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Now a private company, Totesport has a long history as a statutory corporation in the UK. The passing of the Racecourse Betting Act in 1928 led Winston Churchill to set up the Racehorse Betting Control Board to provide an alternative to illegal off-course bookmakers, and to ensure that some of the profits went back into the sport of horse racing. It became known as "The Tote" in 1961 when the Betting Levy Act meant the board was reconstituted as the Horserace Totalisator Board.

Tote bets differ from fixed-odds betting offered by traditional bookmakers. All the stakes placed are pooled together, and then a share is paid out to all winners after deductions are made to cover costs and contributions to horse racing. Totesport currently has a monopoly on this type of pool betting.

Tote opened their first High Street betting shop in 1972 and by 2011 owned 517 shops and employed over 4000 staff. In 1992 Tote Direct was created to channel Tote bets placed in other High Street bookmakers into the Tote pools. Over 7000 betting shops across the UK now accept Tote bets. In 2002 the Tote also became available online under the name Tote BetXpress, offering the opportunity to bet into racecourse pools as well as the weekly Scoop6 which provides the chance to win a seven-figure sum for predicting the winners of six Saturday races.

In 2004 a re-brand meant that the pool betting service became known as “Totepool” and the bookmaker offering fixed-odds and pool bets was renamed as “Totesport”. A customer could visit the Totesport website or shop and place Totepool bets as well as fixed-odds bets on top sporting events.

Privatisation of the Tote was first suggested by the Conservative Government in 1989. Plans were finally abandoned in 1995 after strong opposition from the horse racing industry. The idea of privatisation did not go away, however, and continued to be debated by successive Governments.

In 2004 the Horserace Betting and Olympic Lottery Act allowed the Tote to be converted from a statutory corporation to a limited company, in theory enabling a sale. In 2006 the Government announced that a racing industry consortium had been invited to bid for the Tote. The Government had originally planned to sell the Tote to the consortium for £150 million, but with a valuation of over £400 million the EU ruled that such a sale would be uncompetitive. The consortium failed to raise the necessary funds, and a bid by Gala Coral for £405 million was rejected by the Government.

In 2008 the Government finally announced that the Tote would be for sale on the open market. After the 2010 election the coalition Government opened a competitive bidding process for the Tote. An initial 18 bidders were whittled down until 2 final bidders, Betfred and Sports Investment Partners, were announced in May 2011. The deal was finally settled in June 2011. The successful bidder was Betfred with a bid of £265 million.

The sale included an exclusive seven-year license to operate pool betting at UK race courses, Tote’s 517 shops and online at Totesport.com. Betfred also committed to payments of around £70 million to horse racing over the 7 years following the sale.

In 2015 Totesport launched a new website and a mobile app which allowed betting across the full sportsbook. True to its origins Totesport is still a major sponsor of Horse racing in the UK.