After two years of heavy losses and a £375,000 regulatory payout, Liverpool football pools operator, The Pools, looks to put its troubles behind it with the next phase of its rebrand of the iconic game. Tony McDonough reports
Operator of the iconic gaming concept The Football Pools has unveiled the next stage of its rebrand as it looks to emerge from two years of financial struggles.
Now simply known as The Pools, the Liverpool firm has launched a TV and video-on-demand advertising campaign called True Originals. It looks to draw on its legacy as a major British institution with the new 30-second advert.
This sees a modern-day football fan discover his father’s box of memorabilia, including a historic Football Pools slip, before flashing forward to the latest smartphone app version of The Pools. It will be shown on non-linear TV, YouTube and social media platforms.
True Originals follows the launch of February’s out-of-home and radio campaign, The Parents – a light-hearted and nostalgic celebration of the brand’s long-held position in football fandom and the strong connection with its loyal customer base.
Click here to watch the new True Originals ad
In the last couple of years The Pools, which against all the odds survived the launch of the National Lottery in 1994, has faced a fresh battle for its survival.
In 2024 it saw its lenders take control of the firm after it sustained two years of heavy losses. Pre-tax losses of £18m in 2022 were followed by further losses of £15m in 2023.
In a further blow earlier this year, the Walton-based firm was ordered to pay £375,000 in a regulatory settlement after a Gambling Commission investigation into “social responsibility and anti-money laundering failures”.
In the ruling the commission gave the company credit for swiftly putting in place an action plan, fully co-operating with the investigation and providing information by agreed deadlines.
The Football Pools was founded in Liverpool 1923 by tycoon Sir John Moores. Then called Littlewoods Pools it was regarded as the best way of getting rich quickly by generations of Brits.
Players would use skill and luck to forecast the weekend’s football results. At its height the Pools employed an army of doorstep coupon collectors and hundreds of people checking the coupons back at its Liverpool headquarters.
Despite the launch of the National Lottery The Football Pools managed to retain a loyal customer base that wanted to carry on playing. Now a digital offering. The Pools runs four websites, including footballpools.com.
This digital reinvention of the Classic Pools, and other pools games, now takes the form of a digital membership allowing customers to choose their preferred game and set their monthly spend level (£10, £15, £20) while enjoying exclusive member benefits.
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James Arnold, chief executive of The Pools, said: “The Pools has been a constant throughout the past 100 years of football history and British culture.
“With True Originals we’ve repositioned the brand as a modern entertainment platform, re-imagined for a younger generation.
“In this video campaign, we’ve connected with our past, celebrating what makes The Pools such a unique, iconic British brand, but transposed our best characteristics for a digital-first customer base.”