Seeking Community Feedback: World Cup 2026 Country Draw Contest ($5 Entry)

[Brahmahatyaa]

Hello everyone,

I got the idea from a friend of mine who organized a small betting pool with his friends. And I am considering organizing a small World Cup 2026 community contest and would like to gather feedback from forum members before creating an official contest thread.

This would not be intended as a serious gambling event. Instead, it would be a small side contest designed purely for fun and to make the World Cup more enjoyable for forum members. The entry fee would be kept low, and the main goal would be entertainment, friendly competition, and community engagement throughout the tournament.

Basic Concept

• Entry fee: $5 per participant
• Prize pool funded entirely by participant entries
• Funds held by a trusted and reputable forum member acting as escrow
• Each participant receives one World Cup nation assigned randomly
• Countries assigned using Random.org
• One participant = one Bitcointalk account
• Accounts created after the publication date of the official contest thread would not be eligible
• Participants found using alt accounts would be disqualified
• Winners determined by the final World Cup standings

Proposed Prize Distribution

Assuming 48 participants:

48 × $5 = $240 Prize Pool

🥇 Champion Country Owner — 60%
🥈 Runner-up Country Owner — 20%
🥉 Third Place Country Owner — 10%
🏅 Fourth Place Country Owner — 10%

This distribution is only a preliminary idea and can be adjusted based on community feedback.
Country Assignment Process

To ensure fairness and transparency:

1. Registration closes.
2. A complete participant list is published.
3. A list of all qualified World Cup nations is published.
4. Random.org List Randomizer is used to randomize participants.
5. Countries are assigned according to the randomized order.
6. Screenshots of the randomization process are posted publicly.
7. The final participant-country assignments are published for everyone to verify.


Example

Countries List :

• Argentina
• Brazil
• France
• England

Randomized Participants

• UserC
• UserA
• UserD
• UserB

Assignments

• UserC → Argentina
• UserA → Brazil
• UserD → France
• UserB → England

Proposed Eligibility Rules

=> One participant = one Bitcointalk account.
=> Strictly one entry per person.
=> Participants found using multiple accounts (alt accounts) to obtain additional entries will be disqualified.
=> Accounts created after the publication date of the official contest thread will not be eligible.
=> The organizer reserves the right to reject suspicious registrations intended to circumvent these rules.
=> Entry fees are non-refundable after the country draw has been completed.

Questions for the Community

1. Would you be interested in participating in a contest like this?
2. Is a $5 entry fee reasonable?
3. Is the proposed prize distribution fair?
4. Should participation be limited to one entry per person?
5. Is random country assignment the best option, or would another format be more interesting?
6. Are there any additional rules that should be included to prevent abuse or disputes?
7. Would the use of a trusted and reputable forum member as escrow be sufficient to ensure confidence in the contest?
8. Do you believe there would be enough interest from the community to make this worthwhile?

Any suggestions, criticism, or alternative ideas are welcome. Since I have never organized a contest like this before, I would appreciate hearing opinions from more experienced members before moving forward.
Thank you for your time and feedback.

Note: This is only a discussion thread to gather opinions and suggestions. No registration is being accepted at this stage.

[Upgrade00]

First problem I can see is on the random allocation of countries. The odds of different countries winning vary largely, only about 10% of the total countries really stand a good chance of winning, assuming you get the 48 participants, over 40% already know from their picks that they're losing. It's worse now that the tournament has already started and we've seen teams play and lose.

Another format that gives every member an equal chance if winning will be a better approach here.

On the question of interest, I doubt there will be considering the timing. World cup fans are already heavily involved in other pools that were initiated before the tournament even started,  you'll knot easily get people to join now after the first round is played.

[bitbollo]

1. Would you be interested in participating in a contest like this? = Yes and No. It would be nice with a sponsor or other rules that are not just random rules.
2. Is a $5 entry fee reasonable? = Yes. However there is a potential problem related fees and so on...
3. Is the proposed prize distribution fair? I would add some prize based on user participation or other "small activity" - like daily runs
4. Should participation be limited to one entry per person? I don't see as crucial
5. Is random country assignment the best option, or would another format be more interesting? If you don't assign random, most of users will take the top team.
6. Are there any additional rules that should be included to prevent abuse or disputes? --
7. Would the use of a trusted and reputable forum member as escrow be sufficient to ensure confidence in the contest? Of course!
8. Do you believe there would be enough interest from the community to make this worthwhile? Maybe... anyway competitions based on "random" and luck can have their issues...

The idea could be interesting but there are some crucial points to be revised:
Random countries... at this point we can just run a "blockchain lottery" and thats all... even by assignation we can use blockchain we don't need external website.
You're not counting fees for tx. More or less, around 5 USD can be used by consolidating input and sending new payments... in general you have to count some fees in your math.

[IjawMan]

First problem I can see is on the random allocation of countries. The odds of different countries winning vary largely, only about 10% of the total countries really stand a good chance of winning, assuming you get the 48 participants, over 40% already know from their picks that they're losing. It's worse now that the tournament has already started and we've seen teams play and lose.

Another format that gives every member an equal chance if winning will be a better approach here.

On the question of interest, I doubt there will be considering the timing. World cup fans are already heavily involved in other pools that were initiated before the tournament even started,  you'll knot easily get people to join now after the first round is played.

This was where my attention was drawn to immediately I saw the title and I read through the post to know what the op is about. The timing is late, it is what killed the idea of the thread before the op conceived it.

With the low registration fee of $5 there would have been many forum members who would have declared interest just for entertainment sake before the pool prize. But the world cup has began already and is a week now from the date of the first match of the tournament.

He should just kill the idea, wait for the next world and comeback with something better both in the number of participants which should be reduced and the random allocation mechanism.