Pickology

Over the last couple seasons we’ve been hosting a number of pools set up by people that have used the now defunct Ultimate Loser Pool (or Ultimate Sports Fundraiser) website, so we wanted to highlight some differences to hopefully make things a little clearer and/or easier for people that want to set up Loser Pool fundraisers with us.  Our site wasn’t set up specifically for fundraisers, but we’ve made some changes the past couple seasons in order to accommodate those looking for a new home. Here are a few similarities and differences we’ve noticed when talking to past ULP users:

Similarities

• Same Saturday Loser Hockey Pool format
• Entrants make their selections online
• Entrants can choose whether or not to receive pick reminders (we also have SMS/Text reminders!)
• Selections can be made weeks in advance
• We do have rules sheets and sellers sheets available on a Google Drive that you can copy and update with your own pool information
• We don’t handle entry fee payments or paying out winners

Differences

• Entrants create their own accounts on the website – instead of the pool manager entering everything initially themselves
• Entrants make their week own 1st week selections online
• Sellers can be tracked on the website – so seller sheets aren’t required
• Deadlines – picks can be made up until 7pm Eastern on Saturday instead of Friday at midnight
• Managers can choose not to count a shootout loss as an elimination
• Managers can choose to allow more than 1 incorrect pick before elimination
• Managers can choose to allow you to select a team more than one time
• When all remaining entrants are eliminated in a week – the pool will continue – you won’t have to track on your own
• On top of the Loser Pool, we have a number of other pool formats in Hockey and Football
• Our fee is on a per entry basis, so there’s less risk in not having as large a pool as expected  (Minimum is $25 vs. $199)
• If you run multiple pools in a season – we offer discounts for any pools after the first (message us for details)

If you’re coming to us from the Ultimate Loser Pool website, use the ULP10 coupon code for a 10 percent discount on your first pool with us!

We have been getting lots of messages this season regarding running Hockey Pool Fundraisers on HostedPools.  A  number of these people coming to us from a site that does things quite differently.  HostedPools wasn’t initially set up as a fundraiser option and only a small percentage of the pools managed on our site fit into that category.  That said, we’re working to help those teams and organizations that want to use our service for their fundraising needs.  Here’s how you would set up and manage your pool on HostedPools:

Steps to Managing Your Fundraiser Office Pool

1. Register or Sign In to your own personal HostedPools account.
2. Create your pool with an easy to remember pool Id and password which people can use to find your pool on the site.
3. Set up your list of players (or teams) with the ‘Import Fundraisers’ option in Manager tools if you want to track entrants by player/team.
4. Send out the Join Link from the Rules/Settings page in the pool menu.  Alternatively, you can send out invites from the site, but they will sometimes get blocked by spam filters, so initially you’re better off contacting people directly with the information you’ve set up.  You can send yourself an invite to see what would be included in the message.
5. Your entrants use the join link to access your pool.  It will prompt them to register or login to their own account in order to do so.
6. Your entrants set up their entries, choosing the player/team they are supporting.
7. Your fundraisers/players collect for the entries they’ve brought in.  You can track payments via the Entries page.
8. Close the pool to new entrants once the deadline has passed and no new teams will be entered.  This will calculate the fee for your pool according to the type and size of the pool.  Payments are due 10 days after the pool has started.
9. Entrants log in to their own account to make their selections each week prior to the deadline (7 pm Eastern for Hockey Pools).  We handle updating all results/standings.
10. Once the pool is complete, you handle the payout based upon your pre-determined rules.

If you want to run multiple pools in the same season, let us know, and we can automate the setup, as well as offer a discount, on the 2nd pool.

We have been asked a number of times about seller sheets as well, so we have set some of those up to assist you.