This book is the first national study of the football pools in Britain which examines the politics and culture of the gambling on the football pools. It charts the rise of the football pools, focusing upon its rapid growth from the 1920s and its prolonged decline in British culture from the 1990s, partly as a result of the National Lottery. The book explores how this new gambling activity became a significant leisure opportunity for the working class - a way to feel that the individual skill of the punter could lead to the winning of some life-changing jackpot cheque being presented by a sporting personality of celebrity. Dominated by Littlewoods, and other large commercial companies, the weekly filling-in of the coupons was considered to be a safe form of investment, guaranteed by the integrity of the pool companies, rather than some seedy gambling operation.
The Football Pools and the British Working Class looks at different elements of the football pools from what attracted people to this form of gambling to how the industry developed and adjusted to the suspension of the football fixtures in 1936, and the bad winter of 1962-3. Above all, it examines the deep hostility that surrounded the filling in of the football pools arising from the National Anti-Gambling League, religious groups, the football authorities and MPs.
This book will appeal to all those interested in the history of British football and 20th century British working class culture.
By:
Keith Laybourn
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9780367701734
ISBN 10: 0367701731
Series: Routledge Studies in Modern British History
Pages: 236
Publication Date: 29 January 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Chapter 1 Introduction and overview: debate and argument on working-class leisure, gambling and the football pools / Chapter 2 The emergence of the football pools c.1870-c. 1945: from bookmaker to the modern football pool company / Chapter 3 The politics of the football pools 1918-1945: the opposition of the chadbards, sabbatarians, the National Anti-Gambling League, the Football League and the Football Association / Chapter 4 The recovery, evolution and decline of the pools 1945-1990s / Chapter 5 The politics of the pools since 1945: conflict and acceptance of ‘the ranks of high super-spivery’ / Chapter 6 Employment, process and changing industrial relations in the football companies 1945-1990s / Chapter 7 An integral part of working-class life: was the pools worth ‘the candle’ in the culture of working-class life / Chapter 8 Challenge, decline and the restructuring of the pools: the impact of The National Lottery ‘for good causes’ / Chapter 9 Globalisation and the football pools / Chapter 10 Conclusion
Keith Laybourn is Diamond Jubilee Professor Emeritus at the University of Huddersfield. His main research interests are labour history and gambling, and he is President of the Society for the Study of Labour History. He has recently published Going to the Dogs (2019).
