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The Tote was founded in 1928 and was originally called the Horserace Totalisator Board. It was set up by Winston Churchill with a government appointed board with the intent to provide a safe and legal way to place bets on course and an attempt to rid the streets of all the illegal gambling rings that existed.
Its other intention was to make sure that some of the revenue was re-invested back into the sport of horse racing. On July 2nd 1929 both Newmarket and Carlisle saw its first Tote stall take money that would be “pooled” and distributed to the winners with the government having taken its percentage. It was a roaring success and the Tote was born.
And so it continued for another 72 years until after years of attempted sell offs by the government Mr Fred Done aka Betfred bought the Tote for the substantial sum of £265 million. The acquisition was a smart move by Betfred as the Tote has formal pool betting in Ireland, Germany, France, Holland, Cyprus, Denmark, Canada, the USA and South Africa.
Although now being owned by Betfred the brand still operates its original website which offers an extensive betting experience to the punter. With a normal sports book, the Tote (pool betting), casino, games, lottery and the new bet in-play feature there’s plenty to choose from.
You can get a £25 free matched bet upon signing up to the site and the sports offered are what we come to expect from all major bookmakers as they cover everything from football through to ice hockey. They offer competitive odds that fall into line with the majority of other bookmakers. Within the horse racing side they can be a little slow to price up a race and punters have to wait until the morning of the race to place any bets.
The casino and games section of the site also offer the usual and expected 100% matched deposit bonus if taking on the house is your preferred gamble. They also have on going incentives to keep customers depositing but fail to really offer anything in terms of the sports or horse racing. It’s also come to light recently that when placing bets through their mobile app when taking best odds guaranteed, should the price drift you have to wait up to 24 hours to receive the additional winnings which seems a little strange to us!
Customer support is a little out dated with simply an e-mail address and a free phone number. They only have the one e-mail and the response time can take up to 24 hours which is poor in todays competitive market.
As with all bookmakers compliant with the Gambling Commission they are prompt in all forms of payouts and depositing is supported by various methods.
Overall the Tote is a necessary bookmaker to have in terms of placing pool bets (albeit most bookmakers offer this function). They of course offer best odds guaranteed and are another source of being able to choose the best odds in your bid to beat the bookie.
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