Horse Racing Tips: The Ultimate Bipot Guide

The bipot is an exciting exotic bet that lives somewhere in-between the Pick 6 and the Place Accumulator. Offering a bit more security than the Pick 6, the bipot remains a firm favourite of South African punters. 

This bet requires you to pick one or more horses to place FIRST or SECOND in each of the designated six races. Remember, the bipot will always start one leg before the Place Accumulator. 

Generally speaking, pools for the bipot push beyond the R100 000 mark for ordinary race days but can reach in excess of R1 million on big feature days like the Vodacom Durban July. 

There are two types of bipots that you can take – the straight line or the permutation. We’ll take a look at these below:

Straight Line

A straight line bipot is when you pick one horse in each leg. This will cost you R1 to take once. By taking the bet once, you will receive the full dividend should your bet win. You are also able to take the bet multiple times. If you spend R3 and win, you will the dividend three times over. You can take The below is an example of a straight line bipot: 

Leg 1 – 1

Leg 2 – 5

Leg 3 – 1

Leg 4 – 5

Leg 5 – 4

Leg 6 – 2

Permutation

As mentioned earlier, you can pick more than one horse in each leg of your bipot. This is referred to as a permutation (when you select a number of horses that could possibly place first or second in each race). 

By selecting more horses, you need to remember that it will cost you more to take the bet for a chance to win the full dividend. Let’s take a look at the below bipot permutation:

Leg 1 – 1, 5

Leg 2 – 5

Leg 3 – 1, 8, 9

Leg 4 – 5, 6

Leg 5 – 4, 5, 10

Leg 6 – 1 ,2 5

To work how much you need to spend to take the bet 1 time (for a chance to win the full dividend) you need to multiply the number of horses in each of the legs: 2 x 1 x 3 x 2 x 3 x 3 = R108. While many people like to take a full unit for a chance to win the full dividend, you also have the option to lower your stake to win a percentage of the dividend. 

In the example above, you can pay R54 for a chance to win 50% of the dividend or R27 to win 25% – the choice is yours!

Maximum payout

Hollywoodbets Open Bet

Winning limits for open bets will apply to all open bet bipots. The maximum payout for this type of bet will be limited to the total net pool limit of the local SAFTOTE pool. 

Tote Bet

When switching over to the tote with the button provided on the Hollywoodbets website and mobisite, you now can take a bet where the payout is limited to the rules stipulated by the TabGold website.

The difference between Open Bets and Tote Bets

An Open Bet is a tote/TAB type bet taken with a bookmaker. The bookmaker – in this case, Hollywoodbets – lays the bet, and pays the dividend as declared by the tote on the winning combinations.

No fixed odds are agreed at the time the bet is placed. The winnings and therefore the payout is determined after the outcome of the event on which the open bet was struck becomes known, with reference to the dividends generated by the totalizator.

Tote betting works by a player betting into a cumulative pool that also includes other punters. The payout is then shared among all of the winning players – this is referred to as a dividend. Remember that the total amount that gets paid out is determined by the number of people who won the pot.