How to Run a Football Pool

What do you need to run a football pool?

To run a football pool, choose NFL, College Football, or both; decide which games and pick types will be available; set the starting virtual points and pick limits; establish the rules for submitted picks; invite your players; and keep one shared record of picks, balances, results, and standings.

1. Choose NFL, College Football, or both

Start with the games your group actually wants to follow. Some pools focus only on the NFL. Others prefer College Football. A combined pool lets the same group follow College Football on Saturday and the NFL on Sunday without maintaining separate competitions.

myfbpool supports NFL-only pools, College Football-only pools, and pools that combine both.

2. Let the Betting Board build itself — while keeping commissioner control

Automatic mode is designed to handle the weekly Betting Board for the commissioner. Eligible games and available lines are added as they become available, reducing the need to build the board by hand each week.

Automation does not remove commissioner control. An unopened game can be removed when no picks have been placed, and commissioners can adjust current market lines for future picks when they believe a change is appropriate. Accepted picks keep the line and odds they were accepted at.

Manual mode remains available for commissioners who prefer to build the board themselves.

3. Choose the types of picks

A traditional office pool may use simple point spreads. A sportsbook-style football pool can offer more choices.

Depending on commissioner settings, myfbpool can offer:

• spreads;
• moneylines;
• totals;
• parlays;
• teasers.

All activity inside myfbpool uses virtual points. myfbpool does not accept deposits, hold player funds, or process gambling transactions.

4. Set the virtual bankroll and pick limits

Decide how many virtual points each member starts with and how much they can use on an individual pick.

A commissioner can set a minimum amount per pick and, when desired, a maximum. These rules help define whether the pool feels conservative, aggressive, or somewhere in between.

The virtual bankroll adds strategy because members must decide not only what to pick, but how much of their available points to put behind the pick.

5. Decide how spreads and totals are priced

For straight spread and total picks, commissioners can choose a simpler even-money approach or sportsbook-style market pricing.

With Even Money, qualifying straight spread and total picks are priced at +100. With Market Odds, the available sportsbook-style odds are used. Moneyline picks continue to use market odds.

Set this before the pool starts so every member understands how winning picks affect the virtual bankroll.

6. Make the pick rules clear

Members should know when a pick becomes final and when other players will be able to see it.

In myfbpool, accepted picks are final and can’t be changed. Future selections remain hidden from other members until the game associated with that selection kicks off. After that lock point, accepted selections can become visible while later selections remain hidden.

Clear rules prevent arguments later in the season. Use the commissioner rules guide to settle these choices.

7. Decide how active members need to be

Some groups are happy to let members play at their own pace. Others want everyone participating consistently.

myfbpool includes an optional Weekly Wager Requirement that can require members to wager a commissioner-selected percentage of their virtual points during designated weeks. The system tracks progress and can send requirement and reminder emails.

This feature is optional and should be used when it fits the way your group wants to play.

8. Decide whether players can get a second chance

A virtual-bankroll pool can become less interesting for someone whose balance gets very low.

Respawn is an optional commissioner-controlled feature that can restore a configured amount of virtual points to a member who meets the pool's qualification rules. The commissioner determines the qualifying balance, Respawn amount, weekly limit, season limit, and final available week.

This gives commissioners a defined way to keep qualifying players involved without making one-off decisions during the season.

9. Invite the group and start the pool

Once the settings are ready, invite the members and give them time to register before starting the pool.

Commissioners can also decide whether late registration will be available after the pool begins. If late registration is enabled, invitations and registration can remain available for the permitted period.

Members then make their own picks and follow pending picks, completed results, virtual points, and standings online.

10. Give members quick access from their phones

myfbpool can be installed on supported iPhone, iPad, and Android devices as a mobile web app.

Once added to the Home Screen, myfbpool opens in its own app-style window and gives members direct access to the same live pool they use on the website. There is no separate account or separate App Store or Google Play download. An Internet connection is required.

11. Let the software handle the weekly accounting

The hardest part of a spreadsheet football pool is not creating it. It is maintaining it every week.

Someone has to keep track of games, lines, picks, results, balances, standings, and rule adjustments. Football pool software moves that work into one shared system so members see the same information and the commissioner is not responsible for maintaining a separate workbook.