How do the Football Pools work?

Next year, the Football Pools will be 100 years old. 

Born in 1923 in Liverpool, the game had 14 million people playing every week in its prime, and it's still going strong today. 

You can play the classic version of the game online, while there are several other options too. 

Here's our guide to how to play the Football Pools. 

Play the Pools today for just £10 per month – and your first four games FREE! For more information, its rules and how to play, visit www.footballpools.com/442

Classic Pools

The standard game tests your ability to predict score draws – that is, draws where both teams score.

Players must predict 10, 11 or 12 score draws from a list of 49 pre-determined fixtures – the more you predict, the more it costs: £1, £2.75 or £7.50 respectively per game.

Once you have your selections marked, you’ll be given three points for each score draw, two points for each goalless draw and one point for a home or away win.

Your best eight results will make up your total score, with 24 therefore being the maximum.

After each Pools competition the dividend will be declared, and the highest points scorers will get a cash prize.  

There’s also a £3 million jackpot up for grabs with every Classic Pools game. 

This can only be won if there are only nine score draws from the 49 matches – and you’ve nailed all of them. The prize is shared if there are multiple winners.

Goal Rush

The Goal Rush match list features 35 games. The idea is the same as Classic Pools – pick games you think will end in score draws – but this time you get eight guesses.

You’ll win the top dividend if you get all eight correct, while if you get seven you still get a cash prize.

To give you an idea of what the share of the top prize looks like, the Football Pools website says the average in the last 12 months was £637 for eight correct picks, and £22.97 for seven.

There’s also a £1 million top prize. This can be won by getting all eight picks right in the quickest time – that is, where both teams have scored in the shortest time period in your selected matches. 

Premier 6, 10 and 12

With Premier 6, you select the outcome of six football games that have been selected by the Football Pools: home win, draw or away win.

It's like a normal accumulator, but without the ability to choose which games you’re betting on.

If you get them all right, you win a share of the prize pool.

The same goes for Premier 10 and Premier 12, the difference being that in those cases you predict the outcomes of 10 and 12 matches respectively – tougher, but with bigger winnings on offer.

Lucky Clover

Nothing to do with football this one, just a classic luck of the draw game.

With the ‘Pick 3 Offer’, you choose three numbers to be drawn in an Irish Lotto and if the first three match, you get £400.

You then choose three ‘millionaire numbers’, and if all six are a match, you get…£1 million.

The same rules apply with the ‘Pick 5 Offer’  but with five picks. If the first five are a match, you win £65,000. Then you have one millionaire number on top, and all six wins you £1m.

Six Clovers

Similarly to the Pick 5 Offer in Lucky Clover, you choose five lucky numbers and a ‘Millionaire Maker’ to be drawn on the Irish Lotto.

The numbers you select are chosen from 47 available.

You will start winning cash prizes from matching two of your first five numbers, and if you get all five plus the millionaire maker, you win £1 million.

The cash prizes slowly build up: £5 for 2/5 matches, £10 for 3/5, £100 for 4/5 and £65,000 for 5/5.