10 Things to Know About The World Pool at Royal Ascot

Edited Press Release

In advance of the five-day Royal Ascot meeting kicking off on Tuesday, below are 10 things to know about the World Pool, which will be utilised for the third year at the historic event.

• World Pool was created by Hong Kong Jockey Club and brings together racing fans from over 20 nations so everyone is effectively betting into one pool creating huge liquidity. It's like the EuroMillions version of the lottery.
• World Pool in the UK is operated by the Tote. You can bet with the Tote at tote.co.uk, on the Tote App, at a racecourse, or with a bookmaker as most offer Tote bets in shops and online.
• Without bookmakers' commission to pay, the Tote can offer the best value to their direct customers via the Tote website. Here they operate Tote+ (Tote Plus), giving an extra 10% on every winning dividend–that means a £100 win becomes £110 on tote.co.uk. In addition Tote Guarantee ensures the Tote win price will also match or exceed the industry SP, so Tote customers will never feel short-changed on winning bets.
• The pool betting model means the Tote is agnostic about results so welcomes winning customers and will not restrict bet sizes.
• The international nature of World Pool means there is some great value to be found across markets. For example, Hong Kong racing fans will tend to over bet on jockeys they know so shorten their price, meaning other runners are over-priced respective to their chances.
• There are currently five bet types included in World Pool. These are Win, Place, Trifecta (first, second and third in correct order), Quinella (first two in either order) and Swinger (two in the first three).
• This is the third year of World Pool at Royal Ascot with pools growing to £137 million in liquidity last year, compared to £19 million before World Pool.
• The 2021 Derby was a World Pool event for the first time and saw the pool grow from £1.7 million to over £26 million with winners paying more on the Tote. For example, Adayar paid £20.24 on the Tote compared to 16-1 with bookmakers.
• After Royal Ascot there are another 10 more World Pool days on British racing in 2021, including Coral-Eclipse Day, QIPCO King George Diamond Day, first three days of the Qatar Goodwood Festival, Shergar Cup Day, the first three days of the Welcome to Yorkshire Ebor Festival and QIPCO Champions Day.
• World Pool means bigger financial returns to British racing through increased media rights payments to racecourses and more revenue generated via pool betting.

For all the latest information on World Pool during Royal Ascot follow @ToteRacing.