Copyright: NFL Pool Manager ® 1995 Simon Torrington


Contents

30 Day Shareware Evaluation:

NFL Pool Manager is being distibuted as Shareware for the 1995 Football season. Just try it out and see what you think. You have 30 days to decide whether you wish to continue to use the software.

Overview

Version History

If you like the program you MUST then register it. Only registered users will have ongoing access to all of the features.

How To Register

If you want to make evaluation copies of the software for friends, please make sure you copy all of the necessary files. It was written in Visual Basic and gets a bit upset if you forget the VBRUN300.DLL and the *.VBX files.

Contacting the Author

Disclaimer:

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the reliability of this software you will not be surprised to see me state that "No liability will be accepted for any damage or loss caused by the use of this program".


Overview

The NFL Pool Manager is a program designed to be used by Football enthusiasts everywhere.

It's features have been built up gradually over the course of the last few seasons. You should find it intuitive, simple and reliable in operation.
Last year a version of the program was distributed on a Free Trial basis and was very well received. Over 1500 downloads from CompuServe alone...

Hopefully the NFL Pool Manager will suit you. If it doesn't, please help by letting me know why not.

Getting Started

Main Features:

•	Records NFL fixtures and results.

•	Displays week by week Divisional standings and team records.

•	Maintains a Pool for predictions by any number of players.

•	Allows for Points Spread.
(You can choose whether or not to use it each week).

•	Tie-Breaks using a 'Winning Margin' or 'Total Points' prediction.


Getting Started

Schedule

•	The NFL fixtures for 1995 have been set up for you already from lists published on the NFL Home Page on the Internet. You can amend these if required. (Edit-NFL Schedule).

Pool Players

•	Contact your friends and decide who is going to be in your Pool. Then enter their names into the Pool Manager. (Edit-Player List)
(If you have no friends you can still use the program to record and display the results, leaving you plenty of time to make some ready for next year!).
Note: Whilst there is no provision within the NFL Pool Manager for any kind of betting I'm sure you can think of some interesting entry/prize scenarios of your own?! Why not just play for a trophy like we do?

•	Decide on the Tie-Break method to use. (Tools-Options).

•	Decide on the Pool sort order you prefer. (also Tools-Options).

Before each Weekend

•	If you have access to early Points Spread information and you want to allow for it in your predictions you should enter the details into the NFL Pool Manager before printing the Schedules. (Edit-Points Spread).

Points Spread Definition

•	Print off your schedules, one for each player. (File-Print).
Each player should make a mark on the sheet to indicate selections. The final game is also used as a 'tie-breaker' - players must predict the total points for the game or the winning margin for the selected team.

•	Input the selections into the NFL Pool Manager. (Edit-Picks).

•	You can keep an eye on all the Player Picks by viewing a summary matrix. (View-Pick Summary).

•	Wait for the results with even greater anticipation than usual !!

After each Weekend

•	Enter the results into the NFL Pool Manager. (Edit-Results).

•	You then have immediate access to the current Pool Standings (View-Pool Standings), the weeks results - allowing for any Points Spread (View-Net Results), the updated NFL tables (View-NFL Tables), summary League statistics/trends (View-League Tables) and individual Team Statistics (View-Team Statistics).

Tip

•	If you did well, announce the results with a fanfare of trumpets and print out on fluorescent orange paper. Pin to a prominent wall and laugh at the performance of others.
If not, well, there's always next week...


Points Spread

The points spread is used in betting circles in an attempt to 'even' a game up. The idea is that by giving the less fancied team an imaginary extra number of points, both teams have an equal chance of winning. Picking the winner then becomes a decision as to whether you think too many or too few points have been allocated to the Points Spread.

There are several popular notations for displaying Points Spread information.

I have chosen to use the method where the underdog is given a positive number suffix. This represents the number of points the opponent is expected to win by.

eg "Pittsburgh+10 at Cleveland" means Cleveland is a 10 point favourite.
If you thought Cleveland might win by more than 10 points you would pick them to 'beat the spread'. If you expected Pittsburgh to lose by less than 10 points (or even win the game) you would pick them instead.

eg "Houston at Cincinatti+4.5" means Houston is a 4.5 point favourite. Houston would need to win by 5 to 'beat the spread'.


TIPS
Double-clicking on a Helmet on the main Pool Manager form or on a Team Name in the NFL Tables or League Statistics dialogs will take you straight to that team's statistics.


Version History

•	Version 3.00
- Shareware version for 1995 season.
- Allows for the two new expansion teams.
- Unlimited pool players, performance now auto-optimised.
- New League Statistics dialog.
- Enhanced NFL Tables dialog vs. Division and Conference.
- Double-click Team Name in NFL Tables dialog -> Team Stats.
- Double-click Division Title line in NFL Tables dialog -> Head To Head summary.
- Double-click Team Name in League Stats dialog -> Team Stats.
- Helmet icons layout now dynamically positioned to form size.
- All this and still a reduction in .EXE file size!

•	Version 2.06
- Program runs from a network share or floppy disk.

•	Version 2.05
- Fixed bug which caused Pool Standings to omit some players if other players had previously been deleted from the Pool. (Any affected weeks will now display correctly without adjustment by the user).
- The Pick Summary is now sorted alphabetically.

•	Version 2.04
- A summary of Player Picks can now be viewed and printed. (I can hear the cheering from here!!)
- Pick sheets have room at the top for a player name to be entered either manually or can be printed automatically.
- Pool Organiser can now choose whether Pool Standings are sorted  by Percentage (default) or by Total Wins.
- Appropriate headings now included on all printed output.
- Net Results can now be printed as well as viewed.
- 'One Week' and 'To Date' Pool Standings prints are now separated.
- NFL Tables print should now fit on a single sheet of US sized paper.
- Fixed bug with Tie Break calculation (only affected where Winning Margin and Points Spread were both being used). Values now correctly calculated based on net score, not actual score.
- Now warns if Windows does not have a default printer selected (rather than dying unceremoniously!)
- Better handling of the unavailability of fonts on some non-laser printers.

•	Version 2.03
- Pool Organiser can now choose between Winning Margin or Total Points as the tie-break method.

•	Version 2.02
- Provided a mechanism for overriding the default maximum number of players.
- By popular request, I reversed the Points Spread calculation so that the team with the +spread is now considered the underdog. (Until now it had been treated as the favourite).
See also:

Points Spread

•	Version 2.01
- Fixed a problem with the sort order in NFL Table display due to Arizona team name change.

•	Version 2.00
- Initial release to CompuServe.


REGISTERING
Registering NFL Pool Manager

NFL Pool 95 is shareware, and is provided at no charge to users for evaluation. Feel free to share it with friends and colleagues. The idea of shareware is to provide high quality software at reasonable prices. It gives you time to 'try before you buy'.

If you find NFL Pool 95 useful and wish to continue using it after the 30 day evaluation period you must then make a registration payment. In return you will receive a Registration Name and Registration Code.

These codes will unlock all current and future features of NFL Pool Manager and disable the shareware warnings. Please note that the unregistered program is fully functional up to and including Week 10, giving all genuine users plenty of time to register...

CompuServe users:

CompuServe members should register through the SWREG forum. Simply 'GO SWREG' and register this software by entering the ID number 5893.
The registration information will be sent to you via CompuServe Mail and the fee of $19 US dollars will be charged automatically to your account.

Other users:

If you do not have access to CompuServe you can register by post. Simply print a copy of the postal registration form and fill in the required details.

Postal Registration Form

The registration information will be sent to you via email if possible, otherwise by post. Please allow up to 14 days for delivery of your codes after registering.


REGISTRATION FORM
Postal Registration Form

Please send your registration details together with payment to:

Simon Torrington
1 The Laurels
Tinsley Lane
Crawley
West Sussex
RH10 2XS
England

Registration Details:

1	Name:

2	Company (if applicable):

3	Address:

4	PostCode/Zip:

5	Country:

6	Internet or CompuServe Address (if applicable):

7	Where did you obtain the program?

8	What version number is it?

9	Any other comments?

Please enclose payment by one of the following methods:

£12 pounds Sterling by
- Cheque on a British bank account,
- International Money Order,
- Postal Order, or
- Cash.

$19 US dollars by
- Cheque on a US bank account,
- International Money Order, or
- Cash.

All cheques/money orders should be made payable to 'Simon Torrington'.

** Thankyou for registering NFL Pool Manager **


AUTHOR
Contacting the Author

Simon Torrington

You can contact me with any bug reports or enhancement suggestions via email.
Please remember to mention the software version number in all correspondence (check the Help About dialog).

•	CompuServe members send to:
100336,3377 or 100612,651

•	Microsoft Network members send to:
sdtorrington

•	If you use the Internet send to:
100336.3377@compuserve.com
100612.651@compuserve.com
sdtorrington@msn.com

Please check that you have the latest version of the software before submitting bug reports. Also check the README.TXT file that comes with the software for additional information.

Updates to NFL Pool Manager will be posted to the Sports Forum (GO FANS) and the Windows Shareware Forum (GO WINSHARE) of CompuServe.

Updates will also be posted to major Football FTP sites on the Internet. Searching for 'NFL' on the World Wide Web should get you started. If anyone has good suggestions for sites please let me know and I will start a list here.