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Howdy folks. I've decided to shut down MyFootballPool.com. I've been going back and forth on this since the end of the 2010 season, and while I greatly enjoyed working on the site and providing my services to others, the fact of the matter is that websites like this operate in a legal gray area. As some of you are aware, Jack Bovery, the guy who ran a very large (maybe the largest) survivor pool was arrested last fall:

"Owner feels heat as NJ closes $800K grid pool", NY Post, Sept. 28, 2010

You can also read about it on Mr. Bovery's website, which now provides updates on his ongoing legal case.

I've always thought that my website was totally legit. I live in New Jersey, where it's (supposedly) legal to run a pool as long as the organizer doesn't take a cut of the winnings. Not only did I never take a cut, but I never handled a dime - my website was 100% free to use, any money that changed hands was directly between pool organizers and players on my website. However, I'm not so confident in my assessment that I'm prepared to weather a criminal/legal storm - the burden of being arrested or having to mount a legal defense are far beyond what I'm willing to risk over a just-for-fun side project like this.

It was a lot easier to overlook the site's questionable legality when it was a small-time operation serving just a few people. However, it grew over time - from about 50 users in 2003 to almost 2,500 in 2010 - strictly by word-of-mouth and with the most user-unfriendly interface for creating new pools (people had to somehow find my site, email me, I'd email them back a questionnaire, they'd email it back to me, and at some point I'd set up their pool by hand). Watching the site grow and receiving nice feedback on it was very gratifying and I truly appreciate all the positive (and occasionally negative) comments I got over the years. However, with more users and bigger pools comes bigger jackpots and more attention, and I can't keep risking it.

So, the website is being wound down - pool organizers can still log in to contact the members of their pools and download their rosters, but at some point (like in a month or two) that'll get turned off too. If anyone has questions, just email me.

I hope everyone enjoyed using the site. Go Eagles!

— Ross Snyder / July 31, 2011