The Pools Welcome Offer - Bet £10 Get £10

The Pools Bookmaker Review

The companies that distributed betting slips and ran the football pools for the better part of a century were ultimately purchased over the past 20 years by a private venture capital firm that relaunched them as a single online service called The Pools. In this The Pools bookmaker review we will take a close look at the company’s website, their bonus offer and other noteworthy aspects of their service.

The Pools Sign Up Offer

Simply put, The Pools Sign Up Offer provides £15 in Free Bets for new customers who deposit and bet at least £10 on any single or acca bet with odds of at least 1/1. Once the qualifying bet has been settled you will be issued 3 x £5 Free Bets which must be used in the following manner:

• 1 £5 Free Bet must be used on Football

• 1 £5 Free Bet must be used on Horse Racing

• 1 £5 Free Bet must be used on Virtual Sports

Of course, a promotion would not be a promotion without some Terms & Conditions attached. In the case of The Pools Welcome Offer, those T&Cs are:

• Only for new customers who are 18+ and residents of the UK

• The New Customer Offer applies only to your first cash bet

• The first bet must be for at least £10 and have odds of at least 1/1

• Once your qualifying first bet is settled you will be issued 3 £5 Free Bets

• Those Free Bets must be used on football, horse racing and virtual sports

• Cashed out bets do not count toward this promo, nor do voided bets

• You must claim this Free Bet Welcome Offer within 7 days of opening your account

• You must use your Free Bets within 7 days of their being issued

• This Welcome Bonus cannot be combined with any other The Pools offer

The Pools Overview

The designers of The Pools website emphasized clarity over glitz and created a site that’s logical, extremely user friendly and easy on the eye. Everything is organised with your convenience in mind and considering how many sports, markets and promos are in play here, the design succeeds in impressive fashion.

Sign-Up With The Pools and Get Your £15 in Free Bets Straight Away

The Pools are offering new customers the chance to earn £15 in Free Bets for depositing £10 and placing a qualifying bet of at least that amount. It’s a quality New Customer Bonus and one you would be remiss not to consider.

• The Pools keep the time-honoured tradition of football pools alive.

• The Pools provide an array of existing customer promos.

• The Pools offer action on more than 2 dozen sports.

Promo Code: No code required

Main Features

The Pools separate themselves from the competition right out of the gate by upholding the tradition of the football pool and bringing it into the 21st century. This is a big part of their business. Although as punters become more familiar with their sportsbook and casino the football pool is losing some of its lustre.

Speaking of the sportsbook, The Pools offer a number of existing customer promos via the sportsbook that are likely to garner plenty of interest from punters. These existing customer promos include daily boosts on acca that can reach an impressive 50%.

Numerous horse racing promos are also common including Extra Places, Best Odds Guaranteed and the Big Racing Promotion. BRP entails the company dispensing Free Bets when certain conditions are met, such as the favourite winning. There is also a Cash Out feature and “Create a Bet”, which is the company’s proprietary name for their Bet Builder feature.

When it comes to betting markets and odds, The Pools occupy that meaty portion of the curve in that, on any given day, there will be some 200 – 300 Premier League markets on offer in the sportsbook, with lesser numbers available for 2nd tier leagues and other sports. It’s neither the best nor the worst selection of football betting markets on UK betting sites. The same can be said for The Pools odds, which are competitive without ever being something to brag or complain about.

How to Sign Up

Signing up for The Pools is easy and can be done through their desktop website, their mobile website or their mobile app. Simply open the site or app and tap on the “join now” button in the top right-hand corner of the screen. This will bring up a registration form.

The registration form is pretty standard. You will be asked to provide your full name and address, a valid email and a valid mobile number. You will also need to tap the box that indicates you are more than 18 years of age. After doing that, tap the “next” button.

Now you will be asked to choose a username and password. Then you will be asked to choose a security question and to provide the answer. Make sure you write down both the question and your exact letter-by-letter answer and stow it away in case you ever need it to access your account.

Finally, you will need to tap the box that indicates you accept the company’s Terms of Service, and then tap the “Register” button. That’s it. You are now a member of The Pools and can take advantage of the £15 Free Bet New Customer offer.

The Pools Betting App

The Pools offer a sleek, attractive, highly functional mobile app for Android and iOS users. Downloading the app is free and installing it takes less than a minute. To their credit, the company did not veer from the outstanding design of their website when creating this app. That means the app interface is uncluttered and logically organised so you are never more than a couple of taps away from the market you’re looking for.

The Pools Payment Methods

If you are hoping that The Pools will be one of those UK betting sites that provide a dozen or more ways to fund your account you are in for a bit of a let-down. As of this writing, they only accept deposits from MasterCard debit, Visa debit and Maestro debit cards. That’s it. Not even Bank Transfers. Just the 3 debit cards. That said, depositing money is a simple, straightforward process.

Log into your account and tap on the green “Deposit” button. After doing so you will be asked for your debit card info. Once that information is verified you can go ahead and deposit money. Remember, the minimum deposit is £5, and if you want to take advantage of The Pools New Customer Bonus Offer you will need to deposit at least £10.

Withdrawals are free and are typically completed in 2 to 5 working days. No matter which debit card you have associated with your account the minimum withdrawal amount is £10.

The Pools Company Information

Betting pools have a long history here dating back to the time when Littlewoods used to sell pool betting slips outside Old Trafford 99 years ago. Littlewoods were later joined by Vernons and Zetter and football pools became something of a national obsession.

The popularity of football pools took a major hit with the introduction of the National Lottery in 1986, but they never disappeared entirely. In 2000 Littlewoods was acquired by a company called Rodime, which had previously sold computer hard drives. Upon acquiring Littlewoods Rodime rebranded as Sportech. In 2002 Sportech bought Zetters, and in 2007 they purchased Vernons from online betting giant Ladbrokes.

In 2008 the 3 acquisitions were merged into a single brand christened “The New Football Pools” and that remained the situation for almost 10 years. In 2017 Sportech announced they were selling The New Football Pools to FP Acquisitions Limited, a newly formed subsidiary of the private equity firm OpCapita. Shortly after acquiring The New Football Pools, OpCapita took the business online and expanded its slate of offerings. They would still offer football pools but they would also offer a standard sportsbook for football, horse racing, tennis and more. They also opened a white label casino parallel to their sportsbook.

The Pools Pros & Cons

Pros

• Both versions of the website are very well designed.

• The app is equally well designed and easy to use.

• Both the variety of markets and odds are competitive with other sites.

• They offer a range of existing customer promos.

• Football pools.

Cons

• Can only deposit or withdraw via debit card.

• Promos limited to football and horse racing.

• No Live Streaming for any events.

• Restrictions on how you can use your Free Bets.

There are a lot of things we like about The Pools, including their determination to keep the venerable tradition of the football pool alive and to bring it online where more people can access it. The generally competitive odds, range of football and horse racing promos and the overall experience of The Pools website are also among the positive takeaways from our The Pools bookie review.

On the other hand, we’re left scratching our heads why any UK betting site would only allow 1 form of deposit (debit card), and the lack of Live Streaming, while not a game-breaker, is notable nonetheless. The upshot of this The Pools bookmaker review is that they provide a good to very good experience and their Welcome Bonus of £15 in Free Bets is nothing to sneeze at.

The Pools Bookmaker Review: FAQ

Do The Pools Offer In-Play Betting?

Yes, The Pools offer Live In-Play betting on numerous sports including football, basketball, ice hockey, tennis, volleyball, snooker and more. They provide up to date information on every match or contest so that you can make informed decisions as those contests unfold. The only downside of their otherwise outstanding In-Play betting feature is that there is no Live Streaming to accompany it.

Do The Pools Offer Daily Odds Boosts?

Yes, The Pools do offer daily odds boosts in the form of a potential 50% boost on accumulators. This is one of the company’s most popular promos. To qualify for it, you must stake at least £10 on an acca with at least 5 legs. How much of a boost you receive will come down to how many legs there are in your acca. For a 5-fold acca, the boost will be 5%. But for a 12-fold acca, the boost reaches an impressive 50%.

Can I Live Stream Events On The Pools?

Most of the titans of online UK gambling offer Live Streaming on a variety of sports, raising punters’ expectations that every betting site they visit will offer the same. But for many 2nd tier sites, including The Pools, that is not the case. What The Pools offer instead is an interactive match tracker that provides (almost) real-time match stats, alongside head-to-head records, squad lists and more. It’s not Live Streaming, but it does allow you to stay up to date on matches as they’re being played out.

Do The Pools Offer Promotions On Sports Other Than Horse Racing And Football?

As of this writing, The Pools have no active promotions for existing customers on any sports other than football and horse racing. They do, however, run other promos such as the “Question of the Day”. Every day a new question is posted to the site and if you answer it correctly you will be rewarded with a £1 Free Bet. There is also a £5 “Pools Plus” bonus for those who wager £30 or more on any pools game.

Can I Access The Pools When Abroad?

If you venture to former Eastern Bloc countries such as Poland and Hungary you can expect The Pools website functionality to be restricted. The situation is the same in the United States where you will be able to access The Pools in some states but not in others. Most countries in the Middle East, as well as Southeast Asia, will block The Pools website altogether. You may be able to get around some restrictions by having a VPN on your phone, but that is not guaranteed to work.

Do I Get A Free Bet From The Pools When I Sign-Up?

The Pools Sign Up Bonus provides 3 Free Bets when you deposit at least £10 using a debit card, place a qualifying wager with odds of at least 1/1 and settle that wager within 7 days. Do that and The Pools will issue you 3 x £5 Free Bets to use in the sportsbook. But you cannot use them just anywhere. You will need to use 1 on football, 1 on horse racing and 1 on virtual sports.