Pools Terminology Explained: Slips, Blocks, Perms and Dividends

Pools terminology has built up gradually over close to a century of continuous use, and a surprising amount of it still carries the flavour of its original paper-and-pen origins, even on a fully digital coupon submitted from a phone today. This reference glossary works carefully through the terms a newer player is most likely to encounter early on, grouped loosely together by theme rather than strict alphabetical order, so that related concepts sit usefully close together on the page.

The Basics: Coupon, Slip, and Line

A coupon is the overall weekly product itself — the full published list of fixtures together with the specific format you’re selecting against for that week. A slip, particularly in the context of paper submissions, refers to your physical entry form. A line is a single combination of selections across the fixtures you’ve chosen; a straightforward entry might consist of just one line, while a perm (see below) generates many lines from a single set of selections.

Result Types: Score Draws and No-Score Draws

A score draw is a match that ends level with both teams scoring — 1-1, 2-2, and so on. A no-score draw specifically means the match finished 0-0. These two categories are treated separately on classic treble chance coupons, with score draws traditionally scoring more points than no-score draws, reflecting how much harder they generally are to predict in advance.

Building a Coupon: Bankers, Perms and Blocks

A banker is a selection you’re confident enough in to attach to every line of a permutation without it counting toward the “from” total — though as covered elsewhere on this site, treating any single result as truly certain is a risky habit, since a failed banker affects every line simultaneously. A perm (short for permutation) is a structured way of covering every possible combination of a given number of selections drawn from a larger pool — for example, an “8 from 11” perm takes eleven selected fixtures and automatically generates every combination of eight correct draws from among them. A block generally refers to a specific, pre-structured perm option offered directly by the operator, with the line count and cost already calculated for you.

Worked Line-Count Example

The 165-line figure for an “8 from 11” perm is calculated using standard combinations maths — eleven choose eight — and is included here purely as an illustrative worked example of how perm sizes scale, not as a recommendation for any specific stake or structure.

Scoring and Settlement: Points, Caps and Dividends

Your points total is the sum of points earned across your selections based on each fixture’s confirmed result type. The points cap is the maximum theoretical total achievable on a given coupon format, commonly referenced as 24 points on traditional treble chance products, though very few real entries ever reach it. The dividend pool is the portion of total stakes set aside for payout at a given points tier, divided among however many entries land there that week.

When Things Don’t Go to Plan: Void Matches and Deadheats

A void match is a fixture that’s postponed, abandoned, or otherwise unable to be settled as planned, handled under the operator’s specific rules rather than simply ignored. A deadheat, sometimes called a tiebreak, occurs when multiple entries land on the identical top points total for a given week, requiring the relevant dividend pool to be divided among all of them according to the operator’s stated method.

Stakes and Units: Stake Unit and Multiple Stakes

Your stake unit is simply the base value you’re playing each individual line at — commonly 10p, 20p, or 50p, among other options. Dividend payouts are generally calculated per stake unit and then scaled to whatever unit you actually played, which is why two entries landing on the same points total can still receive meaningfully different payouts if their stake units differ.

Historical Terms Still in Occasional Use

Older pools literature from previous decades occasionally references terms like the treble chance itself — the overarching format built around draws rather than straight wins — and the Pools Panel, the adjudication body originally formed in 1963 to settle coupons during a historically severe winter when postponements made normal settlement impossible. Both terms persist in modern discussion of the pools even though the operational detail behind them has evolved considerably since their origins.

Why Building This Vocabulary Matters

None of these terms individually changes how you play, but understanding them properly means you can read a settlement sheet, a perm structure, or an operator’s terms and conditions without needing to guess at what a given phrase actually means. That clarity is worth building early, rather than muddling through with a half-formed understanding of concepts like bankers and deadheats for months or years at a time.

It’s worth bookmarking a glossary like this one rather than trying to memorise every term in a single sitting. New players tend to pick up the basics — coupon, line, score draw — within their first few weeks of playing, while terms like deadheat, void match clause, and the finer detail of perm structures only really become relevant once you encounter them in practice, often for the first time on a settlement sheet that doesn’t initially make sense. Returning to a reference piece like this one at that point, with a specific real question in mind, tends to make the terminology stick far better than reading it cold before you’ve ever needed to apply it.

A Final Note on Playing Sensibly

Understanding the terminology is genuinely useful background knowledge, but it’s not a route to better results — no glossary changes the underlying unpredictability of football. Set your stake in advance, treat pools as entertainment rather than income, and remember this content is intended for readers aged 18 and over. Free, confidential support is available from GamCare if gambling ever stops feeling enjoyable.