World Cup Calcutta Pool

[digamma]

Gauging interest for a World Cup Calcutta Pool here on FOFC.

It would involve real units of currency, so if that's not your thing, feel free to skip the rest.

At its most basic level, a Calcutta pool is an auction where teams are bid on and the auction winners of those teams hold them for the tournament and receive any proceeds the team wins from the pool.

More specific rules:
-Teams are drawn at random and put up for bid.

-Auction order is not announced in advance. The next team up for bid is drawn only prior to the next auction starting.

-Since we would be doing this online, we would have a set time limit for bidding, say one hour (we could adjust depending on feedback). You can also expect to have the bidding be done during the business day in the United States.

-Minimum bids are $1 and must increase in at least $1 increments.

-Payouts are as follows:
0% for losing in the group stage;
2.5% for losing in the round of 16;
5% for losing in the round of 8;
10% for losing in the semi-finals;
15% for losing in the final;
25% for winning the World Cup.

FOFC specificities:

-Looking for 6 to 10 participants. More than that, it becomes unwieldy and probably not that attractive unless the bidding gets crazy.

-These could be individuals or "syndicates." If you go in with a group, you will have to appoint a single bidder to avoid confusion.

-To do this with ample time, I think the latest we could start the bidding is on Thursday.

-Syndicates/Participants will need to paypal auction amounts to me to be paid out as part of the pool.

-I will run this and participate and use the whole benevolent dictator thing to settle any disputes.

Fire away with specific questions or let me know if you are interested (but do not feel compelled to tell me why it doesn't work for you--I trust you.).

Do it for Donovan! USA!

[Subby]

Great idea.

[Chief Rum]

I am down.

[cartman]

I'd probably be down for this.

A couple of questions:

Are all 32 teams put up for bid?
Is the bidding going to be blind, or live auction?

[Karlifornia]

Damn this sounds fun....I want a piece of this pie

[digamma]

Live auction in the thread was my thought.

If we have time, I would like to do all 32, but there could be an argument for bucketing certain teams (though that may also entail revamping the payout table). In an NCAA Tournament Calcutta, for example, many times the 15 or 16 seeds are bucketed together.

[hahnkim]

I'd be interested. Would there be a budget for this? Or spend as much as you want?

[digamma]

No budget, so part of it is budgeting bids on the favorites vs. the pot size.

(I believe there are auctions where you pay a set entry fee and get to allocate or bid a set $ amount.)

[QuikSand]

Yes yes

[Critch]

Yes yes yes

[digamma]

So looking to firm this up or just go our separate ways.

I have:

IN
Quik
Critch
digamma
Karlifornia
Chief Rum

Maybe or sounds interesting:
Subby
carman
hahnkim

And all playing for themselves--no syndicates?

I'd like to get 6 to make the bidding a little interesting. If we can firm that up, I'll post some more detailed auction rules/protocols and we can get going maybe Thursday morning.

[cartman]

count me in

[MalcPow]

In

[hahnkim]

In

[digamma]

Alright, so we are set with 8 participants.

1. digamma
2. cartman
3. QuikSand
4. MalcPow
5. Critch
6. hahnkim
7. Karlifornia
8. Chief Rum

Not necessarily a hard stop there, but enough of a critical mass to proceed.

After giving this some thought, here is what I propose. In order to provide some, well, order to the madness and to make sure we finish in a timely manner, I'm going to randomly pick eight teams for auction on Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday.

The daily auction will run from Noon Eastern (9 AM pacific--hey MalcPow has to have a chance to wake up) until 4:30 Eastern. At 4:30 Eastern, the auction will close--like a hard stop on a silent auction. No Ebay last minute chicanery please.

Bidding will start for each team at $1, and bids must be in increments of at least $1.

Though the teams are presented each day in a group, you are bidding on teams individually.

So, Thursday we might draw Russia, Mexico, USA, Costa Rica, Brazil, Germany, Spain and Portugal. All teams are open for bidding during bidding hours on an individual basis.

I will reiterate this again in the morning bidding thread, but to bid, you would do something like:

GERMANY $7

If your bid ends up being the highest, you add Germany to your portfolio.

No limit on the number of teams won. No minimum either. If you want to make a big play on a single team, go for it. If you want to be a slum lord over the Concacaf and Asian teams, go for it.

First auction pool goes up tomorrow morning.

Complain away.

[britrock88]

May as well count me in...

Staggered ending times would be sweet.

[Landshark44]

I'm interested.... Got room for me?

[Karlifornia]

So, bids will be made through pm I'm assuming, and then we just paypal you combined amount?

[digamma]

No, silent auction style in the thread.

Welcome, britrock and Landshark.

[britrock88]

Getting mah spreadsheet ready...

[cartman]

uh, how is a 'silent auction style in the thread' supposed to work?

Iffuns we post in the thread, it really isn't silent. And if we stay silent, then we can't post a bid.

[cartman]

Dola,

Not sure if it is feasible at this late hour, but a way to avoid the last second sniping would be to tell a non-interested 3rd party of an arbitrary closing time between 4 and 4:30. That way we wouldn't know just exactly when the bidding closes.

[digamma]

I have a meeting this morning, so I'm going to go ahead and put the Day 1 bidding thread up. If the hard stop of the auction is problematic today, I reserve the right to consider adjusting.

Let's get ready to rumble.

[digamma]

Day 1 Auction Results

URUGUAY $15 -- digamma
GHANA $5 -- MalcPow
PORTUGAL $15 -- britrock88
BRAZIL $73 -- MalcPow
JAPAN $8 -- hahnkim
CROATIA $12 --hahnkim
CAMEROON $4 -- digamma
NIGERIA $10 -- cartman

[digamma]

There was a mention of staggering times. How do people feel? I'm sensitive to tomorrow in particular since it is Friday.

Alternatively, we could skip tomorrow and go Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday.

[digamma]

One final note: secondary market purchases or trades are certainly allowed, if not encouraged, though nothing additional will go into the pot.

[cartman]

I'm fine either way. I have no problems with drafting tomorrow

[britrock88]

I brought up staggered times, but I definitely didn't mind the full stop today.

[digamma]

Let's keep the momentum from today going and start again tomorrow. Same time, same place.

[Landshark44]

keep it going... that kept me entertained all day.. thanks for putting it together,,,

[Landshark44]

anyone know of a credible sports betting site, I can make small world cup bets on?

[panerd]

Originally Posted by Landshark44

anyone know of a credible sports betting site, I can make small world cup bets on?

Any offshore site will definitely have world cup. Bovada is my suggestion. Stay away from youwager they will not stop calling you once you cash out.

[Landshark44]

Originally Posted by panerd

Any offshore site will definitely have world cup. Bovada is my suggestion. Stay away from youwager they will not stop calling you once you cash out.

thanks, panerd... i'll check it out..

[Landshark44]

bovada doesn't accept registrations from NJ.... can anyone recommend a different site?

[Karlifornia]

5dimes

I have no idea if they allow nj tho

[digamma]

Through two days:

URUGUAY $15 -- digamma
GHANA $5 -- MalcPow
PORTUGAL $15 -- britrock88
BRAZIL $73 -- MalcPow
JAPAN $8 -- hahnkim
CROATIA $12 --hahnkim
CAMEROON $4 -- digamma
NIGERIA $10 -- cartman

USA $13 -- digamma
Ivory Coast $30 -- Chief Rum
Switzerland $19 -- britrock88
Honduras $7 -- cartman
Greece $11 -- Critch
Spain $65 -- Landshark44
South Korea $13 -- hahnkim
Algeria $5 -- cartman

[digamma]

By player:

digamma
URUGUAY
CAMEROON
USA
COSTA RICA

MalcPow
GHANA
BRAZIL

cartman
ALGERIA
HONDURAS
NIGERIA
NETHERLANDS
BELGIUM
ITALY
COLOMBIA

hahnkim
JAPAN
SOUTH KOREA
ARGENTINA
CHILE
FRANCE
BOSNIA
GERMANY
AUSTRALIA
(sold croatia to landshark)

britrock88
SWITZERLAND
IRAN
(sold portugal to Landshark)

Chief Rum
IVORY COAST
ECUADOR
MEXICO

Critch
GREECE
RUSSIA

Landshark44
SPAIN
PORTUGAL (purchased from britrock)
CROATIA (purchased from hahnkim)

Karlifornia
ENGLAND

[Landshark44]

I have acquired the rights to Portugal from britrock88, for an undisclosed sum...........


britrock88 to confirm...

[britrock88]

I confirm!

[HomerSimpson98]

This has been fantastic to watch on the sidelines. What a cool idea and best of luck to all those participating.

[cartman]

So two groups have been sold. Group D (Uruguay, Costa Rica, England, Italy) and Group H (Belgium, Algeria, Russia, South Korea).

[Landshark44]

I have acquired the rights to Croatia from hahnkim for an undisclosed sum...


hahnkim to confirm..

[Toddzilla]

By my calculations you're nearing $400 in the pool so far

[Landshark44]

I think we are over $500

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Landshark44

I think we are over $500

I'm showing $589 in the pool

[hahnkim]

Confirmed!

Originally Posted by Landshark44

I have acquired the rights to Croatia from hahnkim for an undisclosed sum...


hahnkim to confirm..

[cartman]

By my calculations, there will be $851 in the pool

WC winner pays $212.75
Runner up pays $127.65
SF losers pay $85.10
QF losers pay $42.55
Round of 16 losers pay $21.28

[digamma]

I agree with that cartman.

[digamma]

almost..the runner up pays 127.65

[cartman]

ah, yes. Typo on my part. That is what is showing on my spreadsheet.