Stryktipset has been in existence since 1934 and is thus
Svenska Spel's (and Sweden's for that matter) oldest sports game. Today it's the most popular sports game among young men. The object of the game is to tell the winner in 13
football (the European kind) matches in the Swedish and English leagues. (Before 1969 there were only 12 matches.) The options when filling out a Stryktipset
coupon are commonly known as 1, X and 2. 1 is for home team win, X is for
draw and 2 is for away team win. The minimum bet is two columns or (when playing with permutations) combinations per coupon. The prize per column is 1
SEK. At least 2 columns or combinations must be played on a coupon.
An alternative to playing single columns is playing with permutations. The simplest way of doing this is called mathematical permutations. (M-permutations) That is, when one instead of writing just one alternative (1, X or 2) per match, writes a two- or three-way forecast. It is called mathematical permutations because the number of combinations increase according to the laws of mathematics, i.e. when adding another two-way forecast, the number of combinations become twice as many and when adding another three-way forecast, the number of combinations become three times as many. This means that the number of combinations when playing mathematical combinations is calculated with the simple formula: number of two-way forecasts2 x number of three-way forecasts3.
As mathematical permutations can become quite costly when one wants to use a lot of two- and three-way forecasts, one can also play reduced permutations. (R-permutations) When playing R-permutations, one gets to use a lot of two- and three-way forecasts, but only pay a fraction of the price of the corresponding M-permutation. This is because the R-permutations only contain a small number of the combinations in the corresponding M-permutation. The combinations in the R-permutation are chosen so that the chance of winning is as high as possible, but the chance of winning is still much lower than with the corresponding M-permutation.
A third kind of permutation playable on Stryktipset is the so called U-permutation. The U-permutations are much like the R-permutations but with one added benefit. When playing U-permutations, one marks one of the combinations as the most probable one. The combinations chosen will then be based on the combination marked as the most probable.
U-permutations must be played on a special permutation coupon. R-permutations can also be played on the permutation coupon. An added benefit of the permutation coupon is that U- and R-permutations can be combined with M-permutations. Also, when playing with the special coupon one will, in addition to the betting slip receive a print-out of all combinations. Looking at the print-out is much simpler than having to look through the 24-page brochure for the combinations one has played.
In order to win, one must have guessed the result in at least 10 of the 13 matches correct. Out of the money given back as wins (46% of the bets), 27% are given to those with 13 correct matches, 17% to those with 12 correct, 18% those with 11 correct and 38% to those with 10 correct. If there are no winners or the win per player is lower than 10 SEK in a category, the money allocated to that category is added to the jackpot.
The last time for playing Stryktipset is Saturdays at 15:30. In order to reduce the amount of players arriving at the last moment to bet, an extra fee of 3 SEK/coupon is charged on Saturdays. The matches are played Saturday evening, Sunday and sometimes also Monday and Tuesday.
Should a match become cancelled (usually because of bad weather), the outcome of that match is randomized. As the result of a football match usually isn't completely random, the randomization is given a bit of a skew. This is done with the help of ten large Swedish daily newspapers. The forecast from each of the newspapers' sports section is combined with an addition of 2 to each of the three alternatives (1, X and 2) to get the probability. If 2 newspapers believed in a 1 as the correct result, 3 in a X and 5 in a 2 the probabilities would be; 4 in 16 for 1, 5 in 16 for X and 7 in 16 for 2.
In 2000 Stryktipset's turnover was 1090.7 million SEK. The highest amount ever won was won in 1995, it was 4,086,491 SEK.
As a part of a marketing campaign, Svenska Spel offers everyone who used Spelkortet when playing and got all of the matches correct as special pique shirt. The first 1000 shirts were given away for free, but now Svenska Spel charges a couple of hundred SEK for them.
Stryktipset can be combined with another one of Svenska Spel's games, Joker.
Between September and May, when the Italian leagues play, a special version of Stryktipset called Italienska Stryktipset is playable. The rules for Italienska Stryktipset are the same as for Stryktipset. In 2000 Italienska Stryktipset's yearly turnover was 190.1 million SEK. The highest win ever was 2,152,302 SEK and was won in 1998. The last time for playing Italienska Stryktipset is Sundays at 14:25. (May be earlier.) Italienska Stryktipset has been in existence since 1993.
Etymology:
Stryktipset is formed by the two Swedish words stryka and tips. Stryka means "cross out", this comes from the first coupons where one crossed out the team one though would lose. Tips means "tip". (Tipset means "the tip".)
Sources:
http://www.svenskaspel.se
Different brochures from Svenska Spel
Stuff I've picked up along the way...