Separate placepot pools for Britain and Ireland

A change in the betting system used by Totepool is being blamed for separate pools being run either side of the Irish Sea on the placepots in Ireland since the beginning of the month.

Previously the pool bets from Ireland and Britain formed one big pool, but this summer's switch to a new system has meant there have been two pools with their own dividends - which punters have highlighted often leads to a lower dividend in the British pool.

Phil Siers, Totepool's managing director, said yesterday: "Since the beginning of August the UK Tote has been unable to link into Tote Ireland's placepot pools due to technical reasons.