What is a Tote Quadpot bet and how does it work?

What is a Quadpot and how does it work?

The Tote Quadpot is a popular pool bet in which players must pick a horse to place in races 3, 4, 5 and 6 at a meeting in order to win a share of the Tote Quadpot dividend.

The more bets placed on the Quadpot pool at the meeting, the larger the potential dividend for successful bets.

New to pool betting? Learn about the basics in our Tote betting guide.

What’s the difference between a Quadpot and a Placepot?

The Quadpot covers races 3-6 at a meeting whereas a Placepot covers races 1-6. As a result there are several reasons you may wish to opt for the Quadpot instead of or as well as a Placepot.

Races 1 and 2 look too tricky A Quadpot is a great bet if you want a place-based, multi-leg pool bet, but the first two races at the meeting are putting you off playing the Placepot.

Spread your stake over fewer races Most punters will have a total stake in mind, which they then split between their lines in a Placepot or Quadpot. The Quadpot covers fewer races, so you can choose to play with a lower total stake or play more lines than you would have done on a Placepot.

Your Placepot lost in race 1 or 2 This can be galling, especially if you were confident in your picks for races 3-6. The Quadpot gives you the chance to return to the fray at the same meeting.

How does a Quadpot work?

When placing your Tote Quadpot bet, you can choose whether to pick one or more horses in each race. These picks are called ‘lines’.

Adding more lines increases your chance of getting one of your horses placed in a race, but your total stake is worked out on a ‘per line’ basis, meaning additional lines quickly add to the cost of the bet.

To calculate your total Quadpot lines, multiply the number of them you have in race 1 by the number of lines in race 2, then multiply the answer by the amount of lines in race 3 and finally multiply the answer by the amount of lines in the fourth race of the Quadpot.

Calculating the amount of lines in your Quadpot (example)

How much does a Tote Quadpot cost?

There are two minimum stakes to bear in mind when working out your Quadpot, the minimum total stake and the minimum stake per line. These are the following when you play on the Tote website:

Minimum total stake: 50p
Minimum stake per line: 1p*

*To play 1p lines you would need to include 50 lines to reach the minimum stake. To play 2p lines at least 25 would be required etc.

How are Tote Quadpot places determined?

Place rules are the same as they would be for a standard each-way, place bet or Tote Place bet.

What places count towards the Quadpot?

How is the Tote Quadpot prize pool calculated and shared?

A deduction of 27% is taken from the total Quadpot pool for operating costs. The remaining 73% is divided among the winners according to the respective value of their winning lines.

How do I calculate my Tote Quadpot winnings?

Tote Quadpot dividends are published to show what a bettor wins for £1’s worth of winning lines

How much you win depends on how much you staked per line and how many of your lines were successful. You can work out how many winning lines you have by multiplying the number of successful lines in each leg together to get your total.

To work out how much you have won, multiply your stake per line by the amount of winning lines you have. Your winnings will then be either that percentage of the published £1 stake winnings or a multiple of the published dividend.

For example:

The Tote Quadpot dividend is £350 to a £1 stake and you have two winning £1 lines. This means your total of £2 of winning bets means you win £700.

Tote Quadpot strategy

Banker legs

Most Tote Quadpot players will be keen to use as few legs as possible to limit their total stake. Targeting certain races where you trust one horse to finish in the places (rather than multiple selections) contributes to keeping your Quadpot lines down.

Hot favourites are attractive for banker leg purposes, but bear in mind that the more popular a selection they are the more Quadpot players will have them. This means that if the banker places, more Quadpot bets will remain active with a chance of a share in the dividend.

Identify weak favourites

The fewer favourites that place, the higher the Quadpot dividend will be for those with one or more winning lines. A substantial number of players tend to include the favourite among their selections.

Quadpot dividends at meetings where several short-priced favourites fail to place can often be very impressive because so many Quadpots have lost after selecting the market leaders.

If you can survive a leg or multiple legs in which one or more of the first few in the betting fail to place you will be on course for a share of a big dividend.

Multiple lines in competitive races

The name of the game in the Quadpot is keeping your bet alive from race to race. In the more wide-open, unpredictable affairs it can be prudent to have several runners going for you.

Selecting three runners or even four in the most difficult Quadpot race of the meeting has the potential to multiply your total lines and stake. Yet it could be the difference between winning and losing and you can make fewer selections in other less competitive races to keep your lines down.

What happens if one of my Tote Quadpot picks is a non-runner?

If a selection is a non-runner, you automatically go on the SP favourite. If there are joint or co-favourites, the highest racecard number carries your money.

So if No 1 and No 4 are joint-favourites, it is No 1 that will represent you in place of your selected non-runner.