Decide the format
The format decides who plays and how long they stay interested. Pick for the group you have, not the group you wish you had.
I've found that the odd, uncommon rules are what make a pool. A rule that adds some strategy while staying simple makes your pool different from every other one, and that's what brings players back each year.
The test for any rule: does every player still feel they can win, however much football they know?
In my Masters pool the score was your team's total to par, lowest team total wins, and every golfer counted. Getting all nine through the cut was hard, and it mattered. That one rule turned every pick into a real decision.
The football version of that idea is Countdown. You pick a handful of sides and totals, then weight them: 5 points on the pick you like most, down to 1 on the pick you like least. A card might read:
I haven't seen it run much. It's a lot of fun, and I look forward to playing it every year. It's very strategic, because being right matters less than being right about the pick you were sure of. It's great for a single day of games like Thanksgiving, and it gets more strategic across a full 16-game slate.
Progressive squares, explained
One 10×10 grid of 100 numbered squares covers all 17 of a team's games. Only 33 squares are sold, so in any given game 67 are empty. That gap is what makes it fun: most weeks nobody hits, and the anticipation builds.
When the winning square is one of the empty ones, nobody wins that prize and it rolls into the next game. That's the "progressive" part: the pot builds until someone hits.
Set the rules
Every pool argument is about a rule nobody wrote down. Settle these first and send them to everyone:
- When picks lock: one weekly deadline, or each game at kickoff.
- Whose point spreads you're using, and when they freeze.
- What a push is worth.
- What happens when someone forgets to pick.
- How ties in the standings get broken.
- Whether people can see each other's picks before lock.
- Whether late joiners are allowed, and where they start.
- How many entries one person can have.
Pay extra attention to tiebreakers. They've always been the tricky part, and they get trickier as the pool grows, because more entries means more ties. Decide the tiebreaker, and the one after it, before the season starts.
Tilt runs almost every one of those as a setting.
Start a poolSplit the season into pods
A pod is a stretch of the season with its own standings and its own prize, usually around six weeks. Pods are underused. They keep the players who can no longer win the season interested, because they can still win the last pod. How pods work
Let groups form inside the pool
Once a pool gets big, players want a smaller game inside it. In a pool of 500 you might know 20 people. A group gives those 20 their own standings for bragging rights, and a side bet if they want one, while they still play in the main pool. It's one of the most requested features we've had, and it's coming to Tilt.
Handle the money simply
Set the entry fee, say how the pot pays out, and say it in percentages so it still works when the pot changes size. Decide weekly prizes versus a season prize before anyone pays.
Collect before the first kickoff. Keep one list of who has paid. The commissioner holds the pot and pays the winners; that's how office pools have always worked.
One caution: rules on pools vary by state. Keep it social, among people who know each other, and don't take a cut for running it.
Collect picks without chasing people
This is where spreadsheet pools break. Picks arrive by text, email and in the hallway, in five formats, some after kickoff. Pick one place for picks and one deadline, and don't take them anywhere else.
I sent three reminders: one ahead of the lock, one the night before, and one the morning of.
Post standings before anyone asks
The pool lives or dies on the standings. If they're up Monday morning, people talk about them all week. If they're up Wednesday, people forget they're playing.
Spreadsheet or a hosting site?
A spreadsheet works for a dozen people and a simple format. The hard part comes as you grow: the pool gets less fun for the host. You're tracking payments, reminding people to get their picks in and sorting out tiebreakers. The back-end work eats the time you used to spend enjoying it.
A hosting site takes the picks, locks them, grades the games and posts the standings. When you compare sites, check three things: whether it can run your actual rules, whether your players will see ads, and whether it handles the money or leaves that with you.
What 13 seasons taught me
Make the format and the rules as tight as you can before you start. Then listen. Your first group of entries will show you what to change, and that's how the pool evolves and grows.
Where Tilt fits
Tilt is pool hosting built by a commissioner. We love the weird formats and the odd rules. If you don't see the option you want, tell us and we'll build it.
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