Tote Update for January
Introduction
Welcome to the first update from the Tote for 2022.
This month, we’re focusing on the roll out of a Racing Revenue Share Scheme, through which we will reward owners and trainers who support the Tote.
As ever, we are very grateful to the team at the ROA for sharing these updates on our behalf.
If you have any questions, or there are any areas you would like to discuss with us in more detail, please email our Communications and Corporate Affairs Director, Susannah Gill, on [email protected].
Racing Revenue Share Scheme
We are working hard to build the Tote into a reputable business which can provide customers with better value and return more to British racing.
Customers betting with the Tote are now doing so at a c.6% margin in the Win pools – a significant improvement on the 19.25% takeout which the Tote operated under before we acquired the business in October 2019. Moreover, the Tote welcomes winners. The Tote model has always been based on turnover, not losses, so winning accounts will never be restricted or closed down.
In conjunction with the Hong Kong Jockey Club, we are proud to have hosted 17 World Pool days on British and Irish racing in 2021, up from 6 in 2020. World Pool sees racing fans from around the world bet into one pool, offering exceptional value for customers. The Tote Win price beat the industry Starting Price 70% of the time on World Pool days in 2021 and matched it on the remaining 30% with Tote Guarantee in place.
Crucially, World Pool Days significantly increase income for racecourses through increased media rights payments generated through betting. World Pool fixtures in 2021 generated multimillion pounds worth of extra income for those racecourses involved. Nick Smith, Director of Racing and Communications at Ascot Racecourse, stated in the Racing Post in October: “In terms of the revenues that we can draw on from within the betting arena, it has been the most significant change in the landscape for decades.” World Pool is very much in its formative stages, with increased revenues for UK/Irish racing anticipated over the next few years.
As part of our ongoing rejuvenation of the Tote we want to offer owners who choose to bet with the Tote the chance to support their trainers and allow the Tote to give more back to British racing. In order to do this, we have introduced a Racing Revenue Share Scheme.
This Racing Revenue Share Scheme is unique to the Tote and ensures that, when owners bet with the Tote, 20% of any profit generated goes back to your nominated trainer.
The scheme is very simple. You simply need to have a Tote account through which you bet and contact [email protected] to let us know that you would like to be part of the scheme. We will ask you who your nominated trainer is and, when you bet with the Tote, your trainer will receive 20% of the revenue share from the Tote’s takeout for that bet, provided they have signed up to the scheme. 20% of revenue share will be at least 1% of any player’s betting turnover.
Your trainer will receive the funds from the Tote on a quarterly basis, whereupon they can choose to do as they wish with the money.
As this is a turnover based scheme, you don’t need to rely on anyone losing for your trainer to be earning commission from the Tote – they simply earn 20% of the Tote’s revenue every time you bet, with no cap on the amount they can earn.
The below graphic sets out a case study for how the Racing Revenue Share Scheme works:
If this is of interest to you, please contact [email protected] for further details.
Tote Guarantee on Racecourses
Last month we focused on Tote Guarantee being available on racecourses – the full details on the update are available here.
As a reminder, this is an enhancement to the dividend which ensures the Tote Win price will always match the industry Starting Price (SP) or exceed it if the pool price is bigger. Where the Tote Win price is higher than SP, the customer will be paid the higher price. With Tote Guarantee in place, racegoers can have the confidence to bet on any horse with the Tote and get the best price guaranteed on Win bets every time when they bet on a racecourse or at tote.co.uk.
This is now continuing into February, so if you are off racing in the coming weeks, please make use of it and get the best value possible!