Editing Football pools (section)

{{Short description|Type of betting pool}}
{{About|soccer pools|pools as found with other football|betting pool}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2021}}
[[File:Logo Totocalcio.svg|thumb|The Totocalcio Logo.]]

In the United Kingdom, the '''football pools''', often referred to as "the pools", is a [[betting pool]] based on predicting the outcome of [[association football]] matches taking place in the coming week. The pools are typically cheap to enter, and may encourage gamblers to enter several bets.

The traditional and most popular game was the Treble Chance, now branded the Classic Pools game. Players pick 10, 11 or 12 football games from the offered fixtures to finish as a draw, in which each team scores at least one goal. The player with the most accurate predictions wins the top prize, or a share of it if more than one player has these predictions. In addition, there is a special £3,000,000 prize or share of it for correctly predicting the nine score draws (draws of 1–1 or higher) when these are the only score draws on the coupon.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.footballpools.com/static/nextgen/pdfs/new/8from49rules_classicpools.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120418050621/http://www.footballpools.com/static/nextgen/pdfs/new/8from49rules_classicpools.pdf |url-status=dead|title=The 8 from 49 Pool Rules (Also known as the 'Classic Pools')|date=6 August 2011|archive-date=18 April 2012}}</ref> Players can win large cash prizes in a variety of other ways, under a points-based scoring system.

Entries were traditionally submitted through the post or via agents, who collected entries throughout a specific area. It is now possible to play online.

[[Littlewoods]], [[Ladbrokes|Vernons]] and [[Sportech#Football pools|Zetters]] were the largest pools companies. Littlewoods was the first company to provide pools, selling them outside Manchester United's Old Trafford ground in 1923. In 1986, a syndicate of players became the first winners of a prize over £1 million.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.footballpools.com/cust?action=GoHelp&help_page=about_us|title=Classic Pools &#124; MatchXtra &#124; Lucky Clover|publisher=Football Pools|access-date=2015-10-21|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140822165430/http://www.footballpools.com/cust?action=GoHelp&help_page=about_us|archive-date=22 August 2014|df=dmy-all}}</ref> The football pools companies have traditionally had a charitable element, donating over £1.1 billion to sports-related causes.

The pools business declined after the introduction of the [[National Lottery (United Kingdom)|National Lottery]] in 1994. Littlewoods, Vernons and Zetters were brought together in 2007 by [[Sportech]] under the brand 'The New Football Pools', now known as 'The Football Pools'. They offer other small stake, high prize games such as Premier 10 and Jackpot 12. In 2017 The Football Pools was sold to [[OpCapita]], a private equity company, for £83 million.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Proposed Disposal of the Football Pools Business for cash consideration of £83.0 million|url=https://www.opcapita.com/proposed-disposal-of-the-football-pools-business/|publisher=OpCapita|access-date=2020-05-11}}</ref>