The first decision after picking a tournament is whether the pool charges an entry fee. Free pools and paid pools play the same game and use the same scoring engine; what differs is the social shape of the room and the work the commissioner does after the tournament ends. This guide walks through the trade-offs, the framework for picking, and the practical mechanics of running a paid pool without OfficePoolGolf ever touching the money.
OfficePoolGolf never handles money. Free pools are bragging rights. Paid pools track who owes what and who paid what; commissioners move the actual funds off-platform.
What a free pool looks like
A free pool has the entry fee set to zero. The wizard skips the payout-percentage screen because there is nothing to pay out. The leaderboard runs the same way it does for any other pool — counting golfers, cut rule, tiebreaker, final standings — but the post-tournament screen shows recognized places rather than dollar amounts.
Recognized places can be labeled. A paid pool's payout structure carries auto-generated labels like "1st" and "2nd"; a free pool's commissioner can rename them in the wizard. Some groups title the top spot "Champion" or attach a trophy emoji; others go all the way with "Green Jacket" or "Trophy Lifter" labels matched to the tournament. The intent is the same — recognizing the top finishers without involving money.
Free pools fit:
- An office group where the cost of running a paid pool exceeds the fun. The five-dollar entries are not worth the hassle of collecting.
- A new group testing the platform. The first pool is a free pool; the second is paid, once everyone trusts the format.
- A larger company-wide event where the legal team would rather not have money involved.
Free pools do not fit groups that genuinely want a payout-driven competition. The presence of even a modest entry fee changes how seriously the room treats roster construction.
What a paid pool looks like
A paid pool has a non-zero entry fee. The wizard asks for the per-entry amount and the payout structure — how many places get paid and what percentage of the total pool each place receives. The platform calculates each place's payout from those percentages and the actual entry count at lock time.
The mechanics OPG provides on a paid pool are the entry-fee record, the payment-status ledger (Birdie and above), and the payout-tracking table (Eagle and above). The mechanics OPG does NOT provide: payment processing, escrow, payout disbursement, refunds, or any form of money movement. The commissioner collects entry fees and disburses payouts directly through whichever payment app the group uses.
The payout math handles tied finishes automatically. If two rosters tie for first in a pool that pays the top three, the first-and-second payout amounts are combined and split evenly between the two tied entrants; the third-place finisher is unaffected. The platform shows the resolved payout amount on each entry's row at completion — the commissioner does not need to calculate ties manually.
A decision framework
The choice between free and paid hinges on five questions:
Is anyone in the group asking for money on the line?
If the answer is genuinely no, run a free pool. The entry fee is not the value the group is asking for; recognized places and a final leaderboard are. Adding a fee where there is no demand for one introduces friction the group did not ask for.
What is the smallest entry fee that feels right?
For paid pools, the entry fee should feel meaningful to the median entrant without feeling burdensome to the most casual one. Ten to twenty dollars is the common range for office groups; five dollars for very large or casual rooms; twenty-five and up for serious leagues. Pick the smallest fee that makes the room treat the pool seriously.
Do you have a payment app the group already uses?
If everyone in the office already exchanges money on a single payment app, paid pools work cleanly. If half the group uses one app and half uses another, the commissioner ends up tracking payment across two channels, which is workable but noticeably more work. Free pools sidestep this entirely.
Are you willing to chase payments?
A paid pool with a non-trivial number of entries will produce one or two laggards every tournament. The commissioner has to be willing to send a reminder, mark the row as outstanding, and follow up. Birdie's individual reminder feature handles the polite nudge; Eagle's lifecycle emails automate it. If chasing payments is unappealing, run a free pool.
Is the legal context clear?
Workplace pools that involve money are common, broadly tolerated in most jurisdictions, and legally fuzzy in others. OfficePoolGolf treats this as the commissioner's call — the platform makes no representation about local law. If the company's stance on workplace pools is unclear, ask before charging an entry fee, or run free pools until the answer is known.
Mixed groups and the "free with optional payout" pattern
A few groups try to split the difference. The pool is free at the platform layer, but the room agrees informally that the top finisher buys lunch for the office. This works fine — the platform's free-pool labels carry the recognition; the off-platform agreement carries the payout — but it sits outside the payment-tracking ledger and the commissioner has to remember to enforce the agreement manually.
If the room is large enough that informal agreement does not scale, charge an entry fee and use the ledger. Birdie's payment-tracking columns exist precisely so the commissioner does not have to remember who paid in a thirty-person pool.
What changes for entrants on a paid pool
From the entrant's perspective, the differences are small but visible. The join screen displays the entry fee before submission. The commissioner's preferred payment-app handle is shown on the pool page once the entrant has joined. The entrant's roster page on Birdie-and-above pools shows their payment status — "unpaid", "payment submitted", or "confirmed" — and an entrant who has paid can mark their own row as submitted, which the commissioner then confirms. Eagle and Albatross pools surface the lifecycle emails — a pre-lock email reminds unpaid entrants, a payment-confirmed email lands when the commissioner marks the row settled.
The payout amount on each entrant's row updates from "—" to a calculated dollar figure as soon as the lock deadline passes and the platform knows the final pool size and payout structure. The number remains a projection until the tournament finishes and the standings settle.
For the host's daily workflow on a paid pool, read Managing Payments as a Commissioner. For tier feature differences, read Pool Tiers Compared. For the broader picture, read The Commissioner Guide.