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The Pools UK Review 2024 – £30 Free Bet, Features & Odds
Overview
Long before fixed odds coupons, a massive percentage of UK people would play the pools. You selected a number of UK football games and hoped that at least eight of them would end in score draws. Be the only person to do this and you could become an overnight millionaire. The national lottery, online betting and fixed odds coupons at bookies killed the pools, but now they seem to be back as a sports betting site all of their own. What is The Pools sports betting site all about? How does it work? What bonuses can you acquire? All this and more answered in our exclusive The Pools review.
What is The Pools?
The first question we have to ask – is there any connection between The Pools sports betting site and the football pools popular in the 60s, 70s and 80s? The answer seems to be … yes!
During those times there were multiple pools companies such as Vernons, Zetters and Littlewoods, but of those three Littlewoods was far the biggest. As interest in the football pools dwindled, Littlewoods (which went out of business in 2005) sold their football pools business to Rodime, which eventually became Sportech. Sportech sold the pools to FP Acquisitions Limited in 2017, who then remamed themselves ‘The Football Pools’ in the same year.
The Football Pools now run an online football pools site, and The Pools online sports betting site.
The Pools Sign Up Offer Overview
You get the chance to double your first deposit at The Pools.com. You only need to deposit and stake £10 in order to be able to claim a maximum of £30 in free bets. There are terms and conditions attached to this deal of course, and we will detail them below as part of this The Pools review.
First up, your qualifying £10 bet for The Pools welcome offer must a single or acca bet with odds of 1/1 or greater. Once this bet has been settled, win or lose, your will receive four £5 free bets and a £10 Casino Bonus with no wagering requirements the following day. You have seven days to use your free bets once awarded, else they will expire. The free bets credited as 4 x £5 bets to use on 3x Any sport & 1x Virtuals. As usual, if any of your free bets win, you will not get your free bet stake back, just your winnings.
There are some other terms and conditions associated with The Pools sign up offer, but they are not too complicated and we have given you the important ones already. If you are unsure about anything, review the terms and conditions for yourself.
At The Pools.com you’ll find a small number of other promotions, as described below.
10% Cashback on Losses: At The Pools you will receive ten percent cashback on all your losses from Tuesday through to Sunday. The maximum cashback you can get back is £100 via a minimum of five bets. Cashback is paid as cash, not as bonus money like- Free Bet Grabber: available each day, site users will be asked a question on a sports event that day (one entry only per day). Everyone who gets it right will receive a free bet, or free spins or a bonus to use at The Pools casino.
- Get a £2 Free Bet: stake £10 on a pre-event ‘Create a Bet’ wager and receive a £2 free bet. The wager must contain at least three selections, with cumulative odds of at least evens.
- Big Racing Offer: place a bet according to the specified T&Cs on the first UK horse race of the day to receive a free bet. The free bet is usually one fifth of the value of your qualifying bet.
10% Cashback on Losses: At The Pools you will receive ten percent cashback on all your losses from Tuesday through to Sunday. The maximum cashback you can get back is £100 via a minimum of five bets. Cashback is paid as cash, not as bonus money likeAll these The Pools promotions have T&Cs attached, so be sure you check them. The betting offers are summarised below.
| The Pools promotions | Offer description | Wager requirement | Min qualify odds | Offer expiry | Min deposit |
| The Pools Welcome Offer | Bet £10, Get £30 | No wagering | 1/1 or greater | 7 days | £10 |
| 10% Cashback | On losses Tues-Sun | No wagering | No minimum | 7 days | None |
| Free Bet Grabber | Free bet/bonus if right | No wagering | No minimum | 7 days | None |
| Get a £2 Free Bet | Stake £10 on ‘Create a Bet’ | No wagering | Evens (2.00) | 7 days | £10 |
| Big Racing Offer | Free bet if you bet on a specific race | No wagering | No minimum | When race starts | £5 |
Is The Pools Safe?
We always check to see during any review that a site is properly licensed, so of course we have done so for our The Pools review. We checked with the United Kingdom Gambling Commission and are happy to report that The Pools.com has a valid UKGC licence, awarded in 2017. The Pools has not faced any regulatory actions since the award of its licence.
As for keeping your details safe, The Pools acts in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (2016) which means it won’t share the information you provide. It also uses SSL encryption technology to encrypt all traffic that is sent to it or from it.
Finally, The Pools promotes responsible gambling with a dedicated section on how you can keep yourself safe when it comes to using the site, with links to organisation such as BeGambleAware, and GamStop.
The Pools Review
You now know the bare facts about The Pools sports betting site, but as we continue our The Pools review we are going to look much deeper under the surface at what The Pools can provide you with, and how it compares to other similar sports betting sites in the UK.
What Sports Can I Bet on with The Pools?
You can bet on most popular sports you can think of at The Pools with the focus being on football and horse racing betting, with excellent coverage of golf and tennis too.
As for the remainder, it’s probably easiest just to list them, so here goes: American football, Athletics, Aussie Rules, Baseball, Basketball, Boxing, Cricket, Cycling, Darts, GAA Sports, Greyhounds, Handball, Ice Hockey, MMA, Motor Sports, Politics, Pool, Rugby League, Rugby Union, Snooker, Specials and Volleyball.
Site Navigation
There’s a kind of old fashioned ‘look and feel’ about the Football Pools, but that does not affect site navigation at all – in fact is seems to make finding your way around the site easier. No matter if you want to place a six-leg horse racing acca, or simply get your football bets on with the absolute minimum of fuss, then you will not encounter any issues here.
The actual sports betting software at The Pools is powered by FSB Tech, a UK-based company that provides software for a good number of online sportsbooks,
The Pools Odds and Value
The good news here is that The Pools is another site that offers ‘best odds guaranteed’. This means that no matter the price of your wager when you placed your bet, you will always get the better price if the starting price does not match. The disappointing news is that ‘BOG’ only applies here to UK and Irish horse racing meetings.
As part of our The Pools review, we took a look at the prices of some of the leading events on offer at The Pools and we found them to be equivalent to the prices offered by other UK bookmakers. If you want to use The Pools for betting, you won’t need to hunt around at other sites to get more beneficial odds.
Bet Limits
The minimum accepted bet at The Pools is tiny, only a single penny! That’s superb news for low rollers and casual betting fans. If you are more of a high roller, the maximum bet accepted is … well, there is no actual limit, but if you place a bet that’s too high, then The Pools may refuse to accept your wager.
No matter how much you bet, you cannot win more than £250,000 in any single 24-hour period at this sports betting site. That’s a little disappointing, in all honesty.
In Play Betting
Like most sports betting sites for the UK, The Pools has an excellent in play betting sitting. Thanks to the familiar-looking software you should have no problems in using the in play or live betting section at The Pools, especially if you have used any sports betting site in the UK before.
The current live events are listed along the top of the live events menu, so you can easily see which events are available to be wagered upon. Football takes priority, as you would expect, but live events for tennis, cricket, basketball, golf, ice hockey and handball are commonly available too, as are all the latest eSports match-ups.
Live Streaming
The Pools is not a heavy lifter yet in the UK gambling scene, which means they have been unable to obtain any live streaming rights. Therefore, there is no live streaming available at the site. This is only a minor inconvenience though, and should not cause you too much of an issue.
Features
Although The Pools is the prime sports betting arm of its owners, people who remember the football pools can experience a blast from the past with a series of pool-style games that are available for play. You can play the ‘Classic’ pools game which has an entry fee of just £1 yet also has a top jackpot of £3 million. Just pick ten of the available football matches and hope that at least eight of them end in score draws. You will win at least a share of that £3 million if they do! There are other pools-style games, such as ‘Premier 6’ where you can win £10,000 if you can predict the result of six selected top-class football matches.
Aside from ‘The Pools Games’ there’s virtual sports, a The Pools casino (check it out for possible The Pools free spins), a live The Pools casino, lotto betting and the free-to-play Footie5 game where you can win £25,000 if you correctly predict the score of five selected football matches,
Customer Service
If you need customer aid at The Pools your starting point is the Help Centre. Click on here for detailed FAQs and details of how to contact The Pools if you need one-to-one help at the site.
Live chat is not available 24/7. If live chat is not available then the live chat applet will be replaced by a message form. Will in the form with your issue and The Pools will get back to you ASAP. This is a little bit of a disappointment for us as we feel customer support should be available around the clock.
How to Get Started at The Pools
Want to get a The Pools account? The process is very simple but just because we’re so nice, we are going to walk through the process for you, end-to-end.
Step 1: Visit The Pools
The first step is to visit The Pools site, which you can do by conveniently clicking on the button below.
The page below is what should greet you. The button you need to press is ‘sign up’.
Step 2: Sign Up
If you already have a sports betting account elsewhere you’ll know the next step – form-filling! It is only a three-step process at The Pools, so there’s not that much form-filling to be done. Just complete the form-filling and you’re done! You will receive an email to confirm your account set-up, but there’s no need to reply to it.
Step 3: Deposit Funds
To start betting at The Pools, or to play any of the games you are going to need to put money into your account. You can do this by hitting the ‘deposit’ button on the top of any page at the site.
Our The Pools review found that this site only takes debit cards or PayPal currently, so either plug your card details into the card section, or enter your PayPal email address, and the amount you want to deposit. All being well, your money will be available to bet with instantly.
Step 4: Place a Bet
Now you have funded your account it’s time to place your first bet. Find the event you want to bet on and the outcome you want to back. Click on the outcome to move it to your betslip, and set your wager amount.
We’re betting on the next Manchester derby, and because we were dropped on our heads as a baby we’re going for a United win! We’ve set a fiver to win (potentially) £21.67. When we click ‘Bet Now’ the bet will be set, and we guess we’ll never see that fiver again!
The Pools App
The Pools does not offer a bespoke betting app, so there’s nothing to download and install upon your phone or tablet if you want to bet on the go.
This site is still available on mobile, though. To get mobile at the pools, you just need to pop open a browser and head to the site, just as you would on your desktop PC or laptop. The site will notice your small screen size and adjust itself accordingly (you can see some screenshots below). This isn’t as effective as an app, but it’s better than nothing!
The Pools Promo Code
There are currently no bonus codes at The Pools, but that does not mean you do not get bonuses! It just means that you do not need to enter a bonus code or promo code when you make a deposit at the site – any bonus you are entitled to will be credited to your account automatically.
Bonus codes and promo codes at The Pools may pop up from time to time, and if they do we will tell you all about it whenever we conduct a further The Pools review of the site. In the meantime, here are a selection of the best promo codes and bonus codes available at the leading sports books in the UK:
Hottest UK Betting Promo Codes
Redeem Code
UK only. 18+. T&C's apply. The promotional period is for new customers only. Sign Up using the promo code b25g10fb and make a minimum deposit of £25. Qualifying Bets must be placed in the promotional period. Cashed out or void Bets do not qualify. Reward is available once. If your first Bet fails to reach the criteria, then you will not receive the Reward.
#ad • 18+ • New customer offer • Min deposit £10 with promo code: GET40 • A qualifying bet is a ‘real money’ stake of at least £10 using Bet Builder • Min odds 2/1 (3.0) • Free Bets credited upon qualifying bet settlement, expire after 3 days and valid for football markets only • Free Bet stakes not included in returns • Withdrawal restrictions, payment methods, country & <a href="https://www.888sport.com/spt/betbuilder_cl.htm?utm_campaign=100136622_1867994_nodescription&utm_content=100136622&utm_medium=casap&utm_source=aff/#fullTerms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">full T&C’s apply</a>.• <a href="http://www.begambleaware.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BeGambleAware</a>
Redeem Code
New players only. Minimum stake £ 10, minimum odds 2, stake not returned. 1X wagering the winnings from the free bet. Wagering occurs from real balance first. Wagering requirement is calculated on bonus bets only, wagering starts from real funds. Free bet is valid for 7 days from issue. Max conversion: £ 200. Excluded Skrill deposits. Withdrawal requests voids all active/pending bonuses. Full Terms Apply
New 18+ UK customers only. Register with SUMMER50 between 31/05/24 – 14/07/24. First bet £10+ at Evens (2.0)+ on Sports within 7 days to get 3 x £10 in Sports Free Bets & 2 x £10 in Acca Free Bets within 10 hours of settlement. 7-day expiry. Eligibility & payment exclusions apply. Full T&Cs apply.
#ad. 18+. Play Safe. 3x £10 free bets. Free bets expire after 30 days. New customers signing up through mobile or tablet device only. Minimum £10 stake on odds of 1/2 (1.5) or greater on sportsbook (excluding Virtual markets). <a href="https://promotion.williamhill.com/uk/sports/multisports/aff/r30?btag=a_192749b_793c_&utm_source=incomeaccess&utm_medium=affiliates&utm_campaign=793&utm_term=192749&utm_content=1740158&siteid=192749&WilliamHill=WilliamHillSBSUK&tgclid=0c01003d-6a58-4db5-a700-06a465b9073f#TermsAndConditions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Further terms apply</a>. <a href="https://www.begambleaware.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">begambleaware.org</a>
New Customers Only. Sign up using the bonus code ‘Matchbook30’. Place your first bet. If it loses, we refund your first bet stake as a free bet. The first bet must be placed within 14 days of registration and at odds of 1.8 or more. Bets on Multiples are excluded from this offer. The max refund is a single £30 free bet and will be applied to your account with 72 hours of qualifying bet settlement. 18+ only. T’s and C’s apply. Be Gamble Aware.
The Pools UK Payment Methods
As we’ve already mentioned in our The Pools review, you can only use UK-issued debit cards or PayPal to make payments at The Pools. Gambling site payments via credit card are banned in the UK, and no other eWallets are available.
The Pools may add new payment methods in the future, but our advice is not to hold your breath!
| Banking Method | Fees | Min Deposit | Min Withdraw | Withdrawal Time |
| Debit Cards | None | £5 | £10 | 2-5 days |
| PayPal | None | £5 | £10 | 2-5 days |
The Pools Pros & Cons
Now for this section of our The Pools review we have had a detailed look at The Pools sports betting site, and it’s time to sit back and reflect. Below we have summed up what we like most about The Pools bet site, and what we have seen other sites do better.
- The Pools Games – We appreciate that sports betting is not for everyone, which is why we think that The Pools games is ideal. If you can correctly predict draws and correct scores, then you could be in the money here, and the £25k game is available for free.
- Best Odds Guaranteed – It is always a little disappointing when you win a horse racing bet to find the starting price was more generous than the odds you received. No worries about that at The Pools thanks to ‘best odds guaranteed’.
- Markets Covered – The Pools seems to have selected its market coverage with UK bettors in mind, as there is sufficient coverage of all the most popular UK markets. Some oblique markets are covered too, which is great news!
- Simplified Sign Up Process – Just three forms to fill in, and then no confirmation email to respond to. We like that a lot!
- Payment Options – While most people will be happy using debit cards or PayPal to make/receive payments, some won’t. The Pools need to add more payment options.
- No Live Streaming – Okay, it’s not a deal-breaker, but the lack of live streaming at The Pools is a disappointment.
- No The Pools App – Another ‘slight annoyance’ at The Pools is the lack of an app. Yes, you can still use The Pools bet site on your phone or tablet, but the availability of a dedicated, downloadable app would be an improvement.
Bottom Line on The Pools UK
There’s a nice retro-feel to The Pools as this The Pools review has found out, which is understandable as this is an online bookmaker with a retro-past, heading back to the days when the football pools were everyone’s favourite ‘get rich quick’ scheme before The National Lottery came along.
Not there there is anything retro about what The Pools bet site has to offer (aside from those games which are very much like the football pools of yore). It has a very good selection of markets, rewarding promotions, a simple sign-up process plus ‘best odds guaranteed’ on horse racing.
We hope you will at least take a look at The Pools when you are considering any new online betting site to use, as it has a lot going for it. It certainly comes with the FairBettingSites The Pools review seal of approval.
The Pools Betting FAQs
When was The Pools launched?
The Pools betting site has been around since 2017, but the company behind it, despite a successioning of ownership changes, has been in business for one hundred years!
What payment methods are there currently available at The Pools?
At the moment the site only accepts Visa and MasterCard credit cards and PayPal. We hope that more payment methods will be added in the future.
Does The Pools offer a The Pools welcome offer for new customers?
Indeed it does. For The Pools sign up offer, place a £10 bet and when settled, you'll get 3 x £5 sports betting free bets and 1 x £5 virtual spots betting.
Can I live stream sporting events at The Pools?
Currently live event streaming for sports is unavailable at the Pools.
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“Like old times”
Betting with The Pools takes me back to the days of the footy coupons you would get in Littlewoods. Great nostalgia, but how things have changed!
“Like old times”
Betting with The Pools takes me back to the days of the footy coupons you would get in Littlewoods. Great nostalgia, but how things have changed!