How to Make & Play a Football Pool for Beginners

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Your guide to organizing football squares & other NFL wagers

Co-authored by Anna Braff and Hunter Rising

Last Updated: January 28, 2026 Fact Checked

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Creating the Pool

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How to Play

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Variations

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Best Squares

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Types of Pools

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Video

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Q&A

If you’re looking for a way to make the Super Bowl more exciting, a football pool is the perfect friendly competition for families, friends, and even coworkers. Whether you’re hosting a party or organizing the pool for the office, we’ll walk you through setting it up completely. Keep reading, and we’ll cover how to play along with some fun variations and types of pools to try!

Organizing & Running a Football Pool: The Basics

Make a 10 x 10 grid of squares, and assign the rows and columns to the 2 teams. Charge people to write their name inside the squares. Assign numbers to the rows and columns. At the end of each quarter, find the last digits of the teams’ scores on the grid, and give money to the person written in that square.

Section 1 of 5:

How to Make a Football Pool with Squares

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1
Draw a 10 x 10 grid of squares. Football squares is the most common type of pool, especially for the Super Bowl. Use a large piece of paper or posterboard. Draw a large square and split it into 10 horizontal rows and 10 vertical columns. Make sure all the squares are big enough for people to write their names or initials inside.
- If you don’t want to draw or print your own, get a reusable football squares board instead and use dry-erase markers.
- You can also print off a grid you find online or make one in a spreadsheet.
2
Assign the teams to the top and side of the grid. Write the first team across the top of the grid above the columns. Then, put the second team name on the left side of the grid.^{[1]
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- Leave a little space in between the edge of the grid and the team name so you have room to fill in numbers later on.
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3
Charge players to write their name in a square. Football pools are perfect to do with friends, family, and coworkers, so ask if they want to get involved. Typically, people charge $1 per square on the board, but you can charge as much or as little as you want. When someone buys a square, have them pick one and write their name or initials inside.
- On a 10 x 10 grid of football squares with a $1 buy-in, the total pot would be $100 USD.
- You can either leave the empty squares or assign them evenly between the players.
- If you just want to play for fun, then you don’t have to include a buy-in.
- Players can buy multiple squares if they want more chances to win.
Write down the numbers 0-9 on scraps of paper and put them into a bowl. Draw one number at a time, and write them down left-to-right across the columns. Then, put all the numbers back and draw them to assign the rows from top-to-bottom.^{[2]
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Section 2 of 5:

How to Play a Football Pool During the Game

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1
Have a watch party with your players. Football pools are best when you’re with a group of people so you can celebrate the winners together. When you host your party, event decor specialist Anna Braff notes, “a good screen to watch your game” as well as “food and drink are the most important things.” She recommends options like buffalo wings and nachos to keep your guests happy while you watch.^{[3]
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- If you can’t have all the players over or don’t have the option to watch together, try to stay connected on a messaging app so you can chat during the game.
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Use the teams’ scores at the end of a quarter to find the winning square. When a quarter ends, check the last digits of each team’s score. For the team listed on the top, find the column listing the last digit in their score. For the team listed on the side, find the row with the last number in their score. Whoever has their name in the box where they intersect wins!
- Example: If the Seattle Seahawks score 10 and the New England Patriots score 7, then find the intersection of the 0-column for the Seahawks and the 7-row for the Patriots for the winning square.
- Check the scores and a new winner at halftime, the end of the third quarter, and the end of the game.
3
Award the winner money or a prize. If you played with a buy-in, give the winner a percentage of the total pot for winning the quarter. Typically, the first three quarters have a smaller payout then the final score, but you can split them however you want. If you don’t want to use money, you could also give prizes like gift cards, memorabilia, or custom trophies.
- Some payout percentages you can use for each quarter include:
  - 10%--10%--10%--70%
  - 10%--20%--30%--40%
  - 20%--20%--20%--40%
  - 20%--30%--20%--30%
  - 25%--25%--25%--25%
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Make a plan for blank squares. If you don’t have enough players to fill the entire grid, there’s a chance the winning square won’t have a name on it. If the quarter’s score ends up on an empty square, choose one of these options:
- Anyone with a square touching the winning square splits the prize.
- The person to the right of the square wins the prize.
- Add the prize to the pot for the final score.

Section 3 of 5:

Football Squares Variations

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1
Make a smaller grid if you have fewer players. If you don’t have enough players or want fewer blank squares, make a 5 x 5 grid instead, and assign each row and column 2 numbers. You could even do a 5 x 10 grid where the top lists out all the numbers and the other has 2 numbers per row.
- For the smallest grid, try a 1 x 10 layout. At the end of each quarter, add the last digits of each team’s score together and check the new last digit. For example, if the score was 6-7 at the quarter, the sum would be 13 and the person in the “3” square wins.
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Assign different numbers for each quarter. If you’re worried about the same person winning multiple times during the big game, leave space to write 4 numbers next to each row and column. After you pick the numbers for one quarter, shuffle and pick them randomly again for halftime, the third quarter, and the final score.
3
Give an extra payout for the reverse score. The reverse score is when you have the right score, but the teams are switched. To have multiple winners during a round, give a small payout to the person with the reverse score as well.^{[4]
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- Try a payout structure like 15% (5%)--15% (5%)--15% (5%)--35% (5%).
  - Example: If the score at the end of the quarter is 21-17, then the player with the 1-7 square earns 15% of the pot and the player with the 7-1 square wins 5%.
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Pay out after every score. If you want a more exciting game with more winners, set a small payout each time a team scores. Check the last digits of each team’s score, and give 5% of the pot to whoever has the matching square. At the end of the game, the square that matches the final score’s digits gets whatever money is left in the pot.^{[5]
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Section 4 of 5:

What are the best squares in a football pool?

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Pick 0, 3, or 7 for the best chances at winning. Touchdowns with an extra point are worth 7 points, field goals are worth 3 points, so they’re common early in the game. 3 and 7 add up to 10, so 0s are also really common last digits in a team’s score.^{[6]
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- Remember that most football pools fill in the numbers after you pick your squares so you aren’t able to plan ahead.
- Other good numbers that appear frequently in football scores include 1, 4, and 6.
- The worst numbers are 2, 5, and 9 because scores don’t add up to them often.

Section 5 of 5:

Other Types of Football Pools

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1
Super Bowl bingo Make bingo cards for each person you’re having over for the game. On your bingo sheet, include specific plays or events that you think will happen during the game, such as “25-yard pass,” “Missed field goal,” or “Rushing touchdown.” Whenever something on your bingo sheet happens during the game, cross it out.
- Be the first player to get 5 squares in a row vertically, horizontally, or diagonally to win a prize.
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Player draft Take turns choosing players from each team that you think will score a touchdown. After you each have 1 or 2 players, keep track of who scores throughout the game. When a player someone picked scores, everyone else has to pay them $1.
- Alternatively, score a point each time a player you picked scores. Whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins the full pot!
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Prop bets Prop bets are fun and simple additions to watching the Big Game. Give everyone the same set of questions to answer. Whenever someone gets a question right, they earn 1 point. Whoever answered the most prop bets correctly and scored the most points wins the pot at the end of the game! Some fun prop bets you can include are:^{[7]
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- Who will win the coin toss?
- Will the coin toss be heads or tails?
- Will the winning team kick or receive the ball?
- Will the first score be a touchdown, field goal, or safety?
- Will the first touchdown be a run or a pass?
- Which team will win the Super Bowl?
- What will be the first song for the halftime performance?
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Weekly pick’em pool If you’re looking to do a football pool for the full season, have your players choose what teams they think are going to win each week. Every time they choose the winner correctly, they earn a point. Tally up the points for the entire season, and give the person who earned the most a prize after the Super Bowl!^{[8]
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Survivor For a weekly football pool, have each person pick 1 team every week. If that team wins, then the player is safe and gets to keep playing. If a chosen team loses, that player is out for the rest of the season. Whoever is the last person standing wins!^{[9]
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- If everyone loses before the end of the season, then start another survivor pool!

Community Q&A

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Question

How do I determine the winner of a tiebreaker?

Community Answer

Play the same game one more time and whoever wins out of the three or two is the winner. Or, play rock, paper, scissors.

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Does the home team go on the top?

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Yes, the home team always goes on top. In the Super Bowl, the home team switches from AFC to NFC every year. Odd number Super Bowls are NFC home team, and for even number Super Bowls, the AFC is the home team.

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Does it matter which team goes on the side or top?

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It used to be the winner of the prior seasons Pro Bowl. But recently Pro Bowl roster set ups were changed. This method is no longer a way to determine which team goes up top. Except maybe, for example, 2015 Team Irvin (Dallas) NFC, and Team Rice (retired a Bronco) AFC. So Team Irvin won making the top position the NFC, and Side AFC.

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Warnings

Running a football pool for money may be considered gambling and illegal, especially if you do it at your workplace. Just play for fun or without a buy-in if you want to play it safe.^{[10]
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