Ascot Racecourse has announced its latest betting partnership of 2024 via an agreement with the UK Tote Group.,
It builds on a longstanding agreement with the group, as the country’s platform for pool betting on horse racing, the UK Tote Group has been a partner of Ascot racecourse for the past four-years.
Just last week, the racecourse – one of the most prominent in the UK as the venue of the annual Royal Ascot meeting – partnered with BetMGM UK, British facing division of US-based operator BetMGM.
The agreement with the UK Tote came into effect before this announcement, on 1 January 2024. The key goal of the deal is to ensure all pool bets placed on Ascot races will support liquidity in the UK pool.
Alastair Warwick, Chief Executive of Ascot Racecourse, said: “We are delighted to have a new agreement in place with the Tote which will allow us to build on what has been achieved domestically and internationally over the last four years.
“As one of the original architects of World Pool, alongside the Hong Kong Jockey Club and the Tote, we are excited to support the further development of World Pool to ensure both racing fans and the sport benefit from it.”
The UK Tote Group has operated the UK tote since October 2019, when it was set up as a purpose built company for this purpose. The previous operator of the Tote was retail and online bookmaker Betfred.
Under the terms of the latest partnership agreement, the full range of Ascot pool bets, including on-course via the ‘Bet with Ascot’ brand, remotely via the tote.co.uk site and through bookmakers and third party-partners, will support liquidity.
Fostering international collaboration on racing pool betting is another aspect of the partnership. Ascot will cooperate with the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), the operator hosting the 28-raceday strong World Pool, in particular.
Warwick continued: “We were thrilled to see that Royal Ascot produced five of the top six World Pool days by total turnover in 2023 and also that QIPCO King George Day performed so well after some targeted race planning changes.
“We will ensure that Ascot’s top-class racing continues to be at the forefront of British racing’s efforts to see that the sport is watched and bet on by a growing domestic and global audience.”
Ascot’s cooperation with the HKJC, alongside its work with the UK Tote Group, will focus primarily around making World Pool days at the track ‘as competitive as possible’ and therefore more attractive to bet on.
International cooperation has been a key objective of the UK Tote Group in recent years, largely through the World Pool. Speaking to SBC Leaders last year, UK Tote Group CEO Alex Frost emphasised the importance of this for boosting racing engagement.
On the extension of the Tote’s Ascot deal, Frost remarked: “The Tote is immensely proud to be a partner of Ascot Racecourse which hosts some of the most prestigious race days in the sporting calendar.
“This new agreement ensures Ascot Racecourse and the Tote are perfectly positioned to work together to achieve a strong UK Pool, alongside the continued development of World Pool, which are crucial elements to the future financial sustainability of the sport.
“I would personally like to thank Alastair and his excellent team at Ascot Racecourse for their ongoing support, and everyone at the Tote looks forward to continuing our partnership with Ascot over the next five years.”
