The Pools Sports Betting Review – (2023)

Users' Rating: 5 (1)

Competitive and consistent odds
Myriad of sportsbook and casino promotions
Superb esports coverage

BY James Cormack

TPP RATING3.7 / 5

The Pools Quick Facts

Website www.thepools.com

Betting Options Sportsbook, Casino

Compatibility

iOS

Android

Tablet

Mac/PC

Support Email, Live Chat

Owner The Football Pools Limited

Founded 1923

Headquarters Walton House, 55 Charnock Road, Liverpool, England

License UKGC

Deposit Methods

Withdrawal Methods

LANGUAGES

MAIN FEATURES

UK Gambling Commission

Live Stream

VIP Programm

Cash Out

Bet Builder

Support

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

Registration Process 4/5

Simple three-step process
Basic information required
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 registation 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 documents that verify your full name, date of birth, and address to verify@thepools.com.

Deposits & Withdrawal Options 2.5/5

Debit cards only
Simple deposit and withdrawal processes
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 one payment option: debit card (Visa/Mastercard/Maestro). In addition, there are no cryptocurrencies available.

Deposit Withdrawals

Min	Max	Processing Time	Fee
£5	£3,000	Instant	None
£5	£3,000	Instant	None
£5	£3,000	Instant	None

Min	Max	Processing Time	Fee
£10	*Not Specified	2-5 working days	None
£10	*Not Specified	2-5 working days	None
£10	*Not Specified	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-hand 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 deposit receipt is shown below, with £10.00 showing up in our account.

The Pools Deposit Receipt Screenshot

Withdrawing Winnings

The Pools Withdrawal Screenshot

To withdraw funds from our Pools 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 the 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 take out of our account and click the blue ‘WITHDRAWAL’ button.

The Pools Withdrawal Screenshot

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

Welcome Offer 4/5

£20 in free bets after depositing and staking £10
4x £5 free bets
Must be used within 7 days

The Pools Get £20 Welcome Offer Screenshot

The Pools’ welcome offer offers new customers £20 in free bets after they’ve deposited and staked £10. The free bets are credited as four separate £5 bets, to use 3x on any sport and 1x on Virtuals. The first £5 free bet will arrive in your account following the settlement of your qualifying bet, which must be placed at odds greater than evens, while the other three free bets will be credited by midday the day after your first bet settles.

Customers are also obliged to use their free bets within seven days of their arrival into their account.

OPINION

There’s nothing particularly special about The Pools’ welcome offer, but it’s one that’s bound to satisfy new customers. £20 is a generous bonus, although the saturation of massive World Cup welcome offers means this promotion is unlikely to attract punters for the time being. We like that punters are encouraged to explore various products of The Pools, with the rewarding of a £5 freebie able to be used on any Virtuals market.

Sportsbook Promotions 4/5

Horse racing punters satisfied
Boosted accas
Pools promotions
Loyalty Club

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

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 favourite wins.

Other horse racing promos include Extra Places and Best Odds Guaranteed, which are commonplace across new UK bookmakers.

The pools sports promotions

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 EFL 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 any 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 equal to evens) of £5 or more on any event.

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

Pre-Match Offer 4/5

28 sports make up sportsbook
Pools betting
Competitive and consistent odds
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 Crystal Palace and Tottenham.

There’s plenty for football fans to take advantage of. However, their impressive coverage would be undermined 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 by 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 naturally also available with this bookmaker, under the promotion Pools 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:

Goal Rush
Classic Pools
Lucky Clover
Premier 12
Premier 10
Premier 6
Colossus Pools

Find out more on thepools.

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 offered by the bookmaker.

The Pools Place Bet Screenshot

There were several price boosts 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 clicking ‘BET NOW’.

The Pools Betslip Receipt Screenshot

Our betslip receipt is shown above. 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 covered on the day 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 success 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 3.5/5

No livestreaming
In-play graphics
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

Licensed by UK Gambling Commission
Several account limits
Responsible gambling section

The Pools is licensed and regulated in the UK by the UK Gambling Commission.

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 explanation 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

Impressive FAQ section
Multiple avenues of communication
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 different 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 (support@thepools.com) or use their Live Chat service.

So, to test the efficiency of the bookie’s Live Chat function, we started a session 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 connected to an agent.

the pools live chat

After greeting us, we asked whether the bookie accepted any other payment 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 brief 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 certainly can’t complain about the efficiency at which The Pools dealt with our query.

Design & Usability 3.5/5

Basic website aesthetic
Efficient site overall
No blog or statistics

the-pools-design

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’ and 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’ underneath. 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 FAQs.

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

Download via the App Store & Google Play
Well structured – able to bet on the move
Features/promotions accessible

The Pools’ mobile app is accessible for both Apple and Android users 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 facilitates 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 most 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

the-pools-casino-offer

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

Blackjack
Roulette
Scratch cards
Slots
Jackpots
Live Casino

The Pools give new casino players the chance to claim 300 Free Spins on The Goonies 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.*

the-pools-welcome-offer-steps

Key Terms and Conditions:

*New Players. Deposit & Stake £10 on casino slots and receive 300 Free Spins on The Goonies. Qualifying players will have the Free spins credited to their account the following day by 5pm. The Casino bonus will be credited immediately on registration. Certain payment methods excluded. Free Spins expire 7 days after award. This offer is only available to new customers. This promotion is valid from 00:01 on 30/03/2022 until further notice. 18+ UK Only. Full T&Cs apply.

The bookie also offers plenty of other casino promotions such as daily drops, 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 racing, motor racing, greyhounds, and table tennis events are supplied.

ThePuntersPage Final Say 3.7/5

The Pools certainly has bright aspects, but there is room 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 improve. 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 thought.

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 some are after. We are keeping our eye on this one.