Added money

What added money is

Added money is the part of a prize pool that did not come from entry fees. If a contest collects a certain amount from its entrants and pays out more than that, the difference is added money. In Speed Survivor, Speed Labs may add prizes on top of what the entries put in; when it does, the recap shows exactly how much.

Other contest operators sometimes call the same thing an overlay, usually when a pool promised in advance was not filled by entries. That arrangement has its own glossary entry. Speed Survivor pools are funded by entries and may be topped up; they are not promised in advance.

An example

In the SF 49ers at LAR Rams contest, 129 entries at $20 collected $2,580. The contest paid out $5,100. The added money was $2,520, nearly as much again as the entries put in. In the NE Patriots at SEA Seahawks contest, 177 entries collected $3,540 against $5,100 paid out, so $1,560 was added.

The calculation is always the same: paid out minus collected. It is written into every recap so anyone can check it.

In Speed Survivor

Added money is a decision Speed Labs may make contest by contest. It is not a promise that any future contest will pay more than it collects, and this site never describes a pool as fixed ahead of time. What is fixed ahead of time is the ladder: the payout tiers are on the contest page before lock.

The pools themselves, collected and added, are held by a third-party custodian. How it works explains how a pool is split, and the recaps page shows the added amount for every settled contest.