PICK’EM POOL RULES

 

1. Entry Fees and Prizes

 

1.01 – The entry fee is $100 plus $5 for each and every Saturday during the NHL regular season per participant.

i. In addition, there is a $10 per participant fee payable to Nick Kourvisianos for his role in the continued upkeep of this pool. These fees are considered administrative charges and are not to be included in the jackpot.

 

1.02 – These fees are due before the start of the regular season each year. $100 from each of the participant’s entry fee will go towards the end of season jackpot prize money. The remaining amount from each entry fee will go towards a weekly prize for each and every week of the NHL season. The amount will be divided equally among all the weeks (that is $5 per week).

 

1.03 – There are two separate type of money prizes to be won:

a. There will be two cash prizes to be won and paid out at the end of each regular pool season to the participants who finish in the top two places (i.e. most points). The jackpot prize money will be divided so that the participant who finishes in 1st Place receives 60% of the jackpot, and the participant who finishes in 2nd Place receives 40% of the jackpot. (See Section 2.02a-d in cases of ties)

b. There will be one cash prize to be won each week and paid out at the end of each pool season to the participant who has the most points for that specific week. (See Section 2.04a-c in cases of ties)

 

1.04 – The two participants who finish with the most points at the end of the pool season will be considered the WINNERS. The participant who finishes in 1st Place will be awarded the designation “Champion” and the participant who finishes in 2nd Place will be awarded the designation “Finalist”.  (See Section 2.02a-d in cases of ties)

 

1.05 – Any costs associated with the pool, including (but not limited to) using online pool managers and our pool website hosting, will be paid for evenly between the two Winners at the end of the pool season. This will be done by deducting these costs from their prize money.

 

2. Scoring of Points

 

2.01 – Points will be awarded based on the following:

Correctly picking the winning team in a game = 1 point

 

2.02 – Each participant will get one full win for each week they get the most points (See Section 2.04a-c in cases of ties).

a. In the case of more than one winner in a week, each tied participant will get a fraction of a win depending on how many participants tied (eg. 2 winners would each get .50 wins, 3 winners would each get .33 wins, 4 winners would each get .25 wins, etc.).

b. A participant who won .33 wins 3 times, the addition of the 3 wins would result in a 1 full win (i.e. not .99 wins). This will be the case for any other mathematical equivalencies.

 

2.03 – In the case of a tie between two or more participants in the overall standings, the following tiebreakers will be used to determine the ranking of participants:

a. Number of wins. The participant with more weekly wins (as shown in the final column of the Weekly Money Won chart) will be declared as higher ranking in the standings. If there is still a tie, then

b. Each participant’s weekly tie-breaker prediction on a season long basis. The total sum on every week’s designated last game minus the participant’s sum of all their weekly predictions. The participant who has a lower difference between the two sums will be declared as higher in the standings.

c. If there is still a tie between the participants after the tiebreakers, they will be considered as having finished in the same place in the standings.

d. If the participants tie for 2nd place, they will split the 2nd place prize money equally and they will be designated Finalists.

e. If the participants tie for 1st place, they will split the total jackpot prize money equally and they will be designated Champions. In this case, there will be no 2nd place Finalist(s).

 

2.04 – In the case of a tie between two or more participants in the weekly standings, the following tiebreaker will be used to determine the ranking of participants:

a. Total goals scored in the designated last game of the week. The participant with the correct (and if no one got it correct, then closest, regardless if they are over or under) prediction will be declared the as higher ranking in the weekly standings.

b. If there is still a tie between the participants after the tiebreaker, they will be considered as having finished in the same place in the weekly standings.

c. If the participants tie for 1st place, they will split that week’s prize money equally.

 

2.05 – A game originally on the Saturday NHL schedule which gets postponed or cancelled, for whatever reason, will not be used and therefore not count in our standings.

 

3. Submitting Weekly Picks

 

3.01 – For the 2nd Annual Pick’em Pool and onward, the Pooltracker website will be used to submit picks.

 

3.02 – All picks must be entered onto Pooltracker to be considered valid. If a pick is not entered on Pooltracker, it will not be considered towards the counting of points in the standings (overall and weekly).

 a. As picks can be submitted any time during the week (and year in fact), no excuses (exception in 3.02a-ii) for picks not submitted on Pooltracker will be considered.

i. If a participant is having difficulty in making their picks on Pooltracker (no access to a computer, computer problems, etc.), they should contact someone to submit their picks on Pooltracker on their behalf. The inability to contact someone to submit their picks and/or if someone who agrees to submit their picks and that someone doesn’t and/or if an email or phone message is sent to someone to submit their picks and that someone doesn’t will not be excuses for picks not submitted on Pooltracker.

ii. If a participant is having difficulty or can’t make their picks on Pooltracker because the website is experiencing problems or is in error, call (if a phone number is available) and/or email the website administrator as soon as possible. It is each and every participant’s responsibility to recognize website problems that affect their ability to submit their picks. If the Pooltracker administrator has been contacted, and legitimate website issues persist until and past a game start time, this will result in that game not counting in our standings.

iii. If the Pooltracker website completely shuts down or comes to the point that it continues to exhibit major problems even after the website administrator has attempted to fix it, then at those times a decision will be made to move our pool from Pooltracker and submit our picks another way.

 

3.03 – The deadline to submit picks for each game will be based on the game start time for each game. Submissions of picks after the deadline has passed will not be allowed (Pooltracker will be set-up to not allow picks after the deadline).

 

4. Shortened Season

 

4.01 – At least 50% of the scheduled regular season Saturdays with games in a season must be played for our pool to be valid for end-of-season overall winners to be declared that season.

a. Scheduled regular season Saturdays with games are whatever the NHL declares before the start of the season. It is currently usually 26 Saturdays with games, however the NHL may announce and plan a reduced scheduled for an upcoming season. If for example, the NHL announces a schedule which includes 18 Saturdays with games, then 50% of that Saturday schedule must be completed for our pool to be valid that season.

b. If the number of scheduled regular season Saturdays in an odd number, the 50% number will be rounded up to the next whole number.

c. If a Saturday has at least one completed game, and subsequently the weekly prize is awarded for that Saturday, it constitutes a completed Saturday, regardless if there were games cancelled/postponed that day.

 

4.02 – Weekly prizes will be awarded for completed Saturdays regardless of whether or not the season is shortened and doesn’t meet the 50% requirement.