Best Pool Betting Bookmakers – Full 2024 Guide

This is also a guide to tote betting explained, so we need to mention the difference between the two concepts as well. So, what is tote betting, really? To answer this question, we must take a short “time travel”, when there were no offers for betting. Welcome to 17th century France: Bettors are inventing a method known as “pari-mutuel” to win more.

This word is French and simply means “mutual betting”. In this method, bettors’ wagers are collected in a pool and after deducting the commission called “vig”, the money accumulated in the pool is divided among the winners. So instead of playing alone, you play with a group of bettors so you can earn more.

When American bettors started to use this method, they simply started to call it “pool betting”, without thinking today it will be done on crypto betting sites. In the UK, they called it the “totalizator” and over time, they abbreviated it as “tote” (*). Nowadays, pool betting is a term used for all sports, and tote betting is used for horse races. In other words, there is no real difference between the two terms, but when someone says tote betting online, horse racing should come to mind. Pool betting, on the other hand, covers all other sports: this is betting on the tote explained. Oh, and, one final note: It is called French tote betting even in France nowadays.

(*) Tote is also the name of a pari-mutuel bookmaker in the United Kingdom: It is established in 1928 and offers tote betting only for horse races. Check our UK horse racing betting guide for more info.

To win a pool bet you must make the correct selection or combination of selections, exactly as for heinz bet or tricast bet. In the horse racing example above, the main prize is won by picking the winning horse. A jackpot is calculated by taking the total number of entries and multiplying that by the entry fee: These are the main principles of online pool betting.

Normally, a bit of juice is subtracted and whatever is left is awarded to the winner(s). Because there are different types of pools, it is important to check the rules to see how prizes are awarded. Many times, there will be consolation prizes and other sports betting bonuses and they will differ between pool betting sites.

Pool bets online can be made at many places. More and more government-run lottery corporations (i.e. UK pool betting) offer players many different betting competitions like these. The best place to find tote betting pools are at the thousands of e-sports betting sites that exist around the world. You can find sites that offer legal collective bets with an internet search or by referring to Gambling Judge’s list of trusted online betting sites. Here are some examples:

•  BoyleSports

One of the Colossus Bets partners, BoyleSports also offers a variety of other pools. These pools offer some very attractive jackpots and other prizes, besides the websites regular welcome bonuses, sign up free bets or loyalty bonuses.

• Unibet

This tote betting online site is usually mentioned when discussing top betting offers like free bet codes, moneyback and cashback offers or even top betting offers and promotions. The Unibet Supertoto and Superscore give punters a chance at £5 million. Join now for a shot at these super-sized cash prizes or see their abundance of other promos.

• Betfair

Another Colossus bet partner, Betfair has several tote betting pools. Pick 5, pick 4, and pick 3 Betfair pools that have cash awards ranging from £2,000 up to £30,000 are easy to enter when you become a member. They also offer partial cash-outs for these bets and for betting accumulators, such as the double bet, which enable punters to lock in big winnings. From time to time, you can also find Betfair pools free play promotions.

• Colossus Bet

You can read more about Colossus Bets (and Colossus bets partners) further down. Let’s just say that the prizes offered through these guys blow all other prize pools away. They offer standard pick 5, pick 4, and pick 3 with cash prizes ranging from £2,000 to £30,000. They are a little more well-known for the £10,000,000 cash prize which you can read about below.

• Betfred

Betfred now own Tote which operates all horse racing in the UK so you know that they offer the most horse racing pools. Like other sites, they also have a variety of other pools for sports.

• SkyBet

SkyBet is one of the best tote betting UK websites and it offers pools in almost every sport that punters can think of. Even yachting and e-sports (check here our esports betting UK guide). If sports aren’t your thing, then you can get into a variety of entertainment pools too. This makes SkyBet one of the best options for this kind of betting and one of the top betting sites with live streaming.

• Paddy Power

If you can bet on it, then Paddy Power has good odds margins for it. They offer nearly every kind of betting option and that includes Tote betting. They offer placepot, quadpot, jackpot, scoop6, trifecta, forecast (we have prepared detailed guides for both forecast bet and reverse forecast bet options) or trixie (have a look at our Trixie bet guide), exacta, and win/place tote betting on the ponies. Among their other pool and tote betting sports found here are Premier League, UEFA Championship League (check here our Champions League betting guide), Tour De France, and even darts.

• Matchbook

By offering pick 5, pick 4, pick 3, and the monster Colossus Bets, Matchbook is a great place to sign up to get in on tote betting pools. Horse races are part of their most popular pool betting options.

Other top sportsbooks that offer pool and tote betting are easily found by searching Gamblingjudge.com database of the best online betting sites. As you can see, there are some big cash prizes that are worth going after: We also list the best free horse racing bets no deposit bonuses.

Betfred runs Tote which runs all of the UK’s horse racing pools. Horse racing is not a simple sport and there are lots of things you need to know: We recommend checking our other horse racing betting guides first – you can start with our “what does SP mean in betting” article. In this regard, the most popular Tote betting types are:

• Quadpot

A quadpot bet can be played every day starting from 9.00 AM. Quadpot bets are for the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth races: You try to pick the horses to place in these races. The total stakes are divided among the winners.

• Tote Placepot

This is an interesting name: What is a placepot? Actually, the placepot is the same as the quadpot except that the punter must select a horse to be placed through the first 6 races, not just the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth ones.

• Tote Jackpot

This requires bettors to pick the first-place horse in the first 6 races. Because this is a very tough thing to do, the jackpot frequently goes unclaimed and is then rolled over to the next day’s event.  The jackpot has the potential to become a multi-million-pound pot.

• Trifecta Box Betting

You choose three horses and claim that they will finish the race first, second, and third, in any order.

• Tricast Bet

Very similar to trifecta box because you still pick three horses and claim that they will finish the race first, second, and third. However, this time, you need to guess the exact finishing order.

• Tote Swinger

You pick two horses and as long as both of them finish the race in the first three (in any order) you win the bet.

• Tote Exacta

With a Tote Exacta bet you must predict the first and second horse in the exact order in a selected race. There are variations to the straight Tote exacta, such as the Reverse Tote exacta and Banker exacta. You know what an exacta is and we explain more on the banker bet in our banker bet guide.

• Tote Trifecta

When you place a tote Trifecta your goal is to back the three horses that will finish on the podium in the selected race.

• Superfecta

You must pick the first four finishers in the race in the correct order. Naturally, this is a challenging bet: We recommend checking our superfecta strategy guide.

• Scoop 6

These bets are available on events that attract a large television audience. The entry fee for a scoop 6 bet is £2 which makes for a large prize. This is one of the most popular bets for the masses to partake in.

There are also other standard betting pool types like Pick 5, Pick 4, and Pick 3. These are some of the most common types of tote betting pools that punters can get in on for their daily action. There are, of course, other bets that can be used in tote betting, such as the Tote Win/Place bet, trixie bet, yankee bet, patent bet, alphabet bet, and forecast bet, but we have different guides for all of them: We recommend reading those guides first.

This leads us further to the “Grand Daddy of all Sports Pools”:

• Colossus bets

Punters love the feeling of winning a bet. Even if the payout is small, the satisfaction of making a correct prediction is a definite ego booster. This feeling of satisfaction is greatly boosted when a punter manages to hit a multi-fold parlay. Along with the bookmaker withdrawal limits, punters know that they have overcome huge odds. While skill can sometimes be attributed to their success, punters know that they have received a bit of help in the form of luck. The Gambling Gods sometimes answer the pleas of bettors.

As nice as most high-odds parlay wins are, they are rarely a life altering windfall. You might be able to buy a new big-screen television or even a new car but chances are that such a win will not exactly put you onto Easy Street. You will likely still have mortgage payments and, after a brief celebration, you will probably still need to go back to your job.

Colossus Bets changes all of this though. Now sports bettors have the chance to cash in on a true life-altering prize. By picking the winning horses and the exact final placements, winners can now cash in on massive prizes. Colossus Bets is offering an opportunity to cash in on a £10 million top prize if all their predictions are correct. Punters can also get in on the action for as little as 20 pence to take a shot at a £1 million prize. Like in most cases, bigger risk equals a bigger reward.

You can get in on the Colossus action at many online sportsbooks where you can also bet on lucky 63. Colossus Bets has several partners including Ladbrokes, Coral, Betfair, and 1960Bet. Those interested in taking part can also simply go to Colossusbets.com. Like the lotteries, punters can win great cash prizes even if they miss a couple of the outcomes. Unlike the lotteries, winning a Colossus Bet jackpot involves a bit of skill and isn’t just left in the hands of random numbers.