Why we should suffer pools gladly

THE INTRODUCTION OF THE UK National Lottery 15 years ago brought with it a decline in fortune for the football pools companies.The subsequent mergers and growth of other instant games might lead some to say that sports pools are no longer relevant. Leaving aside the special relationship horse racing has with pools, are sports pools a dying breed?

Pari-mutuel has its attractions: simplicity, transparent payouts and zero risk to the operator. However, compared to fixed odds bets, it is not as flexible, single bets have worse odds, and live pool betting ““ I don’t think so.

We saw this trend in Scandinavia. Sports pools were at the foundation of Nordic betting, but the concept became unfashionable in the 80s and 90s, and the operators had a choice: innovate, or let the product’s liquidity wither away, and the pools die.

So they innovated – focusing on the innate strengths of the sports pools. Pools became more or less daily with a more instant feel. The simple game concepts were translated into easy-to-use coupons, and they were repositioned as educational tools for first time punters, enhanced by low stakes and high prizes. This revitalised sales, jackpots grew, and the serious punters returned.

A Swedish company called Line Up is looking to emulate this innovation with the new pools product Strike3. Their premise is that pools do have value and it is merely the approach that needs focus. Since liquidity is key and so difficult to achieve as a single operator, can pools take a lesson from bingo and poker networks and provide a similar solution?

That is what Strike3 aims to do, in retail and internet environments. Strike3 launches early next year with a network of operators that I hope will achieve liquidity and provide us with the answer that sports pools are here to stay.

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