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

If you wish to enter an office tipping competition you will usually be charged a nominal entrance fee of, say, $2 per week. This fee is normally returned in full to the competitors in the form of winnings. Most competitions will pay a prize to the weekly winner (the person with the highest score for each week) and a larger prize will be awarded to the highest placed competitors at seasons end. It is up to the organiser as to who gets what and when, so check with them to find out the rules of the competition and how the prizes are awarded.

Joining a tipping competition may at first appear a bit daunting so in the following paragraphs we will attempt to demystify some of these terms for you and hopefully encourage you to join in and enjoy your tipping competition.

Some Terms you may come across:

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

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

Tie-breaker - A means to distinguish between two or more 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 highest score of the round.

Highest Score of the Round - A form of Tie-breaker where the competitors 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 in question. When referring to the fixture in a tipping competition you need to be aware of whether it is a ‘weekly fixture’, where you need to pick the games for each week. Or if it is a ‘seasons fixture’, where you need to pick the winners for the whole of the season up front.

Home and away teams - All teams will have a ‘home ground’ in the competition e.g. the Sydney Swans home ground is the Sydney Cricket Ground. When looking at the fixture for the week teams will be listed under a home or away banner. Teams have a better chance of winning when playing at home as this is where they have a greater supporter base.

Venue - The sports ground at which a game is being played.

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

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

If there are any other terms that you don’t know or aren’t quite sure of please let us know and we will be more than happy to add them to this page with an explanation.