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Get Smart About Sports
August 21, 2017 - by Seth Trachtman
NFL football is always more fun when you’ve got something on the line, whether it’s just bragging rights or a little bit of your hard earned cash. Fortunately, it’s never been easier to start your own football pool.
Best of all, unlike fantasy football, several NFL football pools don’t require a significant time commitment or expert knowledge of the game to win.
All it takes is one industrious soul — like you, dear reader — to get the pool going, and the players will come.
Here are 7 great ways to get some skin in the game and compete against your family, friends, and foes in a football pool this season.
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Survivor pools have enjoyed increasing popularity in recent years, despite suffering from an identity crisis. In your neck of the woods people may call them eliminator, knockout, suicide, last man standing, or king of the hill pools.
The basic rules: Players pick one NFL team per week, but can only pick a specific team once per season. If a player’s pick wins its game, the player remains in the pool and picks again the next week. If a player’s pick loses, the player is eliminated from the pool. Last player alive wins.
Where to play:
(You can also check out our NFL survivor pool pick advice.)
Pick’ems are the traditional football pools. They’re so simple even your dog can play.
The basic rules: Players predict the winner of every NFL game, every week. Players receive a point for every winner they pick correctly, and the player with the most points at the end of the season wins.
Where to play:
(You can also check out our NFL pick’em pool advice.)
Confidence pools are a twist on pick’em pools, but they became so popular that they got their own name.
The basic rules: Pick the winner of every NFL game, every week. However, each player must also assign a “confidence value” to every pick. Every pick that wins earns the player the number of confidence points they assigned to it. The player with the most points at the end of the season wins.
Where to play:
(You can also check out our NFL confidence pool advice.)
Football credits pools, also known as share pools, really let you go all-in on games you are confident about. They are a cross between traditional sports betting and pick’em/confidence pools.
The basic rules: Players receive a fixed number of credits at the beginning of the pool. In each NFL week, a player can wager a total of all, some, or none of their credits on the teams of their choosing. Winning picks return double the amount of credits wagered on them, and the player with the most credits at the end of the season wins.
Where to play:
(You can get an edge in these pools using our data-driven NFL picks.)
A lot of people run Super Bowl squares contests — also known as block pools, grid pools, or box pools — for the big game in February. But why not do them every week?
The basic rules: Pick an NFL game and start with a 100-square grid, with numbers 0-9 listed along each axis. Players each claim squares on the grid, via a draft or random assignment. The winner is the player whose name is in the square that corresponds to the last digits of each team’s score at the end of the game.
Where to play:
Like NFL squares pools, 33 point pools are one of the more random contest formats. They can be a good option for people who don’t know a lot about football, or don’t want to spend a bunch of time making picks each week.
The basic rules: Up to 32 players are each assigned an NFL team each week. A player gets a point if their assigned team scores 33 points that week. The player with the most points at the end of the season wins.
Where to play:
Margin pools are the offspring of pick’em pools and survivor pools, featuring a “one pick per week” format but without the weekly elimination risk. As a result, players stay engaged all season.
The basic rules: Players pick one NFL team per week, but can only pick a specific team once per season. If a player’s pick wins, the player receives points equal to the winning team’s margin of victory in the game. The player with the most points at the end of the season wins.
Where to play:
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