Industry executive James Arnold has been appointed chief executive of iconic British betting business The Football Pools.
Arnold began his new role earlier this month, at the start of the business’ centenary year.
He joins from Noel Hayden’s LiveScore Group, which runs the Virgin Bet and LiveScore Bet sports betting brands, where he spent three years first as chief operating officer, then chief commercial officer.
Earlier in his career, Arnold worked for the likes of Betway, Boylesports and SportingBet, holding a number of marketing and executive roles during his tenure with each operator.
He replaces Derek Lloyd, who had served as CEO of The Football Pools since July 2017.
“I’m delighted to be joining such an iconic British brand at a time of significant change and development,” Arnold said.
“A lot of good work has already been done to reposition the company for growth and I look forward to working with the executive team to bring these plans to fruition over the coming months.”
The Football Pools, established in 1923, has been a prominent feature of the British betting industry, with a number of pools products available in the market.
These were merged into a single entity from 2000, when Sportech acquired Littlewoods Pools for £161m in 2000. This was followed by deals for the Zetters and Vernons pool betting businesses in 2002 and 2007 respectively.
Subsequently the new operation was rebranded as The Football Pools in 2008, and the launch of an online offering came the same year. A full online sportsbook product followed in 2018.
Sportech went on to sell the business to private equity owner OpCapita for £83m in 2017.
