Parimutuel united – Push for national tote to launch in August

Australia is likely to have a single national tote early in the new racing season, with a pending announcement of final sign off from racing bodies and a push for a Group 1-raceday launch for a unified Tabcorp-backed product.

The Straight understands that an agreement has finally been reached with NSW racing codes, a key step in a process that has seen Tabcorp chief executive Gillon McLachlan lobby hard over the past six months to get thoroughbred, harness and greyhound executives to sign off on the merged-pool proposal.

While Tabcorp has yet to confirm if and when it will commence, it is believed that August 22, the day that the opening Group 1 race of the season, the Winx Stakes, has been earmarked in the industry as a possible launch date, with Australia’s three totes to become one for the first time.

Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys referred to negotiations with McLachlan during an NRL media conference last week. The national tote agreement is believed to be one of the final pieces of racing business V’landys has attended to before he begins his temporary tenure as executive chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission on July 15.

NSW harness and greyhound bodies also held out on signing off and that delay forced McLachlan and Tabcorp to miss his nominated deadline of July 1 to get the agreements in place.

In the end, it has proven only a short delay and Tabcorp has the technology in place to roll out the single tote solution in a short time frame.

Once Tabcorp gets official final sign off from the state-racing bodies, then it will be put to the state-based gambling regulators for approval. That process is understood to be the main threat to the national tote being launched before the start of the spring carnival.

Tabcorp is keen to launch the tote initiative as soon as it has that approval.

However, exactly what the pool will contain has not yet been confirmed. The Straight understands that at least two of Tabcorp’s major rivals have not yet agreed to feed their tote derivatives back into a bolstered pool.

The use of the pools from derivatives, whereby corporate bookmakers offer Tote-associated products, will be crucial to further boosting liquidity in the parimutuel pools.

While parimutuel betting accounts for about 16 per cent of racing turnover in Australia, by Tabcorp’s own estimates, tote derivative markets are worth around the same amount again.

McLachlan has held discussions with the other major bookmakers about pooling all tote-related revenue, but they stalled relatively early in the process, and there has not been any indication of an agreement since.

However, it is understood that other smaller bookmakers may have agreed to what would effectively be wholesale agreements.

It is likely that the various aspects of a true national tote will be rolled out in stages, as further agreements are made.

The national tote has been a key promise of McLachlan since he took over at Tabcorp in August 2024 and has been seen as a key plank in Tabcorp’s retail-driven strategy.

It is not yet known what strategies Tabcorp may employ in order to bolster national tote participation, or whether agreements with state-based racing bodies permit variation in take-out rates. Those measures are seen by the industry as crucial to giving the tote a chance of a resurgence in a fixed-odds-dominated landscape.

Due to Tabcorp’s listing on the ASX, any material announcement needs to be made via the stock exchange.

Tabcorp’s share price sat at 83 cents on Tuesday morning, down from its 2026 peak of $1.14, but up from the low of 68 cents it hit after AUSTRAC announced in May that it had launched a compliance investigation into the wagering giant over its anti-money laundering program.

This article has been edited to add additional context about a possible launch date and the need for regulatory approval.