Rules

The main idea of HAT Footy Tipping is to have a bit of fun. We do end up handing out quite a bit of prize money, so we thought we should have some rules. Here they are...

1Eligibility HAT Footy Tipping is open to past and present employees of Hydro Tasmania, Transend Networks, TasNetworks and Aurora Energy and their subsidiary companies (including 42-24, Entura and Marnius). Entries will also be accepted from family members and close friends.

Tippers are not permitted to have more than one (1) entry in the competition.  
2 Entry Fee

The entry fee is $25 per tipper per entry. This includes entry to one of two end of season ‘Footy Bash’ functions held in Hobart and Launceston the week or fortnight prior to the AFL grand final. The entry fee must be paid prior to Round 5. A Tipper who has not paid the entry fee prior to round 5 will be ineligible to win weekly prizes and payment of the entry fee as part of the tippers winnings is not allowed.
Tippers maybe scratched from the competition for non-payment at the discretion of the organisers...see Rule 17.
3 Scope The contest is based on selecting the winning teams of roster matches in the Australian Football League (AFL).
4 Preliminaries Prior to the start of the competition each contestant must:
  1. register on the website https://hatfootytipping.net
  2. pay the entry fee to the Organisers (see Rule 2).
  3. provide a predicted AFL ladder, via the form on the competition web site, listing the order in which the entrant predicts the teams will be placed at the conclusion of the AFL roster matches. Ladder predictions must be submitted by 2 hours prior to the start of the first game of the first round of matches at the latest.
5 Lodgment There is only one way of entering tips. It is via the HAT Footy Tipping web site: https://hatfootytipping.net. Input processing forms are provided on this site to enter tips.
Access via Laptop, PC, Mac or Smart Phone/Tablet. You can also have your tips entered by a friend or colleague. Tips must be submitted by 1 hour prior to the start of the first game of each round at the latest.

The selection form requires:
  1. The selection for each game being played
  2. A prediction for the Total Points Score in the first game (ie Team 1’s game score plus Team 2’s game score). Note: This is not the points margin, it is the total points scored in the match. It's harder to tip than margin.
  3. Power Score (This is an optional extra and not compulsory (see rule 13)
  4. Whether or not the tipper is playing his/her WildCard (see rule 11)
  5. HotTips prediction (see rule 12)
6 Scoring One point will be awarded for each correct selection. No points will be awarded for a drawn game.
7 Non Entry of Ladder Prediction In the event of a contestant not submitting a ladder prediction in accordance with rule 4 - part 3, they will be assigned a ladder prediction based purely on chance.
8 Non Entry of Tips In the event of a contestant not submitting selections in accordance with rule 5, they will be awarded points based on the AFL ladders described in rule 4 - part 3 or rule 7. For example if team A defeated team B, the contestant would receive one point if they had nominated team A to finish higher on the ladder than team B. This is repeated for all matches played in the round to determine the number of points the entrant receives. Note: A tipper who doesn't enter tips for a round is not eligible to win weekly prizes for that round.
9 Weekly Prizes A tipper must submit tips (as per rule 5) to be eligible to win the weekly prize.

There are three options of winning the cash prize for any given round:
Option 1:
The contestant who scores the greatest number of points for that round will receive a cash prize of $50.

OR
Option 2: In the event of Option 1 having more than one (1) contestant scoring the greatest number of points for that round, then the contestant who scores the greatest number of points for that round AND whose "Total Points Score" prediction was closest will receive a cash prize of $50.
If a clear winner is still not determined, each 'drawn entry' will receive a weekly prize of $50. In the event that more than three (3) drawn entries exist, the following will apply:
  • The organisers will select three (3) of the winners at random to each receive a $50 prize.
  • The remaining tipper(s) will get free entry for the next year’s HAT Footy Tipping Competition.
OR
Option 3: The contestant who selects all winning teams and the exact "Total Points Scored" in any complete roster round will receive a cash prize of $80. If two (2) tippers get the greatest number of tips correct and the exact "Total Points Scored", they each receive a cash prize of $80.
If more than two (2) tippers get the greatest number of tips correct and the exact "Total Points Scored" in any complete roster round then the following shall be applied:
  •  The organisers will select two (2) of the winners at random to each receive a $80 prize.
  • The remaining tippers will get free entry for the next year’s HAT Footy Tipping Competition.

Spot Prizes’ may be awarded by the organisers throughout the season for fun, interesting, bizarre or silly reasons.

10 Quarterly Tipping The Quarterly Tipping Competition complements the main tipping full round competition. It consists of 4 mini tipping rounds:
  • 1st Quarter: Round 0 – 6 (7 rounds)
  • 2nd Quarter: Round 7 – 12 (6 rounds)
  • 3rd Quarter: Round 13 – 18 (6 rounds)
  • 4th Quarter: Round 19 – 24 (6 rounds)

    • Notes:
  • Each Quarterly Round will be treated separately to each other
  • Tipping table will reset at the commencement of each quarter
  • Wildcard points will not count towards the results of each quarterly round
  • If the tipper does not submit tips for a particular round – this will NOT exclude that tipper from the Quarterly Tipping competition. Tips will be submitted in accordance with Rule 8: Non ‘Entry of Tips’
  • Results will be published on the weekly Results sheet (see Rule 17)

    • Cash prizes are awarded to tippers finishing in the top 3 placings:
  • 1st Place: $100
  • 2nd Place: $60
  • 3rd Place: $40
In the event of a tied placing, the tippers placing will be determined by taking the lowest cumulative score for the difference between the ‘Total Points Score’ predicted to actual ‘Total Points Score’ in the first game of each round of the quarter for each tipper.
For example, Tipper: Joe Bloggs:
Round Match 'Total Points Score' Predicted ‘Total Points Score’ Difference
7 Collingwood v Gold Coast 300 370 70
8 Geelong v Melbourne 200 210 10
9 Hawthorn v North Melbourne 120 180 60
10 West Coast v Essendon 222 222 0
11 Collingwood v Gold Coast 185 190 5
12 Geelong v Port Adelaide 210 150 60

Joe Bloggs cumulative difference in ‘Total Points Score’ is 205. This score will be used to determine out right places for the top 3 prizes.
In the event of ties, the tippers involved share the prizes.

A tipper cannot win more that $300 in total in the Quarterly Tipping Competitions per season. If this happens, the tipper will be excluded from the results and replaced by the next highest ranked tipper. This process will subsequently apply to all other tippers.
11 WildCard Each contestant has a 'WildCard' that they can use once at any time during the season. The WildCard will double the points scored for that round but will not have any effect on determining the weekly prize winner. For the wildcard to be used and valid, it must be selected by the tipper as part of a round's tips.
12 HotTips In addition to the main competition described above, all tippers are invited to enter a supplementary knock-out competition called HotTips. There is no additional entry fee.

In the first round, each tipper nominates (in the space provided on the selection forms used for the main competition) an AFL team they think will win its game. If that team loses, the tipper is excluded from the competition. If, however, the team wins, the tipper remains ‘live’ in the competition and continues to nominate their Hot Tip each week. Eventually, only one tipper will remain ‘live’ and they will receive a cash prize of $100. There is a 2nd place cash prize of $50. If the last two or more tippers’ Hot Tips lose in the same round, those tippers share the prize. On discretion of the organisers, the competition restarts with all tippers ‘live’ as per round 1. Modification to any rules in this instance is only on the discretion of the organisers.

Notes:
  1. Each tipper can only select each team once. Selecting a previously nominated team, the tipper’s default Hot Tip is used.
  2. In the event of a drawn game, all tippers who nominated either team as their Hot Tip are excluded.
  3. If a tipper who is ‘live’ in the Hot Tips competition does not submit an entry, then that tipper’s default Hot Tip is used. If a tipper who is ‘live’ in the Hot Tips competition submits a hot tip team that has been previously used, it will be disregarded and that the tipper’s default Hot Tip is used.
  4. Each tipper’s default Hot Tip is determined as the highest ‘unused’ team on their ladder predictions, as per rule 4 - part 3.
  5. At the conclusion of the AFL roster matches, the organisers will conduct a game of chance to determine which of any tippers who are still ‘live’ will receive 1st and 2nd of the $150 prize pool.
13 Power Tipping (OPTIONAL)

The Power Tipping Competition complements the main tipping full round competition. The nine matches per week need to be ranked from 9 to 1, with 9 being the game most likely to win and 1 being the game least likely to win.

Power Tipping Competition participation is optional. If the tipper chooses not enter, then ignore the Power Tipping option in column in the main tipper form and submit your round tips. Default Power Scores will be used. All active tippers will be shown on the Power Tipping ranking table. This means that tippers who don’t choose to think about their power scores could get still get lucky and win the money.

Cash prizes are awarded to tippers finishing in the top 3 placings:
  • 1st Place: $70
  • 2nd Place: $50
  • 3rd Place: $30
How the scoring works:
  1. If the tipped team wins, the tipper gets the positive power score.
  2. If the tipped team loses, the tipper gets negative power score.
  3. If there is a draw, there is no score given.
  4. If a tipper does not enter tips for a round, they will score zero for Power Tipping for that round.
  5. The winner will be the tipper with the highest number after round 24.
Example round on how each round will be scored:
Teams Tip Power Score Winner Score
Gold Coast v GWS Giants Gold Coast 9 Gold Coast 9
Carlton v Hawthorn Hawthorn 8 Hawthorn 8
Port Adelaide v Richmond Port Adelaide 4 Richmond -4
Collingwood v Geelong Geelong 5 Geelong 5
Essendon v Brisbane Lions Essendon 1 Brisbane Lions -1
St Kilda v Adelaide St Kilda 7 St Kilda 7
North Melbourne v Fremantle Fremantle 6 North Melbourne -6
Melbourne v Western Bulldogs Western Bulldogs 2 Western Bulldogs 2
West Coast v Sydney Sydney 3 Sydney 3
Total Points for round = +23

In theory the highest total for each round could be +45 and the lowest could be -45, so there should be large swings after each round.
14 Prize Pool The prize pool will consist of the total entry monies collected minus the weekly prizes (~$1000), minus the Hot Tip prizes ($300), minus the Power Tipping prizes ($150), minus Junior Competition ($100) minus the Quarterly Tipping prizes ($800) and minus an allowance for the ‘Footy Bash’ events (~40% of the total remaining). In the event of a sub competition NOT being played in the tipping year, funds allocated for those comps will be re distrubuted to the overall prize pools.
15 Major Prizes The contestant with the highest number of points at the end of the season will be the overall winner. Ties are allowed to stand.

Cash prizes are awarded to tippers finishing in the top 4% of the rankings. If there are 300 tippers this means that the top 12 will receive a cash prize.

The lowest ranked winner receives $20 (or free entry for the following year) each higher ranked tipper receives a multiple (x) of the prize awarded to the tipper below them. The organisers will choose the value of x so that the whole prize pool is paid out. x is normally in the range 1.2 to 1.4.

Two adjustments are made to these calculations:
  • Prizes will be rounded to the nearest $10
  • Tippers on the same score will receive the same prize money. Each receives an equal share of the prize that would have been awarded to them if they had been ranked consecutively
16 Results Sheet A results sheet showing current points standings will be made available electronically to all competitors each week.
17 Disputes The organisers will rule on all disputes and all decisions shall be final.