Football pools stage a revival after 14 years

Aug 6 2008 by Alistair Houghton, Liverpool Daily Post

THE number of people playing Football Pools could soon be set to grow again for the first time since the launch of the National Lottery.

Liverpool group Sportech said in the first half of this year its gross win revenues – the money it makes after prize monies are deducted – rose for the first time since the Lottery’s introduction in 1994.

Sportech has rebranded its existing Littlewoods, Vernons and Zetters pools brands under the name the New Football Pools and has launched a series of new pools games ahead of the start of the new football season.

The number of pools players has slumped from 10m in 1994 to 631,000 now.

Sportech has unveiled a series of new games promotional tie-ins to help the game attract a new audience and chief executive Ian Penrose says he wants to see a rise in the number of players by the end of 2009.

The Walton group yesterday reported pre-tax profits for the six months to June 30 of £4.9m, down from £5.2m in the first half of 2007. Stripping out exceptional costs, including the restructuring costs associated with Sportech’s takeover of Vernons last year, operating profits rose 50% to £7.8m.

In its football gaming business, gross win revenues rose 38% to £30.3m. £8.1m of that £8.3m increase came from the acquisition of Vernons, but the remainder was from an “underlying increase” from Littlewoods and Zetters.

The number of pools players was 8% down on June last year but the average spend per customer rose by 12% to £1.82 per week.

Mr Penrose said: “When we joined as a management team, we were running at 15-17% loss of customers. There were a lot of very good people who worked really hard to move the process forward.

“We want a net addition of customers, that’s our goal. With our new games we’ll continue to reduce the decline. 2009 is very much a target we would like to meet.”

Mr Penrose said Sportech had made considerable progress with the integration of Vernons, which Sportech bought from Ladbrokes for £51m. It has moved all Vernons staff from Aintree to Sportech’s base in Walton a year ahead of schedule.

Around 40 jobs were lost as the two companies merged.Sportech, which employs 360 people directly and has around 11,000 pools collectors, now has 99% of the pools market.

Last month, Sportech held a London launch for its New Football Pools brand. It has launched new games including Premier 10, Footy 15, online Spot the Ball and a community based, online football predictor website.

Pools can now be played at pay points at 20,000 corner shops around the UK and from the end of September Sportech products will be available across the Ladbrokes estate.

Sportech has also secured deals for its games to be available through the Daily Mirror, FourFourTwo and FootyMad

websites. It says more national deals will be announced soon.

In June, Sportech unveiled a partnership deal with gaming giant 888 Holdings to market its pools games internationally.

The group yesterday confirmed it had made “substantial progress” towards expanding into Asia and Mr Penrose said more details would be revealed within weeks.

Sportech has previously expres- sed its interest in bidding for state-owned bookmaker the Tote, based in Wigan.

Mr Penrose said: “We’re very interested in putting together the pools in what I view as the two biggest sports in the world, football and British racing.

“The Tote is North West-based, we are North West-based, and we care about local employment and the local economy.”

TRADING GOSSIP: P16

alistairhoughton