Press release

Montréal, September 20, 2017 – The annual Mise‑o‑jeu Pool is back for the second consecutive year with an impressive $125,000* grand prize. This time, a new and improved version is being offered. Participants not only get a bigger salary budget to work with, but they can make twice the trades!

Very attractive prizes

• The big winner takes home $125,000.*
• Second place gets $15,000, third place $5,000, fourth place $2,500 and so forth.*
• The 150 best poolers get a prize!
• The best pooler during each six‑month portion of the season (March and April are combined) will get a $1,000 prize.

A simple pool format

• Participants build a 16‑player team, with 10 forwards, 4 defencemen and 2 goalies.
• Each NHL (National Hockey League) player is rated on a scale from 1 to 10, and each team must stay within a salary budget of 120, i.e. up by 10 from last year.
• Participants are allowed 10 transactions during the season, compared to the previous season’s 5.
• Points are attributed as follows:
  • Forwards and defencemen: one point per goal and one point per pass
  • Goalies: two points per win and one extra point for a shutout.

Registration

• The registration deadline is 7 p.m. on October 19.
• Until that date, participants can make as many changes to their team as they wish without affecting the number of trades they’re allowed to make later.
• The points will begin to count for team players on board as of 7 p.m. on October 13.
• To register, go to poolmiseojeu.com. If participants haven’t already done so, they must become Espacejeux.com customers, Loto-Québec’s online gaming platform.
• The cost is $25 and participants may purchase more than one team.

François Cardi, winner of the 1^st year annual pool

• Montérégie resident François Cardi came in first in last year’s annual Mise‑o‑jeu Pool, taking home $125,000.
• Mr. Cardi has been participating in pools for the past few years. He is a passionate hockey fan.
• Drawn by the $125,000 grand prize, he and a friend decided to participate in the annual Mise‑o‑jeu Pool by each creating a team. They promised each other that if one of them came in first, they would split the grand prize equally.
• Mr. Cardi’s strategy: Make forwards and goalies a priority. He remained attentive throughout the season and made judicious trades, with the particularly wise acquisition of Sidney Crosby and Nikita Kucherov in mid-December.
• During the season’s last game, he watched the game while he texted with his friend, Junior. After the first game period, he wrote: “I’m popping the champagne!” 
• When asked whether he had tips to offer to the following year’s participants, he smiled: “No. I absolutely won’t be giving tips! I’m keeping them for myself.”

As for his plans for the future, he’s setting some money aside to buy a house and renovate it: “You can bet it’ll have a man-cave for watching sports!”

Weekly Mise‑o‑jeu Pool

• The weekly Mise‑o‑jeu Pool will also be back at the start of the season.
• Like last year, participants will create a team for the week and go up against 19 other participants.
• New: The three best performers in each group will receive a prize: $100 for 1^st place, $40 for 2^nd place and $10 for 3^rd place.
• A draw to award a Bleu‑Blanc‑Rouge bonus prize will also be conducted every month among all participants who finished in the top three of their group at least once.

Quote

“For Year 2, we listened to our poolers and are now giving them more flexibility with 10 trades allowed and a bigger salary budget,” said Louis Beaudet, Director, Sports Betting and Entertainment, Loto‑Québec.

About Loto-Québec

Loto‑Québec’s mission is to responsibly and efficiently manage games of chance in a controlled and measured fashion, in the interest of all Quebecers. Entertainment is at the heart of its activities.

*Shareable prize. The prize could be larger, according to the number of registrations.