FTL - The End (For Now)

Many of the FTL entrants (mostly he winning ones it has to be said) sent some words of thanks for the FTL competition. All things considered, I think it went rather well. Once I'd get my process in place, there were remarkably few errors made (or at least that were noticed). The Erskine Cup didn't work out quite like I had envisioned it, and as I didn't receive any comments about it, I'm not sure what the feeling was among the entrants. The gladiatorial 'one-on-one' aspect was lost because it was just too much work for most rounds to collect all the entries and pass them on to the opponent, plus some were paid services who probably wouldn't take kindly to their selections being forwarded on. The monthly competitions were easier to manage, and with seven different winners from the eight months, showed how hard it is for anyone to stay consistent.

If you're not all sick of updates and reviews, a final look at the season to wrap everything up seems like a good idea.

The overall picture was that there were 10,433 selections made, with 107 resulting in a Push. Of the 10,326 remaining, 3,785 were winners (36.7%).

Sixteen of the 33 entries finished in profit, and another three beat the -2.0% margin built into Pinnacle Sports prices.

The attrition rate was less than I had expected too, with most people slugging it out until the end. Three people dropped out in October, Betcast, Daily 25 and Ian Erskine, a list that included two of our sponsors, and Abromo wasn't heard from again after January.

Mortimer kept me busiest with his 910 selections, followed by winner Gecko with his 605 selections.  The FTL saw no less than eight different leaders, with Fairfranco, BettingTools.co.uk, Drawmaster, Mortimer, Jamie A, Randolph, Club Havana and Gecko all leading the way at some time in the season.

Fiarfranco had the highest monthly total of 28.21 points in November, while the biggest win of any round was BettingTools.co.uk 17.87 profit on Valentine's Day weekend - lovely stuff.

King of the Draws was TFA Draws, with a stellar finish to the season. After being down by 16.75 points in mid-March, the selections picked up 22.16 points to end the season in 8th place overall.

King of the ROI was Randolph's 10.37% from 266 selections, with Gecko's 9.94% from 605 selections worthy of mention.

Online Trader Neil is the latest to ask:

Thanks for running this all season you have done a sterling job, will there be a repeat next season?

Gecko said:

Looking forward to another go next year if you're still keen to do it, understand if not as it takes a lot of time and it's probably way more work than people realise

My response is that it probably depends on whether anyone is willing to sponsor an encore performance. It does take a lot of time, but it's not been too onerous. I'm not sure the £2.50 admin fee per entry worked out to be one of the best hourly rates I've ever had, but it probably covered the cost of the coffee required to keep me awake as I updated the numbers each week!

So if anyone is interested in sponsoring next season, either with a lump sum or as a Bounty Boy, please let me know, and if you are interested in entering, please also let me know, and whether you would like to keep the entry fee at £50 or raise the stakes to maybe £100.  For a full season of entertainment, it's not bad value. After all, you could be wasting your money on a season ticket at Tottenham or Dundee. (Teams chosen completely at random, and most definitely not intended as teases for any previous sponsors).

Update: I did forget to mention that all but seven of the 30 entries reaching the required minimum number of selections received at least some return on their investment. 20 received League or Bounty prize money, and three others were Erskine Cup beneficiaries, or Rubicon, who managed the extraordinary feat of seven losing months, but the one winning month (December) was a Monthly Prize winning effort.