Football Pools

“Football Pools” is referred to as the pools is a betting pool that is based on predicting the outcome of top-level association football matches taking place in the coming week.

The entry fee is typically very low which encourages gamblers to enter several bets. Previously the traditional and the most popular game of football pool was “Treble” which is now known as Classic Pools Game.

The method to play this game is quite simple. Players have to pick 10, 11, 12 football games from the offered fixtures. Each team in the game scores one goal. The players were then able to win the top prize on the basis of predictions.

History of Football Pools

The creator of football pools is John Jervis Barnard who was able to envision the potential in earning through betting on the outcome of football matches. This idea was further developed into a game wherein people who correctly predicted the outcome of the matches could receive winnings from the pool of money collected during that week.

Barnard was not sure whether this idea would turn out to be successful but when he discussed this model with John Moores, he reassured Barnard that this idea would turn out to successful than their imagination.

Moores further involved two other friends and all of them managed to invest £ 150 to make this idea work. With the help of this money, they managed to print four thousand coupons and handed them out at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon. The pools managed to come into existence after that and made Moores a billionaire eventually.

The success did not come to the Pool immediately. In the first round, the idea was rejected but due to Moore’s faith in this idea and buying his friend’s stakes to make it work. His friends regretted the decision of selling their stake to him later.

The coupon was initially well received by the British public under the name of Littlewoods and the success brought about new companies into existence such as Vernons which had the similar motive of making huge earning from football pools betting.

Having said that it was evident that the Pools was still considered to be the most trusted and the most sought-after football pool despite the presence of other startups. With technological advancements, the Pool decided to embrace it and replace the manual work of a huge team that was once checking around five million slips per day.

Football Pools Format

The name Football Pools can be an explanation in itself for many and the following explanation will make it more clear for the unfamiliar audiences.

There are many different versions of football pools. However, the Pools work on a simple format which is that participants have to fill in their expectations about a certain team to win or draw specific matches on a special coupon. The coupons can be bought from outside of football grounds or a “Pools Man” visits homes once a week.

If someone is able to get the majority of predictions right, they have a chance of making big money. For the games which are postponed or not played because of adverse weather conditions, a special panel decides what the results could have been if the match had been played.

By far the most famous game to be played on the coupon is Treble Chance. From the selected list of fixtures players can choose eight fixtures that they think will be a score draw.

There are three points for a stalemate, two points for a no-score draw and a single point if one team wins. The team with the highest points total wins a part of the pot.

Pools Betting Trivia

The game has a rich history affiliated with it thus a lot of fascinating trivia is associated with it. In 1950 there was a first £ 100,000 winner.

Soon after three years in 1972, a winner was announced who managed to bag half a million pounds prize. Many people played it to increase their chances of a huge million win and a group of nurses managed to do just that in 1986.

The biggest win of the pool has been £ 3 million, but there are many stories of people with hard luck and losing their chances of winning millions because of mistakes or being irresponsible.

During the Second World War, the Pools shut down because the pool printers were being used by the government to produce call-up papers while the Pools workers had to take part in war efforts by sewing, rigging and packing parachutes. With their efforts, they managed to deliver around 20,000 parachutes by working day and night continuously.

Saturday night is now special around the globe since the fans eagerly wait for final scores updates.

Pools in decline

Due to the inception of the National Lottery, there has been a significant decline in the popularity of Football Pools.

The biggest advantage of the National Lottery apart from promising huge winnings is that it did not require any sporting knowledge to play.

The second hitch which has led to the pool decline is the inception of online betting and the growth of the internet. It has made the pools look old fashioned because of rising technologies and using those technologies to stay ahead.

The Pool operators had no option but to find ways to broaden their services to stay ahead of other emerging versions of the pool which had started to become more famous. The Football Pools Company which is still operative is evidence of the efforts of those operators.