A centenary celebration like no other

Mark McGuiness, Head of Marketing and Casino at The Football Pools, talks to European Gaming about the brand’s 100-year history and how it remains just as popular today as it did in its heyday.

The Football Pools is approaching its centenary season. Can you tell us more about the incredible history behind the brand?

The Football Pools was born in 1923 in a small office in Liverpool, England. Originally called Littlewoods Football Pools, three friends invested £50 of their own money each to print the first 4,000 coupons and then distributed them outside Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground. But it was the entrepreneurial spirit of one of the trio, John Moores, that pushed the business into becoming the biggest football pools operator the world has ever seen. At its height, more than 14 million people played The Pools each week, staking more than £50m. For the past 99 years, playing the Football Pools has become a tradition for generations of families and over that time we have paid out billions of pounds to players. As the brand approaches its centenary season, we continue to provide fun, entertainment and plenty of big wins to millions of players every week.

How have the Football Pools and The Pools evolved to ensure it remains relevant in what is a fast-moving industry?

Popularity always ebbs and flows and this is just part and parcel of operating any brand in any industry. But the Football Pools and The Pools remain hugely popular, especially among those looking for big wins from small stakes. The Football Pools offers our portfolio of traditional jackpot games, such as the football-based score draw game of Classic Pools where players are in with the chance of scooping the £3m top prize each week. Customers have the option to play as they go, or they can subscribe so that they never miss an opportunity to play their favourite numbers. The Pools is home to our Football Pools Games, sportsbook and casino. Of course, all games can be played online and via both desktop and mobile. We have been pursuing a digital transformation strategy for several years now and have one of the best mobile gambling propositions in the UK market.

Do your Classic Pools Games appeal to younger audiences? If so, how have you ensured they tap into their psyche and deliver the experiences they are seeking?

Classic Pools has a growing audience of online players, which can skew younger than traditional Pools players. But regardless of audience age, we see two general player types – those that analyse Head 2 Head statistics from previous matches to identify those that may result in a score draw and other players that prefer to use their favourite numbers as the means to select possible matches that might end in the score draw result.

To help Classic Pools games appeal to a broad audience, including new players, we have ensured the game interface is fast, intuitive and of course mobile friendly. That’s why we have two versions of the game presentation, one being just selecting numbers and the other the detailed H-2-H game fixture view. We are always improving our game UI and have plans to introduce improvements and gamification in the coming months.

Social interaction is becoming an increasingly important factor to players when deciding where and what to play. How have you maintained a sense of community online?

Interaction is absolutely key to fostering a genuine connection between consumer and brand and a sense of community is what has kept people playing The Pools for decades. We have maintained this online with a large social media following on Facebook and Twitter. This is a bit different to the early days when collectors would visit customers in their homes to collect their entries for that particular game round, but it works just as well. In addition to social media, we have game leaderboards which were actually introduced long before “social” was born. This is because we have always understood that customers wish to compete, learn and improve. Leaderboards provide a way to visualise these emotional requirements and participation in the game.

For a gambling brand to hit 100 years is an incredible achievement. How will you mark the occasion?

We have some really exciting activities planned to mark our centenary year, one of which was the appointment of the new Pools Panel – this includes football legend Michael Owen and its first-ever female expert, former England goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis. Michael is also the face of a major promotional campaign that we are running with our brilliant affiliate partners. We will be giving away 10,000 free entries into our Classic Pools game, which has a £3m jackpot up for grabs every week as well as an enhanced £350,000 prize pot. Delivering a successful product for 100 years is no mean feat, so we plan to celebrate in style and in a way that makes our players feel part of our success and valued for their loyalty.