Here’s why World Cup office sweepstakes are flawed – and how to fix them

There are better ideas now!

Instead, there are so many alternatively to spice it up. JOE ran through the examples to increase the stakes in the office sweepstake.

The first example used could be the lowest ranked team to make it out of the group stage. With 48 teams competing, there are a few minnows in the tournament. For instance, if you were drawn Curaçao in the sweepstake, this element would instead make it interesting, because there is a more competitive element added than just 'who's gonna win the tournament?'.

Another way to increase sweepstake inclusivity is perhaps the winner being the team that picks up the most yellow cards. Cynicism may be needed for a few of the smaller nations, whereas the big boys are also not shy of the odd professional foul.

A further way to increase the entertainment is to pick the team that scores the least amount of goals in the group stage. This way, you increase the odds of potential teams that could win, instead of just choosing a sweepstake that favours the big hitters.

There are also sweepstake ideas where a player can objectively win. Something like choosing the minute the first goal will be scored in at the tournament, or the minute the first goal in the final is scored.

In the JOE office for example, we all picked a low category team, and the one that gets the furthest wins the cash prize. Instead of just hoping for a giant in the sweepstake and following England, you get to pick a second team for the tournament.