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{{Short description|British manufacturer of card and board games}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2026}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Waddingtons
| logo = File:Logo Waddingtons.jpg
| industry = Board & card games
| fate = Acquired
| successor = {{Unbulleted list|[[Hasbro]], [[Waddingtons (Winning Moves Games UK)]]}}
| defunct = 1994
| products = ''[[Monopoly (game)|Monopoly]]''<br />''[[Cluedo]]''<br />Waddingtons Christmas Jigsaws<br />[[Playing cards]]
| foundation = 19th century (as a printing firm), 1922 (gaming company)
| location = Leeds & London
}}

'''Waddingtons''' was a British manufacturer of [[card games|card]] and [[board games]]. The company was founded by John Waddington of [[Leeds, England]] and the manager, actor and playwright [[Wilson Barrett]], under the name ''Waddingtons Limited''.  The name was changed in 1905 to ''John Waddington Limited'', then ''Waddington's House of Games'', then ''Waddington Games'', and finally just ''Waddingtons''.

==Founding and history ==
The company was established as a printing business, and at first 'practically all its business related to the theatre'.<ref>David Thornton, ''Leeds: A Historical Dictionary of People, Places and Events'' (Huddersfield: Northern Heritage Publications, 2013), s.v. ''WADDINGTONS''.</ref> It entered into game production in 1922, due to a boom in demand for playing cards around [[World War I]].<ref name="TTT">{{cite journal 
 | first=Jason M. 
 | last=Brown 
 | title=The Tabletop Trio
 | journal=[[Knucklebones (magazine)|Knucklebones]]
 | date=November 2006
 | publisher=[[Jones Publishing]]}}</ref> Waddingtons subsequently sold both original games (especially tie-ins for UK television programmes) and games licensed from other publishers.

Waddingtons became the UK publisher of the US [[Parker Brothers]]' [[Monopoly (game)|Monopoly]], while Parker licensed Waddingtons' [[Cluedo]].<ref name="TTT"/> In 1941, the British [[MI9|Directorate of Military Intelligence section 9]] (MI9) had the company create a special edition of Monopoly for [[World War II]] [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] held by the Germans.<ref>{{cite web 
 | url=http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/10021 
 | title= How board game helped free POWs 
 | author=Brian McMahon 
 | publisher=[[Mental Floss]] magazine 
 | date=29 November 2007 | access-date=7 December 2007}}</ref> 
Hidden inside these games were maps, compasses, real money and other objects useful for escaping. They were distributed to prisoners by fake charitable organisations.<ref>{{cite news 
 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/the-northerner/2013/jan/08/history-monopoly-waddingtons-victor-watson-stalag-prisoners-of-war
 | title=How Monopoly boards got second world war prisoners out of jail free
 | newspaper=[[The Guardian]]
 | author=Martin Hickes
 | date=8 January 2013 }}</ref> In 2024, an immersive, life-sized monopoly was created in Leeds in honor of Waddingtons.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-07-27 |title=Monopoly board game brought to life in Leeds |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crg5jym45nmo |access-date=2026-02-14 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en-GB}}</ref>

[[Victor Watson]], the grandson of Victor Hugo Watson was its chairman from 1977 to 1993.<ref>'Obituary: Master of Monopoly who twice trounced Maxwell', ''[[Financial Times]]'', 28 February/1 March 2015, p. 11</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=February 26, 2015 |title=Death of Mr Monopoly, Yorkshire businessman Victor Watson, at 86 |url=http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/community/death-of-mr-monopoly-yorkshire-businessman-victor-watson-at-86-1-7128008 |access-date=2026-01-24 |work=The Yorkshire Post |language=en|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402120458/https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/community/death-of-mr-monopoly-yorkshire-businessman-victor-watson-at-86-1-7128008|archive-date=2 April 2015}}</ref> While well known for games, they never provided more than 15% of profit; Victor continued his father Norman's emphasis on improving packaging technology, such as folding cartons and microwave trays. From the 1970s, the popularity of [[video game]]s hurt game sales, and after Victor's retirement,<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 8, 2015 |title=Victor Watson, businessman - obituary  |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11457504/Victor-Watson-businessman-obituary.html |access-date=2026-01-24 |work=The Telegraph |language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315003606/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11457504/Victor-Watson-businessman-obituary.html|archive-date=15 March 2015}}</ref> the company was bought by [[Hasbro]] in 1994.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-10-09 |title=New stamps celebrate 90 years of Monopoly |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2dn67rg8z7o |access-date=2026-02-14 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Beginning in 1994, [[Christmas]]-themed [[jigsaw puzzles]] were released annually until 2007. The first twelve in the series depicted a scene from a [[Victorian era|Victorian-era]] Christmas. The final puzzle depicted a scene from the [[fairy tale]] [[Cinderella]]. The small number of puzzles, combined with them being limited editions, has made these puzzles highly collectable. Further jigsaws have been produced since 2010 by a new company, using the same brand name.

==Games==
Among the games published by Waddingtons were:
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* ''[[4000 A.D.]]''
* ''15 Love''
* ''[[Air Charter (game)|Air Charter]]''
* ''Astron''
* ''Battle''
* ''[[Battle of the Little Big Horn (game)|Battle of the Little Big Horn]]''
* ''[[Bewitched (board game)|Bewitched]]''
* ''Bigfoot''
* ''[[Black Box (game)|Black Box]]''
* ''[[Blast Off! (game)|Blast Off!]]''
* ''[[Blockbusters (UK game show)|Blockbusters]]'' (standard, ''Junior'', Gold Run card game, and ''Super''- 2nd edition game with Gold Run included)
* ''[[Blockword]]''
* ''[[Boggle]]''
*Bombshell
* ''[[Buccaneer (board game)|Buccaneer]]''
* ''[[Campaign (game)|Campaign]]''
* ''Camelot''
* ''[[Careers (board game)|Careers]]''
* ''[[Cluedo]]'' (1949)
* ''[[Crazy Crocodiles]]'' (1988)
* ''[[Don't Miss The Boat]]''
* ''[[Escape from Atlantis]]''
* ''[[Equals (game)|Equals]]''
* ''[[Exploration (board game)|Exploration]]''
* ''[[Formula 1 (board game)|Formula One]]''
* ''[[Game of Nations (game)|Game of Nations]]''
* ''[[Go (modern board game)|Go]]'' (not the Chinese game of [[Go (board game)|Weiqi]], but based on world travel)
* ''[[GHQ (1939, withdrawn 1940)]]''
* ''[[Golfwinks (game)|Golfwinks]]''
* ''Grade Up to Elite Cow'' <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-44214043|title=Waddingtons board games archive reveals wacky finds|date=27 May 2018|via=www.bbc.com}}</ref>
* ''[[Key to the Kingdom (game)|Key to the Kingdom]]''
* ''Keyword''
* ''Kimbo''
* ''[[Lexicon (card game)|Lexicon]]'' (1932)<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=4 March 2000 |title=Lexicon {{!}} V&A Explore The Collections |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O26808/ |access-date=24 May 2022 |website=Victoria and Albert Museum |language=en}}</ref>
* ''[[Lose Your Shirt (game)|Lose Your Shirt]]''
* ''[[Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs]]''
* ''Major Battles and Campaigns of General George S. Patton'' (1973)
* ''Make-Shift'' (1980)
* ''Milestones''
* ''[[Monopoly (game)|Monopoly]]''
* ''[[Mine a Million]]'' (rebranded as ''The Business Game'')
* ''Ouija''
* ''Pit (game)''
* ''Pony Express (game)''
* ''[[Purple People Eater (game)|Purple People Eater]]''
* ''[[Railroader(game)|Railroader]]''
* ''[[Ratrace (board game)|Ratrace]]''
* ''[[Rich Uncle (board game)]]''
* ''[[Risk (game)|Risk]]''
* ''Safari Round Up''
* ''Scoop!''
* ''[[Sorry! (game)|Sorry!]]''
* ''[[Speculate (Share Trading game)]]''
* ''[[Spy Ring (game)|Spy Ring]]''
* ''[[Subbuteo]]''
* ''[[Tens (table game)|Tens]]'' (variation of [[Triominoes]])
* ''[[Tour of London]]''
* ''[[Twelve Days of Christmas Super Delux Double sides Puzzle]]''
* ''[[Top Trumps]]''
* ''[[Topple (game)]]''
* ''[[Totopoly]]''
* ''[[Treasures and Trapdoors (game)]]''
* ''[[UNO (game)|UNO]]'' (under licence from International Games Inc)
* ''[[Ulcers (game)|Ulcers]]''
* ''[[The Vampire Game]]''
* ''[[Whot]]!''
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*{{bgg publisher|95|Waddingtons Games}}
*[https://www.wopc.co.uk/waddingtons/ Waddingtons Playing Cards - a Brief history]
*[https://sites.google.com/a/boardgameandjigsawpuzzleworld.com/index-html/home/wg-htm Waddingtons Board Game Archive]

{{Waddingtons}}
{{Monopoly}} 
{{Playing cards}}

[[Category:Card game publishing companies]]
[[Category:Board game publishing companies]]
[[Category:Playing card manufacturers]]
[[Category:Companies based in Leeds]]
[[Category:History of Leeds]]
[[Category:British companies disestablished in 1995]]