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Tote Placepot Guide: How It Works, What It Costs and How to Build a Perm
Find a placed horse in each of the first six races and you share the pool. Here is how the Placepot works, how lines and perms add up, what happens to non-runners, and where the Quadpot and Jackpot fit in.
By Horse.bet Team · Updated 23 October 2026
The basics
How the Tote Placepot Works
The Placepot is the Tote's most popular bet and a fixture of the British raceday. You pick at least one horse in each of the first six races at a meeting, and each of them has to finish placed. Get a placed horse in all six legs and you win a share of the pool.
You do not need to find a single winner, which is the appeal. A Placepot can survive a day of upsets, and it can also be ruined by one well-backed favourite who fades into fourth in a seven-runner race. It runs at every UK and Irish meeting and at selected international ones, and online betting opens at 4pm the day before.
Because it is a pool bet, you do not know your return when you place it. Every stake goes into the pot, the Tote takes its deduction, and what is left is shared among the winning tickets. The fewer people who survive all six legs, the bigger the dividend.
What counts as placed
Placepot Place Terms by Field Size
The number of places that count in each leg depends on the field size and the type of race. The Tote's terms are:
Runners
Non-handicap
Handicap
2–4
Winner only
Winner only
5–7
1st and 2nd
1st and 2nd
8–15
1st, 2nd and 3rd
1st, 2nd and 3rd
16 or more
1st, 2nd and 3rd
1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th
These are the same thresholds as the standard each-way terms for most races, but there is one practical difference: a Placepot leg with four or fewer runners is effectively a win bet. A small-field novice chase in the opening leg can be the hardest race of the six.
Dead heats work in your favour. If horses dead-heat for a placing, each of them is treated as fully placed in that leg.
Lines and units
Lines, Units and Perms: What a Placepot Costs
A Placepot with one horse in each leg is a single line. Add horses and you create a permutation, or perm: the number of lines is the number of selections in each leg multiplied together. You then choose a stake per line, and the total cost is the stake multiplied by the lines.
Selections per leg
Lines
Cost at 10p a line
Cost at 50p a line
1 × 1 × 1 × 1 × 1 × 1
1
10p
50p
2 × 1 × 3 × 1 × 2 × 1
12
£1.20
£6
2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2
64
£6.40
£32
3 × 2 × 1 × 3 × 2 × 1
36
£3.60
£18
3 × 3 × 3 × 3 × 3 × 3
729
£72.90
£364.50
At tote.co.uk and in the Tote app the minimum is 1p a line with a minimum total stake of 50p. On course the minimum Placepot stake is £2. Low unit stakes make wide perms affordable, but remember that the dividend is declared to a £1 stake: a 10p winning line receives a tenth of it.
The table also shows how quickly two selections in every leg escalates. Doubling up in all six races multiplies the lines by 64, so the art of the Placepot is deciding where you need cover and where one horse will do.
When things change
Non-Runners, the Favourite Rule and Abandoned Pools
If one of your selections is a non-runner, you are not knocked out. Under the Placepot rules your selection is replaced by the starting-price favourite in that leg. Where there are joint or co-favourites, the one with the lowest racecard number takes its place.
You can also choose the unnamed favourite deliberately. Selecting FAV in a leg means you take whichever horse goes off favourite, the same lowest-number rule applying to joint favourites. Pick FAV in all six legs and you are backing the favourite in every race.
The same non-runner and dead-heat rules apply to the Quadpot, and the Jackpot also replaces a non-runner with the SP favourite. If a pool is cancelled altogether, bets are void and stakes returned.
Worked example (illustrative)
In leg four you have one horse, which is withdrawn at the start. The 2/1 (3.0) favourite takes its place in your perm.
If the favourite finishes second in an eight-runner race, where three places count, your Placepot survives into leg five.
The payout
How Placepot Dividends Are Calculated
All Placepot stakes go into one pool. The Tote deducts its takeout, 27% on the standard Placepot, leaving 73% of the gross pool to share. That net pool is divided by the number of winning £1 units to produce the dividend, which is always declared to a £1 stake. The running dividend is updated after each leg on tote.co.uk, so you can see what is at stake as the afternoon goes on.
Worked example (illustrative figures)
The gross pool is £100,000. After the 27% deduction the net pool is £73,000. If 850 £1 units have a placed horse in all six legs, the dividend is £73,000 ÷ 850 = £85.88.
Your 12-line perm at 50p a line cost £6. If one line wins, you receive 50p × £85.88 = £42.94. If two of your horses placed in the same leg, two of your lines win and you receive £85.88.
Big dividends come when fancied horses fail. When favourites run into the places all afternoon, thousands of tickets survive and the payout can be small, sometimes less than your outlay. On the other hand, at the 2019 Cheltenham Festival one racegoer won more than £182,000 from a £2 stake.
The rest of the menu
Quadpot, Jackpot, Placepot7 and Scoop6
Bet
Races
What you need
Placepot
First six races at a meeting
A placed horse in each race
Quadpot
Races 3, 4, 5 and 6
A placed horse in each race
Placepot7 (ITV7 Placepot)
Seven races, which can span meetings
A placed horse in each race
Jackpot
First six races at one selected meeting
The winner of each race
Scoop6
Six selected Saturday TV races
The winner of each race
The Quadpot uses the same place terms as the Placepot over four legs, races three to six, so it is cheaper to perm and pays smaller dividends. It is also a second chance: if your Placepot falls in the first two legs, the Quadpot is still open until the third race.
The Placepot7 has seven legs instead of six and can be built from races at different meetings; at meeting level it appears as the ITV7 Placepot and mirrors the ITV7 races. It carries the same 27% takeout as the standard Placepot, and if nobody wins, the pool rolls over to the next Placepot7.
The Jackpot and Scoop6 require winners, not placed horses, which makes them far harder and far bigger. The Tote's single-race bets, including the Exacta and Trifecta, are compared with bookmaker forecasts in our forecast and tricast guide.
Building a perm
How to Build a Sensible Placepot Perm
Start with the card, not the favourites. Look at field sizes on our racecards and mark which legs pay two, three or four places.
Find a banker or two. A strong favourite in an eight-runner race, where three places count, is the classic single selection.
Cover the trappy legs. Small fields with a short-priced favourite pay only two places and are where Placepots fall. Big handicaps paying four places can often be covered with two or three horses.
Oppose a vulnerable favourite where you can. The dividend grows when popular horses miss the places, so a perm that survives a beaten favourite is worth more than one that relies on it.
Check the ground. A change in the going can bring non-runners, and every withdrawal hands that line to the favourite.
Fix your budget first. Decide the total you are prepared to lose, then choose the unit stake that lets you cover the legs you need.
Worked example (illustrative)
A six-race card: leg one is a five-runner novice chase (two places), leg two an eight-runner maiden (three), leg three a 12-runner handicap (three), leg four a 17-runner handicap (four), leg five a six-runner conditions race (two) and leg six a 10-runner handicap (three).
You bank a strong favourite in legs two and five, take two in legs one, three and six, and three in the 17-runner handicap. That is 2 × 1 × 2 × 3 × 1 × 2 = 24 lines, costing £4.80 at 20p a line.
The cover goes on the five-runner opener, where only two places count, and on the three handicaps; the bankers are favourites you trust to finish in the places.
Festival cards are the sternest test: big-field handicaps paying four places sit alongside championship races where a beaten favourite can sink thousands of tickets. See our Cheltenham Festival guide for the shape of those cards.
Placing the bet
Where to Bet the Placepot
You can bet the Placepot directly with the Tote online, in its app or at the Tote windows on course. Several UK bookmakers also carry Tote pools; bet365 and Paddy Power both offer the Placepot, Quadpot and Jackpot, with the pool rules set out in their own help pages.
Tote bets sit outside bookmakers' fixed-odds concessions. Best Odds Guaranteed does not apply to Tote bets at bet365 or William Hill, for instance, so treat the Placepot as a pool bet first and foremost. Our UK horse betting sites page compares the wider racing offer.
A Placepot is a cheap afternoon's interest, but small stakes add up over a season. Betting is for over-18s; keep it within a budget.
★ Racing offers
Bookmakers offering the Tote Placepot
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Questions
Frequently asked questions
How does a Placepot work?
You pick at least one horse in each of the first six races at a meeting. If at least one of your selections is placed in every race, you share the pool with the other winning tickets. The dividend is declared to a £1 stake after the Tote's deduction.
How much does a Placepot cost?
Multiply the number of selections in each leg to get the number of lines, then multiply by your stake per line. A perm of 2 × 1 × 3 × 1 × 2 × 1 is 12 lines, costing £6 at 50p a line. At tote.co.uk the minimum is 1p a line and 50p in total; on course the minimum is £2.
What happens in a Placepot if your horse is a non-runner?
Your selection is replaced by the starting-price favourite in that race. If there are joint favourites, the one with the lowest racecard number is used.
How many places count in a Placepot?
Winner only with two to four runners; first and second with five to seven; first three with eight to fifteen and in non-handicaps of sixteen or more; and first four in handicaps of sixteen or more runners.
What races are in the Quadpot?
Races three, four, five and six at the meeting. It works like a Placepot over four legs, with the same place terms and non-runner rules.
What is the Tote Jackpot?
A pool bet in which you must pick the winners of the first six races at one selected meeting. A non-runner is replaced by the SP favourite.
How is the Placepot dividend calculated?
The Tote deducts 27% from the total pool and divides the rest by the number of winning £1 units. If the net pool is £73,000 and 850 units win, the dividend is £85.88 to a £1 stake.
