A betting pool, syndicate, sports lottery, sweep, or office pool if done at work, is a form of gambling, specifically a variant of parimutuel betting influenced by lotteries, where gamblers pay a fixed price into a ''pool'' (from which taxes and a house "take" or "vig" are removed), and then make a selection on an outcome, usually related to sport. In an informal game, the vig is usually quite small or non-existent. The pool is evenly divided between those that have made the correct selection. There are no odds involved; each winner's payoff depends simply on the number of gamblers and the number of winners. (True parimutuel betting, which was historically referred to as pool betting, involves both odds calculations and variable wager amounts.) Betting pools are not connected only to sports, as there are topics such as deaths and births which people can bet on.

Death pool A dead pool, also known as a deadpool or death pool, is a game of prediction which involves guessing when someone will die. Sometimes it is a bet where money is involved. Modern application In the early 20th century, dead pools were popular i ...

s usually involve well-known individuals, such as celebrities and sports figures, which the participants predict will die within a certain period of time. On the other hand, birth pools involve individuals picking specific dates in which someone, who can be either a celebrity or friend, gives birth.

History

The concept was introduced in Britain in 1923 by

Littlewoods Pools Littlewoods was a retail and football betting company founded in Liverpool, England, by John Moores in 1923. By the 1980s, it had grown to become the largest private company in Europe, but subsequently declined in the face of increased com ...

where it was known as ''toto'' and based on

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

matches.

Today

Today in England, sports lotteries are more commonly referred to as

football pools In the United Kingdom, the football pools, often referred to as "the pools", is a betting pool based on predicting the outcome of association football matches taking place in the coming week. The pools are typically cheap to enter, and may encou ...

. American sports lotteries often do not require contestants to purchase a lottery ticket or make an initial wager. Hockey pools are common in North America, and footy tipping in Australia. In the United States the most popular type of betting pool is the March Madness pools. Leading up to the

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

, contestants fill out forms that predict who will win. In 2013 it was estimated that 58 million Americans participate in the contest every year. There are also many handicappers and pundits which offer advice for winning your bracket. Another popular type of betting pool is the

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

bowl game. Millions of people bet on the winners of all 39 bowl games every year. There are also notable sport betting pools across the globe such as

Hollywoodbets Hollywoodbets is a sports betting company based in South Africa. It is also known as Hollywood Sportsbook. It currently operates in South Africa, Mozambique, Ireland and the United Kingdom. The company offers betting via its website, mobisite, ...

American Totalisator The American Totalisator Company, known today as AmTote International (often referred to as AmTote), specializes in totalisator equipment used to control parimutuel betting at horse racing, greyhound racing, and jai-alai facilities. The company w ...

Sport Select Sport Select is a group of sports betting games offered by Canada's lottery corporations. In Quebec, the program is known as Pari sportif; in Ontario and Atlantic Canada, it is known as Pro-Line while in British Columbia, it is known as Sports Ac ...

and others.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Betting Pool Sports betting Gambling games Wagering Gambling terminology

History

Today

See also

References