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When it comes to office pools, there are a variety of things you can do. Some might be possible, and some may not be so much fun if they’re restricted by the company’s budget or culture. Here are 21 innovative ideas for interesting office pools that will help make your downtime more enjoyable.
Looking for some entertaining office pool ideas? We’ve got your back!
The everyday grind at work might get tedious. Organizing office pools on occasion gives a feeling of fun and friendly rivalry to the workplace. It’s an easy and enjoyable method for coworkers to connect and engage outside of the workplace.
If you’re searching for a new office pool concept or need some suggestions on how to operate one, we’ve compiled a list of unique and imaginative ideas for you to check out below.
Choose a theme for your office pool.
1. Organize office pools during award season.
Run Your Swimming Pool
Hold an Oscars office pool (or any awards ceremony – including music awards) to predict which actors or films will win each of the Oscars’ 24 categories. Whoever makes the most accurate guesses wins. You may also give key categories like Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor, etc. additional points.
2. Play a by-the-numbers Game of Thrones game.
The Verge, Emily Yoshida
Game of Thrones is a program I like watching because of the statistics — who will die next, how many people will die, and how many one-liners will be delivered.
To say the least, our inaugural Game of Thrones league was a success, igniting tremendous sentiments both inside and outside of our league. One thing was clear: the public wanted a playable league so they could join in the arbitrary scoring fun as well. Turns out that converting a thrilling, fascinating, and often violent television program into a series of Excel worksheets causes a lot of FOMO.
3. Host an office March Madness pool.
Make a copy of your brackets.
By far the most popular pool is the March Madness Tournament Bracket Office Pool. During the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, this pool gives an exciting chance for coworkers to compete in a friendly manner in order to determine the season’s Final Four or “Cinderella” team.
4. Hold a bracket baking competition.
President of Top Promotions, Shannon Mayerl
We have a baking bracket every March during March Madness. We start with 8-12 bakers and create a head-to-head bracket (the bracket layout is adjusted according to the number of baking participants). Once the participants have been determined, the workers will fill out their brackets with who they believe will win each round.
The bakers create sweets based on the round’s topic, and then the workers engage in a blind taste test and vote. The bakers that garner the most votes advance to the next round.
Each round of the brackets is granted a certain number of points for correctly predicting who will win the head-to-head match. The scores are added together at the end to determine the winning bracket, exactly like a basketball bracket. Accurate guesses in the first round are worth two points, correct guesses in the second round are worth four points, and so on.
Every year, the tournament runs for four weeks (every Monday) and is a huge success. The winning baker and the winner of the bracket both get a reward.
5. Office pool on Election Day.
Websites for Gambling
Create “ballots” for the next elections around a month before Election Day. For each successfully predicted election, award points. It’s typical to provide extra credit for correctly guessing who would win the Presidency or other high-ranking jobs.
You may, for example, give choices for members of Congress and senators from your state or from all states. However, only political junkies are likely to be interested in anything so comprehensive. At the conclusion of the election, tally the votes and give the points to the winner.
6. Collect money to gamble on the lottery as a group.
Lottery of Illinois
Lottery office pools are sometimes known as lottery clubs, lotto pools, and lotto clubs, but they all relate to the same thing: a group of individuals who pool their money to purchase lottery tickets in bulk and divide the profits. Due to the increased number of tickets bought, joining a lottery pool increases your chances of winning.
7. Bring the enthusiasm of the Super Bowl to your workplace.
Cafe Quill
The Super Bowl not only draws football enthusiasts together, but also sparks friendly competition among diehard fans, casual fans, and individuals looking to form bonds with their fan friends. Take advantage of this chance to re-energize the workplace and make employees enthusiastic to return to work.
Use Football Squares, the classic Super Bowl pool design, to do this. One of the most popular workplace sports bracket systems is football squares for the Super Bowl. While there are several variations, the 1010 variety is the most common.
8. Play a guessing game with the baby pool.
REL Advisors’ Robert Herbst
A baby guessing game office pool is one of the ideas we’ve utilized, and it’s been a lot of fun. It’s done when one of the workers is expecting a child, and we wager on several categories like the baby’s birth date and gender. The baby’s weight would be the deciding factor.
9. Infuse your workplace with Olympic spirit.
Run Your Swimming Pool
Even individuals who do not frequently follow sports tune in to the Olympic Games every two years. Whether they are watching the Summer Olympics see swimming or table tennis, or the Winter Olympics to watch ice hockey or curling, the Olympics inspire a unique feeling of nationality.
10. Predict when the ice on the local lake office pool will thaw.
Easy Office Pools, Joanne
We have a pool that is filled with ice from a nearby lake. I have a calendar on my floor with all of the days the ice has come off the lake since 1903. Employees are allowed one $2 date (one date per employee, no doubling up). Employees may pick another date once I’ve asked everyone on the floor. I start the pool in mid-March so that everyone has a fair shot, and as the ice melts, more squares become available. I display the calendars as well as the proportion of pilots flying over the lake that have departed. To hush the losers, the winner must purchase doughnuts.
11. Pick the winner of a reality TV program.
BroadbandSearch.net’s Marketing Manager, Kerri Gois
We operate in a tiny office area, therefore we create pools for different activities. Predicting the Bachelor/Bachelorette winner is one of the pools we’ve done. You may even enhance the stakes by making these pools more precise. For example, instead of guessing who will win, estimate how many episodes a certain contender will make it through.
12. Place a pool bet on a boxing bout.
Answers from Yahoo!
Write the number of each round on a separate piece of paper, so you have a total of 12 pieces, fold them up, and place them in a hat or bowl.
Before the battle, shuffle the numbers and have each individual who put in $5 choose one piece of paper from the bowl at random.
The pot is won by the individual whose number corresponds to the round in which the combat concludes. If you choose #3 from the hat and the battle concludes in the third round, for example, you win the pot.
Choose an Office Pool Format that You Want to Use
14. Make a game score pool prediction.
Thought Co.’s Allen Moody
Predict score pools, which make use of the fact that most people will have a rooting interest in the game and also allow for a little talent, are a way that isn’t utilized very often but can be a lot of fun. The premise is straightforward since all that is required is for someone to choose the winning team and margin of victory. The pool is won by the individual who comes closest to the actual final margin.
15. Use the Big Boys League pool format
Covers for Bacon Sports
For this March Madness score, points are awarded depending on the winning team’s seeding. Each owner chooses six teams, two of which may be doubled in value. The game has changed to “can you predict the appropriate upsets?” and, if you’re feeling confident, “can you double them?” It’s a high-risk, high-reward game (but a lot of fun).
Tips for Improving Your Office Pool
16. Use a pool hosting service to keep track of basic pools.
Bleacher Report contributor Dean Wiley
One of the most challenging responsibilities for an office pool commissioner is keeping track of the statistics.
17. Register your pool bracket online for sports events.
Lapels in Black
There are a plethora of options to establish your fantasy league pool online, thanks to the development of fantasy league websites. There’s no need to print out a bunch of brackets and spend your March weekends figuring out who put certain teams in. By registering a bracket on a site like CBS Sports, we can create it once and leave the rest to the computers.
18. Inviting everyone in the workplace to take part is a good idea.
Talla Kopecky, Juliette Kopecky
The purpose of an office pool is to improve employee morale and engagement. This entails involving everyone. Make the pool optional — that would take away the enjoyment — but don’t make anybody feel excluded. Everyone is invited, and all employees are welcome.
19. When organizing an office pool, be careful to establish guidelines.
Forbes Contributor Robert Pagliarini
Pools in the office are entertaining – until someone complains about unfair wins. Here are five easy actions you may take with your workplace lottery pool to prevent running into problems:
- Determine who will be in control of the lottery pool by naming a leader.
- Make a short contract that explains the major concerns and has everyone sign it.
- Make a public list of who has signed the contract and who is taking part in the event.
- Before each drawing, make duplicates of the tickets and distribute them to each participant.
- Keep your original tickets in a secure yet easily accessible location.
20. Ensure that a tiebreaker mechanism is in place.
Bleacher Report contributor Dean Wiley
In pools, tiebreakers are more important than you may assume. Make a strategy for how you’ll break ties. The total score of the game is a common choice, or the award goes to the person who signed up for the office pool first.
21. Determine whether or not running office pools is legal in your location.
The Balance, Sandra Grauschopf
It depends on where you live if lottery pools are legal or not. A lottery pool is a kind of casino game. There are no federal laws forbidding gambling in the United States, although individual states may and do restrict it. Lottery pools are also illegal in your state if gambling is. The following is a list of state-by-state gambling and lottery laws.
Now it’s your turn.
Thank you to everyone who shared their fantastic office pool tips and ideas!
We hope that these suggestions will assist you in coming up with more innovative and well-organized ideas for your next company pool outing. Remember to check for technicalities in your region beforehand to ensure you aren’t breaching any laws by hosting an office pool!
