2007 - Sportech Buys Vernons

Managing Director Colin McGill and Finance Director Gary Speakman posing with Littlewoods / Sportech betting platform.

Previously owned by Ladbrokes, Vernons now comes under the wing of Sportech for £51 million in March. In August, it is merged with Littlewoods and Zetters. Parallelly, a major overhaul of the competition is announced with plans to rename it as The New Football Pool. To sum it up, Sportech gets to rule 99% of the football pools market with three big industry players under its ownership and a combined base of over 700,000 players every week. A perfect setup to compete with the National Lottery and win fair and square!