Independent site. CasinoCalcs is not affiliated with or endorsed by any lottery, raffle or prize competition operator. Game names are used only to describe the rules the maths is based on.
- Maths reviewed by Josh Miller
- Tested by Diana Westfield
Eight horses, £250 bet on the race, and the charity keeps 25%. That leaves £187.50 for the winners. If the horse with £15 on it wins, every £1 slip on it pays back £12.50. If the favourite with £60 on it wins, each slip pays £3.13. The CasinoCalcs race night odds calculator above does that for every horse at once, so you can read the payouts out before the film starts.
Race night odds calculator: how the tote works
Almost every fundraising race night runs a tote, also called pool betting. Nobody sets prices in advance. Everyone’s money goes in one pot, the cause takes its cut, and whoever backed the winner shares the rest in proportion to what they bet.
Payout per £1 = (pool × (1 − cut)) ÷ money on the winner
The nice part for organisers: the cause can never lose. Whatever wins, the cut is the same. The price for punters is that the odds aren’t known until betting closes, which is half the fun on the night.
Setting the cut
| Cut | Pool £250 | Paid to winners | Raised over 8 races |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20% | £50 | £200 | £400 |
| 25% | £62.50 | £187.50 | £500 |
| 30% | £75 | £175 | £600 |
Horse sponsorship, entry tickets and an auction race usually raise as much again. Selling “horses” for £5 to £10 each before the night adds money that doesn’t touch the betting pools at all.
Fixed odds at a race night
If you’d rather call out prices, keep them under the fair price. With eight runners each has a 1 in 8 chance, so fair odds are 7/1. Offer 5/1 and you keep about 25% on average, but only on average: if half the room backs the winner, you pay out more than you took. That’s why a tote is safer for a cause with no reserves.
Running a raffle on the same night? The raffle ticket tracker logs sales and draws the winners, and the tote calculator explains how racecourse pool dividends compare with starting prices.
A race night is a fun night out. Keep the bets small. BeGambleAware.org is free and confidential if gambling stops being fun.