How TAB Soccer Pools Work
Soccer 10, Soccer 13, Soccer 6, Soccer 4 and Soccer Any 13 Xtra are all run by TAB as tote pools, not as bets at fixed odds. That single fact explains almost everything that looks strange about them the first time you read a ticket: why the payout is not printed on your slip, why TAB runs more than one of the same pool on the same day, and why a result can say "Field" or "Lottad" instead of a score.
This page sets out the mechanics behind every TAB soccer pool page on this site, in TAB's own wording where it matters, so you can read any of our results pages and know exactly what you are looking at.
Tote betting versus a fixed-odds bet
A fixed-odds bet, like a normal bookmaker market, fixes your price the moment you place it. If you take 2.50 on a team to win, you are paid at 2.50 whatever anyone else does. A tote (pool) bet works differently: every stake placed on that pool, from every ticket, goes into one shared fund. TAB then declares a dividend based on the official result, and that dividend is what the leftover pool is worth once it is shared out among winning tickets. The core formula, used across every TAB soccer pool, is simple: the dividend is the net pool divided by the number of winning unit bets (TAB rule 6.1.4, repeated for each pool, for example 6.5.4 for Soccer 6 and 6.10.4 for Soccer 10).
That means nobody, including TAB, knows the exact payout until the results are in and every ticket has been checked. A small pool with one winner can pay out its entire tier to that single ticket. A big pool with hundreds of correct tickets splits the same tier hundreds of ways. Both are normal outcomes of the same mechanism; neither is a sign that anything went wrong.
What is a "leg"?
Each match in a pool is called a leg, numbered M1 upward. Soccer 6 has 6 legs, Soccer 10 has 10, Soccer 13 has 13, and Soccer Any 13 Xtra lists 30 possible legs (M1 to M30) from which you choose the 13 you want to bet on. Every pool's purpose clause in TAB's rulebook is written the same way: "select the result of [n] soccer matches as designated in the official fixtures card" (for example rule 6.10.1 for Soccer 10, 6.14.2.1 for Soccer 13). You are not picking a score for each leg, only which of the three results it will be.
TAB's 1, 2, 3 notation
TAB writes its own results as 1 for a Team A (home) win, 2 for a draw and 3 for a Team B (away) win. Team A is whichever side is listed first on the fixtures card, normally the home side; where a match is played at a neutral venue the order makes no difference to the rule (TAB Chapter 6A).
This is easy to mix up with the 1, X, 2 notation used elsewhere (including on a MatchPlay 13 ticket, see our SportStake 13 versus Soccer 13 comparison), where 2 means an away win rather than a draw. On a TAB ticket, 2 is always the draw.
Dividends and tiers, with real examples
Some TAB pools pay one tier (get every leg right, or win nothing): Soccer 6 and Soccer 4 both work this way. Others split the pool into more than one tier so a near-miss can still pay something: Soccer 10 pays 10/10 and 9/10, Soccer 13 pays four tiers from 13/13 down to 10/13, and Soccer Any 13 Xtra pays two pools, A and B (see our payout rules page for the exact percentages and how each tier is worked out).
Two real examples from TAB's own results feed, read today: in the Soccer 10 pool that closed 2026-09-12 (program SMM, coupon V3), one ticket matched all 10 legs and was the only winner in that tier, taking the whole 10/10 dividend of R1,760,979.84; the same round paid 32 tickets a share of the 9/10 tier, R390,244.96 shared 32 ways for a dividend of R12,195.00 each. In the Soccer 13 pool that closed 2026-08-20 (program SWW, coupon V2), a single ticket matched all 13 legs and took R4,972,682.00. None of those amounts were fixed in advance; they are simply what was left in each tier once the pool closed and the winners were counted.
Carryovers: what happens when a tier is not won
If nobody wins a tier, TAB does not keep the money: the rule across the chapter is that an unwon net pool is carried forward and added to a later pool of the same kind, within 12 months of the original (for example 6.1.8, 6.4.8, 6.10.8). Soccer 10 is a good example of how specific this gets: its 80% tier (10/10) and 20% tier (9/10) are both defined to carry forward into the 80% portion of a future Soccer 10 pool if unwon (rule 6.10.4), not into their own matching slice. Soccer 13 and Soccer Any 13 Xtra have their own carryover wrinkles, covered on the payout rules page.
Why one pool runs several coupons a day
TAB often runs more than one Soccer 6 or Soccer 10 pool on the same day, and a coupon label such as V1, V1 P2 or V3 repeats week after week rather than uniquely identifying one day's pool. Pulled from TAB's own fixtures feed today: three different real Soccer 6 pools all carried the label "V1 P1" - one closing 2026-09-24 at 18:00 under program code SDD, one closing 2026-09-26 at 15:00 under code 6GG, and one closing 2026-09-27 at 20:45 under code 6JJ. The V number is the pool session for that day, P splits a session into parts when it covers two blocks of matches, and the three-letter program code is what actually ties one specific day's pool to one specific set of results. That is why checking your ticket means matching date, label and program code together, not the label alone.
Frequently asked questions
Is a TAB soccer pool the same as a bet at odds of, say, 2.50?+
No. A fixed-odds bet fixes your payout multiple the moment you place it. A TAB pool shares a fund among the winning tickets once the pool closes and results are in, so the payout is not known until then. It can be much bigger or much smaller than a fixed-odds price on the same outcome, in either direction.
Why does 2 mean a draw and not an away win?+
That is TAB's own house numbering across every soccer pool: 1 is a Team A (home) win, 2 is a draw and 3 is a Team B (away) win. It is different from the 1, X, 2 system used on some other coupons and on MatchPlay 13, where 2 is the away win. Always read a TAB ticket with TAB's own numbering.
Why are there several Soccer 6 or Soccer 10 results with the same label on the same day?+
TAB runs more than one pool of the same kind on busy days, and pool labels like V1 or V3 P2 repeat from week to week rather than being unique. Match the date and the three-letter program code printed on your ticket to the round you are checking, not just the label.
Does the pool size tell me how likely I am to win?+
No. Pool size tells you how much is available to be shared, not your chance of getting the legs right. A large pool with many winners can pay a smaller dividend per ticket than a small pool with one winner. Soccer pools are a form of gambling: results cannot be predicted with certainty, and how much you might win is not known until the pool closes.
Reviewed for responsible-gambling compliance by Priya Naidoo.