Football pools were first created in Liverpool in 1923 by Sir John Moores, who printed and distributed football coupons hand-to-hand after each match. Fixed-odds betting for football matches was actually in existence since 1880s, when English newspapers began to offer fixed prices on matches. The concept of a pool for football was quite different from that offered by newspapers and has remained relatively unchanged.
The newspaper had odds that a data sgp team would win, while the football pools let players predict the outcome of multiple matches. Players could also pool their entries together to get a share of the pool. The pool’s size and number of winners would determine which winners were given what share of the pool.
The coupon’s basic idea was to accumulate 24 points from the Saturday list of games. To do this, players chose matches that would result in a draw and marked their coupon with an “X”. The number of choices a player can make depends on the perm (permutation) that they want to play and the cost of their bet. An 8-from-10 perm allows players to choose 10 matches with the hope that 8 will result in a draw. The players would give their stakes and coupons to an agent or collector, who would then forward them to the operator’s desk for verification.
After all matches were played, the pool operator would review each coupon and assign a score to each selection depending on the outcome of each match. Draws were usually awarded 3 points. Away-team wins were awarded a point and a half, while home-team wins were given 1 point. The coupon score would depend on the combination of coupons played. A dividend would be announced based on the pool’s total and the number winning players. The higher the player scores, the less likely the payout will be. While the football results were being announced, pool players would gather around the TV or radio with their coupons in hand and wait for the announcement.
High-street bookmakers also offered more betting options on horse-racing and football matches than high-street ones. Football pools coexisted with them. Bookmaker turnover did not suffer from the growth of football pools, but the ease with which bookmakers offered gambling didn’t affect the football pool business. Many gamblers combined both elements, which contributed to the growth and success of both the gambling and betting industries.
The introduction of the National Lottery, in 1994, saw a decline in the number of people playing football pools, which threatened the long-term viability of pools operators. In fact, 10 million people played football pools in the immediate prior to the National Lottery’s launch. However, the National Lottery introduced a significant number of new customers to football pools. They were lured away by the possibility of winning a huge lottery jackpot. This is despite the fact that football pools could still pay out more than PS1 million.
Football pools operators had to consolidate and regroup in order to survive. This resulted in some major operators merging into one, more powerful entity. In an effort to attract more customers, the operators of football pools also expanded their reach with the advent of online gambling and the internet.
Today, websites operated by football pools are more than just predicting the outcome of football matches. These sites now offer players the chance to play a range of worldwide lotteries as well the opportunity to play online bingo [http://www.vernons.co.uk/info/online-bingo] with other players around the country, or even test their knowledge across a range of quizzes as well as the possibility of an instant win ‘scratchcard’. These are all great additions to the game that made football pool operators famous and provided much excitement on Saturday afternoons.