Euro Tipper 2024 – Football Excitement at Datumo

The recently concluded European Football Championship was not only an opportunity to share the thrill of the sport together, but also served as inspiration for a fantastic company get-together. We organized an internal competition called Euro Tipper 2024, where participants predicted the outcomes of matches played during the competitions. The winner received an official Polish replica team shirt.

Preparations and Tournament Kickoff 

We got the ball rolling with the competitions in May, one month before the start of the competition. We set out the rules, including the scoring system and some finer points of the rules in case of a tie. Participants received 1 point for predicting the outcome of a match and 3 points for getting the exact score correct, within the 90 minutes of play. We set up a  spreadsheet in Google Sheets, which automated the scoring system for us. 

Same old story 

Most participants waited until the last minute to enter their predictions on our football database, when they had a clearer picture of starting line-up’s and team tactics. The inaugural ceremony and first match of EURO 2024 didn’t fail to impress with Germany hammering Scotland by 5 goals to 1. Almost everyone predicted a victory for the hosts, but nobody had predicted such a heavy scoreline. On Sunday excitement reached fever pitch when Poland took on the Netherlands in their first match of the tournament. Despite a plucky performance from Poland, the Dutch scored a late goal to win by the narrowest of margins. Nobody at the Datumo Camp was happy with the result, but two people predicted the exact score, winning 3 points each. After the first round of matches, there was nothing to separate the scores with everyone going neck and neck into the next round.

Round Two

During the group stage, we witnessed several upsets, such as Belgium losing to Slovakia and Portugal losing to Georgia. The final standings were also surprising, with Austria and Romania taking first place in their groups and Belgium advancing on goal difference, with all teams in that group finishing with 4 points. These matches, where the favorites did not win, heightened the excitement of our company competitions with some participants predicting unexpected results. After the group stage, Mateusz led with 31 points, followed closely by Damian, who was just 1 point behind. The rest were lagging behind by at least 6 points behind the leader.

Knockout Stage 

After an agonising 3-day break, the knockout stages brought more excitement, with 15 matches to predict. The biggest surprise was Switzerland's victory over Italy, a result no one had predicted. We witnessed Spain's superiority, as they ran out 4-0 winners against Georgia, signaling their intent on achieving success in the tournament. After this stage, Mateusz remained in pole position in our standings on 37 points, holding a 4-point lead over Damian. In the quarterfinals, the hosts were eliminated by Spain, who scored the decisive goal in extra time. Just like the Spanish team, Mateusz also demonstrated his skills, predicting the exact scores in 3 out of 4 matches. This allowed him to build a comfortable 9-point lead with only 3 matches remaining in the tournament. He only needed to secure 1 point in the remaining matches to secure victory.

Semifinals and Final 

Both semi finals ended up finishing 2-1, with the teams conceding first, Spain, and England, going on to win their matches. Despite Mateusz securing victory by winning 1 point in the semis, this did not deter him, and his overall performance was topped off by predicting the exact score of the EURO 2024 final, where Spain defeated England by 2 goals to 1. This was his 12th correct prediction. In the final standings, Mateusz  finished on 50 points, leaving his rivals far behind and he chose to have Datumo as the personalized name on his prize shirt.

We are all looking forward to the next big event, the 2026 World Cup. Until then, we will have many opportunities to meet at company getaways, where football plays a big part in our team-building. Predicting Euro 2024 scores was awesome, a perfect opportunity to integrate people and strengthen our organizational culture through a sport we all love. 

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If you are interested in various forms of team-building activities and want to be a part of our vibrant company culture, join us at Datumo!