How to Run a Last Man Standing Competition: The Organiser's Guide
Running a Last Man Standing competition manually is a headache — chasing picks, tracking results, managing the pot, and settling disputes. This guide covers how to set one up properly, the decisions you need to make upfront, and how Kwick Picks handles the administration so you can just play.
The KwickPicks Team has spent years running and playing Last Man Standing competitions across the Premier League, Championship, and lower leagues. We write about LMS strategy, fixture analysis, and pick advice to help players at every level survive longer — and win.
The Decisions to Make Before You Start
Before inviting anyone to join, you need to agree on the core rules. These decisions shape the entire dynamic of the competition and are hard to change once it is underway. Make them clearly and communicate them to all players before the first round.
Which league are you playing?
Premier League competitions are the most popular and easiest to follow. Championship, League One, and League Two competitions are excellent for fans of those divisions and offer more teams (24 vs 20), more fixtures per season, and often more value in terms of competition length.
Do draws eliminate or survive?
This is the most important rule decision. Draws eliminate makes the competition tougher and shorter. Draws survive is more forgiving and tends to run longer into the season. Neither is objectively better — it depends on your group's preference.
What happens if someone misses a deadline?
You need a fallback rule. Options include: automatic elimination, a fallback pick assigned by the system (typically the lowest-ranked available team), or a grace period. Kwick Picks handles this automatically according to the competition settings.
Are multiple entries allowed?
Allowing multiple entries increases the prize pot and gives skilled players more opportunity to demonstrate their edge. It can feel unfair to casual players if the same person has three entries. Consider your group and decide upfront.
What is the entry fee and prize structure?
The most common structure is winner takes all. You can also run a split pot (e.g. 80% to winner, 20% to last eliminated), or a runner-up prize if multiple players reach the final rounds simultaneously.
Setting the Right Entry Fee
The entry fee shapes how seriously people play. Too low and no one pays attention to their picks. Too high and casual players feel priced out before they understand the game. For a group of friends or colleagues playing for the first time, £5–£10 per entry is a sensible starting point.
The prize pot is simply the entry fee multiplied by the number of entries. In a competition with 20 players at £10 each, the pot is £200. In the same competition with multiple entries allowed and an average of 1.5 entries per player, the pot grows to £300. Multiple entries benefit both the organiser (larger pot) and skilled players (more ways to win).
Why Running It Manually Is a Bad Idea
Many Last Man Standing competitions start as a shared spreadsheet or a WhatsApp group. It works for two or three weeks. Then you are chasing twelve people for picks on a Friday evening, manually entering results on Saturday night, and fielding arguments about whether someone's pick was submitted before the deadline on Sunday morning.
The common failure points in manual competitions:
- ✕Deadline disputes — did someone submit before or after kickoff?
- ✕Missed picks — the organiser has to decide whether to eliminate or give a grace period
- ✕Result errors — someone disputes that the organiser recorded a result incorrectly
- ✕Pool tracking — keeping track of which teams each player has used across fifteen rounds
- ✕Money management — collecting entry fees, holding the pot, paying out fairly
How Kwick Picks Handles It
Kwick Picks automates every administrative element of running a Last Man Standing competition. Players submit picks through the platform before a clear, enforced deadline. Results are synced automatically from official data feeds. The ledger tracks every entry fee, the prize pot is calculated automatically, and the payout is transparent and auditable.
- →Picks must be submitted before the round deadline — no disputes
- →Results sync automatically from official sources — no manual entry errors
- →Each player's team pool is tracked automatically — no spreadsheet required
- →The Scores tab shows every player's picks and results — full transparency
- →The prize pot and ledger are visible to all participants
Setting Up a Private Competition
Private competitions on Kwick Picks are invite-only. You create the competition, set the rules (league, draw rule, entry fee, multiple entries), and share the invite link with your group. Players join, pay their entry fee, and the competition runs itself.
As the organiser, your role once the competition is live is minimal — the platform handles everything. You can monitor progress in the Standings tab, see who is remaining, and check the current prize pot at any time.
Set up your competition now
Create a private Last Man Standing competition for your group in minutes.