Custodian

What a custodian is

A custodian is an independent third party that holds money on behalf of others. In a contest, it is the institution that holds the prize pool between the moment entries are paid and the moment winners are paid. The point of the arrangement is separation: the money that belongs to a contest's winners is not mixed with the operating money of the company running the contest.

An example

Think of an office survivor pool. Usually one person collects everyone's money and keeps it until the end of the season. Everyone trusts that person to still have it, and to pay it out fairly, months later. A custodian replaces that friend with an independent institution whose job is to hold the money and nothing else.

In a Speed Survivor contest, 118 entries at $20 on DET Lions at BUF Bills collected $2,360. That money, together with the $1,040 Speed Labs added, made up the $3,400 pool the contest paid out the same night.

In Speed Survivor

Prize pools are funded by the entries in each contest and held by a third-party custodian, not by Speed Labs. That fits with the rest of how the game is built. Speed Labs sets the questions and takes no position in any contest: it does not play against you, and the pool you are competing for is the pool the other entrants funded, plus anything Speed Labs adds.

When the contest settles, winnings are paid to your account balance and can be withdrawn under the Contest Rules. How it works covers the full path from entry to payout.