Hi, @themanualbot! Sorry for the late reply. As I'm not in charge of the payout distribution, I've asked the guys at @tasteem.
The $700~ reward is the sum of the upvotes received by the contestants, not Tasteem.
Tasteem gives out 40% of the total reward from each Tasteem's Contest Announcement post, to the winner of that particular contest; then 30% to the 2nd runner-up, and 20% to the third runner-up.
For example, if Tasteem's post announcing a contest gets $35, 40% of that sum is to go to the winner, so we dish out that much in SBD. The same goes for the 2nd and 3rd runners-up, for 30% and 20% respectively. :)
Hope this has helped!