Running Your Own Syndicate
can be for Fun, for Profit
- or BOTH of Course!

It doesn't matter if you are running your lottery pool just for fun or for profit, for half a dozen office workmates or hundreds of people all over the world - if you don't get the basics right you can end up in a whole heap of a mess! In some countries it is not permitted to profit from running a lottery syndicate, so if profit is on your mind, check first.

Get Organised... or Get Some Nifty Software To Do It For You!

It's a fairly dull first step, but you need some kind of system to know exactly who is in your lottery pool, what numbers you are entering, who chose them, who has paid and for how many weeks. You may even want to log staff holidays if a work lottery syndicate so you know to get money before they disappear for 4 weeks round the world!

One of the simplest methods is just to set up a basic spreadsheet in Excel/Lotus. Just list names down the first column, and draw dates across the first row. Put an 'X' or a '1' in the cells for the relevant name and draw dates when people pay you. Use a formula to add 'x' days to the draw date if, like me, you're too lazy to keep looking up the dates. It's a quick, easy, visual way to log who has paid and who hasn't. You can either hide or just delete columns for old draws to keep it manageable. It is very easy to delete a row for a member who leaves, or add a new row should someone join. You can log the date and amounts in a 'winnings' sheet in the same spreadsheet. You may find it useful to log members in the lottery pool at that date against every win - although I've found it can be better to log start and leaving dates of all members in another sheet.

Why log members and winnings? - because you're going to win some small amounts that are just too fiddly to bother splitting and distributing until they accumulate to something bigger. And if someone leaves, you need to know how much they are due, and what remains for everyone else!

This approach is fine for a fairly small lottery pool, but believe me it gets very painful very quickly if numbers grow!

If you're pretty handy with Excel/Lotus, you can develop your spreadsheet and formularize your calculation for winning shares, leavers shares, remainders etc. Alternatively, if you don't find this fun or the number of members is making it painful, trial out some of the many lottery software packages.

The Basics!

Do you have a lottery syndicate agreement in place? If not, do it. The terms should be simple to understand and very clear to all members. You can run into legal problems, tax problems and plain old disputes of who is due what if you neglect an agreement. If the big win happens for you, you don't want to give a large chunk of it to a lawyer because Bob says he is still a member when everyone else says he hasn't paid for 6 weeks... You should set out at least what game you are playing, the frequency, what happens with winnings - small and large, who is responsible for checking results and claiming winnings, what happens if a member has not paid - are their numbers entered, do they receive a share etc.

Ideally you shouldn't have any non-payers because members should come to you to pay. But you know you're going to be involved in chasing people up sometimes. You may want to specify from the start that everyone pays a month in advance for example to minimise your leg work. If it's a work lottery pool you might want to time things for pay day!

Recruiting Members

Are you going to limit the numbers? Are you going to wait until you have a minimum number of members before you start entering. Are you going to limit the maximum number of members allowed. Or are you going to create a new pool for blocks of members.

For a small work pool, word of mouth, an email to the department, or a simple flyer on the notice board should be enough. You may need to consult with management first however, as many companies do not like to be seen to support gambling on their premises - it may help to reassure them that it's only a small stake per person, and you don't profit.

If you have higher aspirations, you need to work out who your target market are. Is it a local community, a US State, an entire country or just the World? Whatever the size, the internet should feature somewhere as it not only gives you a great way to market your service, via a web site (the easiest and most effective way being via 'Site Build It!' - which is how we built this site and you found us!), but also a superb way to stay in contact with your members using email.

Picking Numbers

Are you going to allow your members to pick numbers randomly? - or are you going to apply a bit more science to your lottery pool? Members like to pick numbers as it makes them feel more involved. But then again, if you know about the way people pick numbers, you may wish to do it yourself to maximise winnings (you can get some great tips on picking lottery numbers here). It's a careful balance of 'proving' to the uninitiated that you know what you are doing, versus actually delivering what is best for them!

Add a Pool to Your Lottery Pool!

If your pool is fairly small, one great way to add a chunk of extra fun is to use part of your stake money to pay for membership of another lottery pool! It does mean a share of a share of the winnings - but it means a massive boost to the odds of your members seeing some winnings. Virtual World Direct is a top choice for it's big jackpots and tax free winnings.

What to do With Small Wins