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Tipping Ladder

Footy tipping rules

Footy tipping rules, explained

Every tipping comp needs a few rules decided before round 1: how tips score, how ties are broken, and what happens when someone forgets. Here’s each one in plain English, with what most comps choose. It applies to AFL and NRL alike (Big Bash comps tip the winner only, with no margins).

Scoring

The standard rule is simple: pick the winner of every game, one point for each correct tip, and the highest total at the end of the season wins. Some comps make a correct tip worth more (2 or 3 points), which matters only if you also add bonuses.

The rule presets when starting a comp: Classic, Classic with jokers, Confidence, Survivor and Serious, each with a one-line description.
Tipping Ladder’s presets: start from one and adjust the details.

Margins and tiebreakers

In a comp of more than a handful of people, ties on points are common. The margin is the usual tiebreaker: you tip how much your team wins by, and the gap between your margin and the real one is your “margin out”. Level on points? Fewer margin points out wins, then more correct tips.

  • First game of each round: the classic. One margin a round is quick to tip and separates people fairly over a season.
  • Every game: for comps that want margins to matter all season.
  • No margins: ties are split by correct tips.

An exact-margin bonus adds a point or more for nailing a margin exactly, which turns the tiebreaker into a small extra competition.

Draws

Draws are rare in AFL and rarer in the NRL thanks to golden point, but decide the rule before one happens. The most common is that everyone who tipped the game scores. The alternatives are half points for everyone, or nobody scores. Some comps also let people tip a draw, which scores only when the game is actually drawn.

Jokers and bonuses

  • Jokers: each tipper gets a set number a season (two is popular). Played before a round starts, a joker doubles (or triples) that round’s points. It rewards people who pick their moment.
  • Perfect-round bonus: extra points for tipping every game in a round correctly. Rare, so it’s a nice moment when it happens.

Missed tips and late joiners

Someone will forget, and someone will join in round 5. Both rules are about being fair to everyone else:

  • A missed tip scores nothing (strict, and the most common), or counts as the home team or the away team (kinder in a casual comp).
  • Late joiners get the lowest score from each round they missed (the usual: in the race, but not rewarded for joining late), that round’s average, or nothing.

Lockout and hidden tips

Tips lock either at the start of each game (fairest for people who tip on the day) or for the whole round at its first game (everything in by Thursday night). On Tipping Ladder the lock happens on the server, so nobody can tip late whatever their phone says.

Most comps also hide everyone’s tips until each game locks, so nobody can copy the leader. Once a game locks, everyone can see who tipped what.

“Who tipped what” for a round: each game with its final score and a bar showing what share of the comp tipped each team.
After a game locks: how the comp tipped it, with the final score.

Finals

Decide whether the finals count, and how much: the same as the season, double or triple. Double finals points keep the bottom half interested late in the year, but can let someone leapfrog a season-long leader, so say so before round 1.

Other kinds of comp

  • Confidence: tip every game and rank them by how sure you are. A correct tip scores its rank, so your surest tip is worth the most. Less luck, more judgement.
  • Survivor: pick one team a round to win, and each team only once a season. Lose and you’re out (or allow up to three losses). Last one standing wins. Ideal for a mid-season start.

Both come with Plus on Tipping Ladder.

Three rule sets that work

  • The office comp: one point a tip, a margin on the first game, two jokers, missed tips score nothing, late joiners get the round’s lowest score, tips hidden until lockout.
  • The family comp: one point a tip, no margins, missed tips count as the home team, finals count the same.
  • The serious comp: margins on every game with an exact-margin bonus, a perfect-round bonus and finals worth double.
The detailed rules: type of comp, points for a correct tip, what happens in a draw, margins, exact-margin bonus, when tips lock, missed tips, jokers, perfect-round bonus, finals points, late joiners and hiding tips until lockout.
Every one of these rules, in one place when you set up a comp.

Whatever you choose, write it in the comp’s note so everyone can see it. On Tipping Ladder each comp also has a rules page in plain English, and rules that change scores lock once the season starts.

Questions

What are the standard footy tipping rules?

Pick the winner of every game; each correct tip is worth one point; the highest total at the end of the season wins. Ties are usually broken by a margin on the first game of each round: the tipper whose margins were closest in total wins.

How does the margin tiebreaker work?

You tip how much your team wins by. The difference between your margin and the real one is your “margin out”. When two people are level on points, the one with fewer margin points out ranks higher, then the one with more correct tips.

What happens if a game is a draw?

It depends on the comp’s rule: everyone who tipped the game scores (the most common), everyone gets half points, or nobody scores. Some comps also let people tip a draw.

What if someone forgets to tip?

Their missed tip scores nothing, or counts as the home team or the away team, whichever the comp chose before the season.

Can the rules change during the season?

Rules that change past scores (points, margins, jokers, bonuses, finals) lock once the season starts. Anything else an organiser changes is listed in a change log everyone can see.