The\u00a0most important aspect of running a successful pool is setting your entry fee and payout structure, and ensuring everyone’s money is accounted for and in good hands. \u00a0If people don’t trust you, they aren’t going to hand over their money, it doesn’t matter how great your set up is, so be transparent in everything you do. \u00a0Setting your entry fees and your payouts is easy and here is some information to guide you:<\/p>\n
In our opinion the best thing to do if you’re going to be handling money for an office pool is set up a separate account and require 2 signatures, especially if your prize pool is going to be a significant amount of money.\u00a0 Money generally only comes out once a year, so requiring 2 people to withdraw money isn’t a big deal to ensure that piece of mind for your poolies.\u00a0\u00a0 This will probably be overkill for a number of pools, but we’d still suggest keeping a separate account in your personal banking to deal with it if it’s any\u00a0amount over $500.\u00a0 Anything under that and just keep solid records so you know what you have that belongs to your pools (or throw it in some sort of safe). \u00a0There are also services online now that will handle payments for fantasy leagues and office pools (e.g. LeagueSafe)<\/p>\n
The biggest key to setting your entry fee is knowing what type of person\u00a0is going to be in your pool.\u00a0 If it’s reasonably low, you’re probably looking for more casual fans and a potentially larger pool, while if it’s at the higher end, you’re most likely running a smaller pool\u00a0of more serious participants.\u00a0 Pretty much any pool we run is a minimum of $10, which is less than a\u00a0meal at most restaurants.\u00a0 For any office pool that lasts an entire season for everyone involved, we lean towards $20-$25 as that usually works out to about a dollar per week.\u00a0 For football pools (pick’em) where there is also a weekly prize, we generally go with $2 to $5 per week, with an extra $20 to $50 each for the overall prize.\u00a0 That works out to about $55 for the season on the low end, and closer to $135\u00a0at the high end.\u00a0 For fantasy leagues, we\u00a0like something between $25 and $100 per person, which\u00a0usually keeps people from just letting their team slide after a\u00a0few early season losses.\u00a0 Note that these are guidelines for a more casual entrant.\u00a0 There will obviously be some pools that play for more significant amounts of money.<\/p>\n
There are basically two schools of thought when it comes to paying out any fantasy league or office pool.\u00a0\u00a0First, you have the “winner take all” approach, where there is a sole winner, who wins the entire prize pot.\u00a0\u00a0The second spreads out the prize pool over a number of positions and\/or ‘bonus’ prizes with a gradual decline in value for each position.\u00a0 Different methods work for different types\/sizes of pools:<\/p>\n
Fantasy Leagues:<\/strong><\/p>\n As these are usually smaller in size with 8-16 participants, the “winner take all” approach works well here.\u00a0 Some leagues will distinguish between regular season and playoff champions and have a prize for each.<\/p>\n Eliminator\/Survivor Pools<\/strong><\/p>\n Obviously these types of office pools are geared specifically towards “winner take all”, but there are usually opportunities for splitting once you get down to the end if the pool is large enough.\u00a0 When it comes to splits, we always like to leave a significant amount still on the table to play for, and any split must be agreed to by all remaining participants prior to being approved by the pool manager.<\/p>\n Season Long Pick’em\/Box\/Player Pools<\/strong><\/p>\n These types of pools tend to be the ones where multiple payout spots work best, especially if your pool is more than just a few participants.\u00a0 Anything over 10-15, and you should start adding payout positions.\u00a0 Our rule of thumb is roughly one payout spot for every 10 to 15 entries, so a pool with 50 entries would pay out 4 or 5 positions.\u00a0 Unless your pool is very large (well over 100 entries), we suggest making the first prize as close to 50% of the prize pool as possible, and lean towards going further above 50% the smaller the pool.<\/p>\n Bonus Prizes<\/strong><\/p>\n In some season long pools, it sometimes makes sense to have ‘bonus’ prizes, that aren’t determined by overall score at the end of the season. \u00a0The most common is to reward a first half or second half winner. \u00a0A second half prize can be a good way to keep people interested, even if they have a slow start in the overall standings. \u00a0Another interesting twist is to payout the person finishing last with their money back, with the caveat that they have to have made all of their picks in order to ‘win’ the prize. \u00a0We generally suggest avoiding bonus prizes unless the pool has a significant number of entries (at least 50).<\/p>\n There is no right or wrong way to set up your payout, just be sure to lay it out clearly for participants\u00a0prior to the\u00a0pool starting to avoid any complications during the season. \u00a0 When setting your payout, don’t forget to account for any fees you have to pay out to manage the pool, such as a site fee, or banking fees so you don’t end up out of pocket.<\/em><\/p>\n Money management is key to running a successful office football pool. We’ll take a look at some things to consider, including setting entry fees and payout structures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[16,26,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-manage-pool","7":"tag-manager","8":"tag-money","9":"tag-office-pool","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6CptU-1S","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53,"url":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/manage-pool\/start-an-office-pool\/","url_meta":{"origin":116,"position":0},"title":"Start an Office Pool","author":"hpadmin","date":"August 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Considering starting an office sports pool? Here are some basic steps to get you on the right path to creating a successful football or hockey pool.","rel":"","context":"In "Manage a Pool"","block_context":{"text":"Manage a Pool","link":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/category\/manage-pool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130,"url":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/manage-pool\/hockey-pool-fundraiser\/","url_meta":{"origin":116,"position":1},"title":"Hockey Pool Fundraiser","author":"hpadmin","date":"October 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Looking for a quick an easy way to raise money for your youth hockey team or organization? Try one of our easy hockey pools as a fundraiser!","rel":"","context":"In "Manage a Pool"","block_context":{"text":"Manage a Pool","link":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/category\/manage-pool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":105,"url":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/manage-pool\/grow-your-office-pool\/","url_meta":{"origin":116,"position":2},"title":"Grow Your Office Pool","author":"hpadmin","date":"August 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"If you have an existing office pool and are looking to make it bigger, here are several simple things to consider\/do to make it happen. Boost your membership and your payouts with minimal effort!","rel":"","context":"In "Manage a Pool"","block_context":{"text":"Manage a Pool","link":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/category\/manage-pool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":170,"url":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/manage-pool\/10-steps-setting-fundraiser-pool\/","url_meta":{"origin":116,"position":3},"title":"10 Steps for Setting up Your Fundraiser Pool","author":"hpadmin","date":"October 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"We have been getting lots of messages this season regarding running Hockey Pool Fundraisers on HostedPools.\u00a0 A\u00a0 number of these people coming to us from a site that does things quite differently.\u00a0 HostedPools wasn't initially set up as a fundraiser option and only a small percentage of the pools managed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Manage a Pool"","block_context":{"text":"Manage a Pool","link":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/category\/manage-pool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":223,"url":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/manage-pool\/2022-fifa-world-cup-pools\/","url_meta":{"origin":116,"position":4},"title":"2022 FIFA World Cup Pools","author":"hpadmin","date":"June 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"HostedPools debuted a pair of soccer pool options for last summer's European Championship and things went reasonably well, and it was far more popular than we had imagined. We look forward to bigger and better things as teams from every continent (not you, Antarctica) compete for world soccer glory this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Manage a Pool"","block_context":{"text":"Manage a Pool","link":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/category\/manage-pool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":202,"url":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/manage-pool\/ultimate-loser-pool-fundraiser\/","url_meta":{"origin":116,"position":5},"title":"Ultimate Loser Pool Fundraiser","author":"hpadmin","date":"October 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Manage a Pool"","block_context":{"text":"Manage a Pool","link":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/category\/manage-pool\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124,"href":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions\/124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hostedpools.com\/pickology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"