The Pools continues restructuring with new senior appointments
The Pools has named Chris Williams as head of product and Matt Knowles as head of CRM.
UK.- The Pools has made two further senior appointments as it continues its restructuring. It has named Chris Williams as head of product and Matt Knowles as head of customer relationship management (CRM).
Williams has ten years of experience in the sports betting sector, having previously worked for SIS Betting, Sky Betting & Gaming and LiveScore Group. For his part, Knowles has worked at BV Group, Betfair and Gamesys. He was most recently global CRM and CX manager at Betway Group, where he led global projects designed to optimise customer engagement and retention.
James Arnold, The Pools CEO, said: “As we head into 2025, both enhancing our product and building upon our relationships with loyal customers while targeting new ones is imperative to our major rebrand and sustaining growth in 2025.
“We are in good hands with Chris and Matt’s rich experience in these areas and bringing them on board gives me great satisfaction as I know the many skills both have to offer and the value they’ll bring to The Pools moving forwards. With so much excitement about our prospects for next year, our improved web, mobile and app experience for customers will be a cornerstone of our multi-platform digital transformation.”
Williams added: “The Pools is a British institution and has such a rich heritage in the UK so I am thrilled to join James and the team for an exciting new chapter in 2025. My remit will be to deliver a best-in-class product across web, mobile and app as we relaunch this iconic brand to new audiences and I am delighted to accept the challenge.”
Knowles said: “The Pools is built on its loyal customer base that has given the brand its unique and unrivaled identity across its 100-year history. I am looking forward to helping engage and grow The Pools’ many players and targeting new audiences as James and the team continue to make great strides with such a well-respected and much-loved brand.”
The latest appointments come after The Pools named Sharon Wright as marketing director and Phillip Donegan as chief technology officer.
Wright is to lead a high-profile, multi-channel marketing campaign aimed at increasing the brand’s presence in the British sports betting market in 2025. She previously worked with major sports brands such as Adidas Group, Reebok and Nike. In 2017, she founded her own consultancy, Sports Business Growth, focusing on sports and technology, specifically apps and subscription models.
Wright is also chair of Powerplay The Future, a platform that aims to connect investors with female-led startups, and she serves on the Advisory Board for Everything in Sport.
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What is The Pools?
The Pools offers a heritage football betting product. In the classic game, bettors must predict score draws (draws where both teams score). Players must predict 10, 11 or 12 score draws from a list of 49 fixtures with the cost varying from £1 to £7.50 depending on the number of predictions.
Players win three points for each score draw, two for each goalless draw and one for a home or away win. The best eight results are taken to make the final score, with 24 the maximum. After each competition, the dividend is declared, and the highest points scorers claim a cash prize. There’s also a £3m jackpot that can be won if there are only nine score draws from the 49 matches, and you get all of them.
The Pools also runs other games: Goal Rush, Premier 6, 10 and 12, Lucky Clover and Six Clover.
