1st Underground Online Blitz Tournament (UOBT)!

My idea for organizing such a betting pool:
Before the game, everyone contributes a small amount, say 50 rubles. If someone wants to bet more, they can contribute in increments of 50 rubles, up to 10 times. In the end, we have a total amount in the pool, which is divided among those who correctly guessed the winner and the organizer (to cover organizational expenses and their work).
Pros:
- No need for a professional bookmaker, so they don't have to risk their own capital;
- Simplicity.

That's a good idea.

Maybe it would be more fun if all participants in the betting pool were required to post their predictions for all matches in the thread, without saying which one they are choosing for their bet (and the actual bets are made privately, without the possibility of changing the prediction)?

That's also a valid idea, but it's not entirely clear what kind of predictions you're asking people to make.

I suggest that this time, we don't bother with odds (we can leave that for the next tournament, after thinking everything through), but simply make bets, say, on 5 matches at a time, and write your prediction directly in the thread, of course, indicating who you are betting on, because I don't see any point in hiding these predictions. Whoever guesses all the matches correctly wins the entire pool for that round. If no one guesses correctly, the entire prize goes to the next round, and so on. And of course, you need to copy and save all the bets for yourself, so that no one can change anything afterward, and announce "bets are made, bets are no longer accepted" only after that the round is played. As for the timing: 2 days for bets and 7 days for the game, I don't think that will be a problem for anyone. And at least make 6 minutes for regular templates, and 4 minutes for M200 (or even better, create normal templates and a seasonal timer, or a chess clock).

Naturally, only those who have purchased participation should be able to participate in the bets. Let's say we make a fixed bet per round - 50 rubles, i.e., to bet on 1 round, a person must send you at least 50 rubles or more - so they don't have to top up after each loss. Ideally, a separate time should be set before the tournament, 1-2 weeks, for buy-ins, and everything that is contributed should be recorded in your accounting and all calculations should be done in real-time in the first post, so that it is immediately clear who has what left. Therefore, it is best to cancel this tournament and start everything over, since only 1 round has been played, and with the new rules, I am sure, more people will sign up.

P.S. You should remove your announced prize (50$) for the betting pool and simply take on some minor expenses to cover the commissions when transferring money from players (where this commission exists). You can also create an FAQ about where and through which system it is best to send money to minimize transfer costs.