Today’s tote placepot tips come from Epsom races – the home of the Epsom Derby – on Monday 29th August. For many, having a bet on the horses is as simple as picking a fancy and then placing a bet on it to win – but there are other ways to you enjoy an afternoon at the races, like the popular daily tote placepot.
We explain more about the placepot bet below, plus give you our daily placepot tips – today from the races at Epsom Downs races this Bank Holiday Monday (29th Aug 2022).
So, yes, the ‘great news’ for horse racing punters is there are many different types of bets that can increase your enjoyment of this sport and also potentially give you better returns from the bookmakers.
With that in mind, the Tote Placepot is certainly a bet that’s worth getting to know a bit better.
Bet £5 Get £20 In Free Bets
New customers online only. Place your first bet on racing pools for a minimum of £5 and win or lose you will receive £20 Tote Credit. £20 Tote Credit rewarded as £10 redeemable against racing bets only and £10 redeemable against UK and Irish placepot bets only. Tote Credit cannot be withdrawn, exchanged, or substituted and expires after 7 days. Qualifying bet is the first racing pool bet added to the bet-slip. Ten to Follow, virtual and football bets do not qualify. Totewin will be the qualifying bet when a Totewin and a Toteplace bet are struck at the same time. New UK & ROI customers only. 18+. Full T&Cs apply.
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Race ONE: 2.05 Epsom – BONITA B (3) & SILVER KITTEN (4)
Race TWO: 2.40 Epsom – CHARTWELL HOUSE (1) & COBALT BLUE (2)
Race THREE: 3.15 Epsom – OUTRUN THE STORM (7) & WODETON (4)
Race FOUR: 3.50 Epsom – FAST STEPS (6) & SARVAN (1)
Race FIVE: 4.25 Epsom – ARENAS DEL TIEMPO (3) & BALGAIR (2)
Race SIX: 5.00 Epsom – ZULU GIRL (2) & INTERCESSOR (4)
Total Lines: 2x2x2x2x2x2 = 64 lines
Note: If your placepot fancy is a non-runner, it will go on the favourite (if joint favs it will go on the horse with the lowest racecard number)
RELATED: Horse Racing Betting Calculator
Other Horse Racing Tips Placepot Tips – Monday 29th August Each-Way Betting Tip – Monday 29th August Lucky 15 Horse Racing Tips – Monday 29th August Daily Horse Racing Betting Tips – Monday 29th August Andrew Mount’s Horse Racing Tips Andrew Mount’s SpreadEx Analysis Today’s Horse Racing NAP
Join Tote today and play the daily PLACEPOT through their site, plus also grab your FREE £25 Matched Bet (Ts&C’s apply)
Bet £5 Get £20 In Free Bets
New customers online only. Place your first bet on racing pools for a minimum of £5 and win or lose you will receive £20 Tote Credit. £20 Tote Credit rewarded as £10 redeemable against racing bets only and £10 redeemable against UK and Irish placepot bets only. Tote Credit cannot be withdrawn, exchanged, or substituted and expires after 7 days. Qualifying bet is the first racing pool bet added to the bet-slip. Ten to Follow, virtual and football bets do not qualify. Totewin will be the qualifying bet when a Totewin and a Toteplace bet are struck at the same time. New UK & ROI customers only. 18+. Full T&Cs apply.
The Placepot has become the most popular pool bet for UK and Irish horse racing punters as it means you’ve got a chance to have an interest in the first six races.
It’s appeal is that you don’t have to find the winner in each race, but just a horse that will be placed (depending on the number of runners) in each of the first six races of a particular meeting.
The Placepot is run by the Tote and through a pool betting style system, but several leading bookmakers – like bet365 – now also give the option bet on the Placepot on their site – these all still go into the same big universal pool for each separate horse racing meeting.
In short, the more people who have bet in the Placepot the bigger the pool will be.
Therefore, just like the lottery, the fewer people who have placed horses in the first six races at a given horse racing fixture, means the bigger the winning dividend return.
In contrast, should a lot of fancied horses win (or be placed) then there is a strong chance a lot of people would have picked these Placepot horses and the final dividend will be a lot small as it’s shared between more people.
The simple way to play the Placepot is to just pick one horse in each of the first six races – then if ALL of these horses are placed (this depends on the number of runners in the race and race type – more below) you will have a share of the final dividend.
However, once you get familiar with the Placepot, you can also decide to have more than one horse per race – this will increase your chances of winning, but also mean the stake of the bet will be higher.
These are often referred to as ‘Placepot Lines or Perms’
It’s a fairly straightforward calculation to work out how many lines a Placepot with more than one horse in each races will cost.
Simply multiply the number of horses (lines) you have in race one by the number of horses (lines) in race two and then for race three, four, five and six.
Race One – 2 horses Race Two – 2 horses Race Three – 2 horses Race Four – 2 horses Race Five – 2 horses Race Six – 2 horses
This will be 2x2x2x2x2x2 = 64 lines
The beauty here is that you can make it as cheap or as expensive as you want.
There are, however, two minimum stakes to take into account when it comes to the Placepot, the minimum stake per line and the minimum total stake.
The minimum stake per line is 10p, although some operators may allow 5p lines so be sure to shop around, while the minimum total stake is £1.
For example, if we played 10p lines on our example (above) 64-line Tote Placepot above, the total stake would be £6.40, or if we staked each line at 50p it would cost £32.
This depends on the number or runners or race type.
1-4 runners – 1st place only 5-7 runners – 1st and 2nd places 8+ runners – 1st, 2nd and 3rd places 16+ runners (handicap races only) – 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th places
Tote Placepot winnings are universal with the final dividend normally given out around 30 mins after the sixth race has finished.
You can also now follow the progress of the pool at each meeting at the TotePoolLive.com site – this will display the final pool size and the amount of tickets on each horse as each race is run, meaning you can see how you are fairing with the rest of the players through the meeting.
The dividend is worked out at £1 stake, so if you only have a winning line at 10p then the dividend will be divided by 10 e.g. a winning dividend at £200 at 10p will mean a £20 return.
To work out how much your return is – multiply your stake per line by the amount of winning lines you have. Your winnings will then be either that percentage of the published £1-stake winnings or a multiple of the published dividend.
If the Placepot is paying £500 to a £1 stake and you have four winning 20p lines then you have a total of 80p in winning bets. You win £400, or 80p-worth of the £1 winnings published.
If the Tote Placepot pays £400 to a £1 stake and you have two winning £1 lines, your total of £2 of winning bets means you win £800.
Some horse racing punters will attempt just a single line, which means selecting just one horse in each of the six races. This ‘straight line’ bet can be a tricky ‘all your eggs in one basket’ approach, but if you do get through all six races with a horse placed then you are generally rewarded well.
On the opening day of the 2019 Cheltenham Festival, one punter staked one £2 line and managed to select four winners and two runners-up in the first six races.
As there were several big-priced horses placed on the card the winning dividend paid a staggering £91,283.10 to a £1 stake, meaning this punter bagged double the dividend – £182,567.80!!
That said, most Placepot punters often like to make multiple selections in the races with more horses in as this will give them a better chance of getting a horse placed.
For the bulk of Tote Placepot punters, the balance is keeping an eye on the number of selections and the total stake – it’s tempting to put 4 or 5 horses in some races, but the perms on this can quickly add up which means your final stake will be very high.
With that in mind, if there are certain races with a hot favourite in, then many like to take a punt on just having this one horse in which will keep costs down.
Note though, if these hot favourites blow out then this will knock a lot of people out and, therefore, increase the final pool dividend a lot.
As mentioned in the previous section, when a fancied horses fails to place this is where the Placepot final payouts can get massive.
Sometimes it’s a juggling act of playing safe and following the crowd or taking a chance of a hot favourite not running well and, in the process, increasing the final pool dividend.
Let’s be honest, it’s not hard to pick a favourite in each of the six races, but if they do all place, then the chances are that you’ll be sharing this Placepot
The beauty of having one or two banker legs though (1 pick in a race) is that this frees up space for a potential big handicap race later on in the card – meaning you can possibly have 3 or 4 picks in that race to increase your chance.
Remember though, if you have 3 or 4 picks in a certain race and two get placed then you get both lines going through to the next leg – which will increase your final payout.
A good example of this are races at the Cheltenham Festival as most days there is a mix of so-called Festival bankers and big-field handicaps, where 20+ runners or more are entered
If one of your Placepot selections is a non-runner, then that horse will revert to the SP favourite. If there are joint or co-favourites, the lowest racecard number carries your money.
So, if horses numbers 1 and 4 are joint-favourites, it is horse number 1 that will take place of your selected non-runner.
See below our select list of some of the newer bookies around – but they are totally trusted bookmakers, that will also have prices ahead of the horse racing today – best of all they ALL also have ‘must-see’ free bet sign-up offers to snap-up.
Bet £10 Get £20 In Free Bets
Bet £30 Get A £30 Free Bet
Bet £15 Get a £10 Free Bet
Bet £10 Get £30 In Free Bets
Horse racing tipster and journalist that likes to use key horse racing trends and stats to find winners. Has leading industry contacts, including some of the best stables in the UK, plus has featured in the Weatherbys Cheltenham Festival Guide and Racing Ahead horse racing magazine. Now a regular on SportsLens, giving his views, trends and tips on all things horse racing.