The Pools

Thepools UK Review (2024)

Pools betting was popularised a long time ago, way before the internet era. Punters have been piling their stakes to contribute to a larger wager with the possibility of dividing their rewards since the 60s. It became most popular in the 70s through to the 90s -- back then, football pools used to be delivered through the letterbox.

Now, targeting a whole new generation of punters are online bookies such as thepools. They offer a wide range of betting options, including fixed odds, pool betting, and online casinos. In this review, we take an in-depth look at thepools’ betting site, its offers, sports, markets, payment methods, customer support, and betting margins, among other key factors.

What is Thepools?

Thepools started as a bookie for Football Pools long before the internet and the UK National Lottery. It worked like a lottery, such that people would predict the results of British League Football matches as they compete for a prize pool. During the early days, punters completed paper betting slips and collected them at their door every week.

The Football Pools later digitised and was bought by the private equity firm OpCapita in 2017 for £83m. They launched Thepools.com, obviously in an attempt to keep up with the modern online betting community.

Behind the launch of Thepools sportsbook was platform provider FSB (U) Ltd. They feature traditional pool betting, sportsbooks, and casino games. They are regulated by the Gambling Commission in Great Britain under account number 48272.

Thepools Fixed Odds Sportsbook Review

You can bet on at least 20 unique sports at Thepools betting site. They include the popular ones such as football, horse racing and hockey, down to the less common such as pool, Gaelic football, and hurling.

The list of sports is conveniently placed on the left-hand side of the website, while the mobile app has it in the menu button at the bottom of the screen. They are listed in alphabetical order. Among other sports you can bet on are:

• American football
• Aussie rules
• Basketball
• Baseball
• Boxing
• MMA
• Rugby league
• Rugby union
• Tennis
• Motorsport
• Cricket
• Darts
• Snooker
• Cycling
• Football (soccer)
• Golf
• Greyhounds
• Ice hockey
• Horse racing
• Rugby
• Tennis
• Volleyball
• Athletics

The platform also provides a variety of special bets, including politics, virtuals, Esports, award ceremonies, Tv shows, and special premier league bets, among other special markets. For instance, you can bet on the next leader of the United States or the United Kingdom, and the annual Sports Personality of the Year Award winner.

Thepools provides a range of promotional offers and bonuses for football and horse racing specifically -- they are the two main sports for the bookie. For example, they occasionally dish out free bets during major racing events such as Royal Ascot.

Thepools Betting Markets

Most high profile games, such as Premier League Football, come with about 200 markets in Thepools book. In League Two, you can expect about 100 markets. It’s not so different across other leagues and sports.

However, some betting fans might find this palette limiting, given that most bookmakers in the UK provide over 500 markets.

Betting Margins

Betting margins can affect your wins or losses hugely in the long term. You are more likely to lose after many wagers if the betting margins are too great on your favourite platform. That said, calculating betting margins is fairly easy, using the formula  ((1/Decimal Odds A * 100) + (1 / Decimal Draw Odds * 100) + (1 / Decimal Odds B * 100)) - 100%.

Applying this formula to ThePool’s book, we establish mean betting margins of between 3% and 5% for football games. For instance, the margin for the Atalanta v Man Utd match on 2nd of Nov is 4.77%, the one for Liverpool v Atletico Madrid on 3rd Nov is 3.82%, while the Man City V Club Brugge match on 3rd Nov has a margin of 5.13%.

Therefore, Thepools falls in the average category when it comes to margins among bookies. In comparison, 1Xbet has 1.2% for football, 188BET has 4.1%, and Redbet has 6.3%.

The margins for virtual sports start as low as 3% and can be as high as 40%. For instance, in virtual football, guessing the correct score has a margin of 20%, total goals = 12%, Asian handicap = 3%, while double chance = 6%. All tricast bets have a 40% margin in the race events while forecast wagers come in at 30%. Thepools also guarantees the best odds in select markets such as horse racing.

Welcome Bonus

Thepools offers a bet-£10-get-£15 bonus for new users. Although it looks simple, there is more to the sign-up promotion. 

For one, you need to deposit and place a £10 cash bet at single or accumulated odds of 1/1 or greater. Once your free bets are unlocked, you will receive:

• £5 free bet for football
• £5 free bet for horse racing
• £5 free bet for virtual sports

As you may notice, you are restricted when it comes to the markets you may bet on with your bonus. You are also given a lesser bonus than your initial wager.

Live Streaming and In-Play Betting

Thepools does not provide live streaming services at the time of writing this review. However, you can get up-to-date information on the progress of matches through the In-Play betting section.

This category is conveniently located on the home page of the platform. You only have to scroll down if you can’t find it. It features 10 popular games, including:

• Football
• Tennis
• Darts
• Basketball
• Snooker
• Hockey
• Volleyball
• Tennis
• Esports
• Badminton

Virtual Sports

Virtual sports are becoming increasingly popular, especially when there are no Live games to wager. Thepools has a fair number of offerings in this department -- you can watch the virtual games live, so you know the progress and the results firsthand. The list includes:

• World cup
• Cycling
• Horses Flat
• Horses Jumps
• Horses Sprints
• Motor Racing

ESports

Esports on Thepools are included in the Quick Links menu on the home page. Users can bet on up to dozens of competitions on any of the following games:

• Arena of Valor
• CS: GO
• Dota 2
• King of Glory
• League of Legends
• Rainbow Six
• Rocket League
• StarCraft II
• Starcraft BroodWar
• Valorant 
• Wild Rift
• World of Warcraft

Pool Betting Review

Punters fancy the possibility of winning big from a small wager. We also like the ability to choose different outcomes to increase our chances, and Thepools has a special section for just that - pools games.

How Pool Betting Works on the Pools

You can find pool betting under “POOLS GAMES” on the platform. It is right at the header, together with other markets such as sports and virtuals. You can wager on a pools game starting from as low as £0.25 and win £30,000. Prizes vary, with some games offering a chance to win up to £1 million for predicting the correct score of 6 matches.

Like any other pools games provider, you get to keep the whole amount if you are the sole winner. The prize is split in the case of several correct wagers.

Thepools Pool Games and Tournaments

There are 7 unique pool games categories. Some only feature football as the sport of choice while others include races. You can add more lines to increase your chances of winning. There is also a “Lucky Dip” feature, a virtual die for when you are not sure or would like to leave everything to chance. Clicking the button automatically selects the line for you. Here are the Pools games.

Classic Pools

In classic pools, you have to choose 10, 11, or 12 football games from a list of 49 that you think will end in a draw. The wager for 10 games is £1.00, 11 games have £2.75, and that of 12 games is £7.5. The match days are usually falling within 2-3 days of each other.

The platform awards 3 points for a score draw, 2 points for a no-score draw, and one point for a home or away win. Your chances of winning increase with more points and the top prize is a whooping £3 million.

Goal Rush

This category gives you a chance to win up to £1 million by selecting 8 fixtures where you think both teams will score. You win if your selections make up the first 8 matches on the coupon where both sides score. 

You may also have to share the prize in case there’s more than one winner. If you don’t win, there is still a consolation prize for getting close enough with 7 correct fixtures. The wager amount is £2.00

Premier 6

As the name suggests, this category lets you wager on 6 football matches, selecting home, draw, or away in each. Anyone with six correct results gets to keep the prize pool or share it with another winner(s). The wager is either £1.00 or £2.00. Unfortunately, there is no prize for “close enough” here. 

Premier 10

Another one for the football lover, you have to select home, draw, or away when playing Premier 10. The winner takes it all from the prize pool or shares it with other winners. Thepools also awards players who predict 9 results correctly. The wager for Premier 10 is either £0.25, 0.30, or £1.00.

Jackpot 12

Also referred to as Premier 12 on the Thepools site, you will be working with 12 matches here. You can stake as little as £0.50 and the reward is a prize pool that may be shared with other winners.

Lucky Clover

Lucky Clover is the platform’s variation of the UK National lottery, and a cheaper one -- it only costs £1.50 per draw. ‘The player has to choose 6 numbers out of 47 balls and can win up to £1 million.

Thepools also has other guaranteed prizes of up to £65,000 for this category if you want to pick less than 6 numbers. They are as follows:

• Play 5 and match them correctly to win a guaranteed prize of £65,000.
• Pick 4 to win £4,800
• Play 3 for £400
• Play 2 for £55

What’s more, Thepools lets you pick bonus numbers for each of the above 4 categories, so you can keep the whole £1 million prize within reach. For instance, you can play pick 5 and add 1 bonus number or play pick 3 and add 3 bonus numbers.

Colossus

This is where you go for sports other than football. The options include:

• Football
• NBA
• Ice Hockey
• Horse racing
• Greyhounds

You can bet solo or join any of the available syndicates to increase your chances through the wisdom of the group. Each syndicate has a target for the wager they would like to achieve and a prize they are eying. Thepools gives you complete information, including the number of participants in the syndicate and the percentage of the wager funded so far. 

Footie5

Footie5 is a great invention of Thepools that you can play for free. They give you five pre-selected matches, and you have to predict the score of each one of them correctly. Getting all five right earns you a top prize of £25,000. You will also get a consolation prize of £2,000 for predicting 4 of the matches correctly. Prizes may be shared in case of more than one winner.

Additionally, punters can wager a fixed stake of £2.00 if they would like to win more prizes even if they miss the 5 matches mark. You can win £15 for picking two correct answers or £75 for three correct scores.

Thepools Online Casino

Thepools casino has a massive collection of over 1,000 casino games. Talk of dozens of variations of:

• Slots
• Blackjack
• Roulette
• Scratchcards
• various jackpots
• Wild cards
• Poker
• Scatter symbols

The Jackpots can be as high as over £3 million for games such as Book of Atem, Sisters of Oz, and Mega Moolah, among others.

The website also has a Live Casino section where you can have a live dealer. It features just under 100 live dealers of various types of roulette, blackjack, poker, craps, lightning dice, and baccarat.

Casino Promotions

Thepools tries to strike a balance between its sports and online casino offerings. The casino section has the most promotions, though. There is something for every day of the week and every occasion.

• Welcome offer: the new members only have to deposit £10 to get 100 free spins, but you can only spend them on Reel Spooky King Megaways.
• Monopoly Monday: deposit and stake £25 on a Monday, and you get 20 free spins on Monopoly Megaways.
• Tuesday Big Screen Bonus: get a £5 casino bonus when you deposit and stake £25.
• Every Wednesday gives you a chance to get 30 free spins on Tower of Terror when you stake £30 on Halloween Cashpots.
• Pragmatic Drops and Wins for both new and existing customers.
• On Fridays and Saturdays, you can earn up to 30 free spins when you play any Megaways Slot.
• Sunday Reloaded gives you a chance to claim up to 10% cashback on your rainbow riches losses.

Game Providers

Thepools online casino boasts vast partnerships with reputable game providers. The list includes but is not limited to:

• Microgaming
• Evolution Gaming
• Pragmatic Play
• Big Time Gaming
• WMS
• NextGen
• ELK Studios
• Bally
• Barcrest
• Lightning Box

Loyalty/ VIP Program

Unfortunately, we could not find any Loyalty program on Thepools. The absence of a VIP club puts this platform at a slight disadvantage, given that most of its competitors have a comprehensive loyalty program for their customers.

Mobile Apps

Besides its mobile-optimised website, Thepools has highly-rated betting apps for Android and iOS. These applications bring all the site’s functionalities to your mobile device, including in-play betting tools, virtual sports, live casinos, special offers, betting pools, and all the other markets.

Besides managing your account, the mobile app lets you contact the customer service team. There are also two key additional features for mobile users that you don’t get with the browser-based version:

• Touch ID for logging in.
• Push notifications to give you a heads up on the latest special offers.

Thepools also has a separate Footie5 app for mobile devices, allowing you to play the free £25,000 jackpot game on the go. The Footie5 app enjoys a higher rating (4.8/5) than The Pools Sports Betting app.

Customer Support

Thepools offers various ways for customers with issues to reach out. The most convenient approach is their live chat. The support team often responds in a matter of seconds. However, the active hours for live chat is between 8:30 am and 10:00 pm.

There’s also the option of emailing for less urgent inquiries. Lastly, there’s another line of support for customers through the FAQs section.

Thepools Deposit and Withdrawal Methods

You can make payments on Thepools casino and betting site via:

• VISA
• MasterCards, including any Maestro
• Debit cards

The minimum deposit is £5. You can deposit to your account by clicking on your name once you have signed in and then tapping on “deposit.” The site automatically saves your card details for future use, so you don’t have to key everything in all over again.

The available withdrawal methods are VISA and MasterCard. Withdrawal is free and processed within 2-5 working days. The site has a minimum withdrawal limit of £10 for either withdrawal method.

CONCLUSION

Thepools is a comprehensive casino and betting platform with interesting offerings to keep punters occupied. It features a balanced variety of betting markets in the sports arena as well as racing, virtuals, and Esports. The platform also has a lot to offer in the casino section, from table games to roulette and slots.

Thepools also has great mobile applications that keep up with modern trends in the betting community. Their promotions and offers are excellent and intended to keep things exciting for punters. Unfortunately, they do not offer a VIP/ loyalty program for more active gamblers.