In September, the Walton-based firm announced it was in talks with venture capita outfit, Burlywood Capital, about the sale of the division which employs 100 people in Walton. Tony McDonough reports.

Liverpool gaming group Sportech has terminated discussions over the £97.25m sale of its Football Pools business.

In September, the Walton-based firm announced it was in talks with venture capita outfit, Burlywood Capital, about the sale of the division which employs 100 people.

It was formed from a merger of historic pools brands Littlewoods , Vernons and Zetters.

However, now the deal is off with Sportch chief executive Ian Penrose saying: “Burlywood was unable to conclude the transaction set out within their proposal which we announced in September. “The Football Pools is a valuable asset which has been transformed following a lengthy modernisation programme.

“We will continue to focus on maximising opportunities for the business.”

Burlywood, a venture capital firm that focuses on online gaming, wanted to create a new stock market-listed company to run the pools operation.

Sportech had planned to concentrate on its gaming software and its American betting services operations after disposing of the Football Pools.

The company has revitalised the pools which were thought by many to be doomed after the launch of the National Lottery in 1994.

But Sportech managed to turn it around and grow the number of people playing every week. In the firm’s last half-year results the division returned a profit of £7m.

Football Pools were first introduced by the Liverpool-based Moores family in the 1920s and became a British institution.