The basics
How football pools work
Here is how football pools work: each week the promoter publishes a numbered coupon of 49 matches, and you pick the ones you think will be draws. A score draw, a draw in which both sides scored, is the result most pools games are built around.
What is a score draw?
A draw in which both sides scored, so 1-1 or 2-2. It comes up 17.5% of the time across 48,551 coupon matches.
What is a no-score draw?
A 0-0. It is the rarest of the four results, at 6.7%.
How many matches are on a pools coupon?
Forty-nine, numbered 1 to 49. The promoter picks them, mixing English, Scottish and continental fixtures, and national teams during international weeks.
What is the pools panel?
When a match on the coupon is postponed, a panel of former players and referees decides what the result would have been, so the coupon can still be settled. Those results are marked Panel on our pages.
What is a banker?
The one match a player is surest will be a draw, put on every line of their coupon. Our banker room shows the draw record behind each match on the card and whether it held.
Can the coupon be worked out from the fixture list?
No. Because the promoter selects across several competitions and countries, the card cannot be derived from any one league's fixtures. It has to be read from the published coupon.
How are pools weeks numbered?
Week 1 is the first Saturday of July, and the numbers run on consecutively to the following June.