Editing Football pools (section)

====Pools War====
In 1936, revenue from the 28 pools companies<ref name=Hansard2/> had reached almost £30 million per year,<ref name=DOF/> and the pools accounted for four million out of six million postal packets sent weekly in the UK.<ref name=Hansard2>{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1936/apr/03/betting-no-1-bill|title=BETTING (No. 1) BILL.|date=3 April 1936|access-date=24 March 2020}}</ref> The [[English Football League]] was opposed to the betting and decided to withhold publication of their fixture lists in an attempt to thwart the pools companies' ability to print their coupons: games involving long journeys were announced on Thursday evening and others on Friday evening. The pools companies retaliated by printing coupons with just the home sides,<ref name=":0" /> then managed to obtain unofficial leaks of the fixtures and gave customers longer to get their coupons in. The "Pools War" ended on 9 March 1936 after two weekends where the fixture lists were not published early.<ref name=DOF/> A further attempt to ban the pools was proposed in Parliament at a similar time by [[R.J. Russell]] but the bill was defeated on 3 April 1936 by 287 votes to 24.<ref name=":0" />

Barnard continued to run his competition until 1938, when he sold to Cope's Pools of London.<ref name=RH/> Other pools companies included Brittens (founded 1946 in Leicester), Empire (based in Blackpool) and Sherman's Pools of Cardiff, which was absorbed by Littlewoods in 1961.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Generous+Sherman+brothers+should+not+be+forgotten;+Time+to+remember.-a080221051|title=Generous Sherman brothers should not be forgotten; Time to remember|work= South Wales Echo|date=19 November 2001|via=Free Online Library|access-date=12 February 2018| first=Dan | last = O'Neill}}</ref>

[[Dundee United]] set up a pools competition in 1956 to help fund ground improvements at [[Tannadice Park]].<ref name=DOF/> ''Taypools'', as their operation is known, became the model for dozens of other club-run pools and lotteries designed to help boost payrolls or build new stands.