As I read the story, he was head of the pool and it's established a ticket or tickets were purchased for the date in question.
Absent some contemporaneous record he can produce listing the group's tickets, it's a question of fact for the jury regarding whether he's telling the truth about which tickets were the groups' ticket(s) and which was/were his.
The jury heard evidence damaging to his credibility - his lies about the foot surgery (sound like the unemployment scam was common in the industry). I also wouldn't be surprise if a jury thinks it's just to spread the wealth.
I suppose it’s possible the ruling could go 75/25 where the guy sort of wins and the co-workers win..