18+, UK only. New customers only. Full T&Cs below.
The Football Pools is one of the UK’s most recognised betting brands. Although punters in the UK have been predicting score draws on their coupons since 1923, the household name didn’t launch a bona fide online sports betting site until 2018.
Alongside online football pools competitions, UK-based punters can now bet on everything from footie, rugby and horse racing through their laptops and mobile phones. The Pools is operated by OpCapita and is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission for over-18s. In addition to an online sportsbook with in-play betting, The Pools offers casino games, a live casino.
Free bets are the name of the game at The Pools. You can claim a series of free wagers when you set up your gambling account, make a first deposit, and place qualifying bets. You will need to bet £10 in the form of a single or accumulator (1/1 or greater) in order to receive your bonus wagers.
To claim your welcome offer at The Pools, open your account and bet £10 on qualifying sports bets. You’ll receive £20 in free bets in the form of 4 x £5 wagers.
Our opinion: You can’t beat a free bets deal, and The Pools offers a decent example. The initial deposit and bet might be a bit high for casual punters, and the minimum odds are a little high too. However, £20 in free bets is nothing to be sniffed at, and you can use the full suite of football markets for your wagers.
The Pools offers a decent selection on ongoing bonuses for its sports betting customers. You’ll be particularly well-served if you love horse racing and footie. Look out for the Loyalty Club too, where you can claim free bets.
💰Price Boosts: The Pools offers plenty of odds boosts on selected footie and sport markets. There’s usually a max bet limit of £20, but the deals can be good.
💰Acca Boost: Get a 50% boost on your winnings when you bet £10 on an acca containing 5 or more legs.
💰Daily Free Bets: Racing punters are rewarded every day with free bets when they make qualifying wagers. You’ll receive a £5 free bet for every £20 wagered, or £2 for every £10 staked. Eligible races are listed clearly on the site so you can see the race-by-race offers. While The Pools doesn’t issue free bets on request, customer accounts are reviewed daily and free bets awarded on an ad hoc basis. Also look out for BIG racing offers on selected courses. You’ll get free bets as long as you make a qualifying bet and nominated favourites triumph in their races.
💰Question of the Day: Win a free bet by predicting the outcome of a selected match.
💰Extra Place Races: The Pools offers extra places on select each-way markets in its horse racing lobby.
💰Best Odds Guaranteed: A standard offer at all good racing betting sites, Best Odds Guaranteed is provided by The Pools. With Best Odds Guaranteed, the site will honour the higher of the two prices (SP or early price).
💰Football Pools: As well as standard sports betting promos, The Pools offers a variety of pools offers you won’t find on any other site. Most deals offer free casino play or sports bonuses every time you enter one of the Pools contests on-site.
💰Highlights include the Classic Pools with a £3m jackpot and a £1 entry, plus the Goal Rush contest with a potential £1m top prize. Simply pick 8 matches where both teams with score and share a slice of the prizepool if you’re correct.
💰If correct score predictions are more your thing, Footie5 is a great competition where you can win £25,000 by picking 5 correct scores on selected matches.
💰Loyalty Club: The Pools runs a fairly standard sports betting loyalty club for regular customers. You can earn a free bet when you make 10 or more qualifying wagers. Horse racing singles are ineligible, and bets must be made at evens or higher.
The Pools spreads markets on over 20 different sports. As well as football and horse racing, you can place bets on everything from motor sports and rugby to tennis, MMA and athletics. Find your favourite sports via the A-Z list in the lobby, or use the carousel at the top of the homepage. There are also Virtuals to bet on, including greyhounds, horse racing and football.
Football: Footie betting dominates the markets at The Pools. You can bet on 1X2, correct score, or any number of exotic bets via the betting lobby. There’s a handy Quick Link to the ‘Euro Elite Coupon’ with the biggest matches of the weekend from England, Spain or France. You can also skip straight to all O/U 2.5 goals, BTTS (Both Teams to Score), and Double Chance markets with the carousel. Our review team found over 160 individual markets on games, including Over/Under Goals, First Team to Score, and First/Last Goalscorer.
Horse Racing: No self-respecting UK sports betting site would be complete without full horse racing markets. Luckily, The Pools offers prices on all UK and Irish racing, including courses from Goodwood and Newmarket to Curragh and Down Royal. You’ll find live streams by clicking on the TV icons on the racecard. The Pools lists all races for the day ahead, next day or future. You can also back horses in virtual races every few minutes. You’ll have a full selection of betting types at your disposal, including Win, Place and Betting Without, plus some exotic bet options such as Lucky 15, Lucky 63 and Forecast/Tricast.
Cricket: Bet pre-match or in-running on the big Test matches, ODIs, or World Cups. You’ll also find interesting match-ups in competitions such as the Caribbean Premier League and IPL.
US Sports: The Pools offers fixed odds betting on all major US sports, including NFL, NBA and MLB. Upcoming matches are listed in calendar order, and you can skip easily between Win (Moneyline), Handicap, and Totals markets.
The Pools also spreads markets on Ice Hockey – in both the US and across Europe – and Major League Baseball. Bet outright on division and World Series winners, or go in-play as the game takes place.
Other Sports: The Pools offers some decent betting on a range of alternative sports. Professional e-Sports is a big market, with prices offered on everything from international Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), DOTA 2, and League of Legends.
The Pools offers a dedicated native mobile betting app for both Apple and Android portable devices. Log in with Touch ID to get straight to your favourite betting or Football Pools contests, and bet in-play on footie, tennis or other sports. You can also opt in to receive push notifications and keep up to date with the latest promotions. There are The Pools apps available for Android (5.1+) and iOS (11.0+).
For a relatively new online bookmaker, The Pools offers some decent features to make your betting more seamless.
Create a Bet: The Pools offers a Create a Bet service on over a dozen football competitions, including the English Premier League and FA Cup. You can formulate your own combo bet and receive bespoke odds on everything from Double Chance/Half With Most Goals to Match Result/First and Last Goalscorer.
Full Statistics: The Pools provides complete sport statistics on all games via its partnership with Statscore, one of the biggest data centers on the market. You can find H2H, form and league standings on football and a range of sports.
In-Play Betting: We loved the in-play offerings at The Pools. You can toggle easily between game/event stats such as shots on target and number of attacks, or follow event incidents such as sendings-off and injuries. Check out the match visualiser too which allows you to follow the game and track all updated stats.
Cash Out: Cash-Out is offered on selected sports and markets. You’ll see a full list of Cash Out options when you make your bet. Settle your bet early and take an early profit before the game finishes. Partial Cash Out is, sadly, not available on the site.
The deposit options at The Pools are pretty limited, but transactions are safe and the site operates KYC (Know Your Customer) verification before your first deposit. You’ll need to send in scans of your personal documents (driver’s license, passport, plus a utility bill) to confirm your ID and address. Verification can take up to 48 hours. You can make deposits from just £5 via debit card. Minimum withdrawals are just £10. We’d like to have seen additional payment options on the list, such as an e-Wallet or bank transfer facility.
Available deposit methods (and minimum deposit)
The Pools sportsbook is fully licensed by the UK Gambling Commission to provide legal online betting to gamblers in the United Kingdom. SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption is used to protect all personal data. In addition, operating funds are kept totally separate from your account money and jackpots.
The Pools also boasts a firm commitment to responsible gambling. You can set and update deposit limits via your account page. Plus, deposit limits carry a 24-hour cooling-off period if you change your mind.
Alternatively, you can apply for complete self-exclusion or a time-out from your Pools betting account. The Pools will also bring up reality checks to remind you how long you’ve been betting online for.
You can make contact with The Pools customer support via live chat, phone, email or post. Service lines are open 8.30am–10pm Monday to Saturday, and 12pm–10pm on Sundays. Email ([email protected]) is a good way of making contact but we found the live chat to be swift in responding to our queries. If you prefer a phone service, you can contact 0800 093 3013 during business hours.
We found The Pools site super-easy to use and there were no issues logging in and hunting out our favourite markets. You can toggle between American, Fractional and Decimal odds at the top of the homepage and use the Quick Links in the lobby to get to the big races and footies markets instantly. There seems to be a lack of Favourites tabs on The Pools site, which is a minor drawback.
The betting slip is easy to use, and selections are immediately added to the slip when you click on them in the lobby. The betting slip will also instantly calculate all acca prices, plus you can choose to accept or decline price changes as they appear in real time.
The Football Pools is a true British institution, so the online sportsbook had to be on top of its game. Luckily, the sports betting side doesn’t disappoint: alongside jackpot Pools games, you can bet on dozens of sports including UK & Irish racing, football, and a full roster of US sports.
We’re also big fans of the no-nonsense loyalty scheme at The Pools. Why mess around with loyalty points when you can just sign up, make bets and receive free bets every time? Sign up today and see why The Pools could be challenging for top honours in the world UK sports betting.
Yes! The Pools is operated by The Football Pools Ltd, a Liverpool-based firm with years of experience. The sports betting site is licenced by the UK Gambling Commission.
Of course! The Pools operates a full online sportsbook alongside its pooled contests. Bet on horse racing, football or over a dozen global sports like golf and American Football.
The Football Pools runs regular competitions where you can win jackpots by prediction score draws, correct scores, or teams to win. Prizes are divided among all winning players, although some jackpots are fixed.
Yes. Open your betting account and earn free bets when you make a deposit and place your first qualifying sport wager.
