Placepot Betting Guide – Betting Strategy

What Is A Placepot Bet?

So, what actually is a placepot bet?

A placepot bet is a tote bet, which is successful when you correctly predict that your selections will place in all six races. It is different to a traditional bet with fixed odds. Instead of a normal wager, punters choose their stake and pool their money together. In Ireland, there is 30% deducted from this sum by The Tote in order to cover operational costs and services. The rest is distributed evenly to the winners, which you can read more about in ‘How Do You Calculate Placepot Bet Winnings’.

 You can choose how much to stake; however, it is worth noting that there is a minimum stake of €0.05 (sometimes even €0.10).

There are many advantages to placepot betting:

• Money Shared Between Punters: A huge benefit of placepot betting is that the winnings will be shared between punters. This is comforting because your stake, whether you win or lose, will be going towards people with a similar mindset and hobbies to you. This is unlike tradition betting, where your money will go to the bookmaker.
• High Dividends: A dividend can be considered as the value of your stake in comparison to other punters. Therefore, it is used as a figure to calculate your earnings. As the dividends match the starting price, you stand to gain much more money with placepot betting. The profit margin is greater yet the stakes aren’t much different to regular betting as you can choose how much to stake per unit.
• Accurate Odds: Your earnings in a placepot bet are based on how many people chose the same horse as you to place. There are no fixed odds involved, therefore punters find it much easier to understand this type of bet. Additionally, you no longer have the stress of keeping an eye out for fluctuating odds.

How Does Placepot Betting Work?

Now we understand what a placepot bet is, we will discuss how it works.

Like we mentioned above, a placepot bet is where you choose horses to place in the first six races of a competition. This means they must be in the top rankings, which depends on how many contenders there are altogether. Below is a table of the placings:

NUMBER OF RUNNERS	PLACEMENT
Between 1 and 4 runners	1st place
5, 6, or 7 runners	1st place or 2nd place
Between 8 and 15 runners	1st place, 2nd place, or 3rd place
Over 15 runners (handicap only)	1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place

Another thing to consider is your selections. This is the how many horses you pick to place in the six races. There are different types of placepot bets which depend on how many horses you choose for each race. For example, you could pick one horse to place in four races, and two horses to place in two races. This is known as four bankers. Ultimately, the selections are upto you as the punters. However, the more horses you choose, the higher your stake will be, which is something to consider. On the other hand, if you win the placepot bet, your profit will be astronomically bigger!

There are a few strategies to consider when picking your selections:

• Don’t Bet on Favourites: As your earnings are calculated by how many other punters chose the same horse to place as you did, it is a good idea to avoid playing favourites. This means that the horses you pick are more likely to be underdogs, therefore when they place, less bettors will have them in their selections. Hence, your profit will be higher for not going with the preferred horse.
• Pick Multiple Horses: If you are an experienced punter and can afford to place higher stakes, it is worth picking multiple horses. This is because your profit will be higher if you predict correctly. However, ensure you have done prior research and are confident in your selections, as this can be risky when done without knowledge.
• Know Your Limits: Placepot betting differs from regular betting because of the unconventional way it is calculated. Read our guide below to acquire a better understanding of the financial aspect of a tote bet. This way, you can figure out your monetary boundaries, which is vital to do before you place the bet.

Once you understand how placepot betting works, you can place your wager. All of the information above is simplified into the following process:

• Open up the betting site which you wish to make a placepot bet with (e.g. Bet365, Betway, Coral, Ladbrokes or another Irish betting site)
• Click the ‘tote betting’ tab on your browser and find ‘placepot’
• Select the sport you wish to bet on, which is usually horse-racing
• Choose your selections wisely for the six races (note that you can back more than one horse to place in each race)
• Choose your unit stake
• Place the bet, and wait for the results!

How Do You Calculate Placepot Bet Winnings?

Finally, we can discuss how to calculate your winnings in a placepot bet. This is important to do before you even consider your selections, so you have a good idea of how much you will need to stake.

To calculate your earnings. First, you will need to multiply the number of horses (selections) you have picked in the six races. This will give you how many bets (lines) you have. This is easy to demonstrate with an example:

• Race 1: 1 selection
• Race 2: 2 selections
• Race 3: 1 selection
• Race 4: 3 selections
• Race 5: 2 selections
• Race 6: 2 selections

To calculate how many lines you have, we multiply all the selection. Therefore 1 x 2 x 1 x 3 x 2 x 2 = 24 lines. Bear in mind that there is a minimum stake per line (usually €0.05 or €0.10), and also a minimum total stake which varies. As a result, you will often have to have at least 5 or 10 lines in order to qualify for a placepot bet, so it is worth researching all the horses in the competition and wagering on a few of them.

The lines are then multiplied by your stake per line. You can choose this value depending on how much disposable income you have, and what you can afford. For this purpose, let’s say your stake per line is €0.50. Therefore, 24 lines multiplied by €0.50 = €12. Your total stake would therefore be €12.

In order to calculate your earnings, your stake will need to be multiped by the dividend. This information is not published by the betting site because it is impossible to know until all the wagers are placed and the betting is closed. When they calculate how many punters have bet on each horse that has placed, they will then immediately pay out.

On the other hand, the betting site may release how much they are paying per €1 stake. You can then multiple this by your total winning lines and find out how much you will earn.

An advantage of placepot betting is that even though you may not know your earnings straight away, you will still know when your horses have placed as long as you are watching the races.