The football pools are bouncing back

Sep 11 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

The football pools are making a comeback and, say the backers, they will easier and more enjoyable to play. But will they help you win a fortune? ANDREW BALDWIN reports

FOOTBALL pools? Football pools? They seem a symbol of a bygone age.

Days when men were men, Brylcream propelled the headed ball and there was a deadly hush in the house every Saturday at 4.50pm as your dad took the results down.

But, yes, the pools are still around.

At its peak, more than one-third of the adult population played the pools every week and history was made when Littlewoods paid its first million pound winner in 1986.

But the National Lottery changed all that.

Just before the new rival appeared, 10 million people were filling in a pools coupon every week.

Two weeks after the Lottery’s launch, more than two million players had deserted.

The trend continued – but now the fightback has been launched.

Leaflets which dropped through the letterbox last week invited punters to have a go at the New Football Pools.

Forget the days when your dad used to come up with complicated accumulator bets – these are designed to make it easier to understand.

Owners Sportech have combined Littlewoods, Vernons and Zetters to create a new brand with the focus firmly on the online world.

More than £3m is being spent on the relaunch and its profile will be boosted by a deal with Ladbrokes to distribute the game in 1,700 betting shops.

Chief executive Ian Penrose is gambling on a rise in the number of players by the end of 2009.

“This is a classic, iconic business,” he says.

“A lot of people ask me whether the pools are still going – and while hearing that phrase is a disappointment, it also shows the opportunity that’s there.”

The company has drafted in ex-pros such as Alan Hansen, Tony Cascarino and John Barnes to act as online tipsters, as well as the former ref Graham Poll.

The creation of a single pools brand will make for bigger payouts, but Sportech’s focus is largely on making the pools easier and more enjoyable to play.

The pools’ traditional customer is pushing 60, and typically spends about £2.

Now, says Ian Penrose, “we are looking for people who may have become a bit disaffected with the lottery, occasionally may have a bet – but, more particularly, are the classic Fantasy Football enthusiasts.”

A mere 700,000 people were filling in their weekly coupon last year.

One of them was retired Dennis Todd, 67, from Crosland Moor. But even he admits he is not that enthusiastic.

He says: “Checking out the football scores was a regular weekly highlight for me. That together with my spot the ball coupon.

“It used to be exciting to find out just how many draws I’d managed and if I had any crosses in the right spot.

“Course I never ever won spot the ball and dropped it, but I did pick up the odd small amount on the pools. I still do them, but only out of habit.”

Pamela Smith, 72, from Elland, remembers her husband used to fill in his crosses regularly – once amassing the grand total of 22½ points.

“We probably got about a pound for that. He used to study all the pools tips in the paper and always believed he had the winning numbers.

“The pools man used to come round once a week to collect the coupon. Now there’s a memory.”

But will she be doing the new pools?

“I don’t think so luvvy. I don’t understand all this computer stuff.”

One person who will be having a go at the new pools is builder Andy Cochrane, 38, who lives in Meltham.

“It’s not bad at 49 weeks for £27.50, is it? You can fill it in in one go and then forget about it,” he says.

On display in the National Football Museum in Preston is the original hand-written coupon of probably the most famous pools winners of them all, Viv Nicholson.

She won the handsome sum of £152,000 in 1961, roughly equivalent to £3m at today’s values, and is famous for replying that she would ‘spend, spend, spend’.

Within four years she had done just that.

Few people are expecting the pools to become such a big part of our lives again.

The National Lottery itself is not expecting to be toppled.

A Lottery spokesman says: “Although few lottery players are likely to abandon their lottery dreams to pursue the New Football Pools, I expect that quite a few will be happy to play the pools alongside the Lotto.

“The main advantage of the pools is that there is an element of skill involved in selecting the matches most likely to result as score draws and this will undoubtedly appeal to players who have a basic knowledge of or interest in football as a sport.”