DAILY MAIL, Thursday, April 13, 1967

Petrol pools firm misses jackpot

 

By PETER DUFFY

FOR three weeks a company running a scheme to boost garage petrol sales invested £510 a week on a huge foot­ball pools permutation – without winning a farthing. Last Saturday, the fourth week, the firm won £562.

An. official said yesterday: “What chance has the 5s.-a-week pools punter when we can’t hit the jackpot?”

The company is Jack­pot Promotions, of High Road, Seven Kings, IIford, Essex.

It is behind the give-away pools line scheme with which the Fina, Cleveland Discol, and Amoco petrol companies and independent garages are fighting the cut-price petrol war.

Motorists who pulled into the hundreds of garages in the scheme get a free eight draw line entry on Zetters Pools for each gallon of petrol bought. Garages buy the giveaway lines for 1d each from Jackpot promotions.

The company has worked out a permutation on 26 matches. It’s “any eight from 26” perm costs £510 and and covers 490,314 lines.

Mr Geoffrey Hook, Jackpot’s secretary, said yesterday: “it’s incredible that we have had such small winnings with our giant perm.

“We were hoping to shout from the rooftops within the first week that some motorist pulling in for a couple of gallons of petrol had won himself thousands of pounds.

“The our scheme would have been snapped up by tens of thousands of garages who are at present relying on gift stamps to boost their petrol sales.

“However we are going to persevere.”

Of the 1d a line paid by garages, 50% goes on the stake money, 25% for the printing costs 25% for office overheads leaving profit for the promoters. Jackpot also receives commission on the perm from Zetters.

Last week the perm won 45 first dividends and 340 seconds. Zetters paid out £5 for a first and 3s for second to a unit of one eighth of the penny. Jackpot invests at the rate of the farthing a line.

JACK BOULDER says to be absolutely sure of a top dividend when just eight draws fall in a 55 match pool entry covering 1,217,566,350 combinations must be made. “A £500 bet entry in Zetters’ eight-lines-for-a-penny pool covers only 960,000 of the possible combinations leaving 1,216 entries

(rest missing)

 

Summer Season

Timeline

John Donovan was involved in the petrol retailing business with his father Alfred Donovan from 1962 onwards. The main garage with a Standard-Triumph new car agency and a Leyland light commercial franchise was known as East & Donovan and subsequently as A & J Donovan. See newspaper advertorial dated Thursday 5th November 1964.

In 1967, Alfred and John Donovan founded Jackpot Promotions, which launched a Freeline Football petrol sales promotion at over 500 service stations and garages throughout the UK.

In 1979 Don Marketing relaunched Freeline Football on “no purchase necessary” basis.

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.