Money leagues: how to build interest?

[Nailer6245]

Howdy all. All over for another year, congrats to those who finished where they wanted.

With a few months to go until 16/17, I'm wondering how posters here set up their money leagues - how do you create and maintain interest over a full season? Is it hard to manage? Do you have any particular incentives, such as weekly or monthly prizes?

I really enjoy FPL, partially because it adds a nerdy/numbers element to football, but I figure that a money league is necessary to justify the amount of time spent on it over a whole year! I had one last season between six friends, but realistically none of them were willing to get about €20 or so to enter as they're not super interested, and most tailed off well before the end of the year and I won comfortably. None of them really wanted to do it this year either.

I've seen people on other forums talking about monthly cash prizes, or cash penalties (!) for taking hits, etc. I reckon you need a sweet spot of complex enough to move beyond just a lump sum for winning and keep people involved, but not too complicated so that people lose interest. How do you all set up your money leagues?

[S_sutton87]

If your doing a cash league I would be interested mate Im new on fiso so looking to put my new knowledge to the test

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

[Hotpot]

My mates wouldn't entertain playing me for money normally so this year over a pint we had a debate over how many points start I would need to give them to make it a level playing field.

We settled at 60points to 1 guy and 80points to the other two.

I won the league

The handicapper might catch up with me for next season though

[asm_fanz]

I don't run any cash league but took part in a few in the last season. I think if you to keep the guys interested monthly prizes are a good idea because even if your OR is poor you can still get some cash by performing well in a given month.
You could also set up a H2H league, it's great to generate a bit of banter between friends when you play against each other every GW

[thesilkworm]

I'm quite lucky in that my social circle largely consists of gamblers so I have no issue finding money leagues to join. That said, here are a few ideas that I've seen to keep less serious players engaged (some of which already touched on above):

- Include a manager of the month prize (a cash league I entered on a different forum did this).
- Include quarterly prizes (SuperGrover's FISO league does this).
- Organise some kind of cup competition using gameweek scores from the latter part of the season, awarding part of the prizepool to the winner/runner-up. The Dazzler does something like this for a league he runs on another forum, and it means that people who are out of the running in the league still have something to play for late in the season.
- A small weekly prize every week, with the first and last weeks of the season being larger prizes (my work league did this, with the start/end of season prizes being worth a full refund).
- Do a H2H league instead of Classic. Way more luck involved, but that's a good thing if you want to keep people interested.
- Do a 'last man standing' league (lowest score each week is eliminated until only one player left).

All of the above suggestions essentially add some element of luck, which might be bad for a good player in the short term, but good in the long run if it helps to create/maintain interest. Obviously I wouldn't recommend utilising all of the above suggestions, or else things would become far too complicated.

[payetme]

I've done a ML this year and it ran pretty well. Cash is the #1 incentive in everything so people are always motivated to finish on top or in a money paid position. I always run money leagues for fantasy basketball which always gains plenty of interest

[Ruth_NZ]

I don't quite get this.

If I could enter a money league where everyone lost interest and I won the cash I wouldn't be complaining.

One I entered on FFS had a decent format. 100 teams x £20 so £2000 in the pot. Top score every week gets £20 (x38 = £760). Overall winner £480, 2nd £320, 3rd £240, 4th £150, 5th £50.

[thesilkworm]

If I could enter a money league where everyone lost interest and I won the cash I wouldn't be complaining.

Me neither, until next season when they decide they don't want to play.

For big forum money leagues like the one you've mentioned, winning money is the primary aim (I play a few of those myself). But for mini-leagues between friends for small-ish money, I think it's important that everyone enjoys it, and the money aspect is just there to make it a little more interesting. Given that most of us on this forum probably take FPL a lot more seriously than our friends, I think it's good to introduce a little extra luck/variance into any money leagues with them.

[DAREEL]

I solely play for cash leagues. Overall score doesn't bother me. This site is a God send with all the cash leagues on offer. Think a league of 15 to 30 players at 10 to 50 quid entry interests me most but I try and enter a few. Don't really care about manager of month etc . I like the long term aims. If everyone wants to lose interests then great I'll happily take the cash lol

[Ruth_NZ]

For big forum money leagues like the one you've mentioned, winning money is the primary aim (I play a few of those myself). But for mini-leagues between friends for small-ish money, I think it's important that everyone enjoys it, and the money aspect is just there to make it a little more interesting. Given that most of us on this forum probably take FPL a lot more seriously than our friends, I think it's good to introduce a little extra luck/variance into any money leagues with them.

Yep, that makes sense.

[dino1980]

Other posters have already covered most of it but one I like is to give a small % of the prizepool to the player with the best single GW rank over the course of the season.

[silkypike]

We pay the winner 50p a point difference at Christmas and end of season , that keeps ya interested for sure !

[DAREEL]

Howdy all. All over for another year, congrats to those who finished where they wanted.

With a few months to go until 16/17, I'm wondering how posters here set up their money leagues - how do you create and maintain interest over a full season? Is it hard to manage? Do you have any particular incentives, such as weekly or monthly prizes?

I really enjoy FPL, partially because it adds a nerdy/numbers element to football, but I figure that a money league is necessary to justify the amount of time spent on it over a whole year! I had one last season between six friends, but realistically none of them were willing to get about €20 or so to enter as they're not super interested, and most tailed off well before the end of the year and I won comfortably. None of them really wanted to do it this year either.

I've seen people on other forums talking about monthly cash prizes, or cash penalties (!) for taking hits, etc. I reckon you need a sweet spot of complex enough to move beyond just a lump sum for winning and keep people involved, but not too complicated so that people lose interest. How do you all set up your money leagues?

It is hard to get folk interested as not everyone catches the bug for the competitiveness like we do on here. I think it's the process of having to sit down and pick a team then maintain it is the main feedback I get from folk who arnt bothered. Not a lot you can do with that really.

I'm always looking for cash leagues so interested to hear of any mini leagues that have about 10 people plus entered that you lads are running for the euro . Looking at mcdonalds one and I'd be wiling to have a go at the sun one too.

[murf]

Easiest way to stop people getting disinterested because others who pay more attention do better is to play a less high maintenance game than FPL....

[SuperGrover]

I had the same problem before starting my own here. That league has had solid interest for a couple seasons, mainly because I feel it hit a sweet spot for most players. I think the quarterly prizes (as mentioned above) and the prize pool were enough to keep people interested. More than that though I think my league is expensive enough (40 GBP last year) that it brings in only serious players. I am hopeful it continues again this season (for those wondering I will be running the main league again).

With that said, i think there is demand for cheaper leagues. I also ran the FISO X League last year year because I wanted to keep it going. i will not be doing so this season as it's too much work to manage both (managing 62 PayPal payments across 4 different currencies was a mess). If you start something similar to FISO X League (with payouts for monthly champions), you'll get plenty of interest here and should have no problem getting a strong and engaged competition going. The only problem is that you will find beating some of the folks here is a LOT more difficult than winning a league among your friends. There are some here who are damn good at this game.

Anyway feel free to DM me for any learnings I've had running a league here. I've thoroughly enjoyed it and feel I've managed to keep it pretty organized and professional with only a couple hiccups.

[DAREEL]

I had the same problem before starting my own here. That league has had solid interest for a couple seasons, mainly because I feel it hit a sweet spot for most players. I think the quarterly prizes (as mentioned above) and the prize pool were enough to keep people interested. More than that though I think my league is expensive enough (40 GBP last year) that it brings in only serious players. I am hopeful it continues again this season (for those wondering I will be running the main league again).

With that said, i think there is demand for cheaper leagues. I also ran the FISO X League last year year because I wanted to keep it going. i will not be doing so this season as it's too much work to manage both (managing 62 PayPal payments across 4 different currencies was a mess). If you start something similar to FISO X League (with payouts for monthly champions), you'll get plenty of interest here and should have no problem getting a strong and engaged competition going. The only problem is that you will find beating some of the folks here is a LOT more difficult than winning a league among your friends. There are some here who are damn good at this game.

Anyway feel free to DM me for any learnings I've had running a league here. I've thoroughly enjoyed it and feel I've managed to keep it pretty organized and professional with only a couple hiccups.

I'd back this up too. Personally I'm not a fan of manager of month cash I'd rather just play for a big pot. But they do work as I enter 3 very well run games with quarterly or monthly prizes , including grovers league which appeals massively to me as it's well run and organised and the pot is great ( count me in this season again Grover ). Almost everyone bar me welcomes manager of month though so it does generate intrest.

I think you need to aim for a forum like this or a work place where people know and trust you. And also show you are organised too so people put more trust in you. The more effort you put in promoting the more intrest generated.

[tommyk7]

I usually make a flyer printout and tape it up at the local pub. You show the FPL interface as an image and populate it with popular players. Then just add an e-mail address and only e-mail people your private league code after they have paid.