Vernons launches affinity pools programme with football clubs

Vernons Pools is to test an affinity marketing programme with football clubs in a bid to find new ways of distributing its pools products, which have been hit by National Lottery sales.

At the same time, the company is about to announce details of its deal to work with Camelot to run National Lottery games.

Vernons is linking with Premier League clubs West Ham United, Leicester City, and Nationwide League clubs Norwich and Port Vale. It will offer pools season tickets – which give a season’s worth of pools play for 25.50 – along with the clubs’ match fixture cards.

Marketing director Peter Am-mundsen says he hopes the tests will enable Vernons to use the football clubs’ databases of supporters to market pools products.

As part of the deal, Vernons will pay money to clubs or provide services such as printing.

Ammundsen says: “As a company we have always been involved in the grass roots of the footballing world, and this latest deal is another way of giving something back to the supporters and the football clubs themselves.”