Fatcat's 2025 'NRL Tipping
Competition With A Difference'
The ESG&EC wishes it's members, golfers, euchre players, greyhound syndicate shareholders and Fatcat's NRL tipsters a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous, Happy New Year.
© ESG&EC Media
Henson Park's KGV Memorial Grandstand is universally acknowledged as the Eighth Wonder of the Modern World
Henson Park's KGV grandstand
TUESDAY. TAB releases starts and the tipping comp website opens for selections. Team lists announced at 5pm.
WEDNESDAY. A morning email reminder with weekly news, games and starts is sent to all tipsters.
GAMEDAY (THURSDAY/FRIDAY). Whenever possible, a final afternoon reminder is sent out. Shortly after the online cut-off, our summary page is updated with all lodged selections.
SATURDAY. Late selections cut-off is usually the scheduled start time of Saturday's first game.
GAMEDAY TO SUNDAY. Our summary page is regularly updated with match results amd selections outcomes are
colour-coded. The tipster ladder is published soon after the round's final game.
The Earlwood Social Golf & Euchre Club, a magnet for under-performing golf and euchre players from Earlwood and surrounds, is again hosting Fatcat's innovative 2. 'NRL Tipping Competition With A Difference'. An $80 entry fee, which must be paid prior to the start of the competition, ensures participants a season of weekly angst.
There are a few things that make this competition stand apart from all the others. The first is so very simple and yet fiendishly difficult - you don't make a selection in every game. WTF !?! On a normal weekend, you 'only' need to pick 3. 6 winners from any of the 8 games. These 6 picks are known as your scratch selections.
Second, another class of selections is added to the mix - handicap selections. The underdog in each game is given a points start and you must select a further 4 winners, again from any of the 8 games, taking the starts into account.
In the panel to the right there are a few rotating screenshots from the tipping comp pages. You can hover over (or tap) the images to enlarge them.
Besides the major prizes, there are 4. 11 opportunities during the season to win some cash. And finally, Fatcat conducts an entertaining, professional and most importantly a transparent competition as evidenced by the fact last year nearly half of the tipsters (48 of 103) had been playing for 20 years or more and 66 had been involved for at least 10 years.
1. With Round 1 split over two weekends and the first two games being played in the US, the tipping competition will begin on Thursday, March 6, with the remaining 6 games
2. Although sharing sporting, pseudo-celebrity, gambling interests and greatly admiring the now defunct charity's business acumen and chutzpah, Fatcat's 'NRL Tipping Competition With A Difference' was regrettably never associated with The Shane Warne Foundation. However, in a step up from registered charity status, the Earlwood Securities Exchange has accepted our bona fides as an accredited Tier 1 Ponzi Scheme
3. Too easy to just pick 6 scratch winners? Last season, over 24 'full' rounds with 103 tipsters, there were only 30 occasions when all 6 selections won or about 1.2%
4. Based on the 2024 competition
If you are interested in participating, click here
The National Rugby League's (NRL) twenty-seven week minor premiership commences Sunday, March 2. The four week Finals Series begins Friday, September 12 and concludes with the Grand Final on the Sunday of the October long weekend.
The full draw is available on the NRL website
You lodge selections on-line each round of the minor premiership. These picks are a mix of scratch (where no starts are involved) and handicap selections (where starts are taken into account). On most weekends, you're required to select 6 scratch and 4 handicap winners from the 8 games. Your scratch and handicap selections can come from the same or different games, you can pick one team as a scratch winner and their opponent as a handicap winner - the choice is entirely yours.
During the season there are 3 weekends (Rounds 12, 15 and 18) with just 5 games. On those weekends, the usual mix of 6 scratch and 4 handicap winners is changed to 5 and 5 and late selections limited to 4 and 4.
Winning selections receive 2 points with 1 point given for a draw. If none of your scratch or handicap selections lose (includes drawn games), you receive a bonus point in that category. For picking the 5. perfect round, all your selections winning (excludes drawn games), you receive a further bonus of 2 points. On a regular weekend (10 selections), that's a total of 24 points.
The competition accepts the score at the conclusion of normal time, i.e. 80 minutes, as the result for regular season games. Any result coming from extra time is ignored.
5. Last season there were only 18 perfect rounds selected with 11 of those recorded on just 3 weekends
Most weekends have two fixed cut-off times which are updated weekly on this site's 'Games & Starts' page and are also included in the email reminders you receive. If there is no reminder/update provided, the default cut-offs are the scheduled kick-off times for the opening game and Saturday's first game. It is important to understand if the first game is scheduled to start at 8.05pm Thursday then that means 8.05pm Thursday is the cut-off - it is not linked to what time the referenced game actually starts.
To have your selections accepted and eligible for all bonus points, they must be lodged, preferably on-line, before the initial cut-off time. Email, text or phone can be used very sparingly as an emergency option.
Tipsters can email late selections up until the second cut-off time but they are penalised one scratch game. These nine picks (5 scratch and 4 handicap) can only be chosen from the remaining games (refer to 'Late Lodging' for details). Once the second cut-off time has passed, no further selections are accepted. If you fail to lodge selections there is a set, sliding scale of points (refer to 'Not Lodging Selections' for details).
Prizemoney is determined by the number of starters and will be confirmed after Round 2. As a guide, with 103 starters last comp it was:
MAJOR
MINOR
Completely independent from the above prizemoney, 6. The Gilling Legacy will provide one very ordinary tipster with a refund of their entry fee.
6. Jeremy Gilling (pictured right), an old work colleague and a stalwart of Fatcat's many tipping competitions, passed away early February 2019 after a long battle with brain cancer. A wonderful human with a sharp intellect and a passion for sport, he often urged me to allocate prizemoney for last place with his rationale being picking losers was just as difficult as picking winners. So, for season 2019 and beyond, I've introduced the Gilling Legacy. Whoever finishes bottom of the ladder at season end, provided they have lodged tips in at least all but 2 rounds including all of the last 5, will get their money back. If last place is ineligible, then second last place and so on up the ladder until someone benefits from Jeremy's benevolence
All selections lodged by the first cut-off will be published on the web site, at the latest by the next morning, along with a summary of those selections.
Results are posted shortly after the final game of the round. Tipsters are listed on the results sheet by overall score, then score this round, then handicap score this round and then by position from the previous week.
Most weekends, tipsters who miss the first cut-off can lodge late selections but they are restricted to:
Any late tips that include 10 picks will not be accepted either in part or in full.
On the first two occasions you receive a maximum of 10 points (7 scratch and 3 handicap), the 3rd and 4th times a maximum of 8 points (5 and 3) and on the fifth time a maximum of 6 points (3 and 3). If you fail to lodge selections a sixth time, you are eliminated from the competition. These maximums will be reduced if:
Are accepted up until the start of Round 2, and will be given a maximum score of 10 points for Round 1 as per the 'Not Lodging' conditions. The Round 1 miss does not count towards their not lodged total.
The starts used in this competition are closely matched to the NSW TAB's FootyTAB 'Pick the Winners'. On odd occassions, generally because of time constraints, it may be neccessary to draft starts from other sources.
Starts are allocated to the lesser-fancied team in each game. If you pick the Warriors with 3.5 points start playing Newcastle, the Warriors can lose the game but they must be no worse than 3 points behind Newcastle at full-time to win as a handicap selection. If you pick Newcastle, they must win the game by at least 4 points to be a succesful handicap selection.
Starts with your Round 2 picks and you need a minimum 2 winners from your 4 handicap selections to stay alive. In order to ensure we get through 3 knockouts a season, after a few weeks the minimum number of winners required will increase to three and then, after another few weeks, to four. If you fail to lodge selections you are eliminated. If there is no outright winner a count back (which can go back past the start of the current knockout) will determine one, and only one, from those who went to the final week.
Our lucky door prize for 6 tipsters. Participants will be asked to list the order in which they believe the 8 teams will finish the Finals Series e.g. the Grand Finalists obviously finish first and second, the two teams eliminated in Week 3, 3rd and 4th, the two teams eliminated in Week 2, 5th and 6th, and the two teams eliminated in Week 1, 7th and 8th.
The team with the smaller losing margin each weekend will be given the higher finish. If the two losing margins are the same, the team which scored most points in their game will be given the higher finish. And if that's the same, the team with the better ranking at the beginning of the FS will be given the higher finish.
Each position carries a points value - 1st=36 pts, 2nd=28 pts, 3rd=21 pts, 4th=15 pts, 5th=10 pts, 6th=6 pts, 7th=3 pts and 8th=1 pt. If you nominate a team to finish 4th, you cap their points at 15. If they finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd, you still only get 15 pts. If they finish worse than 4th, say 6th, you receive the points for 6th place. If you nominate the finishing order correctly, you would score 120 pts.
Based on your position in Round 1, you are teamed with other tipsters and also linked to an NRL club. If we use the full alphabet, tipsters in positions 1, 52, 53 and so on will be in team A, positions 2, 51 and 54 etc. will be in team B, through to team Z.
For your NRL club, people in positions 1, 18 and 35 and so on will be linked to Brisbane, positions 2, 19 and 36 to the Bulldogs and through the rest of the clubs in alphabetical order.
To participate in this end of season competition, you must have lodged tips in at least all but 2 rounds rounds including each of the the last 5 and not have won major prizemoney in excess of the Finals Series prizemoney. The two means of entry, in order, are:
Will be used to decide ties in some of the minor competitions. For the alphabetical teams in the Finals Series, the team with the biggest increase from their second last round score to their last round score. If still equal, go back to biggest increase from their third last to second last round scores. For the Handicap Knockout, take those with highest score from final week back to previous round, others eliminated. Check for highest score/s amongst this group, others eliminated. Continue going back round by round (which can go back past the start of the current knockout) until there is one winner. If not possible, allow them to carryover into next competition. For the Finals Series, whoever had the Grand Final winner best placed will win. If they have the GF winner in the same position, then whoever had the runner-up better placed and then through the rest of the teams in order.
The full-time score is the final score. Post match decisions by the NRL do not change the result (or score) of any game for the purposes of this competition. If a game is:
If more than one game is not played before the next round, the round will be abandoned and all scores voided.
If the 7. NRL season is disrupted by the arrival of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse or something similar, a minimum of 20 tipping rounds by the end of October is required for major prizemoney to be awarded.
In a shortened season with at least 20 tipping rounds, left over minor prizemoney not won or run will be bundled up and paid out as a lucky door prize (major prizemoney winners won't be eligible if they've won more than what the lucky door prize is worth).
If the major prizemoney payout threshold is not reached, the tipping competition is abandoned and tipsters would be entitled to a 8. refund less any minor prizemoney already paid out.
7. Assuming at least a 25 round competition starting early March
8. Instead of a discounted refund, entry fees carried over to the following year's competition would be for the full amount
I trust that the information provided here will overcome any and all obstacles encountered during the season but if something unforeseen comes along I, Fatcat, am the sole arbiter of issues that occur during the course and conduct of this competition.