aclavec

lwebzmem, Great! Thank you so much. I like it. One final question, I promise. Is there a way to alter the exponential payout to have a more gradual curve? Ideally something inbetween the linear and exponential. I didn't know if this could be done with a scale factor or something. Thanks again for your help.

Oops. I was in fact interpreting it wrong. I assumed that rank(1) was first place. Actually rank(n) is first place and rank(1) is last. I graphed it out and it looks good. One thing about this algo is that it is a linear payout. Is it possible to tweak this to get an exponential payout to favor the top ranked players? Thanks again.

lwebzem, Thanks for the reply. I do have some questions. I am trying to put an example through your algo and it isn't working out. Suppose 10 people enter for $10 each. The total amount to go around is $100. Using your algo: sum(rank(i)/10) = 5.5 payout(1) = ((10*$10)/5.5) * (1/10) ) = 1.18 This means the number one ranked user gets paid $1.18? This doesn't seem right. I might be interpreting your algo incorrectly. Can you provide an example? Thank you.

I am looking for a payout algorithm. Here is the problem. Variables - Number of Users, Entry Fee (Per User) Each user enters a competition and pays an entry fee. When the competition is complete each user is ranked and is paid based on their performance. I am trying to generate an algorithm which will take in the number of users and their entry fee and calculate a payout for each user. I would like all players to receive a payout even if last place gets practically nothing. I suspect the graph of the payout curve would look exponential. I would like this algo to be configurable to maximize the houses take, or to maximize payout to the users. Any thoughts on this?