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A piece of racing convention will vanish early next spring when Tote operations come to a close at Chester and Bangor racecourses. This situation has come about as negotiations between Betfred, new owners of the Tote, and the Racecourse Management Group progress only slowly.

The Tote has had a racecourse presence since 1929, and is the only organisation permitted to run pool gambling on horse racing. Taking the Tote’s place will be Bristol-based Data Tote, who will be making their first expedition into horse-racing by providing a fixed-odds starting-price based service to race goers.

Richard Thomas, managing director at Chester and Bangor said he felt that punters wouldn't be unduly worried about the loss of pool betting. “We believe people bet with the Tote for simplicity, not because it is a pool bet, and all windows will be open so that race goers can still place their bets as they have done in the past. We will be offering various other alternatives similar to a Placepot and a Jackpot, so hopefully the client won't notice too much difference”

The current agreement between the Tote/Betfred and racetracks expires on 31 March next year, and the new arrangements at the 2 tracks will come into place straight afterwards. Fred Done, boss of Betfred was sanguine about their call to go it alone and take their gambling operations in-house. “If Chester and Bangor don’t want me there I've just got to accept it, which I have done, and we will be off both courses from April. It isn't my choice. They have made the choice and good luck to them with it. I think it is very brave.”

How the Info Tote system will operate still has to be finalised, and the Corporation has brought in former Tote regional director Tony May to head up the procedure. It's likely that Data Tote will need to offer some kind of warranted profit, as otherwise the tracks would have to bear any finance hit from a string of well backed winning faves. Equally, you can’t see them being cheerful to be forced to rely on big priced winners to make their profit.

Whether any other tracks will follow suit is one of the massive questions that remains to be answered. It seems likely the 7 racecourses controlled by Arena Leisure and the 10 run by Northerly Racing will reach a contract with Betfred that is not dissimilar the existing arrangements. As things operate now, the Tote pays no Levy on its pool gambling service, but does pay commission to racecourses on gambling turnover, and puts further profits back into the game thru funding.

Tony Kelly, Chief Executive of Northerly Racing, expounded, “We are close to an understanding with Betfred and I am expecting to have something agreed before the end of the year. I expect it to closely mirror the present on course arrangements for both parties.”

Data Tote nevertheless , is actively wanting to extend its business beyond Chester and Bangor. CEO at Wetherby, Jonjo Sanderson said, “We’ve had some initial approaches from Data Tote and we continue to monitor the situation while the Racecourse Management Group talks are ongoing. Speaking personally, I'm keen on the way that the Tote operates and I believe that our customers like it also , but it depends upon whether the deal is right for the racecourses.”

There's also a major issue that Betfred will be wrestling with. How reasonable are the present Tote pools without the liquidity offered by on course bets? During the last 10 years on course Pool gambling has been declining, falling from around �106m 2002/03 to �95m in 2010/11, when for the 1st time racecourse turnover dropped below that from global gambling partners. If that trend continues pool gambling could be at risk, but that could be countered by expansion in Tote Direct revenue from gambling shops.

Chester and Bangor are taking something of a risk. If they're right, and it's ease of access rather than gambling in a pool that brings the punters to the Tote windows, it may actually prove to be an impressed bet on their part.

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