Q: Which racecourses do britbet operate at?
The britbet partnership includes all Jockey Club and ARC racecourses as well as a number of independents. In total we operate at 56 racecourses, a full list of racecourses and greyhound tracks where britbet operates can be found here
Q: How does britbet work and how does it relate to the Tote?
Britbet runs the pool betting operation on-course at 56 racecourses, meaning that it provides the staff, software and screens etc to provide the customer facing service on each race day. Up until November 1st 2025 this has involved selling bets on behalf of the Tote pools – with UK Tote being the actual operator of the overall pool.
From November 1st 2025, britbet will continue to run the on-course operation at all 56 racecourses – but in addition some racecourses will switch so their pools will be hosted and operated by britbet.
This is explained by the graphic below:
Q: What does operating a pool mean?
From November 1st 2025 britbet will be the licensed operator of the pools for racing taking place at ARC racecourse, Hexham, Newton Abbot and Ripon. This means that it will be responsible for the overall pool and all the bets placed into it from various channels including those off-course. Britbet will manage the pools – making them available to customers via different channels and declaring the final dividends.
Q: What bets will be offered by britbet?
The bet types will largely be the same as we have today, but we are looking to add some new bet types including a Superfecta, Pick 4 and a Pick 6.
A Superfecta is similar to a Trifecta – however this requires punters to pick the first four finishers in the correct order.
A Pick 4 and Pick 6 is similar to a ‘Jackpot’ as it requires punters to pick the winners in four or six races, as the names suggest.
For all core bets we expect the rules to be the same or very similar.
In terms of Tote current bets, we will still continue to offer the Placepot and Quadpot on racing taking place at ARC courses.
We intend to offer Lucky Pick and Multiples across all courses, as we do today.
Q: How will the pools work?
Depending on which course is racing, we will be selling bets into different pools.
For racing taking place at ARC racecourses, as well as Hexham, Newton Abbot and Ripon, bets will effectively go into pools operated by britbet, subject to any exceptions around the Placepot and Quadpot as mentioned above.
For racing taking place at all other UK racecourses, the bets will effectively go into pools operated by UK Tote, as they do today.
Bets will go into the pools from various channels, such as bets from international B2B partners.
Q: What will the takeout rates be on britbet pools?
The takeout rates on the core bet types offered will be the same as those applied currently by UK Tote.
For the new Pick 4 and Pick 6 pools the takeout rate will be 25%.
We will continue to monitor betting activity and reserve the right to make changes to takeout rates at a later date.
Q: When will the new service begin?
The changes will happen for all race meetings from 1st November 2025.
Q: Will there be changes to branding and marketing materials on-course?
Yes, there will be some changes on-course.
Courses selling bets into the britbet pool will have their Tote signage replaced with new branding. Other assets, such as screens around our betting positions will also be updated. There will be changes to other marketing material too, such as betting slips.
Courses that continue to sell Tote bets will remain the same with Tote branding in situ. Although away bets will be sold into britbet pools so there may be some minor changes to betting screens, rules and marketing materials.
We expect to start the rebranding process in late 2025. This will be in a phased approach so each course will be updated before their first meeting with britbet pools.
Q: When customers at a course operating UK Tote pools bet on away racing, will they be betting into britbet pools and vice versa?
Racegoers will still be able to bet on all UK and Irish races as they do today, for all home and away bets.
So, a customer at Cheltenham would be betting into Tote pools on home racing. If that customer were to place a bet on Away racing, it would depend on where that Away meeting was taking place. For racing at an ARC course, the bet would be into a britbet hosted pool. For the majority of courses, it would be placed on a pool hosted by the Tote.
Hopefully racegoers should see minimal differences and the core race to race bet types (e.g. Win and Each Way) will be essentially the same as they are today.
Q: How will we ensure that britbet pools offer strong liquidity for customers?
The pools will include money from on-course customers at the home course and away meetings alongside money bet in from off-course channels, as shown in the graphic below.
Today bets are placed from overseas customers and major players into the Tote pools and for racing taking place at ARC courses this will go into britbet pools when they launch, which will provide a base layer of liquidity from day one.
Access to core bet types is expected to be available on the UK Tote website and app. We also expect bets to flow through from UK Tote's existing UK facing B2B partners in retail and remote in relation to the core pools.
We believe the liquidity will be reasonable from day one, but we also hope that it will build up over time as more third-party partners connect to the pool.
We intend to offer an ‘SP Guarantee’ on the britbet pools at britbet racecourses so people betting on Win bets have that reassurance.
Q: Where will I be able to see the britbet pool info and dividends?
Britbet will provide a pool info website, showing the available pools, pool totals and dividends.
The dividends for the core bet types will also be included in the Podium results feed that is used by many news publications.
Q: What are the customer benefits to the new pools?
The core bets and service offered by both pools will be the same, so other than a different brand the customer shouldn’t see a big difference in their experience initially.
By having different pools, built on a separate technology platform, it will allow different product innovations to be put in place over time. So, new bet types or features may be introduced by britbet or Tote that is only available on those specific pools.
For example, under the new britbet pools we plan to introduce ‘Flexi-Stake', which should simplify more exotic bet types such as the Trifecta or a Pick 4. Customers will simply need to pick their horses and confirm the total amount they want to spend, rather than having to calculate the number of units involved from multiple permutations.
Q: What are the benefits of the new pools to britbet and the racecourses?
When britbet was set up the main intention was to provide a pool betting service on-course for racecourses to ensure racegoers had a good betting experience as part of their raceday. It was also to ensure we provided racecourses with a revenue stream from the betting at their racecourse. Both of these aims have been fulfilled since launch and will continue to be achieved under these new arrangements.
We have always maintained it was important to build a flexible platform to give racecourses choices about how they go about this. This gives racecourses more freedom to choose who they partner with and what service is offered. It also creates a safety net as racecourses are not simply reliant on one operator being able to provide a service.
The new set up shows how different betting services can be operated, yet the racecourses can retain the other benefits of britbet.
There are a number of benefits from racecourses working in partnership as they do with britbet. These include:
- Having access to a network of 700+ team members all over the country to work at racecourses
- A full-time dedicated team with skills in key areas such as Tech, Ops, Finance, Compliance and Marketing
- Control of customer service
- United tech platform to take on-course bets via different types of terminal
- Combined access to a screen system to display information to racegoers
- Shared central costs for areas such as technology
- Scale enables negotiation of stronger deal terms
Q: Why has ARC chosen to switch to britbet pools?
One of the aims when britbet was set up was for courses to have a degree of choice over their pool betting arrangements and service levels offered across each racecourse.
Under these new arrangements from November 2025 there is now more choice for racecourses. There are various commercial and strategic factors for each course to consider, including selling access to the pools to off-course third parties and having greater control over the core product offering. Taking into consideration all of these factors, ARC have decided to switch to britbet pools.
Q: What will happen to britbet’s relationship with the Tote?
Britbet will continue with its commercial relationship with the Tote and has recently extended its current deal until 2030, which will apply for the majority of British racecourses.
Britbet is an independent company from the Tote and will continue to be.
Britbet has a contract with the Tote to sell bets into the Tote pools. This contract is similar to what we’ve had in place for the last six years, but the new contract covers fewer racecourses. We will continue to work closely with the Tote under our new contract, selling their bets at the majority of britbet racecourses.
