Tote Ireland have announced a number of new initatives that will begin next week.

The current Tote Trio bet is to be replaced with a Trifecta. The aim of the Trifecta is to select the first three horses in the correct order. The unit stake will be €0.50, and the bet will be declared to a €0.50 dividend. The Trifecta will be available on all Irish races with eight or more declared runners.

A feature which will be unique to the Irish Trifecta is that all Trifecta rollovers will be rolled to the 6th race of the day.

The Tote’s international partners in the UK, Europe and South Africa will be able to bet into the Irish Trifecta pool. If you are interested in trying this new bet, Tote Go Racing Club members (which includes all Tote account holders) will receive 10% cashback on all Irish Trifectas placed in June through their Tote accounts.

In order to adapt to International Tote standards, Tote Ireland are altering their Place bet and also the Placepot rules. In a Place bet and in the Placepot, Tote will now only pay 4 places on handicap races with 16 or more runners. Previously Tote paid 4 places on all races with 16 or more runners.

The change will bring Tote Ireland into line with International Tote rules and standards and should enhance the Place and Placepot pools. Place and Placepot dividends should increase and there should be a greater probability of Placepot rollovers. At the same time, the Tote retention on the Place pool will increase to 25% in line with the Tote exotic product portfolio.

Tote Ireland has also announced that, from 24th May 2010, it will operate from a new Tote central system and International Tote Gateway provided by Scientific Games Racing. The new Tote system will operate from May 24th 2010 with the first Irish meeting being Punchestown on May 26th 2010.

The Tote’s new system will now allow all Tote customers to have the facility to select the SP favourite on Jackpots and Placepots. This is an important new benefit for on-course customers as it previously was not available on-course.

Tote Ireland will also facilitate Tote betting from 9.00am each morning which will appeal to Tote phone and online customers as well as Betting Shop customers who do their Tote betting through Ladbrokes shops in Ireland.

An added benefit of the new system is that Tote customers will be able to see leg-by-leg breakdowns of the Jackpot and Placepot.

The Tote are also set to unveil new vending machines on-course called 'Betjets'. The machines are expected to prove much more robust than the existing ones and will offer a wider range of functions.