Guaranteed prize pool

What a guaranteed prize pool is

A guaranteed prize pool, often shortened to GPP, is an industry term from daily fantasy and poker. The operator announces a prize pool before entries open and promises to pay it in full whatever happens. If enough entries arrive, their fees cover the pool and the operator keeps the difference. If too few arrive, the operator pays the shortfall itself, which players call an overlay. GPPs are usually large tournaments with top-heavy payouts, and in daily fantasy the term has become shorthand for any big-field contest.

An example

A hypothetical tournament advertises a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool at $20 an entry, so it needs 5,000 entries to cover itself. If 6,000 arrive, the pool is still $100,000 and the extra fees go to the operator. If only 4,000 arrive, the entries cover $80,000 and the operator adds the other $20,000. Players who follow these contests watch for exactly that situation, because an overlay means more prize money than the entries paid in.

How Speed Survivor is different

Speed Survivor does not run guaranteed prize pools, and this site does not describe any pool as guaranteed. Every paid contest has a prize pool funded by the entries in that contest and held by a third-party custodian, not by Speed Labs. Speed Labs may add prizes on top of what the entries put in, which is added money, and a settled contest that paid out more than it collected shows the difference in its recap.

The payout tiers are shown on the contest page before you enter, so you know the ladder before you commit. What is not promised is a floor set in advance regardless of entries. How it works explains how a contest pays, and the recaps page lists what settled contests actually paid.