Leading free-to-play specialist extends Tote Ten to Follow partnership with a revitalised game for the Flat racing season

SportCaller, the free-to-play (FTP) sports-game specialist, has progressed its ongoing partnership with the UK Tote Group through the launch of its £100,000+ Tote Ten to Follow for the current Flat season. As British horse racing leads the return of elite sport from a COVID-19-enforced break, this popular game incorporates a host of innovative features aimed at expanding racing’s reach to new audiences.

Having devised the original free-to-play jackpot model with Channel 4 Racing in 2014, SportCaller returned to those racing roots by bringing the timeless Tote Ten to Follow into the digital age over the latest Jumps campaign. The game now renews for the Flat season and SportCaller has updated and enhanced the player experience with a suite of new features that drive reliable engagement via repeat visits throughout the course of the competition.

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Tote Ten to Follow asks participants to assemble stables of 10 horses whose collective performance will be aggregated in points from 16^th June (the opening day of Royal Ascot) to 17^th October (Champions Day). Applying feedback from the Jumps season, players now benefit from advanced dual-mode functionality whereby they can choose from either Simple Mode (a straightforward selection of 10 horses) or Pro Mode which seamlessly facilitates a myriad range of permed stables.

Improved gameplay centres around some of the more popular elements of fantasy football (from design-your-own silks to private leagues) which harness both the creative fun and the competitive instincts of casual racing fans and committed bettors alike. These innovations cultivate digital dwell-time and encourage return visits, as players assess their positions and chase a series of mouthwatering paydays throughout a condensed Flat season.

SportCaller’s market-leading FTP platform also showcases a variety of intuitive tools that allow players to monitor where and when each of their selections is entered, alongside a definitive history of race results cataloguing any points accrued for every horse. Helpful filters (e.g. trainer or horse searches), running off industry-leading Racing Post content, also secure quick-fire selection criteria from a deep database.

Minimum prize money of £100,000 is guaranteed for the competition – and, once again, there will be 0% takeout from the prize pool. As a result, unimpaired distribution will follow between four monthly winners (£10,000), with 70% of the remaining pool going to the winner of the overall game, and the other 30% being distributed in tiered fashion between those players placed second to 100th.

Rob Painter, Chief Marketing Officer for the Tote, said: “It’s great to be working with SportCaller again to bring Tote Ten to Follow back for what is set to be a very exciting Flat season. This launch marks another important step in our plans to redevelop the Tote for a contemporary racing audience that demands multi-platform engagement, particularly on mobile where mainstream smartphone-adoption is manifest.

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“The historic popularity of Tote Ten to Follow continues undimmed and the SportCaller platform lets us devise and implement new technology that sets the pace in a modern digital age, connecting with all demographics across racing’s loyal fan-base.”

Cillian Barry, SportCaller MD, added: “It’s always a thrill to get back to our formative racing days which have seen us originate racing games like Pick 6 and ITV7. Of course, classics like Tote Ten to Follow never lose their core appeal. Yet, it’s important to innovate and adapt, so your product can stand out and thrive in an increasingly competitive arena.

“It’s great to see the positive reception, as our proprietary platform ramps up engagement across all operator platforms, elevating the player experience on a sport whose powers of retention and customer loyalty are second to none.”