PHUMELELA Gold Enterprises, the joint venture between South African horseracing and tote betting operators Phumelela and Gold Circle, and the UK tote have signed an agreement that enables British betting shop customers to bet directly into South African tote pools for the first time.

The deal was given a timely launch last week when racing in the UK was disrupted by adverse weather conditions, but betting shop customers were still able to bet on a full programme of South African racing screened live by Turf TV.

Rian du Plessis, Phumelela.

Totepool is offering Win, Place, Swinger and Exacta bets on South African racing, which are placed directly into the huge pools hosted by Phumelela. Not only are these pools available to UK punters in most high-street bookmaker outlets through totedirect, but they can also be accessed through several gaming websites that offer tote betting.

“We are delighted to further cement our relationship with Phumelela with the launch of this new service and it couldn’t be more timely. While the UK racing schedule has been impacted by the freezing conditions, punters can get great value through this ground-breaking service which enables them to bet directly into the South African pools for the first time,” said totepool Managing Director David Craven.

Rian du Plessis, Phumelela’s Group CEO, said: “We at PGE are very pleased to take another step forward in the UK market where our racing has gone from strength to strength in recent years. We hope to build on this launch and enable UK fans of our racing to take advantage of more of the benefits offered by our pools in the coming months.”