The best office pools begin in August as the NFL and College football crank up and continues through the fall with the NHL, NBA (maybe) and the ultimate office pool – March Madness. This is what I call the “Official Office Pool Season”. If you have thought about putting together an office pool or have interest in joining an office pool you will want to start to think about it right now.
Here are a few things to think about:
1. “Do I want to run my own pool?”
If you plan on running your own pool then you will want to look through the articles and post on this site to help you manage your pool. You will be spending a lot of time communicating and setting things up so clear some space in your schedule.
2. “Do I want to have a hosting service?”
There are many services out there that can track your pool for you and help you manage it. I try to include many of those pools in my link section. CBS sports and ESPN have free sites that are very easy to use but limited in flexibility.
3. “How much do I want the entry fee to be?”
I always try to set a side my office pool and fantasy league funds. I like to do a few different pools for a variety of fees but I think $20-50 a person is a good starting point for any office pool entry. Also get the entry fee up front to avoid those that skip out on paying.
4. “What format do I want to implement?”
There are so many format that you will want to spend some time looking through them on this site. For football, I think Survivor, Pick em or Confidence pools work best. If you do an NFL office pool I suggest you DO NOT use the spread. I feel that using a spread in an NFL pool takes away the skill of picking underdogs.
5. “Who do I want to invite to play?”
This is the easy part. Stick with people that are not going to lose interest and quit.
Check back in August for the OFFICE POOL GUY’S NFL PICK EM CONTEST
If you have any questions about creating or managing your office pool please feel free to contact me at Dean@officepoolguy.com
