The Pools Sports Betting Review – (2024)

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Written by James Cormack
Last Updated
12th September 2024
Users' Rating: 5 (1)
TPP RATING3.5 / 5
  • Super-low 1p minimum stake!
  • A myriad of sportsbook promotions
  • £3 million jackpot prize for Classic Pools
The Pools Offers
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The Pools Quick Facts

Betting Options Sports, Casino, football pools, lotto, Arcade
Compatibility
iOS
Android
Tablet
Mac/PC
Support Email, Phone, Live Chat
Owner OpCapita
Founded 1923
Headquarters Liverpool, England
License UKGC
Deposit Methods
Withdrawal Methods
LANGUAGES
uk
MAIN FEATURES
UK Gambling Commission
Livestreaming
VIP Programme
Cash-Out
Bet Builder
Support 24/7
Native App
Cryptocurrency
Established in 1923
Pros:
  • Competitive and consistent odds
  • Myriad of sportsbook and casino promotions
  • Various other products, including football pools
  • Superb esports coverage
Cons:
  • Only one payment option accepted
  • Poor specials offering
  • Loyalty program could be better

How We Rate Operators

At ThePuntersPage, our commitment to providing clear and comprehensive sportsbook reviews is paramount. We meticulously assess each bookmaker during our future-proof review procedure, focusing on several critical aspects:

  1. 1.

    Odds and Margins

  2. 2.

    Bonuses and Terms

  3. 3.

    UK-Friendly Payment Methods

  4. 4.

    Betting Markets

  5. 5.

    Live Betting and Streaming

  6. 6.

    Betting Features

Registration Process

4/5
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    Simple three-step process

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    Basic information required

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    Automatic verification

Creating an account with The Pools is a simple three-step process in which only basic information is required to complete your registration. You’ll have🍷 to give your email♌ address and create a unique password as part of step one.

The pools registration screen

Once you’ve advanced via clicking the green ‘Next’ icon, you’ll then have to reveal your name and date of 🐼birth.

the pools registration

Finally, step three is where you’ll create your username before confirming ﷽your mobile phone number and home address.

The pools registration screen

Once you’ve confirmed all the details you’ve submitted as part of the process, click ‘Submit' to begin your journey with this bookmaker.

On most occasions, punters will be verified automatically. If not, you'll be required to send through do😼cuments that verify your full name, date of birth, and address to [email protected].

Deposits & Withdrawal Options

2/5
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    Debit cards and PayPal only

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    Simple deposit and withdrawal processes

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    No fees

the pools payment method

As you can see from the above screenshot, funding your account with The Pools is a markedly easy process – that said, punters are restricted to just two payment options: debit card (Visa/Mastercard/Maestro) and PayPal. In addition, there are no cryptocurre🍬ncies available.

Method Min Max Processing Time Fee
£5 £1,000 Instant None
£5 £1,000 Instant None
£5 £1,000 Instant None
Method Min Max Processing Time Fee
£10 No limit 2-5 working days None
£10 No limit 2-5 working days None
£10 No limit 2-5 working days None

The minimum deposit is £5, while the maximum is set at £3,000.

Withdrawals – which, once again, involves filling out basic card information – are typically processed between 2-5 working days following your request. Punters can withdraw a minimum of £10 at any one time.

No fees are involved with either process.

Depositing Funds

 To fund your account, begin by clicking the distinct green ‘DEPOSIT’ icon located in the top right-ꦇhan♉d corner of the homepage.

The Pools Deposit Screenshot

🔯 That will bring up the below screen. As we wanted to deposit via debit card, all we had to do was confirm our deposit amount before listing the card’s number, security🐻 code, and expiry date.

We clicked ‘Submit & Finish’ to move on.

The Pools Deposit Screenshot

And that was that. Our ꦡdeposit receipt is shown below, with £10.00 showing up in our accounꦅt.

The Pools Deposit Receipt Screenshot

Withdrawing Winnings

The Pools Withdrawal Screenshot

🅘 To withdraw funds from our ꦗPools account, we once again had to click the green ‘DEPOSIT’ icon.

Unsurprisingly, the depositing page will appear below, but you should see a ‘WITHDRAW’ tab on t꧃he black 💟horizontal slider. That’s how you begin the withdrawal process.

The Pools Withdrawal Screenshot

Once the ‘WITHDRAW’ page is brought up, all we had to do was confirm how much we wished to tak🌟e🐈 out of our account and click the blue ‘WITHDRAWAL’ button.

The Pools Withdrawal Screenshot

Our 🔯withdrawal was immediately processed, and the funds ar๊rived in our account within the following few days.

Welcome Offer

4/5
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    £10 Weekly ACCA Free Bet

The Pools 10 on accas desktop. screenshot

The Pools’ welcome offers offer new customers a £10 weekly ACCA free bet. Mini🐽mum odds and selections apply per offer. The fr💝ee bet will arrive in your account following the settlement of your qualifying bet. A maximum of one free bet per customer per week is available from this promotion. Full T&Cs apply per offer.

OPINION

With its welcome offer, The Pools has found a way to cater to both new and returning customers alike. I particularly like the fact that🏅 the free bet can be claimed every week. You won't have to overly commit to the operator, too, so kudos to The Pools for that🗹.

Sportsbook Promotions

4/5
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    Horse racing punters satisfied

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    Boosted accas

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    Pools promotions

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    Loyalty Club

The Pools boasts several exciting sportsbook promotions to intrigue their customers. Horse racing fans, in🔯 particular, have plenty to enjoy in this re💞gard.

For example, the bookie’s ‘BIG Racing Promotion’ hands out free bets if a certain condition is met on a selected race – e.g. if the favourit𝔉e wins.

Other horse racing promos include Extra Places, which is commonplace across new UK bookmakers.

The pools sports promotions
(Source: The Pools)

Moreover, The Pools ‘ACCA Boost’ gifts up to 50% boosts on accumulators. To qualify for this promotion, punters must stake at least £10 ༒on a five-plus fold acca. In the case of a winning five-fold, punters will receive a 5% boost, while the🌟 boost is a monster 50% for a successful 12-fold.

The bookie’s ‘Question of the Day’ offer is a simple initiative that rewards customers with small prizes for answering a particular question correctly. On the day of writing, customers will receive a £1 free bet if they correctly answer how many goals would be scored in the EF🐻L League One fixture between Bolton Wanderers and Burton Albion.

Finally, for those old-school punters who still enjoy dabbling in the pools, the bookie’s ‘Pools Plus’ promo gifts £5 bonuses following a £30 stake on aꦏny pools game.

The Pools VIP/Loyalty Programme

The pools loyalty program

The Pools run a loyalty programme called ‘Loyalty Club’. Here, customers are entitled to a £5 free bet every time they place ten bets (at odds greater than or equa♕l to evens) of £5 or more on any event.

Customers are limited to a maximum of one free b𒁏et a day and seven per week.

Pre-Match Offer

4/5
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    28 sports make up sportsbook

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    Pools betting

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    Competitive and consistent odds

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    Great esports coverage

28 sports make up The Pools’ sportsbook. An array of markets and sub-markets can be accessed within each sport, with the bookmaker covering events from across the globe. For example, 174 markets are available to bet on 💎for the upcoming Premier League bout between Cryst💧al Palace and Tottenham.

There’s plenty for football fans to take advantage of. However, their impressive coverage would be un♏dermined if their odds were sub-par.

Thus, we measured the quality of The Pools’ margins using the odds overround calculation. This is a percentage figure which is obtained when all the probabilities of an outcome of a bet are added together. Logically, this figure should add up to 100%, however, this does not take into consideration the profit made b♒y the bookie. For this reason, it is commonly accepted🧸 that an odds overround of less than 110% indicates good odds.

To carry out our little experiment, we picked three random football matches from the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, and EFL League One. The results came to 105.34%, 106.45%, and 105.15% respectively, indicating that The Pools’ odds are both consistent and competitive.

You can display odds as decimals or fractions. The minimum stake 🍒is set at 1p while the maximum is currently unknown.

Pools betting is natu🉐rally also available with this bookmaker, under the promotion Poo📖ls Plus. The Pools offers several different pools for players, where they can stake £30 on games during the week and receive a £5 Pools bonus the following Monday. The games currently accepted are the following:

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    Goal Rush

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    Classic Pools

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    Lucky Clover

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    Premier 12

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    Premier 10

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    Premier 6

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    Colossus Pools

Placing a Bet

After funding our account, we wanted to place a bet on the 2022 World Cup. So, we checked out the tournament specials offe🥂red by the bookmake✱r.

Placing bet on the pools website

There were several price b❀oosts available to us, but we opted to place a bet on Harry Kane to have one or more shots on target in any one of England’s group stage games. The maximum stake on this bet was £5.

Above, that bet has been placed in our betslip on the right-hand side of the homepage. To place the bet, we confirmed our stake in the white box before clicki📖ng ‘BET NOW’.

The Pools Betslip Receipt Screenshot

 Our betslip receipt is shown aboܫve🎶. The bet was processed immediately.

Esports

esports competitions on the pools

As you can see on the long list above, The Pools’ esports coverage is very impressive. Counter-Strike, Dota 2, League of Legends, Rainbow 6, StarCraft and VALORANT events were cove꧋red on the da꧒y of writing. It’s a comprehensive offering, that’s for sure.

To take advantage of this bookie’s esports offering, be sure to check out our esports betting tips to enhance your chance of succes🃏s in this sphere.

The Pools – Other Specials

On the other hand, The Pools’ specials offering is pretty basic. Novelty bettors can bet on the victors of both the BBC Sports Personality of the Year and Strictly Come Dancing – but that’s all.

Their political coverage is 🎐limited to just UK and US politics. However, there are various markets to enjoy here. For example, you can bet on the next Republican candidate for the 2024 US election.

Cash Out & Bet Builder

You can take full control of your bets with The Pools’ Cash Out feature. The bookmaker also boasts a bet builder in the form of ‘Create a Bet’.

💟 This feature allows customers to create their own custom bets by selecting from various football markets, including match result, total goals, corners and double chance.

Live Offer

3/5
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    No livestreaming

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    In-play graphics

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    Multitude of live markets across various sports

At the time of writing, The Pools offers a broad range of live events across several sports. The in-play experience is fairly impressive with this bookmaker. For football events, an interactive match tracker is provided, as are statistics, head-to-head records, squad lists and tables.

Unfortunately, The Pools doesn’t offer a livestreaming service of any kind for its users.

Security

4/5
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    Licensed by UK Gambling Commission

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    Several account limits

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    Responsible gambling section

 The Poﷺols is licensed and regulated in the UK by 🐟the .

The bookie’s responsible gambling section can be a little tricky to find, but once accessed, customers will find external links that provide further support for problem gambling, tips to prevent gambling addiction, and a brief explan�🌼�ation of the dangers of underage gambling.

To mitigate against potential addiction, the bookmaker has several account limits that its users can deploy. These include Deposit Limits, Reality Checks, Time Outs, and Self-Exclusions.

For those who are interested in knowing what the bookie is doing with your personal data, a comprehensive Privacy & Cookie Policy is available to view on the site.

Service & Customer Support

4/5
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    Impressive FAQ section

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    Multiple avenues of communication

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    Not 24/7

Customers are able to access The Pools’ FAQ section once they’ve accessed the ‘Contact Us’ link that can be found in various places on the website. The bookie’s FAQs are separated into di𒈔ff꧑erent topics of enquiry to ensure customers can  find exactly what they want to be solved more easily.

These topics are account, verifications, payments, responsible gambling, casino, sportsbook, general, and promotions.

However, should you find that your query hasn’t been resolved via the FAQs, you can contact The Pools’ support team. Unfortunately, they don’t operate 24/7 and instead function between 08:30 and 22:00 (Monday to Saturday) and between 12:00 and 22:00 (Sunday). You can contact the bookie via email ([email protected]) or use their Live Chat service.

So, to test the efficiency of the bookie’s Live Chat function, we started a sessio🦄n by clicking on the icon found on the right-hand side of the Contact Us page. For security reasons, we had to confirm our name, email, and date of birth before we began.

 However, this took no time at all, and we were quickly c🌊onnected to an agent.

the pools live chat

After greeting us, we asked whether the bookie accepted any other paymen🧜t methods other than debit cards. In no time at all, they confirmed they didn’t.

While it was hard for them to make a favourable impression considering how br🐲ief our session was – which in itself is a good thing – the bookie’s support team didn’t go the extra mile in terms of politeness. Maybe that’s being pedantic, but we’ve seen some give us an incredibly warm welcome when using their Live Chat function.

Nevertheless, we certainl🉐y can’t complain 𝓰about the efficiency at which The Pools dealt with our query.

Design & Usability

3/5
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    Basic website aesthetic

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    Efficient site overall

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    No blog or statistics

The Pools Homepage

The design of The Pools’ website certainly leaves plenty to be desired, but it’s sufficient. Importantly, the structure is coherent and thus, a user-friendly experience is facilitated. In short, it’s sub-par aesthetically but great ergonomically.

‘Quick Links’ 𓄧and an A-Z list of the bookie’s sportsbook can be found down the left-hand side of the homepage, while the centre is consumed by an advertisements slider. Underneath the slider, a long list of events manifests. However, these are well-separated, so everything is easy to access.

A ubiquitous bet slip is located on the right-hand side, aiding the 🐎betting process, and customers can access ‘Favourite Bets’ un♌derneath. These are the most popular bets placed by customers on upcoming events.

The bottom of the homepage is where you’ll find all the important information links. These ꧅include Contact Us, Responsible Gambling and 𓄧FAQs.

No statistics were accessible, while the bookie is bereft of a blog of any sort.

OPINION

While the site functions well, we would love to see this bookmaker update their website aesthetically. We're not a fan of the design. However, everything is easy to access, and for punters who are merely looking to quickly place a bet, the♏ site certainly facilitates a user-friendly experience.

Mobile

3/5
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    Download via the App Store & Google Play

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    Well structured – able to bet on the move

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    Features/promotions accessible

The Pools’ mobile app is accessible for both Apple and Android us༒ers as it’s available to download via the App Store and Google Play.

Customers can enjoy the vast majority of the bookmaker’s features on the app and access their exclusive promotions. In-play betting is accessible, while the coherent structure – similar to the website – once again facil♔itates a user-friendly experience. It’s pretty easy to bet on the move, despite the odd technical fault.

Overall, while The Pools’ mobile app isn’t one of the mo♔st comprehensive we’ve seen, it’s certainly sufficient for on-the-move betting.

What are the Punters saying?

🥃 The Pools possess a niche that the vast majority of modern bookmakers don’t boast, and that can help them attract a different type of punter. Those that bet with The Pools enjoy the various pools games offered by the bookie, but many find that their “normal” betting coverage is up to scratch, too. The casino has garnered positive reviews, but some have complained about some technical difficulties in regard to depositing and withdrawing.

Other Products

screenshot of the pools casino welcome offer

The Pools’ Casino offering is vast, with an endless number of games available for punteജrs to enjoy, includiﷺng:

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    Blackjack

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    Roulette

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    Scratch cards

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    Slots

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    Jackpots

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    Live Casino

The Pools give new casino players the chance to claim 100 fre🔥e spins on Big Catch Bass Fishing as a casino welcome offer. To get a chance to play on this fantastic slot, players must deposit and stake £10 on casino slots. Full T&Cs apply.*

Key Terms and Conditions:

*18+, UK residents only. Players must sign-up to thepools.com and make a first deposit of £10+ and Stake £10+ on casino slots. Deposit and Stake must be completed within 7 days of opening your account to qualify. On qualification of the promotion, you will receive Free Spins on ‘Big Catch Bass Fishing.’ The value of each Spin awarded as part of this promotion is £0.10 per spin. Qualifying players will have the Free Spins credited to their account by 17:00 UK the follow day. Free Spins will expire 5 days after being awarded. Available only once to each new customer. Full T&Cs apply. Bet Responsibly. #ad

The bookie also offers plenty of other casino promotions such as daily d✃rops, Free Spins Wednesday, and Megaways™ Weekend. New offers manifest daily, meaning a sense of excitement and intrigue is retained among users.

Punters can also enjoy a comprehensive virtual sports offering in which football, horse racing, jump ra🌟cing, motor racing, greyhounds, and table tennis eventဣs are supplied.

ThePuntersPage Final Say

3.5/5

The Pools certainly has bright aspec💙ts, but there is r꧃oom to be improved upon if it’s to be considered a premier bookmaker. The website’s design could be slicker, while the one accepted payment option – even if it is debit card – could be an issue for some. They need to diversify in this regard.

The bookie’s offered promotions are good, and there’s certainly enough to intrigue customers, but this is another area where they should be looking to impro𓂃ve. More variety and originality wouldn’t go amiss.

Nevertheless, as mentioned, there are bright spots. The Pools boast superb football odds and a comprehensive sportsbook. In addition, esports lovers and those who enjoy dabbling in the casino world are treated to a haven of options with this bookmaker. Old-school punters can also take advantage of the various pools offered by the bookie. To ♊our surprise, this niche wasn’t as prominent as we thou🌌ght.

Overall, though, there are aspects which bettors can enjoy, and while this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, a no-fuss-or-fluff visual with great sports offering may just very well be what sܫome are after. We are keeping our eye🍬 on this one.

The min♛imum amount accepted at T꧋he Pools as a deposit is £5.

You may withdraw money ensuring your card is validated (this is one w𝄹hen depositing) and then clicking on “Withdraw” within the blue banner on your account page.

Withdrawals will be🔯 processed w𝕴ithin 2-5 working days from the request.

Frequent free bet promotions are sent out to existing customers via email or puꦅsh notifica♍tion on the mobile app. Stay up to date with the latest offers from the Promotions page.

Make sure you are logged in, pick a bet selection, select the ‘free bet' option from the drop-down menu in your betslip and place the bet.

Customer support is available via live chat or email. Members of the support team are available from Mon to Sat between 8.30am and 10pm and on Sundays f𝔍rom 12pm till 10pm.

The Pools offer different types of account closures, if you are looking to close the account or whic🍃h an option to reactivate at any point, please contact the customer service team

After adding all the odds you wish to place in the accumulator, simply scroll down to the end and select the betting option which has a ‘1X' next to it which means you will be placing one stake on all the accumulated odds. Then press ‘Bet Now'.

Further reading

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