Coral Football Jackpot

Please note - Coral have not run their football jackpot for some time. Whilst we do not yet have official confirmation that it has stopped for good, it is clearly currently in hibernation.

The Coral Football Jackpot was the first of the modern day take on the old pools model and remains one of the biggest and best - with a prize fund that often exceeds £1,000,000.

Here we take a look at the history of this excellent game, including some of the biggest prizes won on it, as well as explaining how it works and why it is such a good product. There are now several broadly similar jackpot options available but for our money the Coral Football Jackpot remains one of the better ones out there.

What is the Coral Football Jackpot?

The Coral Football Jackpot can be viewed as a pools type bet, a prediction game or a jackpot product, depending on your point of view. Regardless of what you call it, as with the similar bets offered by the likes of Colossus Bets, the most important thing to note is that you can win huge sums of cash from very small stakes by correctly predicting the outcome in multiple games of football.

In order to win the top prize you need to correctly predict the result – home win, away win or draw – in 15 specified matches. The games usually take place over a weekend from Saturday to Sunday or Monday inclusive, although Coral do also occasionally run the Jackpot during midweek too.

It costs £1 to play and you can opt for multiple permutations if there are one or more games where you wish to cover more than just a single result. Effectively each of these extra predictions creates a separate entry and if you cover more than one result on more than one game these are multiplied together to give your total stake.

The match results include stoppage time but not extra time and penalties and in order to win the main jackpot prize – or a share of it if there are multiple winners – you will need to get all 15 matches correct. Assuming the jackpot has rolled over, 14 will earn you a share of the first consolation dividend whilst 13 will get you a share of the secondary consolation.

The prizes are calculated on a pool basis, meaning that the total prize depends on the number of people that actually enter, as well as the number of winners. Coral has tended to guarantee minimum prizes, with £100,000 usually the lowest starting point for the top prize, and the jackpot pool has varied over the years.

Aside from Coral underwriting the jackpot to a minimum level, the size of the pool is also affected by rollovers when no jackpot winner is declared in the previous week. In the past this has led to some huge jackpots accumulating, as we shall see below.

History

The Coral Football Jackpot was first launched in 2013 at the start of the 2013-14 Premier League season. In that glorious first season the initial prize was started at a whopping £1m as Coral got things started with a bang and really shook up the football pools market.

Unfortunately for them their thunder was stolen somewhat by football jackpot rivals Colossus Bets, who actually became the first ever winners of the Coral Football Jackpot (CFJ) top prize in October 2013! This was a little embarrassing for Coral, with Colossus quick to take to social media to brag about their success and rub their rival’s noses in it.

This was a great marketing exercise for Colossus, who were in their formative years at that stage, although it is unknown how much money they invested in various permutations in order to hit the big one. Ultimately the publicity generated was great for both companies and the CFJ became even more popular following the winning of the first seven figure prize.

Rollovers and Coral’s seeding of the promotion have resulted in numerous big wins over the years. It reached more than £1m in the season following the initial win before two lucky, skilful prediction experts landed more than £540,000 each, although the biggest rollover came in December 2014 when a long, long series of rollovers led to a huge pool of more than £5m!

That was eventually won by four punters who shared an enormous win, whilst there have been countless other five figure wins, either through the main jackpot or the consolation pool. Our favourite quote comes from one of the earliest winners who was one result away from nailing all 15 results.

The lucky pensioner missed out on £1m due to an injury time goal but was more than happy with his £30k win, saying that he would “go on a holiday with my wife, probably a coach trip to Yorkshire or the Lake District”!

At different times since the launch a few years ago Coral have re-launched the product with a guaranteed jackpot significantly higher than the standard £100,000. Be it £250,000, £500,000 or even a million, who knows what the future may have in store?

How to Play the Coral Football Jackpot

If all these tales of big wins have got you in the mood to play Coral’s excellent jackpot prediction game, you’re in luck, because it’s really easy. First of all, and, dare we say it, somewhat obviously, you’ll need to have a betting account with Coral.

More good news here too, because not only is opening a Coral account free and easy, it’s also quick and, best of all, you can claim loads of free goodies when you do. Coral offer a casino, bingo, games, poker and lotto as well as sports betting and there is a different freebie up for grabs in each of these gaming suites. If you don’t want to claim any of them and just want to play the CFJ that’s fine too of course.

Once you’ve got an account just make a deposit and head to the Coral Football Jackpot page which you can easily find from the homepage. Here you’ll see the 15 games (it’s almost always 15 games but may occasionally be fewer) that comprise that week’s game.

Just make your selection by clicking to predict a home win, draw or away win. Next select your stake per line, with £1 the default wager. If you’ve selected more than one result on any of the games the system will automatically calculate your total stake and then all you need to do is make sure you are happy with your selections and click, “Place Bet”.

As said, the games usually take place from Saturday to Monday and so all you need to do is sit back, try not to check the scores on your phone every five minutes, and wait for full time in the first game or games.

In truth you don’t even need to do that, because Coral will effectively check your results for you and so those with self-control can just log into their accounts once all the games are completed and maybe, just maybe, see a seven figure sum winking back at them!

Lucky Dip

The great thing about the Coral Football Jackpot is that even if you know very little about football you can still take part and still have a chance of winning. The Lucky Dip functionality will automatically make 15 selections for you. This is ideal if you’re in a rush, can’t be bothered to check all the stats and form or just don’t consider yourself a football expert.

Ultimately luck plays a part in predicting the outcome of just one game but when it comes to trying to get 15 matches correct you really are relying on Lady Luck. This means that a Lucky Dip isn’t such a bad option and indeed many top prizes, including one of the first big wins, was won on a Lucky Dip entry.

Scottish pint puller Kate Muir may not have scooped the first £1m jackpot but her Lucky Dip did net her a cool £52,000 in the early years of the CFJ. With the National Lottery not only increased in cost to £2 but also now offering a smaller chance than ever of hitting a huge jackpot, the Coral Football Jackpot looks more attractive than ever. You’ve got to be in it to win it and, to use a non-trademarked phrase, it could happen to you!