Football Betting Pools

Littlewoods introduced the pools in 1923. The idea behind the pools was very simple. All the entry fees became a part of a pool, and between 25% and 50% of the pool went back to participants as prizes. The remaining money stayed in the coffers as a fee to cover all the expenses. This was happening long before the national lottery, which is why betting on football and participating in the pools offered a chance of winning a really high jackpot of thousands of pounds. No such opportunity existed elsewhere. Read about betting on your favorite team.

Over the years, there have been quite a few people that won a lot of money with the pools. In 1961, a housewife, Viv Nicholson, won over £150,000. In today’s money, this would be equal to about two million pounds. Right after she won, she said that she planned on spending all the money, which was exactly what she did. She eventually lost everything that she won. Elaine McDonagh was the first ever person to win a million pounds in pools. This happened in 1987.

Millions of people played the pools, but with the introduction of the National Lottery and the chance to win big prizes there, the number of players in pools started to go down. In the past, over ten million people played on a regular basis. Today, less than a million play regularly.

Still, up to this day you can play many different games and choose between many combinations and ways to predict a winner of the game. The scoring principle stayed the same as it was a century ago and includes a draw, a no-score draw, and a home or away win.

This means that when you play treble chance, you have eight possible combinations. The pool participant who gets the closest to the 24 point score usually gets a top-prize dividend.