Below are the answers to some of the questions we're asked most frequently.
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What do I do at this site?
If you run a football pool, you can can set up a pool (either pick 'em or survivor), configure the pool options, and perform administrative tasks, like adding people to the pool, sending out pool-wide e-mails, etc).
If you are someone who wants to be in a pool, this site allows you to join a pool, research teams, make your picks, see how they're doing as the games end, view the full grid of everyone's picks, and more. If you haven't been invited to participate in a private pool, you can join one of our open pools.
We handle sending out e-mail reminders to people who haven't submitted their picks by a certain point. And yes, it's all free!
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How does a pick 'em pool work?
In a pick 'em pool, users pick the winner of each game that week. The person who gets the most right wins the week. In addition, season-long standings are kept to determine the overall winner at the end of the season.
A common feature in pick 'em pools is picking against the spread. This means that you don't just pick the winner of each game - you pick the winner by more than a certain number of points. This makes it much trickier to predict who the winner of a game will be. In this case, if a team wins by the exact spread, the game is a push and it doesn't count for or against anyone.
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How does a survivor pool work?
A survivor pool (also known as a suicide, knockout, or elimination pool) revolves around the notion of staying "alive" on a week-to-week basis. Each week, you pick one team that you feel will win that week. If your team wins, you survive to play again the following week. If your team loses, you're done. (Ties can be considered either a win or a loss, depending on what the pool organizer sets.)
Another wrinkle is that you're only allowed to pick each team only once per season. Also, some pools are double-elimination, meaning that you're eliminated on your second incorrect pick instead of your first.
The pool winner is the last person alive in the pool. It sounds easy, but is actually quite difficult!
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What do those numbers in the "Line" column mean?
The line represents the betting odds on a game, usually listed as two numbers, one over the other, with the bottom one in parentheses.
The number on top is the spread, which is the amount of points one team is predicted to win by. On the Schedule page, if the spread starts with a minus sign (-), it means the home team is favored to win by that much. If it starts with a plus sign (+), then the away team is favored by that much. So if the spread on a game is -4, and the home team wins 21-20, then the away team would be considered the winner against the spread, despite losing the game. (On each individual team page, if the spread starts with a minus sign, it means that team is favored. If it starts with a plus sign, it means their opponent is favored.)
The number on the bottom, in parentheses, is the over/under. This number is the predicted amount of total points in the game. So, for example, if the over/under for a game is 43, and the final score is 31-17, then we would say it was the over (since 31 + 17 = 48, and 48 is greater than 43).
If a team wins by the exact spread, or if the total points is exactly equal to the over/under, we say that the game is a push.
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When are the lines set?
I set the lines on the site at 12:01 AM on Wednesday of each week. Oddsmakers usually need a few days to set their lines, due to uncertainty surrounding injuries from the previous Sunday's games. One thing to note: even if the line moves in real life after 12:01 AM Wednesday, it will stay fixed here on the website.
In the occasional event that the line for a game is still not set by 12:01 AM on Wednesday, we set it ourselves (which we are surprisingly good at).
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Why are some people listed with their real name, and others with a made-up one?
One of the options you have on this website is to be listed by either your real name (i.e. "Bob Smith" or "Karen Jones") or a made-up one, which some websites call a username or "handle" (for example, "dolphinsfan77" or "Poolchamp XYZ!"). To control this, log into your account and then click "Edit Profile" in the top-right of the page. You can then change your Display Name, and if you click the appropriate button in Display Name Preferences, you can control which name gets displayed for you on the site.
- How soon after the games end will the site be updated? Instantly. We feature real-time score updates, so as soon as the game ends, it goes into our system. No waiting until Monday morning to see how you've done - click "Reload" in your web browser and you'll know right away.
- My Internet was down and I couldn't enter my picks in time. Will you put it in for me? Contact your pool organizer. They have the ability to enter/change picks after the deadline, if they so choose.
- Can I place bets at your site? Absolutely not. This is not a gambling website; we don't accept wagers or handle money. We provide a service to automate and simplify the process of running and/or participating in football pools.
- Can I Paypal you my pool money? No! If your pool involves money changing hands, that's entirely between you and your pool organizer.
- How did you make this website? This website takes advantage of the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl) platform. Open source/free software is a great thing. And while it's hosted on Linux, it's developed entirely on Mac OS X.
Got a question that isn't answered here? Contact us and we'll figure it out.