Tote betting? What the hell is a tote? I don’t know about you but the first time I came across this on my favourite sports betting app it had me scratching my head. At first I just ignored it. There was so much more interesting stuff that I put the tote betting definition on the back burner. Time has passed and I figure now was a good time as any to find an easy to explain tote betting definition on the Internet. Man, there’s a lot of tote betting definitions on the internet, some of which is pretty confusing.

Best Tote Betting Definition

I think the most in depth tote betting definition can be found on Wikipedia! Sometimes it’s also referred to the French Parimutuel betting, also found on Wikipedia. You can read those articles to find a bit of history and more in-depth explanation of tote betting.

The main difference between a fixed bet and a tote bet is the odds on the fixed bet does not change whereas it does on a tote bet. With a tote bet you don’t know what the odds are until after the race has ended. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that tote betting is only found in racing events such as horse and greyhound racing.

From what I can gather bookies prefer tote betting because they have a better idea of what they’re getting. Their dividend is always a percentage of all the money collected in the bet. Once they’ve deducted the commission the remainder is distributed with the winners. Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article I mentioned above.

[greybox]Consider a hypothetical event which has eight possible outcomes, in a country using a decimal currency such as dollars. Each outcome has a certain amount of money wagered:

Thus, the total pool of money on the event is $1028.00. Following the start of the event, no more wagers are accepted. The event is decided and the winning outcome is determined to be Outcome 4 with $110.00 wagered. The payout is now calculated. First the commission or take for the wagering company is deducted from the pool; for example with a commission rate of 14.25% the calculation is: $1028 × (1 – 0.1425) = $881.52. The remaining amount in the pool is now distributed to those who wagered on Outcome 4: $881.52 / $110.00 = 8.01 ≈ $8 per $1 wagered. This payout includes the $1 wagered plus an additional $7 profit. Thus, the odds on Outcome 4 are 7-to-1 [/greybox]

Personally I think they should call it Pool Betting because that better describes the whole process. All bets on the race are pooled together. The bookie deducts his percentage and the rest is distributed amongst the winners. Shit, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that term actually existed.

The only advantage that I can see for tote betting is for those who bet on an outsider because there would be less punters to share the winnings with. Whereas if a favourite one you’d have to share it with a lot more meaning a smaller porting for everyone.

Which Is Better Tote Betting Or Fixed Bets?

I may have to try a tote bet to before I can answer this honestly. Then again with a tote bet it all depends on whether the horse that run was a favourite or an outsider and how may punters you have to share your bet with. For now I think I will stick with a fixed bet. At least I know exactly what my winnings will be when my horse crosses the finishing line.