How to use PoolsAgents

PoolsAgents takes the weekly coupon and prices every match with the betting market — the bookmakers' own odds, with their margin removed. Three pages do the work:

Your weekly routine

1. Wait for the coupon to be priced. Usually Tuesday to Thursday. The homepage shows how many of the 49 numbers have prices; the more, the better the picture.
2. Open Dead games and cross those numbers off. These are the matches the market expects to finish as a home or away win. There is no point spending lines on them.
3. Open Draws for your core numbers. The five strongest score-draw chances on the coupon, already ordered for you.
4. Choose your perm size by what you can afford. More numbers means more lines and more cost — see the table below.
5. Save your numbers. On the homepage, type them into My numbers and press Save to this device. On Saturday the page shows how your numbers are doing.
6. Follow the matches live on Saturday. Scores update by themselves every 45 seconds.
7. Check how the lists did. After the results, both pages mark what held and what didn't, and the record keeps every week.

The Draws page

The Draws page shows the five numbers the market rates likeliest to finish as a score draw — a draw with goals, 1-1 or 2-2, which pays in pools.

• The five big numbers are your selection. The small figure under each is its chance of a score draw — usually around 20%, about one in five.
• Perm 3 from 5 means you play every group of three from the five: ten lines. One line wins if any three of the five draw, so you do not need to guess which three.
• The chance shown for the perm is the real chance three or more of the five draw this week. It is small — that is the honest truth about pools, and why a perm beats one line.
• The sixth number is there if you want a wider perm, 3 from 6.
• The coloured dots at the bottom show how the five did in recent weeks.

Perm	Lines	When to use it
3 from 5	10	The Draws page's five — the standard choice
3 from 6	20	Add the sixth number shown on the page
3 from 7	35	Add one number of your own
3 from 8	56	A big week — mind the cost

The cost per line is set by your agent. Lines rise quickly: two extra numbers take a perm from 10 lines to 35.

The Dead games page

The Dead games page is the opposite side: the matches the market rates surest to finish as a home or away win. These are the numbers to leave out.

• Every card is one match, with the number struck through — cross it off your coupon.
• "Barcelona to win · 72%" names the favourite and its chance of winning.
• "Home or away" is the chance the match is decided either way — the figure that matters to you, because a home or an away win both kill a draw.
• The number of dead games changes each week. The page lists every match rated at least 80% likely to be decided — some weeks five, some weeks ten.
• "Expect about 6 of 7" is the honest count: the market expects most to hold, not all.
• After the results, held matches turn green with the score; any that ended level turn amber.

Mistakes to avoid

• Treating a draw pick as a banker. A 20% number fails four weeks in five. Perm it instead.
• Putting a dead game in your draws. If it is on the Dead games page, it is one of the least likely draws on the whole coupon.
• Chasing last week. A number that drew last week is no likelier to draw this week.
• Paying for "sure" or "fixed" games. Nobody knows results in advance. The market's best guess is free on this site, with its misses shown.

Play responsibly

Questions

This week's draws · This week's dead games · The full coupon · How the numbers are calculated