Filling out football coupons at the Post Office

Football pools were a bet based on the prediction of the results of football matches taking place in the following week. Several different companies had pools such as Littlewoods and Vernons and the most well known game was Treble Chance. Competitors were given a list of the football matches set to take place and they picked a line of eight of them whose results would be worth most points by crossing specific boxes on a printed coupon. The coupons were then posted or collected by agents. A proportion of the entry fee was distributed as prize money to those with the highest scores. By the 1930s ‘The Pools’ was a national past time with millions taking part every week.