Dean plays 40 hours and lost $300
Rob plays 40 hours and makes $1300

Each player gets half of what he individually earned playing.
Dean loses -$150.
Rob gets $650.

Half profit goes to players based on hours played.
Dean gets $250.
Rob gets $250.

Rob played 40 hours, made $1300, kept $900.
Dean played 40 hours, lost $300, kept $100.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

Answers

this example illustrates the difference between your formula and mine (btw, i was wrong when i said your example didn't fit your formula... it does).

same example (using my method) comes out like this...

Dean plays 40 hours and lost $300
Rob plays 40 hours and makes $1300

Each player gets half of what he contributed to the win (but is not penalized for losing).
Dean gets squat. (he contributed nothing to the win)
Rob gets $500. there was a $1000 overall profit (of which, rob contributed 100%)

Half profit goes to players based on hours played.
Dean gets $250.
Rob gets $250.

Rob played 40 hours, made $1300, kept $750.
Dean played 40 hours, lost $300, kept $250.

if the primary purpose of this team is to smooth out the fluctuations, my method achieves that a little better.

consider this same example except that dean only played one hour (to rob's 40) and lost that same 300 bucks. now dean is only going to get 12.20 for his hour of play, but according to your method is going to have to pay the bank out of his pocket to cover the remainder of the $150 that he owes for his loss(another $137.80). obviously, that is no good... we can't ask players to contribute more to the bank than they originally agreed to put at risk.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001

I aggree your method does smooth out the fluctuations better. My proposal was not meant to cause a losing player to owe money in the end; worse case scenerio would be that a losing player might break even (had he played by himself, not on the team, he would have lost money whereas on the team he broke even -- he still get back the $500 he risked but he makes no profit if he played very few hours AND lost a lot of money.) However, I when I wrote up that proposal, I had considered doing it the other way too and went back and forth in my head about it before I gave you the write up. I am willing to align with your suggestion: Each player gets half of what he contributed to the win (without penalizing losers) and each player gets half of [(Profit / Total Hrs Played By Both Players) x Hours Personally Played].

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2001