Running Your Pool

The commissioner’s guide

The short version: set up the sheet, add your players, and collect their money however your group already pays each other. Only once you’ve got it, tick Paid and send them their link. Lock picks before kickoff, draw the numbers, and the live score does the rest.

1. Set up the sheet

On the home page, fill in the pool name, your name, the two teams, the price per square and how the pot is split across the quarters, then hit Start the pool.

You’ll get your commissioner link. Save it somewhere safe, like a note or a text to yourself. It’s how you get back in to run the pool, and anyone who has it can make changes. On this device, the home page also lists your pools.

2. Decide how people pay you

The site never touches money. Players pay you directly, using whatever your group already uses:

• Venmo, Cash App, Zelle or PayPal: easy to track, since every payment has a name and a note. Ask people to note how many squares they’re buying.
• Cash: fine for an office or a watch party. Keep a list.

Tell everyone the price per square and your handle up front, for example in the group text where you announce the pool. Payment apps have their own rules about what they can be used for, so check them, or stick to cash.

3. Add players, and send links only once they’ve paid

Under Add players, enter each person’s name, their initials and how many squares they’re buying. They start out unpaid, and an unpaid player can’t pick anything.

When their money arrives, tick Paid next to their name. That creates their personal link. Tap Send link to text it to them. On a phone it opens your share sheet; on a computer it copies the link.

• Each player picks only their own squares, up to the number they paid for, from their own phone.
• Two people can’t end up with the same square. Whoever taps first gets it.
• If someone’s payment bounces or they back out, untick Paid. Their link stops working.
• Someone without a phone? Tap Pick for them and choose their squares yourself.

4. Share the sheet with everyone else

Copy view-only link gives you a link anyone can watch: the board filling in, the numbers and the scores, without being able to change anything. Post it in the group chat.

5. Set a deadline, then lock picks

Set Picks lock at to a time before kickoff. After that, players can’t pick or swap. When you’re ready, hit Lock picks. You can reopen picks if someone needs a late change, until the numbers are drawn.

If some paid players never picked, Fill unpicked at random places their remaining squares for them.

Unsold squares: if the board isn’t full, decide the rule before the game. Common choices are that an unsold winning square rolls its payout to the next quarter, or goes to the house. Tell your players.

6. Draw the numbers

Once picks are locked, hit Draw numbers. The numbers are drawn once, on the server, so every phone shows the same draw at the same moment. It can’t be redone, so make sure the board looks right first.

7. Game day

Leave Auto from ESPN on and the live score fills itself in. Each quarter is recorded when it ends, and every sheet shows the winner. The red rings show which squares are likeliest to win from the current score. Updates can run a minute or so behind the TV.

If anything ever looks wrong, untick Auto from ESPN and type the scores in yourself. That always wins over the feed.

8. Pay the winners

After each quarter, pay that quarter’s winner the amount shown on the scores card, the same way you collected. Take a screenshot of the finished sheet so there’s a record of the numbers, the squares and the winners.

Before you start

Rules on sports pools differ by state and country, especially when the organizer keeps a cut. Check what’s allowed where you and your players are. See the Terms for more.