Running a ladder

[mnorwood]

I am considering starting a ladder for 14.1, one pocket and 3 cushion billiards in the Houston area. To discourage dump artistry and collusion I am thinking of just offering prizes of equal value for the top half of the field. I will also need to take a percentage of entries to pay for the website and help defray the cost for my time. I am going to require all members to have a paypal account to make collecting entries more efficient. Another idea is to use and Elo rating system to manage the ladder ranking. I also want to create a level system that groups players by ability level as the Elo system begins to gather enough data.

I was wondering what advice experienced posters can give regarding running a ladder. Also I would like to know what everyone thinks about this idea.

 

[master_cueist]

I think asking for every one of them to have a paypal account is a little too much. I don't know what the players in that area are like but if its anything like the general population of those games around the world most of your players will be older and a great portion of them probably have NEVER used a computer let alone having something like a paypal account.

 

[mnorwood]

I think asking for every one of them to have a paypal account is a little too much. I don't know what the players in that area are like but if its anything like the general population of those games around the world most of your players will be older and a great portion of them probably have NEVER used a computer let alone having something like a paypal account.

So what would you suggest? Perhaps an up front membership fee?

 

[master_cueist]

So what would you suggest? Perhaps an up front membership fee?

Yes. Or perhaps a weekly fee like most leagues? That way if something happens that causes them to not be able to play every week or forced to quit all together they aren't paying for something they can't even use. So pretty much you have to pay to play week by week. I like your idea though, I wish we had something similar around where I play. I mean for the most part there is usually a pretty established "pecking order" in most areas but it would be cool to have that be able to change.

 

[mosconiac]

Good luck getting people to pay up front...unless you don't mind limiting your field. People just don't want to hand you $50-100, but will gladly give you $5-10 weekly.

I've had people struggle to pay $5 weekly. When I got tired of them "forgetting" to pay (to the point that some people still owed me a significant amount at the end of the league), I went to requiring 100% of the dues over the first 4 weeks of play. About 10-20% pay within the 4 week window...the rest trickles in %5 here, $5 there.