Chairman’s Blog

An International Perspective on the Cheltenham Festival

Monday 22nd March 2021

We might not have had the famous ‘Cheltenham roar’ this year but the Cheltenham Festival once again delivered some incredibly exciting racing.

Particular highlights for me included Honeysuckle’s wonderful victory in the Champion Hurdle with Rachael Blackmore (a first of an incredible six wins!) and Tiger Roll relishing the cross country fences.

As well as being the pinnacle of the jump’s season for all those involved in the breeding, owning, training, riding, and care of the equine athletes, it was another important week for the Tote.

At this year’s Festival, we sought to ensure the Tote had a unique proposition for racing fans. This included the new Tote Ten to Follow Mini Game for the Cheltenham Festival with a top prize of over £10,000 and Tote Guarantee in place so the Tote win price will always match or exceed the Industry Starting Price.

Personally, the most encouraging development of the week from a Tote perspective was the arrangement with the PMU, which saw the French pool betting operator betting into UK pools across the four days. This will continue with the PMU commingling into UK pools on another 80 fixtures in 2021.

The agreement with the PMU is another important step in working closely with our international partners to showcase British racing to global audiences and help increase the significance of pool betting in this country. It was positive to see the news shared by the PMU and covered in the Racing Post.

For anyone wanting to know more, the Tote’s Chief Executive Alex Frost spoke to Nick Luck on his podcast last week. You can listen to their conversation here, with the 5 minute piece starting at 29:40.

The shared vision of World Tote Association members is for further integrations, thus enabling a more effective platform for the global interest in racing to be better enfranchised and encouraged. 

The next big international development for the Tote will be the first World Pool event for British Racing on the QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on Saturday 1st May. World Pool ensures there are larger and deeper pools, smoother pricing and increased value for customers, as racing fans from around the world bet into a single pool.

World Pool at Royal Ascot in 2019 saw pools grow by over 400% to over £92 million, and last year there was a further 50% increase to £137 million. The increased liquidity from a global customer base helped create great value for Tote customers with the pool price beating the Starting Price by 32% in 2019 and 9% in 2020.

So far, eight World Pool days have been confirmed for 2021, which you can read about here, and we  will be able to confirm more dates in the coming weeks. I will write more about this in my next blog when our attention has turned to flat racing.

Closer to home, we are delighted to have moved our new HQ in Wigan, which I referred to in my previous blog Celebrating Team Work. Several team members have been able to work from the new HQ for the first time, and everyone is excited to meet once again as restrictions ease.

For more information about the UK Tote Group please visit www.uktotegroup.com and follow us @UKToteGroup and @ToteRacing.