Side Pools

Side Pools – An Alien entity

The majority of the major events held around the world have a set ‘registration fee’ and simple high level entry fees.

The registration fees are based on costs and those costs can vary substantially depending on the length of the event, number of participants, the time of year (peak/off peak) and the organisation set-up. Registration fees range from €10 (one day) – €200 (Week).

Some events are organised by volunteers who provide the service for the love of the game and the benefit of the community. Others are run as a business and therefore all costs and profit need to be covered.

A lot of the bigger events get sponsorship which both helps pay for the running costs as well as ‘Added prize money’, some events in the past have even advertised added prize money which comes simply from additional rakes.

Registration fees must be seen as an expense, every activity you participate in has an expense and if you look at the hourly cost of registration compared to some activities it’s not that bad.

Registration Fee

Entry Fee

The registration fee has to cover costs, these costs can include but are not limited to;

Venue, table hire, etc
Tournament staff (and accommodation)
Trophies and prizes
Streaming and Commentary
Refreshments, catering, etc
Equipment, printing, etc
Promotional costs.

The entry fees cover the prize money, main entry fees are usually 100% returned in prize payouts.

Side events are sometimes paid out 100% depending on the tournament set-up however:

Many events take a rake of anywhere up to 25% on side events to help recoup the costs of running the event (and Profit).

In events with simple entry fees, these are usually at a high level, Intermediates €100 – €200 and Masters €300 – €500, the world Championship in Monte-Carlo is even higher. These events dissuade less affluent players the ability to enter or motivate those players to enter the intermediates rather than the Masters.

With often no international restrictions on who is allowed to play in Intermediate events (unlike for example the UK ratings system) Intermediate players often end up playing far stronger Masters level opponents and this dissuades weaker players especially less affluent ones from participating at all.

I am definitely an intermediate player, someone who doesn’t study, just enjoys playing live backgammon. I would rather play in the Masters category to play the top players however just can’t justify the higher expense knowingly simply financing the prize pool. If I was wealthy it would not be an issue, as some have said in the past, you can buy your way to being World Champion if also lucky.

Side Pools (side pots)

There is often confusion from some players of what ‘Side pools’ (sometimes called side pots) actually are and how they work. ‘Side pools’ are used extensively in UK tournaments but seem to be an alien entity in events held elsewhere in the world.

An event with ‘Side pools’ generally has a far lower basic entry fee to allow everyone the ability to enter, sometimes the registration fee at these events is actually higher than the entry fee. Basic entry fees can be as low as even €zero but usually at least €25 – €100.

‘Side pools’ are additional prize pots for those who wish to play for more. There may be just one side pool available, but more often a number of them with different values. Each side pool (pots) can only be won / shared by those players that paid into it, irrespective of how far they get in the tournament. All side pool entries must be made before draw!

Below is a simple example using an 8 player draw with a basic entry of €50 and two side pools €50 and €100. Simple prize distribution 70/30% winner / runner up.

All 8 players have paid the basic entry of €50 giving a total basic prize pool of 8 x 50 = €400

Four players have paid into the €50 side pool giving them the opportunity to win a share of 4 x 50 = €200

Four players have paid into the €100 side pool giving them the opportunity to win a share of 4 x 100 = €400

George defeats Dave in the final becoming the winner of the event taking the trophy and honours however he doesn’t win the most money.

Prize distribution

George only chose to enter for the minimum and therefore wins (400 x 70%) = €280

Dave chose to gamble in both pools and wins (400 x 30%) + (200 x 70%) + (400 x 70%) = €540

Tina even losing in Semi-final still comes second in €50 pool and equal runner up in the €100 pool and wins (200 x 30%) + (400 x 15%) = €120

Paul also shares runner up in the €100 pool and wins (400 x 15%) €60

If you enter a side pool, it doesn’t matter how far you progress in the event as long as you progress further than the other players who are in the same pool.

The usual distribution of side pools is 70/30% or 65/35% to the two furthest progressed.

There can be a lot of money in side pools, let’s look at a bigger example, 128 players

Basic entry level	Everyone pays the minimum	128 x 50 =	€ 6,400
€50 side pool	90 players enter	90 x 50 =	€ 4,500
€100 side pool	40 players enter	50 x 100 =	€ 5,000
€200 side pool	30 players enter	60 x 200 =	€ 12,000
€400 side pool	15 players enter	20 x 400 =	€ 8,000

These are purely examples of possible side pool totals dependent on participants

There are usually only up to 3 or 4 side pools however there is no limit and can be adapted to suit the audience. There maybe 4 or more players who want to play for more so let them!

As can be seen here the prize funds can end up being far higher for those that want to play for more, even with a low basic entry.

Some events with side pools limit entry to (2 out of 3) or (3 out of 4) or even (3 out of 5) this spreads the love by distributing prize funds to more players.

Organisers need to ensure that after the main draw, all players know who is in what pools and how much is being played for. Deals can be made on side pools exactly the same as with the main prize distribution. It might be that after round 2 or 3 only a couple of players in some pools might be left and may never meet. You could even win a side pool being knocked out in second round.

In double elimination events obviously the side pools follow the player through the second chance / fighter’s bracket as well as main flight.

Benefits

Events with side pools can have lower basic entry fees allowing everyone the opportunity to participate, especially using qualifying satellites to help pay the other expenses.
Raised attendance giving higher return on registration income

Pitfalls

Some top players don’t like the idea as they feel that everyone should pay the same, a bit selfish expecting weaker players to finance the prize fund (ha-ha)
Slightly more administration effort required by organising staff.
Possible shady deals between stronger players who may look like getting knocked out early by a weaker player. Should be frowned upon.