Last Man Standing: The Football Game Your Club Should Be Running This Season

Last Man Standing is one of the most compelling football competitions you can run for your club's supporters. The premise is simple: pick one team to win each week. Use each team only once. If they don't win, you're out. Last person standing wins the pot.

What makes it so effective for clubs is the combination of sustained engagement (it runs all season) and genuine prize money (entry fees build a pot that's worth winning). Once it's set up, it runs almost entirely on its own.

How Last Man Standing works

• Every participant pays an entry fee to join (e.g. £5 or £10)
• Each round, they pick one team they think will win that gameweek
• They can only use each team once all season — so they have to be strategic
• If their picked team loses or draws, they're eliminated
• The last person still in the competition wins the prize pot
• If everyone is eliminated in the same round, the pot can roll over or be split

Why supporters love it

Unlike a one-off raffle or a single match prediction, Last Man Standing keeps supporters checking your club's page every week for an entire season. The psychological pressure of choosing which team to 'use' — and watching your choices run out — creates a level of engagement that's hard to replicate with any other format.

“By Christmas we had 34 people left in the pot. People who'd never really spoken to each other were WhatsApping about whether to pick Arsenal or Liverpool that week. It was brilliant for the club community.”

— Club Secretary, Sunday League club

The prize pot maths

The prize pot is what makes Last Man Standing worth playing. Here's what it looks like at different scales:

• 30 entries at £5 each = £150 pot
• 50 entries at £10 each = £500 pot
• 80 entries at £10 each = £800 pot
• 100 entries at £10 each = £1,000 pot

A £500 or £1,000 prize is genuinely motivating. It's the kind of number that makes people tell their friends about it, which grows your entries further.

Strategy tips to share with your supporters

Part of the fun of Last Man Standing is the strategy. Share these tips with your supporters at the start of the season to get them more invested:

• Don't waste your strongest teams early — save Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool for when you really need them
• Look for favourable home fixtures for mid-table teams — they're often overlooked by other players
• Track what other people are picking if you can — if everyone picks the same team and they draw, multiple eliminations clear the field
• Be careful with cup weeks if the competition includes FA Cup — top sides often rotate squads

How to set one up on Club Fundraiser

• Log into your dashboard and go to Last Man Standing
• Create a new competition — give it a name, pick your football competition (Premier League, Championship, etc.), set an entry fee
• Add the first round — set the gameweek and pick deadline
• Share your club's public LMS page with supporters to collect entries
• After the gameweek, hit 'Process round' — results are fetched automatically, losers are eliminated, and everyone gets an email
• Repeat each week until one person is left

Running it alongside your weekly lottery

Last Man Standing works best as a complement to your weekly lottery, not a replacement. The lottery provides steady weekly income. Last Man Standing provides a seasonal burst of entries and a community event that keeps supporters talking about your club.

Many clubs run their lottery all year and add a Last Man Standing competition at the start of each football season. The two products appeal to slightly different motivations — passive income vs active engagement — and together they cover more of your supporter base.