The tote

Every Live card race has a tote: pool betting for anyone watching. You back a runner to win or to place, your stake goes into a pool with everyone else’s, the house takes up to 15% off the top, and the winners share the rest. A winning bet always returns at least its stake. Nobody sets the odds: they come from the pool alone, and they move as bets arrive until the off. Betting is optional, never needed to play, and only ever pays out game currency.

#Pools and odds

Each race has a Win pool (your runner must win) and, when at least 5 run, a Place pool (your runner must finish in the first 3 with 8 or more runners, the first 2 with 5 to 7). Credits and T-USDG have separate pools that never mix.

The odds on the panel are the pool’s own maths: odds = pool × (1 − 15%) ÷ the stakes on that runner, as decimal odds (what 1 returns, stake included), never below 1.00. A Place return depends on which other runners place, so the panel shows it as a range: the least if the most-backed other runners place too, the most if no other backed runner does. The panel also shows each pool’s total and how many players are in it. The share bar shows how much of the pool is on each runner. Every odds figure is an estimate that changes with every bet until the off; the final odds freeze at the off and show under the broadcast while the race runs.

#How winnings are worked out

• The take is 15% of the pool, rounded down. What is left is the net pool.
• Every winning stake comes back first. What is left after the take and the winning stakes is the profit.
• Win: the profit goes to the winner’s backers, each in proportion to their stake.
• Place: the profit is split into equal parts, one per paying place; each part goes to the backers of the runner in that place. If nobody backed one of the placed runners, its part goes to the other placed runners’ backers.
• Winners never lose money: if the take would leave less than the winning stakes, the take is cut (down to zero if it has to be) until every winner gets at least the stake back. The house never pays in.
• Every payout is rounded down to the unit; the few units left over go to the house with the take, so payouts + take + rounding = the pool, exactly.
• Bets are settled only once the result is public, when the broadcast is over: a payout can never give away a result before you have seen the race.

Here the dividend is 4.25 per credit: (2,000 credits − 300 credits) ÷ 400 credits on the winner.

When a heavy favourite wins, the standard take could leave its backers less than they staked. Then the take is cut: with 950 credits on the winner and 50 credits on the runner-up, the 15% take would be 150 credits, but only 50 credits is taken and the winner’s backer gets 950 credits back (odds of 1.00). The tote audit shows the take actually taken.

#Dead heats

When runners dead-heat they share the places they cover. Two dead-heating for first in the Win pool each get their backers’ stakes back plus half of the profit; two dead-heating for the last paying place in the Place pool share that place’s part of the profit. In a pool of 1,000 credits where the two dead-heaters carry 100 credits and 300 credits, the 100 credits backer is paid 325 credits and the 300 credits backer 525 credits. Races in this game are timed finely, so dead heats are very rare; the rule is there for completeness.

#Declared dividends stand

Once a race’s dividends are declared (the tote settles only when the result is public), they stand. If a mistake is ever found afterwards, it is put right in the player’s favour only: anyone who was paid too little is made good by the house from the take it kept; anyone paid too much keeps it, and the house absorbs it. A payout is never clawed back. (For a real-money pool, the role a racecourse’s “weighed in” plays is taken by its challenge window: the result can be corrected or the pool voided before it is paid, never after.)

#Refunds

• A runner taken out before the off (scratched, or scratched at the lock): every stake on it is refunded in full, and it leaves the pool.
• An abandoned or called-off race: every stake is refunded in full, with no take.
• Nobody backed the winner (or any placed runner): the net pool goes back to everyone who bet in that pool, in proportion to their stakes. Nothing carries over to another race.
• Too few runners for a place pool when the race runs: every place stake is refunded in full.
• A small pool: fewer than 2 players, or fewer than 2 runners backed (among the runners that ran). There is nobody to bet against, so the pool is void and every stake in it is refunded in full, with no take. The panel shows a “Small pool” note while it is so.
• A bet that turns out to break the fairness rules below is voided and refunded in full.

#Fairness rules

• You can’t bet on a race in which your stable has a runner, or a stable you lease a horse to or from, or an account linked to yours (the same detection as the auction house).
• Linked accounts count as one player for the smallest-pool rule, and linked accounts backing different runners in the same pool are flagged for review (it would be a way to move currency between accounts).
• Staff accounts can’t bet.
• If such a horse is entered after you bet, your bets on that race are voided and refunded.
• Bets are accepted only before the off, checked against the server’s clock under a lock on the race, so nothing can be bet once the race has started. Each race’s result is sealed before it runs (see how races are run).
• After settlement every race shows a tote audit: each pool’s total, the take actually taken (and whether it was cut so winners got their stakes back), the number of winning tickets, the dividend per 1 unit with its formula, and the check that payouts + take + rounding = the pool.
• Unusual patterns, such as a horse ridden conservatively while linked accounts bet against it, are flagged for review.

#Credits and T-USDG

Credits bets use your Stable Credits; credits never leave the game. The take on credits pools is a sink: those credits leave circulation, like an entry fee. T-USDG pools appear only while the game runs in practice mode with test dollars, have their own (lower) limits, and never touch real money.

T-USDG bets come from the same T-USDG balance you use on the T-USDG market: the 100 T-USDG every account gets once when its wallet first signs in. There is no other way to get T-USDG, so you need your wallet signed in to bet it.

#Limits, breaks and 18+

Betting is for players aged 18 or over: the first time, the panel asks you to confirm it and offers to set a daily limit (you can skip that). On Betting limits you can set your own lower limits per race and per day. Lowering one is immediate; raising or removing one takes 24 hours and then only applies once you come back and confirm it.

• A time-out of 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days ends by itself.
• A self-exclusion of 6 months, 1 year or 5 years lasts at least that long, and then carries on until you ask to end it; betting reopens a day after you ask.
• Or close betting on your account for good.
• None of them can be shortened or lifted early. Racing, breeding and everything else carry on as normal.
• A reality check comes up after every hour of betting (a session ends after 30 minutes without a bet): how long you’ve been betting and your net result for the session. You see it before your next bet, and can carry on or take a break.

My bets lists every bet with your running profit or loss.