Tote

Tote is a betting brand that claims to have quite a history. If you find the “about us” section of its website, you’ll see that Tote claims to have been founded by none other than Sir Winston Churchill in 1928. Whether you can draw a direct line between that version of The Tote and the current digital version of it is debatable, but the connection is there if you want to make it. This current version – by which we mean the website illustrated below that we’re reviewing here – has been around since 2020. It’s a difficult iGaming site to review because it operates so differently from most other sports betting sites – but we’re going to do it anyway.

Tote Welcome Promotions

Promotions work a little differently here than they do at most iGaming sites, but there are still some gifts and perks you can pick up if you wish. New players now get to choose between two welcome offers. The first covers racing and sports. Place a first bet of at least £5 at evens or more during your first week after signing up – either a racing pool bet or a sports bet – and once it’s settled, you’ll receive £10 in Tote Credit for racing and a £10 free sports bet, whether your bet wins or loses. Both expire if they aren’t used within seven days. The second offer is for Tote Games. Register with the code B10GET100, stake £10 on slots, and you’ll get 100 free spins on Big Bass Splash, which also have to be used within seven days.

Other Promotions

The most valuable promotion at Tote isn’t really a promotion at all. It’s the Tote Guarantee, which means that on win bets on UK and Irish racing, Tote will always pay at least the starting price, and if the Tote dividend is bigger, you’ll get that instead (maximum limits apply). It takes away the biggest risk of betting into a pool, which is that the dividend turns out to be smaller than you’d have got from a bookmaker. There are regular racing offers on top, such as Money Back Favourites, which gives you £1 in Tote Credit for every winning favourite on a card once you’ve placed a qualifying £10 bet, and Money Back 2nd offers on selected races each week. Tote Multiples let you combine selections into Lucky 15s, Patents and other multiple bets, there are guaranteed Placepot pools every day (with bigger ones at weekends and festivals), and you can watch every race live on the site without having to place a bet.

The loyalty clubs we used to know and love at this site, the Stayers Club and the Fantasy Bet Club, are no longer listed on Tote’s promotions page, and neither is Tote Plus. Sports bettors get daily price boosts instead, along with money back of up to £5 if one leg of a Premier League Bet Builder lets them down. Additional promotions are available for those who come to Tote to use the attached casino, but we can’t imagine that there are many players in that category.

What are the Pros and Cons of Tote Casino?

Top Games at Tote

We could use this section of the review to talk about the slots and casino games available at Tote, but we think that would be missing the point. Tote isn’t about casino games, and the fact that it offers casino games is more of a nicety to its players than an attempt to muscle in on the online slots market. As such, there are no individual “top games” at this website. In a way, we suppose that the top games are the two main sports that it offers betting opportunities on – football and horse racing.

You might have noticed by now that we keep using the phrase “betting opportunities” rather than “odds.” That’s because Tote doesn’t usually set odds (although it’s expanded on its original premise in recent years), and it’s just not that kind of bookie. There are a number of ways you can place bets at and with the site, from the traditional “Placepot” bets to “Quadpot” betting or Double, Survivor or Jackpot betting, or you can take on more exotic forms of betting like the Swinger or the Quinella. For football, you’re betting on markets and match predictions, or you can join syndicates and play that way. If you’re totally new to Tote betting, then it might take you a hot minute to get your head around how the whole thing works, but once it clicks, you might just find that you prefer it to the way you’ve been betting on sports up until now. If you decide you prefer the usual way of betting on sports, that option is also available to you, as Tote now has a fixed-odds sportsbook covering hundreds of sports.

Withdrawal Processing & Support

The fact that Tote claims to have a heritage that dates back to the time of Winston Churchill is a fair sign that it likes to do things the traditional way. Unfortunately for those who like to use e-wallets or services like Trustly, doing things the traditional way means that there’s no room for their preferred payment methods. The only way to get money out of Tote is by using a Visa or Mastercard debit card or asking for a bank transfer. Regardless of which option you choose, you’re looking at an estimated wait time of between three and five working days before your cash turns up. Nothing happens quickly at Tote.

Customer Services & Licensing

Customer service is one of Tote’s great strengths. You can speak to the team behind the website almost any way you wish. Live chat is now open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and if you’d rather speak to someone, you can phone 0800 032 8188 from the UK (or +44 1942 314045 from abroad) between 8am and midnight every day. The correct email address for the site is customercare@tote.co.uk. Tote is covered by UK Gambling Commission licence 54779, which is held by TDCO Limited. It’s a clean licence with no associated fines or sanctions. The same licence would cover all the Tote sister sites, if any existed.

Tote – The Verdict

We started off this page by saying that Tote is a very difficult site to review, and we’re going to end it by saying almost the same thing. It can’t be compared to other iGaming or betting sites – it exists almost within a bubble. For sports bettors, our suspicion is that Tote is going to be largely like Marmite – you’ll either love it or you’ll hate it with no in-between, and the only way to find out which side of the fence you’re going to come down on is to try it. Perhaps it would be helpful to show you what players think of it to help you make your mind up – which is precisely what we’re going to do below.