New ‘Tote Guarantee’ to feature at Cheltenham Festival

The UK Tote Group has revealed its new Tote Guarantee service will be available on-course across all four days of next week’s Cheltenham Festival horse-racing event.

The roll-out has been made possible after the UK Tote Group agreed a deal with Jockey Club Racecourses and its pool betting service provider, Britbet, to extend an initial trial period.

Last month, Tote Guarantee was trialled at a number of racecourses and is also now available via the new-look tote.co.uk website that launched in February.

Tote Guarantee ensures that the Tote will match the industry starting price (SP) or pay the pool price if the latter is bigger than the SP on all win bets placed on-site at Cheltenham Racecourse.

The 2020 Cheltenham Festival will take place from 10-13 March.

“Alongside the new Tote Guarantee, the Tote will be offering our full range of pools, including estimated £1 million Tote Placepot on course, online and through every major bookmaker, each day of the Cheltenham Festival,” UK Tote Group managing director Mark Kemp said.

“Like everyone else we’re all looking forward to another superb Festival, where the Tote will be better value than ever.”

Ian Renton, Cheltenham and South West regional director for Jockey Club Racecourses, added: “The Tote Guarantee ensures race-goers will receive great value if they choose to bet with the Tote next week and we hope the initiative proves a success.”

Britbet managing director Nigel Roddis also said: “The competition for race-goers betting spend is magnified at this event, so it makes sense to extend the trial of this initiative. The Festival provides a valuable opportunity to continue our ‘test and learn’ approach on behalf of our racecourse partners.”

UK Tote Group completed its acquisition of the Tote in October of last year, in a deal that saw it become the sole owner of the service.