar to the amount I found at Betway and William Hill.
Pricing is generally decent and I found the bet builder worked well. I easily built a four-leg bet builder on Man City vs Real Madrid, combining match result, BTTS, total corners and cards markets.
Tote usually runs football pool promotions during big tournaments, which can offer larger payouts than fixed-odds bets, depending on the pool size.
I'd like to see some more football promos like boosts and early payouts, which sites like BoyleSports offer.
"I enjoy betting on Tote's pool markets for big international tournaments like the Euros and World Cup."
I usually use Unibet for cricket betting (because of live streams), but Tote is not a bad option either.
You can’t watch the action live, but odds hold up well against the top cricket betting sites.
I bet on a T20 Blast match between Nottinghamshire and Durham, which had 80 available markets. That sort of depth is impressive - and I was even able to bet on obscure markets like Nottinghamshire to win the coin toss.
I'd like to see a few more cricket-specific promotions added, however.
While Tote doesn’t generally offer many promotions for sports aside from racing, I took advantage of a nice acca deal for betting on Wimbledon.
I claimed a £5 free bet by betting £25 in accas over the week. I've also seen this deal pop up around other Grand Slam tournaments.
When betting on the French Open, I got a valuable price boost on Carlos Alcaraz to win a quarter-final tie against Tommy Paul (2/1 up from even money).
And I followed my bet in the in-play section, which has a handy little point-by-point tracker.
The only drawback with this tennis betting site is the lack of live streams.
Sites like bet365 and Ladbrokes are better options if you want to watch tennis live while you bet.
Tote’s not a bad option for golf betting - especially if you like to hunt each-way value.
When browsing markets for the US Open, I found that Tote paid out on seven places at 1/5 of the win odds - which is above average.
Tote runs occasional golf pools for majors, which is another reason why I like betting on golf here.
I bet on the Six Nations with Tote and was pretty happy overall.
All the markets you’d expect from a top rugby betting site were covered, from match winner and handicaps to total points lines.
Odds were very strong: I backed France -7.5 vs Italy and Tote’s price matched what I got at Betfred (which is probably the best rugby betting site I’ve tested).
Tote doesn’t have rugby-specific promotions - although not many online bookmakers do outside of a handful of sites.
I bet on the PDC World Championship with Tote. Core markets (match winner, correct score, 180s) were covered and odds were pretty competitive.
Tote lacks darts-specific promos, whereas a site like BetMGM has plenty of darts boosts and special deals.
For occasional darts betting, Tote is fine, but serious arrows fans might find better value and more promotions elsewhere.
Tote’s snooker betting section is pretty bare-bones in my opinion.
I had a punt on the World Snooker Championship and found the markets basic - there wasn’t much beyond winner, correct score and handicaps.
That said, odds were in line with prices from William Hill, which is a site with a very good snooker offering.
I was very happy with Tote’s MMA and boxing betting options.
I got odds of 6/4 on Katie Taylor to beat Amanda Serrano, which was the best price I found when I checked rivals - better than Ladbrokes and Coral, who were offering 11/8.
I was most impressed with the MMA section, however, which includes odds for promotions like Cage Warriors and PFL, as well as the bigger promotions like the UFC.
A lot of betting sites don't match that level of coverage.
My only gripe: I'd like if MMA markets could be combined in a bet builder, which doesn't seem to be possible here yet.
Tote covers 28 sports in total - solid, but not as many as Bzeebet’s 44, for example.
US sports are well-represented - with the basketball betting section standing out. I was able to bet on the NBA playoffs with lots of market variety and competitive odds.
The Esports betting section has odds for all the big video game titles like CS:GO, League of Legends, Dota 2 and more.
They even list politics betting markets (like the next UK Prime Minister) and TV events such as Eurovision and Love Island.
Because of Tote’s pool betting model, this bookmaker often pays out more on horse racing than you’d get at fixed-odds.
I’ve found this is particularly the case when backing outsiders.
For popular sports like football and golf, Tote’s fixed-odds prices are up there with the best in the business.
For example, I placed bets on three Premier League matches and found that Tote matched William Hill’s odds twice and beat them once.
However, coverage for niche sports is thinner, with limited depth on snooker and darts.
In short, Tote is a solid bet for major sports, while its pool-based value on horse racing remains a big positive.
Tote’s bet builder is improving all the time and has now been expanded to cover five sports.
The same-game acca is available for football, tennis, basketball, baseball and American football - allowing up to six legs in a bet.
It's more versatile than William Hill's bet builder, but not as complete as bet365’s, which covers 14 sports and allows you up to 12 legs.
Here’s how it compares to bet builders from other betting sites:
Bookmaker | Maximum Selections | Sports Available |
---|---|---|
Up to 6 | 5 Sports in Total | |
Up to 12 | 14 Sports in Total | |
Up to 10 | 5 Sports in Total | |
Up to 8 | 3 Sports in Total | |
Unlimited (Max Odds 1000/1) | 6 Sports in Total |
I’ve always enjoyed betting in-play with the Tote.
I regularly use it for football and tennis, as I find the live stats console really useful.
Football in-play markets are comprehensive: I regularly see between 100 and 120 live betting markets for Premier League matches when a game is in-play.
The cash out feature generally offers decent value. Less reputable sites tend to low-ball me with cash out offers - but not the Tote.
However, as I've already mentioned, there are better live streaming betting sites out there with a bigger range of sports shown live.
Tote’s site is visually clean, with a red and white theme that you might be familiar with if you've placed bets with the Tote in-person at a racecourse.
In terms of design, it's almost on par with 10bet, which is one of the best-designed online bookmakers in my opinion.
Navigation is intuitive and things are pretty easy to find, whether you want to place pool bets on racing or fixed-odds bets on other sports.
Promotions are accessible from the top navigation bar, while the placepot tab shows you which meetings are eligible for he Tote's signature bet.
Load times are fast on both desktop and mobile, while the in-play service comes with statistics and graphics that help you track the action.
I'd like if a search function was added so I could locate teams and markets without having to tap around and find them manually. This seems like it would be a pretty easy fix, so I'll be monitoring the site to see if it's added.
Overall, however, Tote is one of the most user-friendly betting sites in the UK.
Payment Method | Minimum Deposit | Average Withdrawal Time |
---|---|---|
Visa Debit | £5 | 3-5 business days |
Mastercard Debit | £5 | 3-5 business days |
Tote’s betting app comes highly-rated from users on both the Apple App Store (4.5/5-star user rating) and Google Play Store (4.6/5-star user rating).
And from my experience, the Tote app fully deserves the positive user ratings it has received.
During testing, I used the app to bet on live football and was impressed by how quick and easy it was to move between markets and place bets in-play.
I also like the fingerprint login service for added security, as well as the app's clear design.
If you're betting on horses or greyhounds and watching live streams, I recommend the app as it works slightly better than the browser version of the Tote site.
Overall, this is one of the best apps I’ve used for betting - especially in-play.
Tote’s customer support service is reliable in my experience.
I tested all support options - live chat was the best route, answering a question I had about the placepot quickly.
Phone support is also handy for when you'd rather speak directly to someone.
Email was slower to respond than live chat, but may be useful if you need to write out a more complex question.
Channel | Availability | My Experience |
---|---|---|
Live Chat | 8am-midnight | Fast and helpful agents. |
24/7 | Replied within 12 hours. | |
Phone (0800 032 8188) | 8am-midnight | Quick connection, helpful staff. |
The responsible gambling tools at Tote are comprehensive.
I found RG tools easily in my account area and tested deposit limits and reality checks - both were easy to set.
Tote also offers time-outs (24 hrs to 90 days) and self-exclusion (6 months to 5 years).
These are all of the tools that can be used to help with responsible play:
Tote is the best pool betting site in the UK and one of my favourite horse racing bookies in general.
I like betting on pools when backing outsiders in particular, because of the potential for bigger returns.
Another alternative to fixed-odds betting is spread betting - but it carries more risk than pools, so I often go to the Tote when I'm looking to mix things up.
If you stick to fixed odds, Tote has competitive prices on sports like football, tennis and golf - just don't expect to find lots of promotions for those sports.
Adding a few more payment methods and more live streams would definitely improve the site even further.
But overall, Tote is a bookie I highly recommend. It's been the home of pool betting for decades as an on-track bookmaker and now offers that same high-quality service online.
The Tote is operated by the UK Tote Group, which was formed by a group of over 150 racehorse owners and breeders who took over the business in 2019. The company was originally established in 1928 under the direction of Winston Churchill and was run by the UK Government up until 2011.
Yes. Tote operates under a full UK Gambling Commission licence and is a well-established on-course and online bookmaker. Customer funds are ring-fenced in separate accounts, and the business undergoes regular audits - so you know it’s regulated, secure, and plays by the rules.
Once you request a withdrawal, expect to see the money hit your bank account in 3–5 working days. Speed can depend on your own bank’s processing times, but if everything’s in order (ID checks done, account verified), it shouldn’t take any longer than that.
Customer support is available via live chat on the Tote website. You can also email customercare@tote.co.uk, or call 0800 032 8188 (or +44 1942 314045 from abroad) between 8am and midnight UK time. They’ll listen, record calls for quality, and aim to sort any issue quickly.
Yes - Tote has free bets. New customers can get free bets as part of the welcome offer when they sign up. Existing customers can tap into free bets through the 'Stayers Club', which provides loyalty credits for regular bettors.