AU · en-AU · Updated 26 Oct 2026 · 8 min read

Tote vs fixed odds: Best Tote and Top Fluc explained

A fixed-odds bet locks in your price when you place it, though a scratching can cut a winning payout. A tote bet buys a share of a pool: TAB takes a commission of 14.25% to 25% depending on the bet type and splits the rest among the winners, so you only know the dividend after the race. Top Fluc pays the highest official price during betting, SP the final official price, and on win bets at selected races Sportsbet's Best Tote product, Top Tote Plus, pays the best tote dividend or SP, whichever is higher; other bookmakers set their own rules. Since 22 September 2026, TAB's three state pools are one, ONE POOL, which changes what "best of three totes" can mean.

Written byJack Sullivan · Australia Market Editor

Edited byJohn Myer · Editor-in-Chief

Fact-checked byPurvi Patel · Head of Research

Compliance reviewSasha Stann, CCRP

On 22 September 2026, TAB merged its three state tote pools, NSW TAB, SuperTAB and UniTAB, into a single national pool it calls ONE POOL. TAB sums it up in one line: customers "receive the same ONE POOL dividend regardless of their TAB jurisdiction". For anyone who uses a bookmaker's "best tote" product, it changes the arithmetic, because those products were written for a world with three tote dividends to choose from.

To see why, it helps to put every way a racing bet can be paid on the same horse. The chart below takes one runner in an imaginary metropolitan race and pays a $10 win bet six ways, using each product's own rule.

One horse, six ways to be paid

The prices are invented for the example: you took $5.50 fixed, the price then reached a highest official fluctuation of $6.50, the official starting price was $4.80, and the tote paid $5.20. Nothing was scratched.

Horizontal bar chart of what a 10 dollar win bet returns on one illustrative runner: fixed odds taken at 5.50, 55 dollars; Top Fluc at the highest official price of 6.50, 65 dollars; Starting Price of 4.80, 48 dollars; tote ONE POOL dividend of 5.20, 52 dollars; best tote or Top Tote Plus, the better of the tote and SP, 52 dollars; Best of Everything, the higher of Top Fluc and Top Tote Plus, 65 dollars. — The spread between products is the point: on this runner the price you took at the time sat in the middle, Top Fluc and Best of Everything paid the most, and SP paid the least. Example prices; on another race the order can reverse.

Sources for the product rules: Sportsbet, different types of racing odds; Sportsbet racing terms and conditions; Racing Victoria, Rules of Race Betting, amendment 163; TAB, ONE POOL. Read 26 Oct 2026.

If the horse had drifted instead, so that the starting price was the highest number on the board, the products would line up differently: Top Fluc and SP would pay the same, and the fixed price you took early would look poor. No product wins every race; each one is a promise about which number you will be paid.

What each product promises

Bet type	Who sets the return	When you know it	Where it is offered
Fixed odds	The bookmaker, TAB included: "the price you receive for your bet is fixed at the time the bet is placed"	When you bet; a scratching can reduce a winning payout	TAB and bookmakers
Tote	The pool: all bets on that bet type, minus TAB's commission of 14.25% to 25%, shared among the winners	After the race	TAB, now through ONE POOL
Starting Price (SP)	"The final price fluctuation officially declared" by the stewards (Racing Victoria's definition)	When the stewards declare it, after betting closes	Bookmakers
Top Fluc	"The highest official price fluctuation" recognised by the stewards during betting	After betting closes	Sportsbet: metropolitan meetings only, taken up to 45 minutes before the start
Best Tote (Sportsbet: Top Tote Plus)	Win bets: the best tote dividend, or SP if higher. Place bets are paid at Midi Div	After the race	Sportsbet: selected Australian thoroughbred meetings; stakes can be limited
Mid-tote (Sportsbet: Midi Div)	The middle of the TAB dividends	After the race	Sportsbet: harness, greyhound, country and international meetings
Best of Everything (Sportsbet)	The higher of Top Fluc from the time the bet is struck and Top Tote Plus	After the race	Sportsbet: thoroughbred win bets

Sources: TAB, fixed odds win and place; TAB, tote win and place; Racing Victoria; Sportsbet odds types and racing terms. Read 26 Oct 2026.

Two things in that table are easy to miss. The first is that the first two rows are the products TAB defines in the help pages we cite; Top Fluc, Best Tote, mid-tote and Best of Everything are bookmaker products, and their rules are whatever each bookmaker publishes. We could read Sportsbet's; Ladbrokes' help pages failed to load, and Neds asked for a login. The Northern Territory Racing Commission, deciding a 2020 dispute, defined the general idea as "the highest odds paid of the three main Australian totes".

The second is that the price-guarantee products carry conditions. Sportsbet reserves the right to limit the total payout on any tote or tote-derived product and to limit stakes on Top Tote Plus, and its Top Fluc stops being available 45 minutes before the scheduled start. Which bookmakers sell which of these, and on which meetings, varies from site to site; our betting sites comparison sets out the sites we review and the racing markets they cover.

Why ONE POOL changes "best of three totes"

Sportsbet's help pages still describe Top Tote Plus as "the best return out of all three TAB's" and Midi Div as "the middle return out of the Three TABs", with fallbacks for meetings where fewer than three TABs take bets. Those pages do not mention ONE POOL. Under ONE POOL, a domestic race pays one dividend in every state, so on that race the best, the middle and the only tote dividend are the same number. TAB keeps a fallback of its own: if a ONE POOL dividend cannot be declared, the local pools "revert to standalone pools and calculate dividends locally", and only then could three state dividends differ again.

What does not change: on win bets, Top Tote Plus still pays SP when SP is higher, so it can still beat the plain tote. SP does not apply to its place bets, which are paid at Midi Div.
What we could not confirm: how each bookmaker now settles its "three TABs" products. None of the bookmaker rules we read mentions ONE POOL.
Minimum dividend: on domestic ONE POOL races it is $1.04 for every bet type, and customers in Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory moved to the same minimum as Victoria, NSW and the ACT.
Place dividends: eight or more starters pay three place dividends; with five to seven after final scratchings there is no third dividend, unless late scratchings cut a field of eight or more to that size, when three still apply; with four or fewer, place bets are refunded.

Sources: Sportsbet odds types; TAB, ONE POOL; TAB, no third dividend; TAB, scratchings in a win or place bet; Victorian Totalisator Betting Rules (National Tote), in operation from 22 September 2026; NT Racing Commission, 24 February 2020.

Scratchings: where fixed and tote part ways

A scratched horse treats the two kinds of bet differently. On the tote, bets on the scratched runner are refunded and the pool simply pays out among the horses that ran. On fixed odds at TAB, bets on the scratched runner struck after final acceptances are refunded too, while earlier bets are all-in; winning bets on the others are cut by TAB's scale of deductions, set by the scratched runner's price when it came out: on win bets, 31 cents in the dollar for a $3.00 runner (21 or 28 cents on place bets), nothing once the price is over $51. TAB's rules apply the scale to "the payout due on successful bets" without setting out the arithmetic line by line, and Sportsbet calls its schedule "a guide only".

In our view that is a practical argument for the tote on a race with a short-priced horse that might not start, such as a Melbourne Cup with a favourite in doubt. The full deduction scale, and how the Cup's final field and all-in rules decide a refund, are in our Melbourne Cup betting guide.

Sources: TAB schedule of deductions for fixed odds racing betting (NSW and Victoria); TAB Limited Fixed Price Racing Betting Rules, rules 4.5 and 4.6 (NSW Government Gazette, 13 September 2024); Sportsbet racing terms.

Frequently asked questions

Is Best Tote the same as Top Tote Plus?

Top Tote Plus is Sportsbet's version of a best-tote product: on win bets at selected Australian thoroughbred meetings it pays the best return out of the TAB dividends, or the starting price if that is higher; place bets are paid at Midi Div. Other bookmakers use their own names and rules.

Why do all the TAB tote dividends match now?

Because since 22 September 2026 TAB runs one national pool, ONE POOL, in place of separate NSW, Victorian and Queensland pools. Customers in every state receive the same ONE POOL dividend, unless a ONE POOL dividend cannot be declared and the local pools revert.

What is the minimum tote dividend in Australia?

On domestic ONE POOL races TAB's minimum dividend is $1.04 for every bet type. Customers in Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory moved to that minimum with ONE POOL.

Is Top Fluc available on every race?

Not at Sportsbet, whose rules we could read: Top Fluc is only available for metropolitan meetings and can be taken until 45 minutes before the scheduled start. It pays the top official price fluctuation.