What is a Footy Tipping Competition?

A tipping competition can takemany forms. The basic idea is to pick the winners from a week's or season'sgames in a given sport. There can be many variations in the way a competitioncan be run, it really does depend on the person organising the competition andhow they would like it to run.

If you wish to enter a tippingcompetition you will usually be charged a nominal entrance fee. This fee isnormally returned in full to the competitors in the form of winnings. Mostcompetitions will pay a prize to the weekly winner (the person with the highestscore for each week) and a larger prize will be awarded to the highest placedcompetitors at seasons end. It is up to the organiser as to who gets what andwhen, so check with them to find out the rules of the competition and how theprizes are awarded.

Joining a tipping competitionmay at first appear a bit daunting so the following definitions attempt todemystify some common tipping competition terms for you and hopefully encourageyou to join in and enjoy your tipping competition. 


Some Terms you may come across:

Pick or Tip - The team you are going to choose orhave chosen for a given game. A correct pick is when you have chosen the winnerof that game, an incorrect pick is used when you have chosen the loser.

Margin - The difference in score between thewinning team and the losing team of a given game. Can be used as a tie-breakerwhen more than one person have the same number of correct picks. The first gameof the round is quite often used when choosing a game for margin.

Tie-breaker - A means to distinguish between two ormore competitors who have finished a round or a season with the same score.Will often be the margin between two teams though it can also be the highestscore of the round.

Highest Score of the Round - A form of Tie-breaker where thecompetitors pick the highest score, in points, of a given game of the round.

Fixture - Also known as the 'Schedule' or'Roster' is the listing of games, order and the teams playing in the sport inquestion. When referring to the fixture in a tipping competition you need to beaware of whether it is a ‘weekly fixture’, where you need to pick the games foreach week. Or if it is a ‘seasons fixture’, where you need to pick the winnersfor the whole of the season up front.

Home and away teams - All teams will have a ‘home ground’ inthe competition e.g. the Brisbane Broncos home ground is the Suncorp Stadium.When looking at the fixture for the week teams will be listed under a home oraway banner. Teams have a better chance of winning when playing at home as thisis where they have a greater supporter base.

Venue - The sports ground at which a game isbeing played.

Round No - The round number designates the weekin which the games are being played in relation to the first week of theseason.

Count-back - At seasons end if two or morecompetitors are tied for first place the count-back method may be used. Whatthis entails is going back through each of the competitors weekly scores to seewhich has the highest number of (NRL) weeks where 8 winners have been picked.If this number is the same for the competitors in question then you can do thesame for 7’s, 6’s etc. until a winner is found.

If you are looking for a Footy Tipping Competition to belong to: Come down and join our NRL tipping comp @ The Commonwealth Hotel Roma.

Round 1 starts Tursday 7th March 2013.