Chatting over a fruity breakfast, conversation somehow got onto the football results and the marvellous James Alexander Gordon (see previous blog), whose delivery of the league and cup results on radio was legendary.
Of course when the results were being read out, punters over the nation would check their pools' coupons, some selecting what they thought would be 12 drawn matches from all those played on the day or sometimes win, draw or lose. Whatever the combination there were lucky (or down right clever) punters who made themselves a fortune.
John Barnard, from Birmingham, first had the idea of "betting" on football and he set up a pool of investors who paid in weekly, made their choices and possibly won a jackpot of a few pounds with 10% going to the administrator, Barnard.
In 1923, John Moores met Barnard and took his idea to friends, Colin Askham and Bill Hughes who invested £50 each in the scheme, which was quite a sum in those days. The trio could not earn money outside their formal employment, so they had to call the business something that would not draw attention to themselves. Askham was adopted but was born Colin Littlewood, so that made sense as a cover name for their enterprise.
They printed a few thousand coupons and sold them outside Old Trafford. Only 35 coupons were bought and of course there was a financial loss.
They tried again with 10,000 coupons at Hull's ground but only one was returned. With the hint of a loss, the others pulled out of the venture and Moores bought their shares. In 1928, Moores' brother devised a security system for the business to prevent cheating and the business took off.
By 1932 Moores was able to invest his profits in a Mail Order business and then Littlewoods department Stores in 1937.
After that it was money sunk into Everton football Club and even an English baseball team! That made Moores famous, he was knighted and died in . Littlewoods, Zetters and Vernons are probably the best known pools' companies and theyformed The Football Pools company which now has to compete with online betting and many other competitors.
Moores died in 1993 and left his mark on society not only in football but also at the John Moores' University and other philanthropic gestures.
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