With the 2013/14 English Premier League season kicking off this weekend, those who enjoy the idea of Lotto-sized payouts should check out the brand new pool betting service Colossus Bets.
At Colossus Bets the headline game is ‘The Colossus’, which offers a staggering £10,000,000 prize pool. This pool creates somewhat of a hybrid between sports betting and a Lotto. Instead of picking numbers between 1-45 you pick correct scores to add to your ticket for the chance to win big.
Colossus Bets is based in London and is regulated by the U.K. Gambling Commission. At this stage only British Pound accounts are supported, however Australian customers are accepted.
Pool Betting Explained
Pool betting involves trying to correctly pick a series of correct scores or event outcomes. After all the matches in a pool are completed, the prize fund is paid to holders of the winning combination.
The pools you can win are:
Jackpot Pools
If you predict the correct result of all the pre-selected legs, you will win a share of the Jackpot Pool.
Bonus Pools
For certain games, winners of the Jackpot Pool will have an opportunity to predict the result of an additional match selected by Colossus Bets (typically the score of another match in the same competition as the original multi-leg bet; for example, one of the matches in the following weekend’s fixtures). Those who predict the correct score of this additional event will win or share the Bonus Pool.
Consolation Pools
For games in which a Consolation Pool is offered, all players who have chosen the correct outcome in each leg, but not necessarily the correct score, will win a share in the Consolation Pool.
For ‘The Colossus’ and the ‘Pick 6’ correct score games, stakes are allocated between the Jackpot Pool, Bonus Pool and Consolation Pool as follows:
- 60% of all stakes are allocated to the Jackpot Pool;
- 20% of all stakes are allocated to the Consolation Pool;
- 20% of all stakes are allocated to the Bonus Pool.
For other games (including all Home/Draw/Win games and ‘Pick 3’ and ‘Pick 4’ correct score games), 100% of all stakes are allocated to the Jackpot Pool.
All stakes bet into pools offered by Colossus Bets are subject to a 30% deduction (unless otherwise stated) and the allocation between pools described above is before this deduction.
If any pool is not won, then the stakes held in that pool will be rolled over to the next game (and so on indefinitely). For example, Colossus Bets will carry forward a rollover on a Premier League pool onto the next series of Premier League matches.
Colossus Bets offers pool betting on both winner and correct score markets for selected European football leagues. At the time of review the Premier League, La Liga and the Bundesliga are supported. The pool games cover between three and seven football fixtures for correct score betting and five to eight fixtures for winner betting.
The game values vary between £2,000 and a whopping £10,000,000 for the ‘Colossus’ which, at the time of review, covered seven English Premier League fixtures.
For selected pools Colossus Bets may offer you the chance to ‘cash-in’ any ‘live’ tickets (in full or in part) at half-time or after a particular fixture has concluded by selling them back through a cash-in process. When you cash-in a ticket Colossus Bets will pay you the agreed amount which is banked regardless of what happens in the remaining legs of the pool bet. If you cash-in a part of your ticket, you will bank the cashed-in value for that part and for the part of the ticket you choose not to cash-in, you retain the opportunity to win a corresponding share of the prize funds for that pool if your ticket is successful in the remaining legs.
Below is a screenshot of the selection area. Each stake in the pool starts at £2 and you can create more than one line per bet by selecting multiple outcomes for a given fixture. In the example below we selected a couple of potential outcomes for the Swansea and Crystal Palace games, which gave us 4 lines in total.
In addition to correct score pools, you can play by picking the correct winners, although these tend to have lower value pools. The image to the right is a screenshot of the selection area for a correct winners pool.
Deposits can be made by credit card (using World Pay as the payment processor), bank transfer to a UK bank account or Skrill/Moneybookers. When using international bookmakers we recommend you use Skrill/Moneybookers. This will enable you to use POLi. The minimum deposit is GBP 10.00.
Great concept and the ‘cash in’ option is an absolute inovation… And the guaranteed prize pools are huge. Also developed by an Aussie punter based in London.
I’ll certainly be trying to win big this weekend!
Three bets placed in the three main pools, the Colossus, Premier League Pick 6, and La Liga Pick 6. Total spend of £80, and at half time of the first legs of all pools was offered a combined ‘cash in’ of £252. I cashed in 50% of each ticket, banking a profit of £46, and let the remainder run their course. Ultimately didn’t pick a single correct score in the opening legs, but still mad a tidy profit. You’ve gotta love that!
Can Aussies join Colossus Bets and easily withdraw winnings to their Aussie bank accounts?
Hi David, as with all overseas services, I recommend you use Moneybookers/Skrill to make a deposit because it makes withdrawing funds cheap and easy. Skrill charges a nominal fee to withdraw your money to your bank account and they have an Australian account of their own so you shouldn’t be charged any fees by your bank. This is a better approach then depositing funds via bank transfer to Colossus Bets because this involves transferring money to a UK account. It’s cheaper and safer to use Skrill. Let me know if you have further questions.
Please note that as of July 2016, Colossus Bets is no longer accepting bets from Australian residents.