Placepot explained: rules, perms and dividends

How does the Placepot work across six races?

The Placepot asks for a horse to be placed in each of races one to six at a meeting. Every leg must succeed, and all winning tickets share the pool left after the Tote's deduction.

Each meeting normally has its own Placepot on the first six races, so a Saturday with five meetings offers five separate pools. You choose one or more horses in every leg, and a ticket survives a leg if any of its horses in that race finishes in the places. One unplaced leg ends that line, which is why the bet feels easy early in the afternoon and hard by race five.

Because it is a pool bet, nobody fixes the price in advance. All stakes go into one pot, the Tote takes its percentage, and the rest is divided by the number of winning units. The result is declared as a dividend to a £1 unit, so a dividend of £85.40 pays £8.54 to a 10p line that got through all six legs.

How many places count in each Placepot race?

Places follow the number of runners and the race type: winner only with 2 to 4 runners, first two with 5 to 7, first three with 8 or more, and first four in handicaps of 16 or more runners.

The places depend on the size of the field, so a late non-runner that changes the field size can change what a ticket needs in that leg. Check the final field and the Tote's published terms before racing rather than relying on the morning card, because one leg paying fewer places can end many tickets.

The places mirror standard bookmaker each way terms, including one detail that catches people out: a non-handicap with 16 or more runners still pays only three places. Only big field handicaps pay four. A dead heat for the last place counts every dead heating horse as fully placed, so the Placepot never halves a leg the way a bookmaker settles an each way bet.

How do you work out the cost of a Placepot perm?

Multiply the number of selections in each race to get the lines, then multiply the lines by the unit stake. Two selections in all six races make 64 lines, which costs £6.40 at 10p a line.

A perm covers every combination of your picks, one from each leg. One horse in each race is a single line. Two in race one and one elsewhere is two lines. The count doubles every time a leg goes from one pick to two, and triples when a leg goes to three, so costs rise far faster than most people expect.

The practical skill is spending extra lines where they buy most cover. A small field with an odds-on favourite may need one pick, while a 20 runner handicap paying four places may need three. A perm of 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1 is only 12 lines, yet it covers the two legs most likely to go wrong.

What happens to a Placepot selection that is a non-runner?

A non-running selection is not made void. The Tote replaces it with the starting price favourite of that race, and the leg succeeds if the favourite is placed.

When there are joint or co-favourites, the Tote rules take the one with the lowest racecard number. The switch happens automatically, so a ticket with a withdrawn horse carries on with the market leader in its place rather than being refunded or losing that leg.

A void or abandoned leg that is not re-run the same day is treated differently again: every selection in that leg is deemed successful, and the pool is settled on the legs that were run. The same rule applies to a walkover, and the Tote's published rules are the final word on any unusual case.

Why do Placepot dividends swing from pounds to thousands?

The dividend is the net pool divided by the number of winning units. When favourites are placed in every leg, thousands of tickets share the pool; when outsiders fill the places, only a few survive.

Favourites are placed more often than they win, so a card of small fields with short priced market leaders tends to produce a modest dividend. A card of big field handicaps, heavy ground and fallers in a novice chase can knock out most tickets in a single race and push the payout into four figures.

Pool size matters too. A Saturday Placepot at a major meeting usually attracts a far larger pool than a Monday evening card, so the same six results can pay very different amounts. The live table on this page shows how often favourites have won and made the frame by field size, the numbers that drive how many tickets survive each leg.

How does the Placepot compare with the Quadpot and Jackpot?

The Placepot needs placed horses in races one to six, the Quadpot needs placed horses in races three to six, and the Jackpot needs the winner of six nominated races.

The Quadpot is simply the last four Placepot legs with its own pool, which makes it a useful fallback for anyone who misses the first race or whose Placepot has already gone. The Jackpot is a different proposition altogether, since finding six winners is far harder than finding six placed horses and the pool can roll over when nobody manages it.

• Placepot: placed in races 1 to 6, one pool per meeting
• Quadpot: placed in races 3 to 6, separate pool
• Jackpot: winners of six nominated races, pool can carry forward
• All three: non-runners switch to the SP favourite

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