Welcome to the Football Punters Comp thread. Please feel free to join in.

The comp will run from Thursday, February 17 to Sunday October 2. The cutoff point to begin betting is the 31st of March. Anyone who hasn't made at least one bet before the 1st of April will unfortunately miss out. The bookmakers we will be using are:

IAS Bet

Sportingbet Australia

sportodds.com

You can use any of the bet types they offer on AFL, League or Union matches.

I'm sure there will be some things in the rules that not everyone agrees with. I'm sorry about that. Can't please everyone.

RULES
Starting bank: $500
Number Of Bets: Minimum of 50, Maximum of 200
Bet Sizes: $10, $20, $30, $40 or $50
Mult-bets: Maximum of 5 legs
No 'futures' betting allowed

A quick explanation. Everyone has a starting bank of $500. Obviously the object of the game is to build on that $500 so that you end up with the highest amount in the bank on Oct2. Everyone must make at least 50 bets during the comp to qualify and nobody is allowed to make more than 200 bets. To keep things as simple as possible, I've decided we can only use bet sizes of $10, $20, $30, $40 and $50. Also to keep things simple, I've put a limit of 5 legs on the multi-bets. Some may be disappointed with that, but 5 legs will still allow you to go for a good return without things getting out of hand. There is no 'futures' betting in this comp (unfortunately for me). By that I mean you can't place a bet now on who will win the Brownlow or the Premiership etc etc. You can only bet on events that are happening within the next 7 days.

Of course, it goes without saying that you must post your selections before the starting time of the match and certainly no editing of posts after starting time. When posting your selections, please set them out very clearly so everyone knows exactly what the bet is. Please state your opening balance, bet number, match, bet type, your selection, bet size, latest odds, possible winning amount and closing balance. Something like this:

Opening Balance $500
Bet number 1
St George vs Souths
St George to win
$40 @ $1.45 ($58.00)
Closing balance $460

I will keep a record and post an updated leaderboard after each weekend. Even so, could everyone try to make absolutely sure that you don't make any mistakes with your adding up etc.

Good luck!