Description

Euro 2020 Spreadsheet Sweepstakes

Our Euro 2020/2021 sweepstakes spreadsheet (built in Excel) has the ability to:

• Give the participants stats on which countries most people are expecting to progress and win, with a match by match summary of how many people predicted a win, loss or draw.
• Automatically update the actual scores when the tournament is on, direct to the spreadsheet (no need to capture them yourself!)
• UEFA rankings included for countries you are not familiar with. This will assist you with the comparative rankings to make better predictions for the tournament
• Input your predictions and compare them to what actually happens
• See the likely group winners after adjusting your predictions for the actual results (including the more complex 3rd place finishers who progress).
• Automatically addresses the tiebreaker rules for Euro 2020/ 2021 where sides on equal points are split based on the matches between the tied teams (see Euro 2016 Tiebreaker Rules).
• Automatic update notification when new versions become available

Much like the other spreadsheets we have built for other sporting events, all this is done without any VBA macros!

The spreadsheet is built in the latest versions of Microsoft Excel but will work in all versions with some loss of functionality if you are using Excel 2003. Users of Excel on the Mac may experience some issues with the update feature.

Update: See all our latest fun office pool sweepstake spreadsheets for sporting events

Stats Available for the Euro 2020 (2021) in the sweepstakes spreadsheet

You can see how many people have predicted the progress of each team through the knockout phases. So below, from 2016, this group was expecting Germany to win, with France a distant second. Interestingly Spain was expected by most to be in the finals!

As the tournament progresses you can also keep the participants informed about the upcoming matches and how many people predicted the possible results.

As shown below, this group seem to be thrown by Iceland and Wales in particular at Euro 2016. So for the Portugal vs Iceland match 26 people predicted a Portugal win. Only 2 people got the correct result of a draw and one knowledgeable (brave?) person predicted an Iceland win.

There is also a worm chart showing the leaderboard progress. This group from Euro 2016 had the winner come from a late surge!

Screenshots and instructions for use

For the Organiser- Initial Setup

Watch the video clip or read the instructions below

Once you purchase the spreadsheet, you will be able to download a zip file which contains 2 files as shown below.

The first file (‘2020-Euro-Spreadsheet-v1-SweepstakesInput2003’) is what you need to send to the other players (but first decide on the scoring system as shown below).

The second file (‘2020-Euro-Spreadsheet-v1-Sweepstakes-upto-50_2003’) is for the organiser and is where all the predictions are saved, where the match scores are automatically updated, and the sweepstake points are compiled.

Before you send the files out, you will need to decide on the point scoring.

When you open up the ‘2020-Euro-Spreadsheet-v1-Sweepstakes-upto-50_2003’ spreadsheet, and go to the instructions sheet, you will be able to decide how the points work.

As noted above you can decide on the points scored by each player for predicting certain aspects of the matches and tournament. We have inserted some defaults, but you can change them or switch them off (by making the points zero).

Your options are:

Group Stages

• Getting the right result irrelevant of the score (i.e. win, loss, draw)
• Getting team 1’s correct number of goals (e.g. you predicted 1-1 and the score was 1-0)
• Getting team 2’s correct number of goals (e.g. you predicted 3-2 and the score was 2-2)
• Correctly guessing the net goals even if it is the wrong way (e.g. you predicted 2-0 i.e. a +2 margin and the result was 0-2 i.e. a -2 margin)- Depending on your feeling you may switch this off by making it zero. See more about this option
• Correctly guessing the net goals and the correct way e.g. you choose 0-2 and the score is 2-4 you get points. See more about this option

Knockout Stages

• Each correct team in the last 16 bracket stage of the tournament.
• Each correct team in the Qtr Final bracket stage of the tournament.
• Each correct team in the Semi Final bracket stage of the tournament.
• Each Correct Team in the Final bracket stage of the tournament.
• Correct Winner.

Once you have decided this, you can inform the players of how it will work and send them the ‘2020-Euro-Spreadsheet-v1-SweepstakesInput2003’ spreadsheet.

Instructions for the Players

Watch the video clip or read the instructions below

When the players receive their spreadsheets they need to make their predictions. On the ‘Player’ sheet (shown below)

• Enter your name (if the group has similarly named people use a unique name)
• Enter your predictions of the scores in the blue cells (column G and I)
• As you enter your scores the group standings in column O will be updated so that you can see who is going to progress to the next round (top 2 of each group and the 4 best 3rd placed teams).
• Note: per the competition rules, teams on the same number of points will be separated by comparing their head to head results first, before net goals and goals scored. The spreadsheet will take this into account.
• The spreadsheet will also work out the top 4 3rd placed teams and correctly place them in the knockout round.
• Note: Because of the complex rules to decide who progresses to the bracket stage of the tournament, we suggest you look at the resultant knockout bracket matches and make sure you are happy with the teams progressing. If it is not what you want, change some of the scores.
• Once you have completed predicting the group stages, the knockout bracket stage of the tournament will auto populate and you can predict the scores in these matches.
• Note: at this stage you only get points for who progresses. Predict a winner in each match instead of a draw and penalties.

• You complete the knockout bracket stage of the tournament until you get to a winner.
• Save the file and send it back to the organiser.

Organiser

Watch the video clip or read the instructions below

When the organiser receives back the spreadsheets, they need to capture the players predictions into the masterfile.

This is very easy:

• Open the masterfile and the player predictions spreadsheet
• In the player predictions spreadsheet, copy from cell F9 to cell J84.

• Go to the masterfile, choose one of the player sheets (e.g. player 1) and PASTE AS VALUES in cell T9.
• In case it isn’t emphasized enough, PASTE AS VALUES.
• Do this for all the players.
• You can change the sheet names to reflect the player’s name.

Once you have done this you are all done but we have added some new features you may want to share with the participants.

During the Euro 2021 (2020) tournament

During the tournament, all you have to do is open the master spreadsheet and let it connect to the internet. We will update the match scores periodically and these will be pulled through to the spreadsheet (to see how we do this, look at the video on Importing data from the web ).

As shown below, on the Masterfile sheet, as the real scores come through the cell colours will change to show that it is an actual score.

On the player’s sheets within the organizers spreadsheet, as the real scores come in, you will see the matches that are finished (dotted cells), the total sweepstake points scored and a breakdown of how the points were earned.

On the ‘Overall Pnts’ sheet you can see a table ranking all the players. There is also a graph sheet showing the player rankings as each match progresses. We have added some new features to allow you to switch off and hide the unused player sheets (please don’t delete the sheets, rather switch them off)

Feedback from previous sweepstakes spreadsheet

Our most recent sweepstake spreadsheet was for the rugby world cup.

Games were played all over the world. Some feedback from a pub in New Zealand

Hi Adrian.

Well all finished and what a great result for us. [NEW ZEALAND WON 🙁 ]. The winner of our picks was April Barnett. We had 40 entries which was a good number.

Attached is a photo of her holding the cash in our rugby club rooms at Dunsandel. Thanks for all your help

Russell

FAQ

Q: Is there points awarded for actually predicting the scores of the knockout bracket stage of the tournament or just the teams playing?

• It is just for the teams playing. Getting the scores right does not add to the points

Q: Lastly, I put in some results just to see how it worked and I put a draw for some of the knockout bracket stage of the tournament. It seemed to randomly select one of the teams to go though. How does this work?

• For the knockout bracket stage of the tournament you need to have a winner.

Q: Can you use the spreadsheet on Google Docs

• It wasn’t built with Google Docs in mind, but some users have tried it and say it works. As an idea get all the information via Excel and then upload the masterfile to Google Docs and allow the players to see what is happening. Only limitation is that it won’t automatically update so you will need update the scores

Q: Will you score points for correct team through to the bracket stage of the tournament (1/4, 1/2 and final) regardless of if the team advanced from a first or second place in the group stage? Or do you have to predict the correct placing in the group stage to score points?

• You get points for your chosen teams getting to the bracket stage of the tournament. How they got there is not important

Q: Can you confirm that for the knockout bracket stage of the tournament, we can enter decimal places and the master file will be able to recognise that because the actual scores are going to update themselves so will it be done in a the format to give points correctly etc

• Yes, use a decimal if you want to indicate that there was a penalty shootout. See the note below about decimals though

Q: Hello. I’m having issues opening the spreadsheet on my Mac.
It gives me an error message and just opens as a “read-only” file.
How can I go about fixing this issue?

• Try and expand it out of the zip files and save it in a separate location