News from the Tote - April 2021

Introduction

Welcome to the April update from the Tote about our latest developments.

This month’s update focuses on an exciting new pricing era for the Tote, along with a review of Aintree and Cheltenham Festivals and upcoming events to look forward to.

As ever we are very grateful to the team at the ROA for sharing these updates on our behalf.

If you have any further questions, or areas you would like to discuss with us in more detail, please email our Communications and Corporate Affairs Director, Susannah Gill, on [email protected].

 

New Pricing Era with launch of Tote Plus

This month we have launched Tote+ (Tote Plus) which provides a 10% dividend enhancement to all customers betting direct on tote.co.uk.

Tote+ is available everyday across single and multileg bets placed on all UK and Irish races. There is no cap on the stake a customer can place to receive the Tote+ enhancement and it applies to all standard dividends over 1.20. For example, if the Scoop6 has a million-pound dividend, Tote+ customers will be paid £1.1m (£1m + £100,000 extra). If the Placepot pays £438, Tote+ customers will receive £481.80 (£438 + £43.80 extra).

At the same time, Tote Guarantee remains in place which ensures the Tote will always match the industry Starting Price (SP) or exceed it if the pool price is bigger on all Win bets. 

Tote+ is available on the Tote website, on the Tote App and at tote.ie for Irish customers.

 

Aintree Festival

With Tote+ switched on for Aintree the Tote offered some exceptional value for all customers of tote.co.uk, including the top 4 finishers in the Grand National:

• Minella Times – SP 11/1, Tote+ 13.20
• Balko Des Flos - SP 100/1, Tote+ 164.12
• Any Second Now - SP 15/2, Tote+ 11.33
• Burrows Saint - SP 9/1, Tote+ 11.33

It was simply fantastic to see the headlines created by Rachael Blackmore’s historic victory.

 

Cheltenham Festival

While on course and betting shop liquidity made up well over 50% of the pool during the 2020 Cheltenham Festival, this critical part of the ecosystem was unavailable this year. However, we’re taking advantage of the early stages of 2021 to open up new channels which have previously been out of reach to the Tote – specifically that of digital expansion and international integration.

 

Therefore, it was positive to have doubled the number of customers on the tote.co.uk platform for each day of Cheltenham to over 10,000 customers with over £1 million turnover in the pools across the four days. This included money from the PMU commingling into the pools, which will continue for another 80 fixtures in 2021 and is another very important development in our integration with international partners. Our Chairman John Williamson has blogged about this, which can be read here.

 

Our digital customer base continues to expand and we now have over 50,000 active customers.

 

More World Pool Days

This year both the 2000 Guineas and Derby racedays will be World Pool events, along with the five days for Royal Ascot and British Champions Day. Full details can be read here.

 

World Pool days centralise liquidity ensuring larger pools and increased value for customers. World Pool has seen pool betting liquidity at Royal Ascot grow from £18 million in 2018 to £137 million last year. Crucially, this offers British racing a centralised mechanism to monetize the sport to a global audience watching and betting on the sport in over 200 countries.

 

There will be further news about more World Pool days for British racing in 2021 in the coming weeks and we look forward to sharing more details with you.

 

These international developments can be transformative for the stature of the UK/Irish pool and we continue our work as a board member of the World Tote Association to maximise the opportunities for the Tote.

 

In our next update in May we will be looking towards the flat season, with a new Tote Ten to Follow competition and the first World Pool event of 2021 on 2000 Guineas day.