WC2006-office pools

[Soccertes]

Does anyone plan on doing any office pools or some betting with friends and family when the world cup comes around? If so, can you share with me what kind of pools/betting games you plan on starting and how they work?

I would like to start something up either in my office or among friends, but I'm not sure of what kind of pool/betting games to create. I'm only familiar with the Super Bowl Boxes (which will not work in soccer).

Please feel free to share any creative ideas.

Thanks!

[ZeekLTK]

You could have a "bracket pick em" like the NCAA Tournament, but you'd have to wait til the knockout round to do that...

[Visca...]

You could have a "bracket pick em" like the NCAA Tournament, but you'd have to wait til the knockout round to do that...

not really. You just need to choose 1st and 2nd from every group and then you just keep going from there. Choosing who beats who in the second round, quarters, and so on until you get to the final.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/worldcup/wallchart?cc=5901

[ZeekLTK]

You could do that but it'd be really hard, especially with a small group of people like an office pool.

I mean, you could potentially pick every team right from the group stage to advance, but if you have them in the wrong spots (for example you pick France #1 and Switzerland #2 in their group but it's the otherway around) you could have the whole second round wrong.

I mean, it's possible Germany could meet England in the 2nd round, or in the semifinals. If you have them each winning their group and meeting in the semis, you are screwed if they meet in the 2nd round beause one of them is automatically out at that stage.


I mean, for example you could pick:

A. Germany, Costa Rica
B. England, Sweden
C. Argentina, Cote d'Ivoire
D. Portugal, Mexico

Germany over Sweden
Argentina over Mexico
England over Costa Rica
Portugal over Cote d'Ivoire

Meanwhile someone else picks:

A. Poland, Germany
B. Trinidad & Tobago, England
C. Argentina, Serbia & Montenegro
D. Iran, Portugal

England over Poland
Argentina over Portugal
Germany over T&T
Serbia & Montenegro over Iran

and then in real life it ends up:

A. Germany, Costa Rica
B. Sweden, England
C. Cote d'Ivoire, Argentina
D. Portugal, Mexico

Germany over England
Cote d'Ivoire over Mexico
Costa Rica over Sweden
Argentina over Portugal

Even though you got every team who advanced correctly, before the knockout round even starts you automatically miss two games because all the teams you picked play each other. And then the guy who only picked 3 of the 8 teams correctly gets his 3 teams further in the tournament and possibly beats you, just by sheer luck that the only correct teams he picked went far (and he had them going far) while even though you got all the group stage right for the most part, your teams all played each other early and knocked each other out...



I think it would just be better to wait and see how the knockout bracket is set up before you have a pool for it.

[Soccertes]

Yeah, those are some good point.

What about merging the two rounds? Meaning:

You have 2 pools that people can pay into. The first is to see who gets the first round correct. The people must guess correctly who will advance and in what order they advance.

The Second will be the "bracket pick-em" like the NCAA tournament.

If no one guess right in pool 1 then the money from there just gets added to pool 2. If more than 1 person gets pool1 correct then the money from pool1 gets split among the winners. Meanwhile others still have a chance to win the money in pool 2.

[DiscoWarrior11]

Maybe you could take all 32 teams and pick how many points (even in elimination, 3 = win, 1 = tie) you predict each team will have.

That way you can root for every team from the group stage. If you think a team will win the finals (and every game in the group), then pick that they'll have 21 points. If you think they may tie that last group game, then give them 19 points.

If you think that's not enough, we could throw in separate group and elimination pools... picking the scores for the group games and picking the right teams for elimination.

I haven't really thought this through, but I'm sure you guys can adapt this into a more organized format.

[Reycd]

how about you just split up the pool and do it by stages..

Stage 1: everyone picks two winners in each group with each teams point standings.. Winner is the one that had the most teams in correct spots,
tie breaker: whoever of the latter had the most point total correct
if there is still a tie after that (doubt it) than you split the pot

Stages 2 and on: everyone picks winners of the second round with a score result
tie breakers: whoever had the most correct scores:
once again if there aree still ties: split the pot

repeat for the next rounds..


or.. if you want a global result: than have everyone pick the final with the appropiate score, whoevers two teams made it the final have the chance to win the pot, correct score has the advantage in case of a tie..
once again: if the same score applies.. split the pot between the winners..

with the global result above you want lots of people.. 10-20 at least at anywhere from $5-$20 a pop.. depending on how much each person is willing to spend.. obviously everyone puts in the same amount..

allow people to have multiple picks as long as they cough up the money..

for the stages thing... do it for less money as its less of a challenge and doesnt require much of a mental process to place your bets..


Id love to do in office pool, but being the only male in an office of 15 employees.. it would be easier to do a figure skating pool than a football one.. :D

[Visca...]

yeah. Looks like the best way to do it is splitting up the group stage from the knock-out rounds. Split the 2 and tally up the total from each.

I wonder how ESPN and the other sports websites will do the game. You could use their "forms". They usually have a world cup bracket challenge kind of thing.

[scaryice]

not really. You just need to choose 1st and 2nd from every group and then you just keep going from there. Choosing who beats who in the second round, quarters, and so on until you get to the final.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/worldcup/wallchart?cc=5901

That's the best idea. It doesn't matter if you pick the team in the right spot.

[Globalusation]

Someone posted this in the USA forum. It seems like a good system you could use.


http://soccrfn.webryders.com/

[Soccertes]

Someone posted this in the USA forum. It seems like a good system you could use.


Thanks for the post! Do you know how he might be getting the team rankings for his boxes? Are those FIFA rankings as of June 1 I guess?

[IASocFan]

Thanks for the post! Do you know how he might be getting the team rankings for his boxes? Are those FIFA rankings as of June 1 I guess?


Dealer's choice. Or you could use the pots or A1-H1, A2-H2, A3-H3, A4-H4. Or any other method. There doesn't seem to be a good common pool methodology.

[Visca...]

So soccernet released their game.
http://games.espn.go.com/worldcup/frontpage

[Visca...]

I created a league. :cool:

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=357764