In 1972 the Tote opened its first high street betting shop and now employees over 4,000 people. Following this in 1992, Tote Direct was created so that tote betting can be done from other high street bookmakers. Now over 7,000 betting shops offer tote betting, the majority of which are not Tote. When you bet online at Tote.co.uk or with the Placepot app there are some additional extras for customers: New customers receive a new customers receive a £10 welcome offer (terms and conditions apply) All online bets are covered by Tote Guarantee which means you will always receive SP or better.
We’ve reviewed a lot of betting sites over the last few years. Our Tote.co.uk review, though, is pretty unique. We’ll get into the ins and outs as the review progresses, but first I’d like to share some personal insights.
As a regular racegoer, I’m pretty familiar with betting on the Tote. It can make for a nice change from your traditional fixed odds betting. As such, I was pretty excited to try the dedicated Tote betting platform at Tote.co.uk.
If what you’re looking for is Tote betting from the comfort of your home – or anywhere else away from a racecourse – the site has got you covered. It’s nice and easy to place all of the traditional types of Tote wagers and to check on the day’s racing results. Note though that ONLY Tote bets are available on the site.
The Tote.co.uk welcome bonus is definitely on the small side as well. A £10 risk free bet isn’t all that generous plus when you couple that with limited betting types and very limited banking options you’ve got a very middle of the road type platform.
The name ‘Tote’ has been associated with the betting industry for almost as long as there’s been a betting industry. Today, Tote.co.uk is a platform for people who wish to take part in traditional Tote horse racing betting, online.
Tote.co.uk is the trading name of a parent company called TDCO Limited. TDCO Limited were established in 2018 by a commercial group now known as the UK Tote Group. It’s that group who are the ultimate stewards of Tote betting, since taking over from Betfred in 2018.
TDCO Limited is licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission to serve punters in Great Britain. At time of writing, however, Tote.co.uk is not available to any gamblers in Ireland or elsewhere. It is possible that this may change in the coming months.
Given that TDCO Limited is fully licensed with the UKGC, punters can use Tote.co.uk with confidence. The platform is held to the same standards as other betting providers on the market. The UKGC expects Tote.co.uk to operate fairly and to honour all wagers that it accepts.
Visa
£0
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£5 – no max
Mastercard
£0
Instant
£5 – no max
Tote.co.uk is very different to most of the betting sites we review.
It’s not a sportsbook, as it doesn’t offer any fixed odds betting. Instead, it’s the new online platform for betting on the Tote.
The Tote is a traditional way of betting on horse racing. As such, there are no other sports covered at Tote.co.uk.
The bets you can place through the site are also a little different.
For each race, you have a choice of three or four different kinds of wagers. The simplest are ‘Totewin’ or ‘Toteplace’ bets. These are single wagers on a horse to either win or to place in the chosen race.
You can also place an Exacta or a Trifecta on any race with three or more runners. An Exacta is a bet on the first two finishers in the race. A Trifecta is a wager on the first three horses in your chosen race.
You can either bet on the horses to finish in a specific order or you can bet on them to finish in any order. The latter option is similar to a traditional each-way bet. Your stake is split between all of the different potential finishing orders.
As well as those single bet options, you can place Placepot, Quadpot, and Jackpot wagers via Tote.co.uk. These are bets that cover multiple races. The Placepot and the Jackpot always encompasses six legs. The Quadpot includes just four races. To win a Placepot or Quadpot wager, your selection from each leg must place in the race. To win the Jackpot, all your selections must win their races.
Whichever bets you place through Tote.co.uk, you never get standard odds. Tote.co.uk is not a fixed odds bookmaker. Instead, if you place a winning wager you get a share of the ‘Totepool’ for the race or meeting in question. What you’ll win for a £1 bet is displayed on-site for each single bet option. You can also see the size of the Totepool for any available multi-leg bets.
If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll understand why there’s no live betting at Tote.co.uk. You never have and never will be able to bet in-play on the Tote. That’s just not what Tote betting is about. In all fairness, you can only bet in-play on racing through the exchanges anyway.
If live betting is essential to you then check out Bet365 instead.
What may be more off-putting for some punters about Tote.co.uk, though, is that its form of betting is also not set up for cash out. Once you’ve placed a bet, your stake goes towards the prize pool for winning wagers for your chosen race or meeting. Cashing out, therefore, is not viable with that in mind.
Perhaps unsurprisingly as an online platform for a very traditional betting style, Tote.co.uk keeps things simple. There are no live streams of races and you can only bet on races from the current day. You can also only access results from the same day’s completed races.
As we draw to the close of this Tote.co.uk review it’s worth taking a look at the welcome offer available to new Tote customers. If you sign up for a new Tote.co.uk account, you get a risk free first bet up to a maximum of £10. It could hardly be simpler to participate in the promotion:
Whilst it’s easy and simple to claim… this bonus is very small and when compared to other bookmaker offers it’s definitley below par.
It’s a little tricky to review Tote.co.uk as compared to other betting sites. What this site provides is a very different kind of gambling experience. Some of the key things to keep in mind if you’re thinking of betting at Tote.co.uk are as follows:
If you do like the idea of some traditional Tote betting online, Tote.co.uk is the place to be but for most punters that won’t be enough and they’d be better off somewhere else.