Association football, betting, and British society in the 1930s: the strange case of the 1936 "pools war"

In the mid-1930s, British attitudes toward gambling were complex, diverse, and confused, with cash betting still largely illegal, and social reformers and nonconformist religious groups generally strongly opposed to betting in all its forms. Yet horse race betting was a newspaper staple, and throughout Britain, legal credit “football pool” betting involving small stakes was hugely popular. Put briefly, the famed 1936 “pools war,” as the press dubbed it, was an attempt by the Football League Management Committee, the regulatory body for the three divisions of the English Football League, to put the “football pools” companies (organizations that made their money from punters betting on League games) out of business or diminish their impact. As Dave Russell succinctly explains, the League was “fiercely opposed to the game’s association with any form of mass gambling” and attempted “a form of sabotage by refusing to announce the fixture list until two days before games were due to be played,” but was soon forced to back down and “chose once again to adopt a legislative route.” 1 Study of the “pools war” therefore sheds light on critical connections between football and gambling during this period.