Football League Predictor - Rules

[Geddon]

Football League Prediction League, 2009-2010 Season

Welcome to the Football Programme Forum's Football League Prediction League for the 2009-2010 season.

Thanks for the interest shown in the previous thread. If you have not already signed up, that's not a problem, feel free to play at any point during the season, for however many or few matchdays that you like.

Matchday Scoring

- Each matchday will consist of ten games from the Football League for the given weekend (Friday-Sunday). On FA Cup First, Second, Third and Fourth round weekends, the matches will be split between League games and Cup games.

- Dates are as follows:
August (4): 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th
September (4): 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th
October (5): 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th, 31st
November (4): 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th
December (5): 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th, 28th
January (5): 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th
February (4): 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th
March (4): 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th
April (5): 3rd, 5th, 10th, 17th, 24th
May (1): 1st

- There will be additional prediction games over the Christmas and Easter periods, however scheduled midweek matchdays will not be included. This gives a total of forty-one matchdays throughout the season.

- Points will be awarded as follows: three points for the correct score, one point for the correct result.

- Each week you will get to choose one game as your "Joker" - all points accumulated in this game will be doubled (i.e. 6 for the correct score, 2 for correct result). If you do not select a "Joker" all matches will be scored normally.

- You will also nominate a goal scorer from any of the weekends League (or Cup) matches. If this person scores, you will gain two extra points, plus one more point for any addition goals scored (so a hat-trick is worth 4 points). When submitting your goal scorer please enter their full name and club (i.e. Stephen Dobbie (Swansea)), or I may mistake your chosen scorer for someone else.
Remember that a weekend runs from Friday to Sunday (inclusive), so scorers must be in games taking place in this time.

- Finally there will be a bonus question each matchday. This could be almost anything that has a numerical answer, i.e. "how many red cards will there be in the Championship this weekend?", or "what will be the average attendance of all teams playing at home over the weekend?". Three points will be awarded for exact (or in some cases very close) answers, with one point for close answers. You will be advised of the scoring system when the fixtures are posted.

- Theoretically there is no maximum score for any individual weekend, because your nominated scorer could score an unlimited amount of goals, but obviously it'll be very rare that they'll score more than three. Thus the maximum number of points available for the weekend will be (9*3) + (1*6) + 4 + 3 = 40.

Total Scoring

- Your overall score will be decided by the average amount of points accumulated each week. Using this method instead of total points accumulated means that you will not be punished too much for missing a week or two for whatever reason. However due to it's nature it means that a person entering just one week of the competition may win it, or come near the top. To prevent this, the following stipulations will be applied:

- To qualify for a position in the leaderboard, entrants must have played at least half the matchdays available up until that point. So over the course of the season you will need to have played at least 20 times to be eligible in the final table.

- For an additional advantage for the more regular contributors, only the average of your best 30 matchdays will be considered in your final score. Thus anything lower than your 30th best matchday score will not be added. This means that if you have played the first 30 matchdays, your score cannot get any lower, as your future scores will only be added to your total if they are highest than any previous ones, while the lower ones will be removed.

- The leaderboard will display entrants who could still win at the top, regardless of whether they have currently played enough weeks or not. Once it becomes impossible for a certain entrant to reach 20 entered matches, they are moved into the bottom area. Entrants who have currently entered at least half the matchdays will be in white, while those who have not but could still reach 20 are coloured in grey.

Postponements

- Inevitably over the course of the season some matches will be postponed. If, on any given matchday, half the matches or more are called off, then that week shall be declared void, and may later be replaced by a midweek game later in the season. If four or fewer matches are postponed from the weekends fixtures, then the scoring will go ahead as normal, but weighted so that your score is not effected by the postponements.

For example, if you scored 8 points in a week, and two games were called off, you will receive 10 points.

Prediction Submission

- All submissions must be made within 45 minutes of the kick-off of the first game of the matchday. Submissions after this time will still be accepted, however any games that have already been played will be automatically scored as zero (this includes the goal scorer and bonus question). Submissions should be made via the message board, however you may also email them to me at predictions AT fish1987 DOT com if you are unable to use the message board for any reason.

- I will endeavour to publish the weekends fixtures on the previous weekend or Monday, however this may not always be possible.

- Results will usually be published on the Sunday/Monday after the games are completed but may sometimes be late. Results will consist of a list of all scores for the weekend, as well as the current leaderboard.

- If you believe that I have calculated your score incorrectly, please do not hesitate to contact me, at predictions AT fish1987 DOT com, and I will investigate for you. The scores are, however, calculated by a spreadsheet (except for the goal scorer) and therefore should be 100% accurate. In general if your score is wrong, it will be because of an erroneous input or an oversight regarding the goal scorer on my part.

- As the Prediction League is free to enter, there will obviously be no major prize at the end of the season for the winner, however I will see during the course of the season if something small can be arranged.

- Finally, thanks for reading, and thank you for entering, and good luck! Any questions feel free to ask them in this thread.

[ToffeeDan]

Is it just amongst this forum members?

Dan

[Geddon]

Yes mate, I'm a member of a few other forums but they have their own prediction leagues already, plus I don't really want to have to keep track of loads of people like you have to

[pastpirate]

Geddon wrote:

Football League Prediction League, 2009-2010 Season - As the Prediction League is free to enter, there will obviously be no major prize at the end of the season for the winner, however I will see during the course of the season if something small can be arranged.

Suggestion for a prize.
How about all of us that enter send Geddon a programme from our team this season. ( As an incentive to do this maybe an extra 5 or 10 points could be awarded when it is received) Then they could be sent to the winner. (Of course the winner would have to agree to pay the postage as it wouldn't be fair to expect Geddon to pay it. If the winner didn't want them then I would suggest Geddon could keep them to do with as he wishes as a thank you for all the hard work he is about to embark on.

Just a thought!

What do others think?
_________________
I am not gas, I am a Pirate.

www.bristolroversmemorabilia.weebly.com The definitive list of Bristol Rovers programmes

[Geddon]

Sounds like a good idea to me - if others are up for it then I'd be willing to do that mate. Obviously it wouldn't be a requirement to send a programme though.

[pastpirate]

In that case I will get one of ours on Saturday and send it of to you asap.
_________________
I am not gas, I am a Pirate.

www.bristolroversmemorabilia.weebly.com The definitive list of Bristol Rovers programmes