5 Honorable Ways To Use Your Office Pool Winnings

Most people who play in office pools are just looking for some fun and entertainment. They are not in it to make money and if they do happen to win they are going to spend the money before hits their pockets.  So as an office pool commissioner, why not set up your pool so that the winner has do something honorable with the jackpot. Here is a list of 5 ways to make the world a better place, make people happy and feel good about winning the pool:

1) Charity Donation – Winner has to donate the winnings to the charity of their choice.

2) Kids College Fund – Winning must be put into a savings fund for their kid’s college. This is what I have chosen to do and have a fund started for my 18 month old son that has over $500 in it. If the winner does not have kids then they can donate to a kids charity.

3) Spouse or Significant Other Gift – The winner must purchase a gift for their spouse or significant other. Works well if spouse does not approve of joining an office pool.

4) Appetizers and Beverages – The winner must take all the winnings and buys appetizers and beverages for all other participants. Works best if the group is not large. Nobody is a loser in this scenario.

5) Horse Bet – The winner takes all the money and will put it on a horse to win the Kentucky Derby.  All winnings are split with the other participants and the winner takes the original winning. This is a profit-sharing idea that allows everyone one more chance to enjoy their contributions and a great Derby party can ensue. My picks are posted on the home page if you need help selecting that winner.

If you have other ideas about how to honorably share the winnings, please post a comment.

Kentucky Derby Pool – Last minute draw

Last Minute Draw

If you haven’t put together a Kentucky Derby or Triple Crown pool yet, don’t sweat, it is not too late. A simple Derby pool can be put together in no time and you can even do it hours before the actual race goes off. The following method can be done quickly and will make it even for those who draw longshot horses.

Here is how the Office Pool Guy would do it:

1) Put the names of all the contenders or numbers for all the post positions (1-20) in a hat.

2) Decide on an entry fee and order of draw.

3) Have each participant draw a contender or post position.

4) Each participant will pay a portion of the entry fee to the pot depending on the odds of the horse they draw.

Odds of Horse                                 Entry Fee                 Example $20 entry

• Favorite                                  100%                                $20
• 4-1 or lower                            75%                                 $15
• 9-1 to 5-1                                  50%                                 $10
• 19-1 to 10-1                             25%                                  $5
• 20-1 or higher                      Free                                   $0

5) Participant with the horse that finishes highest will win the pot

6) You may want to set a time for the determination of odds or you can wait till after to ante into the pot

Optional Ideas:

• If you draw a 20-1 or higher horse you get to draw another horse.
• You could auction off the left over horses to the highest bidder and that money goes into the pot.
• If you have fewer than 20 players, you could draw more than one horse each.

Here is a link for current Kentucky Derby Contenders and Odds.

5 Tips For Scoring Your Office Pool

One of the most important aspects of a great office pool is the scoring system that is used. As commish you will want to make sure to think through how your office pool will be scored and make sure to follow these simple tips:

1) Keep It Simple

Nobody likes to play in a pool where they can’t keep track of their score. If you use multipliers and dividers you may find yourself with many confused participants. It is better to have a simple scoring system because most people don’t want to have to work to keep up.

2) Less is more when it comes to points

Having hundreds and hundreds of total points does not make it more exciting. Try to keep the total points under or around 100. This will give people a chance to make up some ground but will not make it complicated and difficult to track.

3) Avoid subtracting points

Subtraction was fun in elementary school but now that we are putting together entertaining office pools,  subtracting points makes things just a little too confusing. Not many sporting events subtract points so neither should we.

4) Bonus points are a nice twist

Give bonus points for things that may be difficult to do such as picking a big upset or picking the exact score or reaching a certain goal. Be creative in how you give bonus points because they can really add some excitement.

5) Know how you plan to break ties

Nothing is worse than an office pool ending in controversy. Have your tie breaker procedure set out before the pool starts. Having to pick the total score of the game or event is the most popular way to break a tie. Also a possibility: biggest upset, confidence score, pick another game, longest winning streak, placement in standings, lock pick of the week

Triple Crown Pool provides 3x the fun

When putting on a Kentucky Derby party, don’t just limit yourself to an office pool on just one race. The race for the Triple Crown provides us a great opportunity to triple our fun by drafting horses and adding points up for all 3 races (The Derby, The Preakness and the Belmont).

Here is how I would do a TRIPLE CROWN pool:

Group Size: 4-5 players works best

1) Have each participant draft a stable of  4-5 horses from the starter list of the Kentucky Derby.

2) Scoring:

• Each horse gets points for where they finish in each of the 3 races.
• Points are based on the number of horses in the race (adjust points for size of the field).
• For a 20 horse field the points would look like this:

1st = 20 points

2nd = 19 points

3rd = 18 points

4th = 17 points

etc…

Last = 1 point

3) For the 2nd (Preakness) leg of the Triple Crown, another draft would be conducted, this time using the horses entered in that race. Players could protect any horse that they drafted in the Kentucky Derby but will lose a draft pick in exchange. So if you keep one horse for the Preakness you would lose your 1st round pick, if you keep two, you lose your 2nd round pick and so on. Each player will again have 4 horses in their stable for the race. Draft order would be determined by total points from the last race.

4) Same procedure is done for the Belmont.

5) Winner of the pool is the player who earns the most points for the 3 races.

World Cup Pool Idea – Confidence Counts

In this post we will discuss the: CONFIDENCE SCORE Pool

Group Size: Any

1) Each participant will predict the winner of all 48 games in the group round.

2) For each of the 48 games, the participant will place a “confidence score” from 1-48 points (48 being VERY confident and 1 being NOT confident). The “confidence score” is a rating of how confident the player is that they will be correct in their prediction.

3) The participant may also predict if the game will end in a draw.

4) Scoring group round:

• If the participant predicts the WINNER they get the number of points equal to their confidence score. (ie..if player predicts the USA to win and is 48 points confident then they would get 48 points for that win).
• If the participant is INCORRECT they get no points.
• If the participant predicted a DRAW and is correct they get double the points. (ie..if the player predicts the USA and Slovenia to play to a draw for 48 points and they do, then the player would get 48 x 2 = 96 points)

5) When the teams reach the elimination round, players will rank each team from 1-16 (16 points being the team the player thinks will win it all and 1 point for the team they think has no chance to win it all).

6) Scoring for elimination round:

• Take the team that wins the World Cup and compare them to the place that each player had them on their confidence rankings.
• Players get the number of points that they put on the winning team.
• ie..if I think that Brazil is going to win it and USA is going to finish 2nd, I would put 16 points on Brazil and 15 points on the USA. If Brazil wins it all I get 16 points but if the USA wins i would get the points that I put on USA.

7) Total each players points for the group round and the elimination round and highest total would be the winner.

PROS: Any size group, strategy important, easy scoring system, get to participate in all games

CONS: Time consuming for participants, group play more important then elimination round (unless you double elimination points), difficult to know who is winning the pool.

I really like this style of pool as you do have to do some thinking before the games start. Many use the idea of a confidence score for the NCAA football bowl games.

World Cup Office Pool Idea – Bracket Madness

A very popular and simple office pool to host is the well-known Tournament Bracket Pool. This type of pool, which is commonly done for the NCAA basketball tournament, can easily be adapted to the World Cup because of the way the elimination tournament is set up. The main drawback of this pool is that it does not incorporate the group play matches.

In this post we will discuss how to put together: The BRACKET pool

Group Size: Any

1) After the group play matches are complete and the 16 teams have been determined for the elimination rounds, have each participant fill out a tournament bracket (you will be able to find brackets to print on this site), predicting each games winner.

2) Each round will be worth 40 points

2) Scoring:

• 1st round  (games 49-56) = 5 points for each  correct prediction
• 2nd round (games 57-60) = 10 points for each correct prediction
• 3rd round (games 61-62 )  = 20 points for each correct prediction
• Finals and Consolation game = 20 points for each correct prediction
• Tiebreaker is that the player must predict the total goals scored in the Finals (closest to the total without going over wins)

3) Payout to the 3 participants with the most points

PROS: Very simple with easy setup, most are familiar with the style, easy to score, no limit on the size of the group

CONS: Not much strategy, group play not used, no advantage to choosing an underdog

World Cup Office Pool Idea – The Basic Draft

With the World Cup 2010 just around the corner, the Office Pool Guy will focus a few posts on the different pools that can be put together for this special event.

In this post we will discuss the: BASIC DRAFT pool

Group Size: 4-8 works best

1) Depending on the number of participants, each person will draft 4 to 8 of the 32 World Cup teams.

2) Make sure you are familiar with the World Cup format of Group play followed by the Elimination rounds.

3) Scoring:

• 3 points for a win
• 1 point for a draw
• 0 points for a loss

4) Payouts

• Most Total Points (for all of a players teams)
• Player with the Championship Team
• Player with the 2nd Place Team
• Optional Payout: Biggest Upset (use this chart’s rankings to determine biggest upset)

5) Other Options

• Double the number of points awarded for a win each round of the elimination tournament (round of 16).
• Complete a bracket for the round of 16. (add the points for each the group round and the brackets)
• Don’t allow participants to pick teams from the same group.
• Award extra points for winning the group round.

PROS: Easy to track, not a lot of participants needed, numerous payout possibilities, basic knowledge of World Cup needed.

CONS: Must get everyone together to draft, not much strategy, may be knocked out of pool early, better if many upsets.

NFL draft pool – A pool for diehard football fans

What do NFL football fans do after football season is over…that’s right they talk about football. They watch the combine, they talk about players and they focus on next years draft.  For the true football fan the season begins the day after the Super Bowl.  So as the Office Pool Guy, why not seize the opportunity to do what I do best…put on a pool.

That is why next year I will put on an office pool for the NFL draft.

Here is how I would put together an NFL draft pool (this could also work for the NBA):

1) A week or so before the draft, Each participant drafts 1-2  of the 32 NFL teams.

2) Each participant will then complete a mock draft board for the 1st round of the draft. Most accurate draft board will win. (since there are so many trades in the 1st round scoring would go by THE SLOT EACH PLAYER IS SELECTED, not by team…ie. 5th pick, 6th pick, 7th pick)

3) Each participant will also make a prediction on who the team/s they drafted would pick.

3) How to  Score:

5 points =  pick right
4 points = off by one pick (Bradford went you first, you had him going 2nd)
3 points = off by two picks
2 points =  off by three picks
1 point = off by four picks
Zero points = off by five or more picks

The team/s you drafted are used for bonus points or a tie breaker:

• Correct player selected for your teams = 3 bonus points

4) Add up all the points and high total wins.

Here is a site that allows users to “build their own mock draft” .  A commish could use this site to help track picks.

Next year this will be part of my pool offerings. Try it out with the NBA draft and let me know how it goes.

Derby day draft – More than 2 minutes of fun

The Kentucky Derby may only last 2 minutes but for the Office Pool Guy is a one of the best opportunities to put together a whole day of fun. The Derby begins the first weekend in May and usually contains a field of about 20 horses. There are many different ways to set up your pool, here are a few of the most popular:

Auction Draft

Find 4-5 players and hold an auction draft. Everybody begins with a fictional budget of $100. Every horse must go for at least $1 and every player must fill his/her stable with 4-5 horses. Put the numbers or names of the horses in a hat and draw one out at a time.  Have open bidding in which the high bidder wins the horse. Everyone puts a certain amount into the pot and you would payout based on the order of finish (see also alternate scoring options below). This works best if players have some knowledge of the horses and horse racing.

Standard Serpentine Draft

Determine a draft order and then hold a serpentine draft (1-5 then 5-1 then 1-5 etc). Every player get 4-5 horses and will put in a certain amount into the pot.  Payout based on order of finish (see also alternate scoring options below).

Random Draw

For those not interested in any type of draft, one could do a straight draw. Put all the horses in hat and draw them out assigning them to each player. This works best if your players are not knowledgeable about horse racing but still want the fun of rooting for a horse.

Optional Scoring Options

1) Order of Finish - Payout based on the order of finish of each player’s best finishing horse.

2) Total Finish – Take either top 2 or 3 horses and add their finish positions together. Lowest totals win. (for example…My horses finish 2nd, 4th, 7th and 8th. Taking the top 2 finishes I would get 6 points).

3) Win/Place/Show – Every player gets a an imaginary $2 across the board ($2 win/$2 place/$2 show) on each of their horses. Add the total money won and the person with the most money becomes the winner.

Derby day can be an exciting time for the Office Pool Guy. Add in a Triple Crown pool and the office with be rocking.

You can also check out this very simple online pool for the Kentucky Derby.

A New Office Pool Twist – Squares for Basketball

Most people are aware of running an office pool for football in which you create a chart of squares. Players pay for each square that they want, numbers are drawn and then depending on the score of the game the numbers are cross-referenced and the money is paid out. This is very popular in bars and for the Super Bowl.

Traditional Squares Pool

My friends and I have a little twist on this very popular way to wager on sports.  We create squares for NCAA basketball games. The only change from the tradition football pool is that you payout every 4 minutes in basketball. If the score at the 16 minute mark is 10-8, the winner would be the person holding the square corresponding to 0 and 8. The payouts would look something like this:

Squares cost: $1 each

16 minute mark: $5

12 minute mark: $5

8 minute mark: $10

4 minute mark: $10

Half: $20

16 minute mark: $5

12 minute mark: $5

8 minute mark: $10

4 minute mark: $10

End: $20

What this does is it gives you non stop action throughout the game and since you have 3 different scoring options on each play, the score changes rapidly as the clock ticks down. With the NBA playoffs kicking into full swing try it out and see if it adds any excitement.