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Picket pools are a form of sports betting based on a short timeframe. The public's increasing interest in this type of pool is fostered by March Madness and the Superbowl. A picket is a pool that can be completed on-line whereby the participant predicts the outcome of each game in the pool. His or her predictions are compared against others in the pool, and whoever has the best prognostication skills wins the contest.[1]
A Picket consists of predicting the winners of match-ups within a pre-determined group of events.
The duration of a Picket is one or two days and then the winner(s) is declared. An individual can participate in a Picket by completing the corresponding card (which lists all the events in the competition). The bettor is free to play as many tickets for each Picket card as he/she wishes.
All tickets purchased by individuals for a specific Picket create an aggregate pot. The pot size is determined according to the number of tickets played. As more tickets are played the pot increases in size.[2]
A bettor has the opportunity to box an event. When an event is boxed the ticket marks both sides of that event and that ticket is guaranteed to be correct for that event regardless of which team wins. A bettor may box as many as 5 times thus covering 5 different potential outcomes of a picket. For example: A ticket costs $6 ($5 +$1(Vig)):
Tickets for each Picket can be purchased only up until a specific time before the events begin. At that point, the Picket is closed and the pot is fixed, so bettors know what there potential earning will be.
The winning ticket is determined after all events are completed. The ticket or tickets with the most correct selections is the winner. Winning tickets split 80% of the pot and second place tickets split 20% of the pot. In instances, where the number of winning tickets exceeds 25, then the winning tickets split 100% of the pot (in this case all second place tickets do not receive any payout).