Neither BSP nor the tote pays more every time. Both are set after you bet, the Betfair Starting Price (BSP, or Betfair SP) at the jump and the tote dividend after the result, so which paid more on a runner is only known once the race is over. The fair test sets BSP after the exchange's commission against the declared dividend, which already has the operator's commission taken out. At an illustrative 7% commission, a $6.40 BSP is worth 1 + 5.40 x 0.93 = $6.02 to a winning backer, less than a $6.10 dividend on the same runner.
Over many races the answer depends on the prices and pools you bet into, so measure it on your own records. Betfair starting price walks through how the exchange strikes BSP, tote betting how a pool works, and lay betting explained the exchange side in general.
Why both prices are unknown when you bet
| Betfair Starting Price | Tote dividend | |
|---|---|---|
| Set from | SP bets on both sides, plus unmatched exchange bets waiting at the jump | Every bet of one type in the pool, after refunds and the operator's commission come out |
| Fixed | When the exchange suspends the market at the jump | When the dividend is declared, after the result |
| What you see beforehand | Near and far price projections | Approximates: what the pool would pay if betting closed then |
| What moves it late | SP bets and waiting bets arriving before the jump | Money arriving in the pool until betting closes |
| What you are paid | BSP, less commission on your net winnings in the market | The dividend per $1, stake included, with nothing more taken off |
Both projections can be wrong late, because the last money sets each price. Tote approximates shows how far a dividend can move in the final minutes.
Commission on BSP against the tote's takeout
A tote takes its commission out of the pool before any dividend is worked out. Under the NT's tote rules, for example, the total paid as dividends is the bets placed, less refunds, less the operator's commission. Those rules also round each dividend down to the 5c below, with the operator keeping the cents left over, as how tote dividends are calculated works through. No rate is given here: it depends on the pool and on the law and rules the tote runs under.
BSP works the other way round: it is struck gross, and the exchange charges commission on your net winnings in the market at the rate in its terms. Put the two on the same footing before you compare, shown here with illustrative prices:
net BSP = 1 + (BSP - 1) x (1 - commission rate)
| BSP | Net BSP at an illustrative 7% | Share of the return commission takes |
|---|---|---|
| $2.40 | 1 + 1.40 x 0.93 = $2.30 | 0.07 x 1.40 / 2.40 = 4.1% |
| $4.60 | 1 + 3.60 x 0.93 = $4.35 | 0.07 x 3.60 / 4.60 = 5.5% |
| $9.00 | 1 + 8.00 x 0.93 = $8.44 | 0.07 x 8.00 / 9.00 = 6.2% |
| $21.00 | 1 + 20.00 x 0.93 = $19.60 | 0.07 x 20.00 / 21.00 = 6.7% |
The two charges fall differently. Commission is a share of the profit only, so it takes a small slice of a short price's return, approaches the full rate at long prices, and costs a losing bet nothing. The tote's commission comes out of the whole pool, losing bets included, so before rounding it lowers every dividend in that pool by the same proportion, short or long. Rounding then bites hardest at short prices: under the NT's rules, a calculated $1.39 is declared $1.35, giving up 4c of a 39c profit, about 10% of it.
One runner, both prices
Example: made-up prices for one race. You have $20 to bet on Runner 4. Its BSP is $6.40, its tote win dividend $6.10, and you pay an illustrative 7% commission on exchange winnings.
| BSP | Tote | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $6.40 | $6.10 |
| A winning $1 returns | 1 + 5.40 x 0.93 = $6.022 | $6.10 |
| A winning $20 returns | 20 x 6.022 = $120.44 | 20 x 6.10 = $122.00 |
| If Runner 4 loses | -$20, no commission | -$20 |
Before commission BSP looks 6.40 / 6.10 - 1 = 4.9% better; after it, the tote paid $1.56 more. On other runners the answer flips:
| Winner (illustrative) | BSP | Net BSP at 7% | Tote dividend | Paid more per $1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runner A | $2.40 | $2.30 | $2.25 | BSP, by 5c |
| Runner B | $4.60 | $4.35 | $4.70 | Tote, by 35c |
| Runner C | $8.80 | $8.25 | $7.90 | BSP, by 35c |
| Runner D | $17.00 | $15.88 | $17.10 | Tote, by $1.22 |
These are made-up numbers chosen to show the arithmetic, not a pattern: a handful of races says nothing about which pays more in general.
Risk: Betting involves risk. Whichever price pays more on a winner, both lose the whole stake on a loser, and there is no guarantee of profit. See responsible gambling for limits and support.
How to compare BSP and the tote on your own records
- Fix the set of bets first: every win bet of the kind you make, losers included, chosen before you look at either price.
- For each bet, record the BSP of the market you would have used and the final declared dividend of the pool you would have used, never an approximate.
- Turn every BSP into net BSP at the commission rate on your own account.
- Add up the winners. With one bet per race, losers lose the same stake either way and pay no commission, so only the winners' prices separate the two.
- Divide each total by the number of bets for the return per $1 staked, and split the bets into price bands, with each band's count of winners beside it.
- Keep win and place apart. Tabcorp has moved its tote pools to a single national pool (reported from October 2026), so keep dividends from before that change in a separate set.
Example: an illustrative record of 200 win bets of $10, one per race, banded by BSP. Not real results.
| BSP band | Bets | Winners | Net BSP of winners, added | Dividends of winners, added | Return per $1, net BSP | Return per $1, tote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $4.00 | 90 | 32 | 86.50 | 85.20 | 86.50 / 90 = 0.961 | 85.20 / 90 = 0.947 |
| $4.00 to $10.00 | 80 | 12 | 74.40 | 75.60 | 0.930 | 0.945 |
| Over $10.00 | 30 | 2 | 33.10 | 29.40 | 1.103 | 0.980 |
| All 200 bets | 200 | 46 | 194.00 | 190.20 | 0.970 | 0.951 |
BSP leads across the 200 bets by 194.00 - 190.20 = 3.80 units at $1 a bet (0.970 - 0.951 = 0.019 per $1 staked), or $38 at $10 a bet. But 33.10 - 29.40 = 3.70 of that comes from two long-priced winners. Swap one of them and the lead can vanish. A simple test: if one winner's price is bigger than a band's whole gap, the band has not told you anything yet, and by that test every band here is still noise. Fixed odds vs tote runs the same test against fixed prices.
Risk: Betting involves risk. A record that favours one price can turn with the next few winners, and past results are no guarantee of future results. See responsible gambling for limits and support.
Where BSP and the tote tend to differ, and how to measure it
Claims that one beats the other below a certain price and the other above it come from other people's dated samples, so treat them as questions to test, not facts. The reasons the two can differ are structural, and each points at a split to make in your records:
| Why they can differ | What to split your records by |
|---|---|
| Different money: exchange prices come from SP bets and offers on both sides, a dividend from one pool's punters | Venue, code and pool size |
| Different charges: commission takes more of the return as the price lengthens, the tote's cut the same proportion at every price | Price band |
| Rounding of dividends, such as the NT rules' round-down to 5c, which bites hardest at short prices | Short-priced winners, in their own band |
| Thin markets: a small pool or a quiet exchange market moves on one big bet | Pool size and money matched on the exchange |
| Scratchings: tote bets on a scratched runner are refunded, while the exchange applies its own rules to matched bets | Races with a late scratching, kept apart |
| Dead heats, which each settles under its own rules | Dead heats, kept apart |
Your own stake counts too: a big tote bet lowers its own dividend, and a big SP bet moves BSP, so compare at the stakes you actually bet.
Place markets compared
The tote's place pool and an exchange place market price the same event under different rules. In the Tabcorp tote rules as gazetted in 2010, a place bet covers 1st to 3rd if the field at final scratchings is 8 or more, and 1st and 2nd if it is 5 to 7, notwithstanding any late scratching. It is not offered with 4 or fewer. Check the current rules of the tote you use. The exchange sets the places for each of its place markets in its own rules, and each place market has its own BSP.
Compare like with like: the place BSP from the exchange market that pays as many places as the tote pool, after commission, against the declared place dividend.
| Placegetter (illustrative) | Place BSP | Net at 7% | Tote place dividend | Paid more per $1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runner E | $2.30 | 1 + 1.30 x 0.93 = $2.21 | $2.05 | BSP, by 16c |
| Runner F | $1.40 | 1 + 0.40 x 0.93 = $1.37 | $1.35 | BSP, by 2c |
| Runner G | $3.10 | 1 + 2.10 x 0.93 = $2.95 | $3.20 | Tote, by 25c |
Place prices are short, which is where rounding bites. On Runner F, 7% commission costs 0.07 x 0.40 = 2.8c per $1, while under rules like the NT's, rounding a calculated $1.39 down to $1.35 would cost 4c, more than the commission. Exchange place markets covers how the exchange sets its place terms.
Risk: Betting involves risk. A place bet loses its stake when the runner misses the places, and a small place pool or a quiet place market can move on one bet. See responsible gambling for limits and support.
BSP against best tote
Best tote is a bookmaker's product that pays out at the best of the tote dividends named in its terms, so it settles off tote dividends without being a tote bet. Before the national pool change (reported from October 2026), a winner with illustrative dividends of $7.10, $7.40 and $7.80 paid $7.80 at best tote. An $8.20 BSP on the same runner was worth 1 + 7.20 x 0.93 = $7.70 at 7%, so best tote paid 10c more per $1.
Compare its payout with net BSP over the same set of bets, and check how your bookmaker has defined it since that change. Best tote covers the product and the limits bookmakers put on it.
Mistakes when comparing BSP and the tote
| Mistake | Why it misleads | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Comparing gross BSP with the dividend | A $6.40 BSP looks 4.9% better than a $6.10 dividend but returns $1.56 less on $20 at 7% | Take commission off BSP first |
| Comparing a place dividend with the win BSP | Different market, different price | Use the matching place market's BSP |
| Reading a band with two winners | One result can reverse it | Wait for many winners in a band |
| Mixing dividends from before and after the national pool change (reported from October 2026) | The pool behind the dividends changed | Split the records at the change |
Where B337 fits
A dividend cannot be compared before the race, because it is only declared after the result. The prices beside it can be: the Terminal lines up fixed prices from 40+ bookmakers across racing and sports next to Betfair's back and lay, with flucs and closing lines. B337 places no back or lay bets on the exchange, so a BSP bet is yours to place in your own exchange account. The Terminal reads prices on a repeating cycle, so check each one in your account before you bet. A free account opens a limited view of the Terminal with live odds. Bookmaker names are trade marks of their owners. B337 is not affiliated with them.
Risk: Betting involves risk. Neither BSP nor a dividend is known when you bet, the Terminal's prices can lag the market, and there is no guarantee of profit. See responsible gambling for limits and support.