Hi, Dale; don´t know in others regions of Brazil, but I have seen in the Northeast something similar to a raffle, a card (resembling a cardboard piece) with squares in which people can put their names.

     Sometimes these spaces would be be blank.   You would only put your first name in them.  Let´s say each square is worth 0,50 cents; if have 1,00 R$ to bet in them, you are going to write your name in two squares.

    Then, the names will be put in a little piece of paper folded; mixed and one of them will be picked by someone. If your name comes out, you will take the 5,00 R$ (if it had 10 squares) or 10,00 R$ (if it had 20 squares) and so on.

    Sometimes the squares are numbered, so the little pieces of paper will contain numbers.

    Ah, it´s very commom an "office pool" (bolo/bolão) in Brazil, just like you have explained.  A group of friends (generally workmates) put in print in a paper a bet in

the winner soccer team.   To make things more difficult (sometimes) the guy that takes the money at the end will be the one that will bet (predict rightly) beforehand in the

winner team and the one that comes in second.

    If there are many people, the bet might be the winner team, the one in the second place and the scores ( 1 x 2, 2 x 0, a draw etc).

    There are thousands of ways.

     In fact, it´s more a hunch (wich involves some money) than a bet...at the end, I mean not serious like some bets are.     At times the winner spend the money with some beers in some joint near the office (after the work hours, of course...) just for fun. 

    A win-win situation?! 

    I might have forgotten some details, but the basics is it.

    Let´s wait some more Brazilians have a stab at it.