March Madness contests, software

Anyone else do the March Madness type contests where readers pick the NCAA Tourney games (basically an advertising thing where the paper can solicit sponsors for the page)?

Just curious if there is any software out there that would enable our paper to post the contest online and allow readers to enter online (like what ESPN and others do). In the past, we've had to manually enter everyone's entry in a software program. It did all the calculating but we still had to do the initial work.

Just trying to avoid all the manual data entry if we can help it. It's a popular attraction at our paper. I think more than a thousand people entered last year. Not bad for small town...

Thanks
SB

 

Over 1,000 entries, each picking 63 games, and you enter everything manually? I can see why you're asking about something like this.

 

Fixed.

 

Thanks.

And newbie...Make mine a Bud Select.

 

Enough with the beering

...but yes, if anybody knows software, please share!

 

Journalists are a brutal bunch ... ;D

 

Sweetbreads--

Try TurboTourney's Contest Server ... we used it as an internal pool (the regular version), but one of the radio stations in my hometown used the server and had great response ...

http://www.turbotourney.com/ttserver.html

 

Nah... I just charge everyone 10 bucks, go to Florida for a golf weekend, tell 'em I won and better luck next year.

 

I am interested in the pool.


Rick
UCLA football

 

I think my group uses TurboTourney. I'll check and let you know.

 

Digital Bang's software is very good and allows you to put your branding and logos on the pages. It also allows for asking some specific questions during the registration process ("Do you subscribe to the paper", "Will you be buying a car in the next 3-6-12 months," etc.) that can be a marketing goldmine.

The downside is that they charge close to $2,000 for a one-time use if you're buying a la carte. But at the end of the contest you can spit out a very sophisticated database of user info for your sponsors.

Excellent training and tech support by their staff, too.

We would have used them frequenly if our damn sales staff had ever remembered before March 10 that there was a basketball tourney coming up that advertisers might want to get involved with.

 

Thanks for sharing, Nola!