The Football History Boys

The Surprisingly Long History of Betting on Football

2026-08-20T12:10:08.586+00:00

People tend to assume betting on football is a fairly modern habit, something that arrived with smartphones and in-play odds tickers. It's not, not even close. Go back to the late 1800s and you'll already find working men putting money on match outcomes in factory towns across the north of England, long before the game had anything close to the structure it has now. The relationship between football and gambling is almost as old as organised football itself, and it's worth actually tracing how we got from there to a modern sportsbook app.

The real turning point came with the football pools, which kicked off properly in the 1920s. Littlewoods and Vernons built entire businesses around punters trying to predict match results across a full weekend of fixtures, filling in coupons by hand and posting them off in hope of a payout that could genuinely change a working family's life. At their peak, pools coupons were being filled in by something like ten million people a week in Britain. That's a staggering number for a betting product with no odds boards, no live updates, nothing beyond a printed fixture list and a pencil. The pools weren't just a gambling product either — they funded huge chunks of Britain's sporting infrastructure for decades, which is a detail that tends to get lost.

Bookmaking itself has a messier history running alongside the pools. On-course betting had existed for horse racing long before football caught up, but street bookmakers were operating in a legal grey area for most of the early twentieth century, since off-course cash betting wasn't actually legalised in Britain until the Betting and Gaming Act of 1960. Before that, illegal bookies ran a genuinely enormous shadow industry, with "runners" collecting bets door to door and police mostly turning a blind eye unless something forced their hand. Once betting shops became legal, they spread fast — thousands opened within just a few years, and football quickly became one of the core products alongside racing.

What's changed most since then isn't really the appetite for betting on the game, it's the format. The move from betting shops to online platforms in the 2000s did to football betting what online banking did to physical branches — it didn't kill the old model overnight, but it made it optional for a huge chunk of the audience. In-play betting came next, letting fans wager on what happens in the next five minutes of a match rather than just the final score, which changed the entire pace of how people actually watch games.

Interestingly, the US went through its own version of this shift much more recently and much faster, after federal restrictions on sports betting were lifted in 2018. Where Britain took decades to move from illegal street bookies to a fully regulated high street industry, several American states went from zero legal sports betting to a fully-fledged, app-based market in the space of a few years. For readers curious how that newer market stacks up, there's a decent breakdown covering what US sportsbook is the best across the operators that have emerged from that expansion. A look at the National Football Museum's own archives is worth a visit too, for anyone wanting the fuller picture of how football's commercial side developed alongside the sport itself. For more on how the English game's finances evolved through this same period,

What hasn't changed, through pools coupons, betting shops, and now apps, is the basic instinct behind all of it — football has always given fans a reason to have something riding on the outcome, however small. The format keeps changing. That part hasn't.

©The Football History Boys, 2023

3 Times The World Cup Expanded Team Numbers

2026-06-03T07:16:16.042+00:00

Football has a funny way of making us feel like the current version of the game is how things have always been. With North America officially welcoming a massive 48-team roster, it feels like a completely unprecedented shake-up – or so it feels a lot of the time when we listen to the frantic debates on sports radio. But FIFA tweaking the guest list is practically a time-honored tradition at this point.

Every few decades, the powers-that-be decide the current format has been outgrown. This kind of structural shift completely rewrites the playbook for fans and analysts alike. In fact, even a quick look at the shifting World cup odds reveals just how much these formatting shake-ups throw the traditional international hierarchy into complete chaos before a ball is even kicked. Since we are currently buckling up for a brand-new era of international football, let's look back at the previous milestones when the tournament grew its ranks.

1934: Shifting From the Inaugural Invite to a Full Field

The very first tournament back in 1930 was a bit of a chaotic, invitational affair. Only 13 teams made the journey to Uruguay, with many European nations refusing to board a boat for a multi-week voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. It was an iconic start, but clearly not a sustainable blueprint for a truly global competition.

By the time the 1934 edition in Italy rolled around, the appetite for international football had skyrocketed. FIFA formalized the final tournament numbers to a neat 16 teams and introduced a formal qualification process for the very first time. Interestingly, this expansion actually got rid of the group stage entirely in favor of a straight, high-stakes knockout bracket. It was a brutal way to run a tournament, but it set the baseline of 16 teams that would define the competition for nearly half a century.

1982: Opening the Gates to a Global Audience

By the turn of the 1980s, the football landscape looked completely different than it did in the post-war era. Incredible talent was emerging from Africa, Asia, and the Concacaf region, yet the rigid 16-team limit meant these continents were fighting over a tiny handful of qualifying spots.

For the 1982 tournament in Spain, the decision was made to expand the field to 24 teams. This wasn't just about adding more matches; it fundamentally changed the global balance of power. Emerging football nations finally had a realistic path to the big stage. Giving these developing regions a permanent seat at the table goes an incredibly long way in turning a sport into a truly universal obsession, even if it meant fans had to wrap their heads around a convoluted second-stage group format.

1998: The Birth of the Modern 32-Team Blueprint

If you ask most modern fans to picture the perfect tournament setup, they will immediately think of the 32-team grid used between 1998 and 2022. That iconic system was born ahead of the 1998 tournament in France, where the field expanded from 24 to 32 teams.

This change eliminated the messy mathematics of tracking the best third-placed teams, replacing it with eight perfectly balanced groups of four. It allowed heavyweights from Europe and South America to qualify with a bit more breathing room, while simultaneously giving historic debutants like Japan and Jamaica their first real taste of the global limelight.

This massive jump to 104 matches this summer is exactly why analysts are tearing up their old playbooks. When you look at how modern World cup odds are calculated, you realize just how much these historical format shake-ups alter the predictability of the group stages. With more teams and an extra knockout round on the calendar, the margin for error is slimmer than ever.

The Wanderers | Football's First Dynasty

2026-05-25T15:26:00.000+00:00

There are few competitions as historic and prestigious as the FA Cup. Stretching back to 1872, the list of winners is an impressive sight with some of football’s greatest clubs bringing the famous trophy back to their towns and cities. However, it is the tournament’s earliest champions that immediately standout as Wanderers FC won five of the first seven editions of the cup. As a child, I can remember being intrigued by this club that I had never even heard of and a million questions immediately raced around my brain. Who were they? Where are they now? Were they just Bolton Wanderers without Bolton? What was evident was that in Victorian England, this side was clearly integral to the future of the juvenile association game. Indeed, the story of the Wanderers is a story of early football, itself.

Founded as the Forest Football Club in 1859, the club would be present four years later at the founding of the Football Association in London. The club’s members were mostly composed of the alumni of Harrow School and had been co-founded by the brothers (and players) Charles (CW) and John Alcock. In 1864, the club would be renamed as Wanderers FC due to their lack of a home ground and competed against its fellow FA members, all of which had accepted the Football Association’s rules as opposed to rival codes of the game. The FA’s initial failure to grow and attract more members to their version of the sport led to CW Alcock’s selection as a committee member in 1866. It would be Alcock who pioneered alterations to the game’s laws and proposed changes to football in order to attract the interest of further clubs and public schools.

Although instrumental as a committee member, it was Alcock’s role as FA honorary secretary and treasurer that truly revolutionised the game. Possibly inspired by Sheffield FC’s Youdan Cup, Alcock proposed a tournament dedicated to the rules of the FA. We now know the competition as the world’s largest in terms of participation, but in 1871 only 15 teams entered into the first round. Such a small collection of clubs clearly highlighted the difficulty football had in its infancy to draw in wider support and the challenges the FA and Alcock faced.

Nevertheless, Wanderers would enter the inaugural campaign being fortunate enough to receive a bye to the second round due to the odd number of participants. The club’s luck would follow them throughout the campaign as the side registered just one victory on their way to the final. A 1-0 win against Clapham Rovers was followed by a goalless draw to Crystal Palace. With teams withdrawing as the tournament progressed, an odd number of clubs entered the quarter-finals and so the draw with Palace enabled both sides to progress to the last four. Drawn against Scottish side Queen’s Park in the semi-finals, a goalless draw at the Kennington Oval would result in the need for a replay to determine who would reach the final. However, Queen’s Park, who had already made the long journey down to London from Glasgow were not prepared to do so again and once more the Wanderers found luck on their side.

Meeting the Wanderers in the inaugural FA Cup Final would be the Royal Engineers. Unlike the Wanderers, they had won most of their matches comfortably leading to the English press predicting an ‘exciting game’ to follow. The Morning Post published an in-depth preview of the final, commenting that the fixture was a ‘great event in the football world’ and indeed the sport’s ‘blue riband’, such was the anticipation for the match. The Wanderers were regarded by the same publication as the ‘creme de la creme’ of the association game and favourites to take home the trophy. It continues to note that although the first edition of the FA Cup had been a success, the tournament was still ‘unsatisfactory’ due the limited scope of the Football Association around this time and the genuine rival that could be found in the shape of rugby.

Nevertheless, a 15th minute goal from Morton Betts would settle the final and win the cup for the Wanderers. The victory and indeed the success of Alcock’s vision would see football’s, or rather the FA’s popularity begin to grow. Following the final, reports in the press regarded the excitement amongst supporters as ‘intense’ and the 2000 spectators in attendance could be accredited to the popularity of the Wanderers as opposed to their opponents. Despite this, Taylor writes that the general small scale nature of the inaugural competition and the lack of diverse participants means that universal acceptance of the FA’s version of football was not achieved overnight. Adopting this tone, Bell’s Life wrote later in 1872 that even the most ‘sanguine admirer’ of the association game would not believe it could ever rival rugby for popularity in the United Kingdom.

Criticism of the early game would appear accurate as the following season would see just one more side enter the tournament’s first round to bring the number of participants to an even 16. The original ‘Challenge Cup’ nature of the competition saw the Wanderers given a bye all the way to the final, once more held at the Oval. For the other 15 participants the aim of the trophy was to defeat the holders and it would be Oxford University who earned the chance to do so in 1873. The match itself had been a logistical nightmare. Held at Lillie Bridge, the date of the final clashed with the more popular Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race taking place later in the day. With some reports of just 150 people in attendance, the FA’s desire to see the competition grow failed to progress. Even so, the Wanderers would still emerge as winners, comfortably dispatching Oxford 2-0.

Alongside domestic achievements, the Wanderers would be instrumental in the evolution of the international game. Reginald Courtenay Welch, goalkeeper in the club’s first two FA Cup successes would appear in defence for England in football’s first international match. Although the game would finish with a 0-0 draw against a Scottish side consisting entirely of players from Queen’s Park in Glasgow, the appetite for further competition between nations would grow into the decade. The return fixture, held in London would be of greater importance to the Wanderers as four players from the club lined-up for England. Intriguingly, Lord Arthur Kinnaird, the Kensington-born captain of the Wanderers would play for Scotland. England’s first 10 international matches between 1872 and 1880 would see at least one Wanderers player turn out for the Three Lions.

For football fans across the United Kingdom, there seemed to be few who could stop the Wanderers and their early dominance of the sport. However, the following season, Oxford University would gain its revenge defeating the Wanderers after a third round replay. Admittedly the club had been weakened, ‘owing to election business’ and could only field a second-string side. With players leaving the game for political business, football in the 1870s seems far removed from the ‘working-class game’ we usually associate with the sport. The following season, the Wanderers were once again knocked out of the cup by Oxford. The rivalry between the two was growing and the cup itself was benefiting greatly from the contests. By the start of the 1875-76 campaign, the number of entrants into the first round had risen to 32 with Athletic News commenting on the ‘steadily increasing interest’ in the annual competition.

There is little doubt that the success of the Wanderers and the continued improvement to the standard of play will have contributed towards the game’s wider dissemination. That season, the club would win the trophy for a third time, comfortably beating the Old Etonians 3-0 in a replay held at the Oval. The Wanderers would successfully defend their title the following year as yet again the club met Oxford University in the final. An extra-time triumph would see an unprecedented fourth title head their way and another chapter added to the rivalry. By now the FA Cup was becoming increasingly representative of more than just the metropolitan elites. Of the 43 participants in 1877-78, clubs from the Midlands, Wales and the (working-class) north of England were taking part. Such an influx of clubs vying for the title would naturally make winning the cup more difficult but yet again the Wanderers would emerge as champions.

A third successive triumph in the FA Cup meant the trophy would be awarded permanently to the Wanderers. Despite the club offering to give the cup back to the FA, the game’s governing body declined the ‘generous offer’ and insisted on the production of the new one. Such a decision certainly retains some symbolism. The club’s fifth FA Cup in seven seasons would be their last and indeed it can be argued that from 1879 onwards, the trophy and wider sport began to look wholly different to the sport which emerged from the public schools midway through the 19th Century. The Wanderers had been the true pioneers of the ‘association game’ and through the innovative practices of CW Alcock had led the juvenile sport through a period of uncertainty and limited growth into a pastime that could seriously rival cricket in its popularity. By the time the Wanderers eventually declined and sadly dissolved in 1887, 149 teams entered the FA Cup first round. The sport was now professional and distinctly working-class just ten years after the Wanderers won a fifth title. Nevertheless, it is fairly certain that without the club’s dominance and the high-esteem bestowed upon them by their contemporaries it is unlikely that football would exist in its current form. The Wanderers. Football’s first dynasty.