Home / Horse Racing Betting

Horse Racing Betting in South Africa

TAB is the licensed tote operator for South African horseracing. Place pari-mutuel bets on every meeting run in South Africa — Turffontein, Greyville, Kenilworth, Fairview, Vaal, Scottsville — and on selected international fixtures from Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and the UK. Your stake goes into a shared pool with every other punter on the race, and your dividend is your share of that pool.

Tote bet types

Every tote bet is a pari-mutuel wager. The pool collects every stake on the bet type, the operator deducts the regulated takeout, and the remainder is paid back to winning tickets. There are no fixed odds at TAB — your dividend depends on how much money is in the pool and how many tickets share it.

Win Your horse finishes first. The simplest tote bet. Minimum stake R1.

Place Your horse finishes in the placings — first, second, or third in fields of 8+.

Quinella Pick the first two horses in any order.

Exacta Pick the first two horses in correct order. Higher dividend than Quinella.

Trifecta First three horses in correct order. Tough to land, big dividends.

Quartet First four horses in correct order. The biggest single-race tote bet.

Pick 6 Select the winner of six nominated races. Carry-over pots regularly exceed R1 million.

Jackpot Pick the winner of four nominated races. Daily at most meetings.

BiPot Place horse in each of seven nominated races. A volume punter's bet.

Check today's meetings, jackpot pools, and carry-overs.

View Racing

Meetings covered

TAB carries every Phumelela and Kenilworth Racing meeting run in South Africa. That includes midweek metropolitan cards at Turffontein and the Vaal, the Western Cape summer season at Kenilworth and Durbanville, the Highveld winter season at the Vaal Classic and Standside, Greyville Polytrack twilight meetings, Scottsville and Fairview. International coverage focuses on Hong Kong Wednesdays, Australian Saturdays, Royal Ascot, and selected Group 1 meetings worldwide.

How pari-mutuel betting works

The tote — short for totalisator — is a pool betting system invented in the 1860s. Every punter betting into the same pool is competing for a share of the same money. If you bet R10 to Win on a horse and the total Win pool on that race is R100 000, and the total stake on your winning horse is R20 000, your share of the pool (after takeout) is R10 / R20 000 × R100 000 × (1 − takeout). In practice, dividends are published as "for every R1 staked", so a Win dividend of R8.50 means a R1 Win bet returns R8.50.

TAB publishes the live pool size and current dividend estimate for every race in the in-app racecard. The dividend is final at the moment betting closes — usually two minutes before the off.

Major events

The South African racing calendar runs year-round. TAB carries betting on every Grade 1 event, including the Summer Cup (Turffontein, November), the Sun Met (Kenilworth, January), the L'Ormarins King's Plate (Kenilworth, January), the Vodacom Durban July (Greyville, July), the SA Derby (Turffontein, April) and the SA Oaks. Jackpot and Pick 6 pools on these meetings regularly carry over and pay out seven-figure dividends.

Racing tools at TAB

Race CardsFull racecards for every meeting.

ToteboardsLive pool figures and approximate dividends.

Past ResultsSearchable historical results.

Full ResultsRace-by-race finish detail and dividends.

Carry-oversPick 6, Jackpot, BiPot carry-over status.

Racing CalendarEvery meeting, every date.

FotoformDetailed form for every runner.

StatisticsTrainer, jockey, sire and venue stats.

Editorial & reference

SA Major RacesCalendar of every Grade 1 meeting in South Africa.

Play of the Day4Racing's daily tip across SA meetings.

Race CoursesTurffontein, Greyville, Kenilworth, Fairview, Vaal, Scottsville.

Greyhound Race CardsGreyhound card coverage.