€1.25 million in Tote guarantees at Galwa;

Tote Ireland has announced guarantees in excess of €1.25 million for the upcoming Galway Festival. This includes €100,000 guarantees for the Pick 6 every day, €30,000 daily for the Placepot and up to €50,000 on the Jackpot pools.

The Jackpot has proved a particularly popular bet in recent times at the Galway Festival with dividends of €11,205 and €35,207 last year for a €1 stake. The Jackpot was won every day of the Galway Festival in 2015 with all dividends paying over €1,000.

The Placepot was also extremely popular at Galway last year with average daily pools of over €70,000 and an average daily pay-out of almost €1,000 for a €1 stake.

It is easier than ever to play these increased pools with the Tote Quick Pick feature. Tote customers can pick how much they would like to spend on their bet and Tote’s intelligent system will maximise the number of runners possible and identify the runners with the best chance through market analysis. One of the winners of the €11,205 dividend last year purchased a Quick Pick ticket at the racecourse. Quick Pick bets are available online at thetote.com and on-course from any Tote cashier.

Tote Ireland will also introduce a new Odds or Evens bet at next week’s Galway Festival.

Tote Ireland Sales and Customer Service Manager, Pat Brennan, said: “We will be trialling a new bet-type on certain days at Galway next week. It is a very simple concept and the customer will simply have to pick whether the winning horse’s racecard number will be odd or even. The bet will run between races 4 — 7 only and customers can choose to bet on any race as a single, for any amount, or they can play the races as a Pick 4, similar to the Jackpot. Our aim is to make playing as simple as possible for all Tote customers and this is another significant step in that direction.”

Tote Ireland CEO Tim Higgins said: “We are very proud of Tote’s ‘small stakes big win’ ethos. The Galway Festival is a huge week in the Irish racing calendar and we have reflected this in our guarantees of over €1.25 million for the week. Our Quick Pick option opens these big win pool bets to everyone regardless of racing knowledge and there is nothing we would like to see more than another big winner through Quick Pick next week.”