SPOT THE BALL - THE STORY!
SUCCESS OFTEN BEGINS WITH FAILURE...
If you remember your dad or granny holding up the local
newspaper to the light in a desperate attempt to locate where a football
‘might’ be on a photograph, then you’re likely thinking about one of your
earliest experiences of Spot the Ball!
The game of sticking a X on an image of a football
match with the ball removed was futuristic in its day and was played by three
million people every week at its peak – but where did the idea come from and
how did it become such an iconic game?
Before Spot the Ball, there was Littlewoods Pools -
one of the most famous businesses in British history. The game of predicting
the outcomes of football matches provided many thousands of winners with
life-changing amounts of money and made its owner, Manchester-born John Moores
into a billionaire!
The original Football Pool
It was John Jervis Barnard from Birmingham who had the
original concept for the football pool, but he struggled to make it into a
viable proposition. Moores and his two friends Colin Askham and Bill Hughes
decided that they could a better job and promptly set to work devising their
own version of the failed game.
Littlewoods Pools launched in 1923 at the same time as
the UK’s first nudist camp was opened in Wickford, Essex! At the time, the
three friends were working for the Commercial Cable Company, so work on their
new venture had to remain a secret or they’d face the sack from their employer.
Each of the pals invested £50 of their own money into the venture, with John
recalling that when he signed his own cheque at the bank, his hands were damp.
The business lost money and was on the verge of
collapsing when John Moores offered to pay the other two friends the money they
had invested in exchange for their shares. It seemed like a great offer and so
Colin and Bill snapped-off his hand and left the business with their own
savings intact.
Football & the Depression
With demand for Lancashire textiles down by half in
the 1930’s and the country in a deep depression, the football pool gave people
a dream of escaping their difficult lives. By the time the 1934-35 season
began, over £200,000 per week was being gambled on the football pool and more
than 10,000 people – mainly women – were employed, checking every coupon by
hand.
Since the football pool was launched, over 100 millionaires have been created and over £3 billion has been paid to the lucky winners.
A werewolf presents the winners with a cheque! (Image: Alamy.com)
But what about Spot the Ball?
In 1973, Spot the Ball was launched as Littewoods Pools looked to keep players interested by creating exciting new games. It began as a traditional newspaper promotion and quickly grew until at its peak, around 3 million people regularly played Spot the Ball – roughly 5% of the population – all looking to win a jackpot of £250,000! In 1973, the average weekly wage was £38.
On the face it, Spot the Ball looked like a simple
proposition. Surely sticking a X where the centre of an invisible football was
on a photograph of a football match couldn’t be that difficult, could it? Well,
there’s a lot of skill and judgement required – Spot the Ball isn’t a game of
luck! You have to study the body language and take into account all the factors
at play during the game. Some players have scooped life-changing amounts of
money – and some have an interesting story to tell…
Spot the Ball’s grave secret!
In 2004 Irene Robertson, then 69, of Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, won £250,00 after her dead mother sent a message to her via a séance! “My mum said, ‘Don’t forget the coupon!” said Irene, who had planned to stop her £3 weekly flutter on the game after 40 years of playing without much success. After scooping the huge prize, Irene was apparently ‘dead chuffed!’ with the timely reminder from her thoughtful mum.
A seance in action! (Image: Alamy.com)
It’s not where the ball ‘really’ is!
Many people aren’t aware that the ball they were
trying to pinpoint was not the actual ball from the image. A group of experts
decided where they judged the ball to be, and it was this location that
players were trying to locate with their X’s. Using the ball from the original
image made cheating possible as people could track down the photograph to find
its correct position. Of course, all the Spot the Ball experts worked
independently of each other and the decision was held in a secure location!
The decline and then…
With the launch of the National Lottery and vast
online gambling platforms, the football pools and Spot the Ball fell in to
decline – but now Spot the Ball – or ‘PlayStB’ as we call it - is back and ready
to re-connect with the millions of football fans out there who enjoy the chance
to win prizes they’ll cherish forever.
Let’s Play!
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Re-live the glory of Spot the Ball now. Register here and get in the game for some top-notch footy memorabilia!
Written by Graham Hey