The Pools Sports Betting Review – (2024)
- Super-low 1p minimum stake!
- A myriad of sportsbook promotions
- £3 million jackpot prize for Classic Pools
The Pools Quick Facts
- Competitive and consistent odds
- Myriad of sportsbook and casino promotions
- Various other products, including football pools
- Superb esports coverage
- Only one payment option accepted
- Poor specials offering
- Loyalty program could be better
How We Rate Operators
At ThePuntersPage, our commitment to providing clear and comprehensive sportsbook reviews is paramount. We meticulously assess each bookmaker during our future-proof review procedure, focusing on several critical aspects:
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1.
Odds and Margins
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2.
Bonuses and Terms
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3.
UK-Friendly Payment Methods
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4.
Betting Markets
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5.
Live Betting and Streaming
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6.
Betting Features
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Simple three-step process
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Basic information required
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Automatic verification
Creating an account with The Pools is a simple three-step process in which only basic information is required to complete your registration. You💫’ll ha꧒ve to give your email address and create a unique password as part of step one.
Once you’ve advanced⛄ v💫ia clicking the green ‘Next’ icon, you’ll then have to reveal your name and date of birth.
Finally, ﷽step three is where you’ll create your username before confirming your mobile phone number and home address.
Once you’ve confirmed all the details you’ve submitted as part of the process, click ‘Submit' to begin your journey with this bookmaker.
On most occasions, punters will be verified automatically. If no♐t, y🦹ou'll be required to send through documents that verify your full name, date of birth, and address to [email protected].
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Debit cards and PayPal only
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Simple deposit and withdrawal processes
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No fees
As you can see from the above screenshot, funding your account with The Pools is a markedly easy process – that said, punters are restricted to just two payment options: debit card (Viౠsa/Mastercard/Maestro) a🌸nd PayPal. In addition, there are no cryptocurrencies available.
Method | Min | Max | Processing Time | Fee |
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£5 | £1,000 | Instant | None | |
£5 | £1,000 | Instant | None | |
£5 | £1,000 | Instant | None |
Method | Min | Max | Processing Time | Fee |
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£10 | No limit | 2-5 working days | None | |
£10 | No limit | 2-5 working days | None | |
£10 | No limit | 2-5 working days | None |
The minimum deposit is £5, while the maximum is set at £3,000.
Withdrawals – which, once again, involves filling out basic card information – are typically processed between 2-5 working days following your request. Punters can withdraw a minimum of £10 at any one time.
No fees are involved with either process.
Depositing Funds
To fund your account, begin by clicking the distinct green ‘DEPOSIT’ icon located in th🦹e top right-hand corner of the ho🐭mepage.
That will bring up the beloওw screen. As we wanted to deposit via debit card, all we had to do was confirm 💛our deposit amount before listing the card’s number, security code, and expiry date.
We clicked ‘Submit & Finish’ to move on.
And that was that. Our deposit receipt is shown below, 🎶with £10.00 showing up in our account.
Withdrawing Winnings
To withdraw f🥀unds from our Pools account, we once again had to click the green ‘DEPOSIT’ icon.
Unsurprisingly, the depositing page will appear below, but you should see a ‘WITHDRAW’ tab on the black horizontal slider. That’s how you beg🤡in the withdrawal process.
Oncꦬe the ‘WITH𝓡DRAW’ page is brought up, all we had to do was confirm how much we wished to take out of our account and click the blue ‘WITHDRAWAL’ button.
Our withdraw🦩al was immediately processe𒉰d, and the funds arrived in our account within the following few days.
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£10 Weekly ACCA Free Bet
The Pools’ welcome offers offer new customers a £10 weekly ACCA free bet. Mi𝓰nimum odds and selections apply per offer. The free bet will arrive in your account following the settlement of your qualifying bet. A maximum of one free bet per customer per week is available from this promotion. Full T&Cs apply per offer.
OPINION
With its welcome offer, The Pools has found a way to cater to both new and returning customers alike. I particularlꦆy like the fact that the free bet can be claimed every week. You won't have to overly commit to the operator, too, so kudos to The Pools for that.
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Horse racing punters satisfied
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Boosted accas
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Pools promotions
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Loyalty Club
The Pools boasts several exciting sportsbook promotions to 🅠intrig☂ue their customers. Horse racing fans, in particular, have plenty to enjoy in this regard.
For example, the bookie’s ‘BIG Racing Promotion’ hands out free bets if a c𓆉ert🐻ain condition is met on a selected race – e.g. if the favourite wins.
Other horse racing promos include Extra Places, which is commonplace across new UK bookmakers.
Moreover, The Pools ‘ACCA Boost’ gifts up to 50% boosts on accumulators. To qualify for this promotion, punters must stake at least £10 on a five-plus fo🐼ld acca. In the case of a winning five-fold, punters will receive a 5% boost, while the boost is a monster 50% for a successful 12-fold.
The bookie’s ‘Question of the Day’ offer is a simple initiative that rewards customers with small prizes for answering a particular question correctly.𓂃 On the day of writing, customers will receive a £1 free bet if they correctly answer how many goals would be scored in the EFL League One fixture between Bolton Wanderers and Burton Albion.
Finally, for those old-school punters who still enjoy dabbling in the pools, the bookie’s ‘Pools Plus’ promoꦅ gifts £5 bonuses following a £30 stake on any pools game.
The Pools VIP/Loyalty Programme
The Pools run a loyalty programme called ‘Loyalty Club’. Here, customers are entitled to a £5 free bet every time they place ten bets (at odds g🉐reater than or equal to evens) of £5 or more on any event.
Customers are limited to a ma🎶ximum of one free bet a day and seven per week.
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28 sports make up sportsbook
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Pools betting
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Competitive and consistent odds
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Great esports coverage
28 sports make up The Pools’ sportsbook. An array of markets and sub-markets can be accessed within each sport, with the bookmaker covering events from across the globe. For example, 174 markets are availa🌼ble to bet on for the upcoming Premier League bout🔥 between Crystal Palace and Tottenham.
There’s plenty for football fans to take advantage of. However,𓂃 their impressive coverage would be undermined if their odds were sub-par.
Thus, we measured the quality of The Pools’ margins using the odds overround calculation. This is a percentage figure which is obtained🌞 when all the probabilities of an outcome of a betꦍ are added together. Logically, this figure should add up to 100%, however, this does not take into consideration the profit made by the bookie. For this reason, it is commonly accepted that an odds overround of less than 110% indicates good odds.
To carry out our little experiment, we picked three random football matches from the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, and EFL League One. The results came to 105.34%, 106.45%, and 105.15% respectively, indicating that The Pools’ odds are both consistent and competitive.
You can display odds as decimals or fractions. The minimum stake is setꦏ at 1p while th꧒e maximum is currently unknown.
Pools betting is naturally also available with this bookmaker, under the promotion Pools Plus. The Pools offers several different pools for players, where t𝄹hey can stake £30 on games during the week and receive a £5 Poolsꦚ bonus the following Monday. The games currently accepted are the following:
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Goal Rush
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Classic Pools
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Lucky Clover
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Premier 12
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Premier 10
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Premier 6
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Colossus Pools
Placing a Bet
After funding our account, we wanted to place a bet on the 𒐪2022 W💮orld Cup. So, we checked out the tournament specials offered by the bookmaker.
📖 There were several price boosts available to us, but we opted to place a bet on Harry Kane to have one or more shots on target in any one of England’s group stage games. The maximum stake on this bet was £5.
Above, that bet has 🅠been placed in our betslip on the right-hand side of the homepage. To place the bet, we confirmed our stake in the white box before clicking 💧‘BET NOW’.
Our betslip receipt is shown above. The bet was processe𓆉d imm෴ediately.
Esports
As you can see on the long list above, The Pools’ esports coverage is very impressive. Counter-Strike, Dota 2, League of Legends, Rainbow 6, StarCraft and VALORANT events w🧔ere covered on the day of writing. It’s a comprehensive offering, that’s for sure.
To take advantage of this bookie’s esports offering, be sure to check out our esports betting tips to ⛎enhance your chance of success in this sphere.
The Pools – Other Specials
On the other hand, The Pools’ specials offering is pretty basic. Novelty bettors can bet on the victors of both the BBC Sports Personality of the Year and Strictly Come Dancing – but that’s all.
Their political coverage is limited to just UK and US politics. Howevꦑer, there are various markets to enjoy here. For example, you can 🌠bet on the next Republican candidate for the 2024 US election.
Cash Out & Bet Builder
You can take full control of your bets with The Pools’ Cash Out feature. The bookmaker also boasts a bet builder in the form of ‘Create a Bet’.
This feature ༺allows customers to create their own custom bets by selecting from various football markets, including match result, total goals, corners and double chance.
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No livestreaming
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In-play graphics
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Multitude of live markets across various sports
At the time of writing, The Pools offers a broad range of live events across several sports. The in-play experience is fairly impressive with this bookmaker. For football events, an interactive match tracker is provided, as are statistics, head-to-head records, squad lists and tables.
Unfortunately, The Pools doesn’t offer a livestreaming service of any kind for its users.
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Licensed by UK Gambling Commission
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Several account limits
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Responsible gambling section
The Pools is licensed🥂 and regulated in the UK by the .
The bookie’s responsible gambling section can be a little tricky to find, but once accessed, customers will find external links that provide further support for problem gambling, tips to prevent gambling addiction, and a brief explanation of the dangers of 𒉰underage gambling🐻.
To mitigate against potential addiction, the bookmaker has several account limits that its users can deploy. These include Deposit Limits, Reality Checks, Time Outs, and Self-Exclusions.
For those who are interested in knowing what the bookie is doing with your personal data, a comprehensive Privacy & Cookie Policy is available to view on the site.
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Impressive FAQ section
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Multiple avenues of communication
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Not 24/7
Customers are able to access The Pools’ FAQ section once they’ve accessed the ‘Contact Us’ link that can be found in various places on the website. The bookie’s FAQs are separated into different topics of enquiry to ensure customers can find exactly what they want to be solved mor💖e easily.
These topics are account, verifications, payments, responsible gambling, casino, sportsbook, general, and promotions.
However, should you find that your query hasn’t been resolved via the FAQs, you can contact The Pools’ support team. Unfortunately, they don’t operate 24/7 and instead function between 08:30 and 22:00 (Monday to Saturday) and between 12:00 and 22:00 (Sunday). You can contact the bookie via email ([email protected]) or use their Live Chat service.
So, to test the efficiency of the bookie’s Live Chat function, we started a session by clicking on the icon found on the right-hand side of the Contact Usꦐ page. For security reasons🅠, we had to confirm our name, email, and date of birth before we began.
However, this took no tim♎e at all, and we were quicಞkly connected to an agent.
After greeting us, we asked whether the bookie꧟ accepted any other payment methods other than debit cards. In no time at all, they confirmed they didn’t.
While it was hard for them to mak𒁏e a favourable impression considering how brief our session was – which in itself is a good thing – the bookie’s support team didn’t go the extra mile in terms of politeness. Maybe that’s being pedantic, but we’ve seen some give us an incredibly warm welcome when using their Live Chat function.
Nevertheless, we certainly can’t complain about the efficie♑ncy at which The Pools dealt with our queryꩵ.
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Basic website aesthetic
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Efficient site overall
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No blog or statistics
The design of The Pools’ website certainly leaves plenty to be desired, but it’s sufficient. Importantly, the structure is coherent and thus, a user-friendly experience is facilitated. In short, it’s sub-par aesthetically but great ergonomically.
‘Quick Links’ and an A-Z list of the bookie’s sportsbook can be found down𝓡 the left-hand side of the homepage, while the centre is consumed by an advertisements slider. Underneath the slider, a long list of events manifests. However, these are well-separated, so everything is easy to access.
A ubiquitous bet slip is located on the right-hand side, aiding the betting process, and customers 𓆉can access ‘Favourite B🅺ets’ underneath. These are the most popular bets placed by customers on upcoming events.
The bottom of the homepage is where you’ll find all the important information links. These include Contact Us, Responsible Gambling💃 and FAQs.
No statistics were accessible, while the bookie is bereft of a blog of any sort.
OPINION
While the site functions well, we would love to see this bookmaker update their website aesthetically. We're n𝓰ot a fan of the design. However, everything is easy to access, and for punters who are merely looking to quickly place a bet, the site certainly facilitates a user-friendly experience.
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Download via the App Store & Google Play
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Well structured – able to bet on the move
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Features/promotions accessible
The Pools’ mobile app is accessible for both Apple and Android users as🤡 it’s available to♓ download via the App Store and Google Play.
Customers can enjoy the vast majority of the bookmaker’s features on the app and access their exclusive promotions. In-play betting is accessible, while the coherent structure – similar to the website – once again facilitates 🅘a user-friendly experience. It’s pretty easy to bet on the ๊move, despite the odd technical fault.
Overall, while The Pools’ mobile app isn’t ꦓone of the most comprehensive we’ve seen, it’s certainly sufficient for on-the-move betting.
What are the Punters saying?
The Pools p♏ossess a niche that the vast majority of modern bookmakers don’t boast, and that can help them attract a different type of punter. Those that bet with The Pools enjoy the various pools games offered by the bookie, but many find that their “normal” betting coverage is up to scratch, too. The casino has garnered positive reviews, but some have complained about some technical difficulties in regard to depositing and withdrawing.
The Pools’ Casino offering is vast, with an 🐻endless number of games available for punters to enjoy, incl𒆙uding:
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Blackjack
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Roulette
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Scratch cards
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Slots
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Jackpots
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Live Casino
The Pools give new casino players the chance to claim 100 free spins on Big Catch Bass Fishing ಌas a casino welcome offer. To get a chance to play onไ this fantastic slot, players must deposit and stake £10 on casino slots. Full T&Cs apply.*
Key Terms and Conditions:
*18+, UK residents only. Players must sign-up to thepools.com and make a first deposit of £10+ and Stake £10+ on casino slots. Deposit and Stake must be completed within 7 days of opening your account to qualify. On qualification of the promotion, you will receive Free Spins on ‘Big Catch Bass Fishing.’ The value of each Spin awarded as part of this promotion is £0.10 per spin. Qualifying players will have the Free Spins credited to their account by 17:00 UK the follow day. Free Spins will expire 5 days after being awarded. Available only once to each new customer. Full T&Cs apply. Bet Responsibly. #ad
ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ The bookie also offers plenty of other c🅺asino promotions such as daily drops, Free Spins Wednesday, and Megaways™ Weekend. New offers manifest daily, meaning a sense of excitement and intrigue is retained among users.
Punters can also enjoy a comprehensive virtual sports offering in which football, horse racing, jump ra🍸cing, motor racing, greyhounds, and ta🌠ble tennis events are supplied.
The Pools certainly has bright aspects, but there is room to be improved upon if it’s to be considered a premier bookmaker. The website’s design could be slicker, while the one accepted payment option – even if it is debit card – co෴uld be an issue for some. They need to diversif🌞y in this regard.
The 🅠bookie’s offered promotions are good, and there’s certainly enough to intrigue customers, but this is another area where they should be looking to improve. More variety and originality wouldn’t go amiss.
Nevertheless, as mentioned, there are bright spots. The Pools boast superb football odds and a comprehensive sportsbook. In addition, esports lovers and those who enjoy dabbling in the casino world are treated to a haven of options with this bookmaker. Old-school punters can also take advantage of the various pools offered by the bookieꦏ. To our surprise, this niche wasn’t as prominent as𝓡 we thought.
Overall, though𓆏, there are aspects which bettors can enjoy, and while thiﷺs may not be everyone’s cup of tea, a no-fuss-or-fluff visual with great sports offering may just very well be what some are after. We are keeping our eye on this one.
The Pools FAQs
The minimum amount𝓡 accepted at The Pools a🔜s a deposit is £5.
You may withdraw money ensuring your card is validated (this is one whenꦇ depositing) and then clicking on “Withdraw” within the blue banner on your account page.
Withdrawals will be p♏rℱocessed within 2-5 working days from the request.
Frequent free bet prom🍒otions are sent out to existing customers via email or push notification on the mobile app. Stay up to date with the latest offers from the Promotions page.
Make sure you are logged in, pick a bet selection, select the ‘free bet' option from the drop-down menu in your betslip and place the bet.
Customer support is available via live chat or email. Members of the support team are available from Mon to Sat between🐼 8.30am and 10pm and on Sundays from 12pm till 10pm.
The Pools offer different types of account closures, if you are looking to close the account 🧸or which an option to reactivate at any point, please contact the customer service team
After adding all the odds you wish to place in the accumulator, simply scroll down to the end and select the betting option which has a ‘1X' next to it which means you will be placing one stake on all the accumulated odds. Then press ‘Bet Now'.