Game 51 - Final Report

Portugal - France
Going into this Final match of the Tipster, the top of the table looked like this:
245 - Ines
196 - Andy
191 - Joris

The Final of the Tipster Cup was between Andy and Anne.

The match report itself is brief: everybody tipped France to win; everybody was wrong. The only person to gain any points was Tino, who tipped the closest time - out by 31 minutes, but closer than anybody else.

Usually, the finale of the Tipster is very close. In previous years, winners have been decided by one goal in the Final.
For the 2014 Tipster, Paul tipped Germany to beat Argentina 2-1, while Ben tipped the Germans to win 2-0... a correct Score for Ben would have won him the Tipster, but Paul's correct Margin was enough to crown him winner of the 2014 Tipster.
This year was slightly different: despite languishing in 10th place after Game 5, Ines climbed to 1st place by Game 16, and held onto the top spot for the remaining 35 games.

Congratulations to Ines for winning the Tipster League!
She won by a far greater margin than any previous Tipster winner: 49 points ahead of her nearest rival.
The Tipster Cup ended in a draw, so well done Andy and Anne for their Cup success.

The Winner's Curse continues, with 2014 Champion Paul scoring just 167 points:
- Franz won the 2006 Tipster, but finished 5th in 2008
- Ben won the 2008 Tipster, but finished 7th in 2010
- Mark won the 2010 Tipster, but finished 12th in 2012
- Alex won the 2012 Tipster, but finished 19th in 2014
- Paul won the 2014 Tipster, but finished 9th in 2016.

Excluding the vanishing act by Richie and Mark, the prize pot is 88% full, and I haven't given up on the remaining 12%. I'll contact the winners directly to arrange transferring the prize money.
Additionally, I'd like to say a special thank you to Ralph, who generously donated twice (and no, not by mistake) to help fill the prize pot. :-)

Tips for the last game, and the Final Table Standings, are in the posts below, as well as Part II of the Statipstics.

That concludes the 2016 Tipster - I hope you've enjoyed it, despite the delays and hiccups. If I run a Tipster for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, I will be in touch.....

Thanks for playing!