About Cross the Ball
A brief history
The originally titled Spot the Ball has a long and winding history in the UK and is deeply rooted in the unparalleled love for sport and the community around it. The Football Pools was initiated in 1923 when three friends based in Manchester started it out of an office in Liverpool. It was named after one of their surnames as the "Littlewoods Football Pool" and had a very small support base originally.
With time and experience, Littlewoods intensified their efforts to keep people interested, coming up with new things, such as the Treble Chance back in 1946, and in 1957, Pools collectors came in, allowing the company to spread out around the other areas of the United Kingdom.
In 1973, they came up with a new idea, when Spot the Ball became one of the most popular things for people to do. It took off as traditional newspaper promotion where the player had to make a guess about the position of a ball which had been erased from an image of a ball sport, particularly association football; the last big payout being in 2004 in the UK.
Families would be huddled on each side of the kitchen table, trying to figure out where exactly the X should be placed before sending off their coupon. At its peak, about three million people played Spot the Ball, or about 5 percent of the population.
At its height, hundreds of people were employed just to check Spot the Ball entries. A whole warehouse of staff beavering away and sifting through millions of entries each week.
However, with both the invention of the National Lottery, the transition of bookmakers into the online market and the fact no-one won the jackpot for over 10 years, Spot the Ball saw a decline in its support base.
This is where we step in...
As you can see, Spot the Ball in its original format has been around for nearly half a century but it was very difficult to win by finding the exact centre of the ball - it was only ever the person who found the ball or the next nearest who ever won a cash prize!
So we have taken the original Spot the Ball game and made some awesome changes to ensure you have a much better chance of winning cash (oh... and we've also renamed it Cross the Ball).
So what have we changed?
In the past entrants where required to mark on crosses using a rubber stamp or a pen. That cross then had to exactly match where the centre of the ball was to win a prize (or at least be exceptionally close).
We have replaced this old fashioned process, with our unique and copyrighted Prize Target Stickers© that are made up of 5 cash prize bands (just think of an archery target). What this means, is that as long as the centre of the ball is within your target you will win a cash prize of up to £50,000 - and you don't just get one target sticker... with each weekly game you will get FOUR large Prize Target Stickers giving you an even better chance to win!
So all you have to do is get close and you're in the money. The closer you get, the more you'll win - right up to a life-changing cash jackpot worth £50,000 in tax-free cash!
