Our Mission:
Vernons is committed to delivering a winning experience to every single one of our players. We aim to achieve this by investing in processes which enable us to understand our customers in order that we continue to offer a unique experience matched by first-class service. Our objective is to provide the highest quality gaming and gambling entertainment by giving customers the opportunity to experience them in an environment offering fun and excitement and which is guaranteed to be fair, regulated and secure.
About Vernons:
Vernons has been an established, trusted name in gaming since 1925, when the Merseyside-based company launched its famous football pools. You will still find us just about a mile away from Aintree – the venue for the world famous Grand National steeplechase – and close to the respective grounds of both Liverpool and Everton football clubs.
Today, Vernons operates as one of the proud names within the broad-based Sportech plc group of gaming-related brands. And yes, we continue to provide what is now known simply as The Football Pools – to more than half a million customers each week – along with a variety of other innovative e-Gaming and betting services.
About Sportech:
Sportech is an international sport and gaming business, based in the UK but boasting a presence in more than 30 other countries – principally in Europe and North America. Sportech PLC listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2000, though parts of the business existed long before that as individual companies. Our oldest and best-known brands date back to the 1920s.
Sportech is one of the world’s leading suppliers and operators of pari-mutuel services – more commonly known as ‘pools betting’ or ‘tote betting’ – processing more than $13 billion worth of bets each year. Our full range of services include lotteries, bingo, casino, poker, fantasy sports gaming and instant win games. We hold licences for pools betting, external and general lottery management, casino and bingo, as well as a number of pools/tote horseracing licences in the Netherlands and North America.
Sportech global head office is based in London, while there are operational centres in Liverpool, Connecticut, Atlanta, New Jersey, Sacramento, Essen, Netherlands and Dublin. We employ more than 1,000 people worldwide.
Our Brands:
At Sportech, we are proud to own and operate some of the best known, most reliable and well established brands in the global betting and e-Gaming sector. These include The Football Pools, Vernons, Littlewoods, Game On, Sportech Racing (incorporating Scientific Games Racing and Autotote Enterprises), Winners on the Wire and Runnerz. Since 2010 we have also been involved in a joint venture to develop a multi-platform sports gaming business in India, under the Sports Hero label.
Whatever brand they’re dealing with, our customers benefit from unique standards of service and the highest levels of corporate integrity. They also enjoy the very best online gaming experiences, playing with state-of-the-art software developed by the world’s leading suppliers. Today, our customers can win some of the biggest jackpots available online simply via the spin of a wheel.
Fair Play:
Vernons’ customers are guaranteed that whenever they’re playing, they do so within a fair, protected environment. In order to ensure complete objectivity and fairness, we use random number generators to act as our ‘dealer’ (in the case of card games) while the same high standards apply to lottery-drawing, bingo-calling and casino croupier equivalent activities.
Security and Privacy:
As you would expect, we use the latest cryptographic (Secure Socket Layer) technology on every single area of our websites that deal with customers’ personal information. This includes usernames and passwords, credit card details, personal details, account and transaction information. Data is encrypted before it leaves the customer’s computer and is only retranslated when it reaches our secure server, which means that no one else can read this information as it is transmitted via the internet.
Credit and debit card details are similarly encrypted when they are communicated to the banking system, so that they cannot be interpreted by any external party. Details of customers’ financial, betting and gaming transactions are held on a secure database.
Confirmation that Vernons uses secure technology and that it is safe to transact with us is provided by Thawte, the globally-recognised trust mark secured by the internet’s safest, most reliable, websites.
Responsible Gaming:
In addition to our commitment to promoting responsible gaming, we aim to champion that objective within the industry – working with governments and regulators to provide a sustainable and safe environment for all of our customers. In recent years we have contributed nearly £300,000 to The GREaT Foundation, the major funding source for GamCare.
GamCare is the leading provider of information, advice, support and free counselling for the prevention and treatment of problem gambling. It provides non-judgemental telephone and online helplines as well as online forums, and certifies gaming industry best practice. We are proud to actively promote GamCare and the gambleaware.co.uk website to our customers.
Other Social Responsibilities:
The Football Pools has contributed to registered charities and other good causes for more than 80 years and Sportech is pleased to continue this proud tradition. The company generates nearly £1 million each year for charitable causes, which include campaigns addressing public fitness and general health, as well as support for people with a variety of disabilities to gain access to opportunities and facilities to play sports – particularly football.
For example, we have donated more than £2.5 million so far to the Every Player Counts initiative, which brings sporting opportunities to disabled people via 44 Football League clubs in England and Wales. More recently, we were delighted to support the 2010 IBSA World Blind Football Championship.
Sportech is committed to providing its employees with the best possible working environment – a policy which has earned the company a variety of plaudits and awards, including Investor In People and Disability and Two Ticks accreditation. The company is also active in promoting environmental good practice – for example in energy usage and recycling – as part of the FTSE4Good initiative.
