The Football Pools, an iconic Liverpool business, first started selling its coupons outside Old Trafford, home of fierce rivals Manchester United

On average we have a winner every 3 minutes

The Football Pools is the UK’s favourite football gaming brand

Pools, or tote betting, is the most popular legal form of sports-based betting outside of the UK

The global pools market in football and horseracing is worth $80 billion

We donated £600 million to help fund major improvements in stadium safety across many clubs in the UK

The global gaming market is worth $350 billion and growing +5% year on year

Sportech is one of the leading suppliers and operators of pools/tote betting in the world

Sportech has launched a Joint Venture in India

The biggest ever Football Pools top prize was £4 million won in March 2010

The Football Pools is the world’s oldest football gaming company

Across North America, Sportech Racing has a 50% market share in horseracing pools

We have a presence in over 30 countries

We have paid out over £10 billion in prize money to our customers

We are the exclusive operator of pools/tote betting on horseracing in the Netherlands

We are the leading provider of horseracing wagering solutions in North America with over 25,000 terminals

We process over $13 billion in bets every year

The Football Pools has over 500,000 players every week

Over the years we have donated over £1.1 billion to good causes

Media centre 

 

Senior
management

 

Meet our senior management

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Sportech PLC has a senior management team with a wealth of experience across many sports, gaming and leisure sectors, both in the UK and internationally.

Sportech PLC

	Richard Boardley, Director of Corporate Affairs, age 55 Richard was appointed Director of Corporate Affairs in 2006. He joined Littlewoods in 2000, following over 20 years’ experience in the leisure and gambling industries in the UK and abroad with Whitbread and Bass. His involvement with the regulatory aspects of gambling began in the 1990s, following an extended secondment to the Home Office. He is also Secretary to, and a Trustee of, The Foundation for Sport and the Arts.
	Mickey Kalifa, Corporate Development Director, age 43 Mickey was appointed as Corporate Development Director on 1 July 2009. Mickey is a Chartered Accountant with extensive corporate finance experience gained directly in industry. Over the last 20 years Mickey has worked in a number of executive and senior management roles in the UK, USA and the Netherlands, across a range of blue-chip businesses, including OpenTV, Liberty Media, BSkyB, Time Warner, Disney, Young and Rubicam and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has been involved in a number of capital raisings and start-ups, as Managing Director, CFO and Adviser, in many cases managing highly successful exits.
	Ted Taylor, Head of Business Development, age 50 Ted was appointed Managing Director of The Football Pools in March 2006. In January 2009, Ted moved to become Head of Business Development with specific responsibility for the management of all e-Gaming relationships. Ted has significant commercial, technical and pool betting experience from his time as Operations Director of Arena Leisure Plc and previously with Harry Ramsdens Plc.
	Phil Balderamos, Head of Corporate Marketing and Communications, age 30 Phil was appointed as Head of Group Marketing and Communications in January 2009. Before joining the Company, Phil was Marketing Manager at Birds Eye where he managed business units delivering a total of £100 million turnover per annum. Prior to that, Phil has held marketing management positions at several blue-chip companies, including Mars and Unilever, across a broad range of disciplines including product innovation, brand communications and category management.
	Luisa Hoffman, Group General Counsel, age 33 Luisa was appointed Group General Counsel in February 2011. She joined the Company from Olswang LLP, where she specialised for over ten years in advising clients in the gambling, sport and media sectors. As Group General Counsel of Sportech plc, Luisa provides legal advice to senior management and coordinates legal and regulatory advice across the Group.

 

The Football Pools and e-Gaming

	Jon Sheehy, Director – The Football Pools, age 45 Jon was appointed as Director of Marketing in May 2006. He has a wide range of strategic sales and marketing experience from his career with Shell, RAC, Lex Service and latterly, Leisure Parcs.
	Carl Lynn, Finance Director – UK and Online, age 37 Carl joined Littlewoods back in 1996 and has progressed within the business to head up the UK finance team. Carl was involved in the Sportech acquisition of the Littlewoods business in 2000 and has been heavily involved in the Group's more recent corporate activity, including the disposal of the Bet Direct business in 2006 and the acquisition of the Vernons business, which included gaining competition commission clearance in 2007. Carl is a Chartered Management Accountant.
	James Grigg, Distribution Director, age 28 James was appointed Distribution Director in February 2011, having previously held the role of Commercial and Operations Manager for Online at Sportech since February 2009. Before joining the Company, James was Associate Consultant at TMT specialists Spectrum Strategy Consultants, based in London and latterly Hong Kong. In the role, James worked as an advisor on growth and commercial strategies to several of the world’s leading telecoms, media and technology companies and regulators, including: BT; the BBC; Sony Pictures; Etisalat; and Ofcom. James has experience of several global markets having worked on projects in the UAE, Turkey, Eastern Europe, China and Malaysia.
	Steve Lerner, Director – Online, age 52 Steve was appointed Head of Online in 2010. Prior to joining Sportech in 2000, Steve worked in the leisure, retail and banking sectors, both in the UK and overseas. Since 2000 he has been involved in the development and operation of a wide range of new gaming initiatives across online and offline channels. As Head of Online, Steve is responsible for Sportech’s current online gaming activities covering The Football Pools, Vernons and Littlewoods brands.

 

Sportech Racing

	Andrew Gaughan, Managing Director Interactive Products and Services, age 44 Andrew joined Sportech Racing (formerly Scientific Games Racing) in 2003 and has over 14 years of experience in the gaming industry. Prior to joining Sportech Racing, Andrew was Group Vice President of Magna Entertainment Corp (MEC), managing MEC's North American simulcasting business and MEC Internet wagering and horseracing television business units, XpressBet and Horseracing TV. Prior to that Andrew was Vice President of Business Development for Woodbine Entertainment where he was instrumental in the introduction of account wagering and televised viewing of horseracing via the telephone, Internet and satellite and cable television. Andrew is a licensed attorney in Ontario, Canada, with an LLB from Queens University.
	David Haslett, Managing Director Sportech Racing, age 49 Dave joined Sportech Racing (formerly Scientific Games Racing) in 2000 as Vice President of Operations and has over 25 years’ experience in the pools/tote wagering industry in North America, the UK and South Africa. Dave’s experience includes overall management of both on and off-track pools/tote operations, as well as strategic projects including the implementation of new methods for wagering and European commingling. Prior to joining Sportech, Dave was the Managing Director of the Horserace Totalisator Board UK (Racecourse Division) responsible for pools/tote wagering on all 59 racetracks in the UK. While in South Africa, Dave was Assistant General Manager for the Totalisator Agency Board covering for both on-track and off-track pools/tote wagering operations and was instrumental in the development of the off-track wagering market.
	Louis Skelton, Vice President of Technical Services, age 48 Louis joined Sportech Racing (formerly Scientific Games Racing) in 1999 as Vice President of Technical Services and has over 20 years’ experience in designing and developing gaming and wagering systems in Europe and the US. Prior to joining Sportech Racing, Louis was Head of Information Technology for Horserace Totalisator Board.
	James D Birney, Vice President of Finance, age 40 James has been with Sportech Racing (formerly Scientific Games Racing) since 1993 and has served in a number of positions in accounting and general management for the division that holds the exclusive licence to operate off-track pools/tote wagering in Connecticut, US. James rose from the initial position of Staff Accountant to serve as Financial Analyst, Accounting Manager, Accounting Supervisor and Controller. In May 2006, James assumed the role of General Manager for the division.