Betting on the Placepot can be one of the best ways to squeeze bigger profits from a day at the races, especially if you’re prepared to back some outsiders.
Placepots are pool bets, where you make your selections on six races and add your stake to one big pot. If all your selections place in their individual races, then you win a share of the total pot.
That’s the idea of Placepots but the reality is they’re a little more complicated. In this guide, we’re going to show you in detail how the Placepot works, and explain how you can figure out your dividends.
How does a Placepot work in racing?
A Placepot is effectively a big pool of money that punters put their stakes in on raceday. The idea is to select at least six horses across six races to win or place. Obviously, not everyone has the same combination of horses, meaning people drop out of the Placepot as each race at the selected meeting finishes.
In the end, the pool is left with a handful of Placepot winners who correctly backed all of their runners to win or place. These lucky punters receive a share of the dividend payout relative to the size of their stake.
But how do you actually bet on the Placepot? Well, the Tote organises the UK’s Placepots so you have to bet with them. You can either do this online or at a Paddy Power betting shop. You’ll need to fill out your bet slip with at least one selection across all six races in question.
You then need to set your stake. If you set a £1 stake and make the minimum six selections, then you’ll pay £6 into the pot.
You can choose to make multiple selections in one race but you’ll obviously have to pay more for the privilege.
Once the race starts, the Tote will gather all the money thrown into the Placepot and take a 27% cut. The remaining 73% is what’s known as the dividend. This is what will be shared between all winners at the end of the day.
Learn more placepot rules today
Calculating Placepot dividends
Actually calculating Placepot dividends is difficult unless you know how many people also won and the size of the pot. However, let’s look at an example of the theory behind calculating dividends.
Say you backed six runners across six races, at £1 each. Your stake is £6. The total Placepot came in at £100,000. After the Tote’s fee, the total available for dividend payments is £73,00.
Now, only you and 19 other people win the Placepot. (You backed a few outsiders and struck gold!) So, you earn a twentieth of the pot = £3,650. Not bad off a £6 horse racing bet, right?
Placepot rules allow you to bet as little as 10p per selection. Because payouts are based on a £1 bet, in this instance your final dividend would be divided by 10. So, you’d earn £365 from a 60p total outlay.
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