:: Battle the Bookies
A guide to ALA's most popular original pool format, where entrants make a fixed 100-credit pick on every game's odds.
Battle the Bookies is a "preset" of ALA's Credit Pool format. In BtB, you make one pick on every game, every week, for a fixed 100 credits each. You start at zero, and you either finish the season above water, having beaten the book, or you don't. There is no bankroll to manage and no wager to size, so the only skill left is picking.
It runs on the same engine as the standard credit pool, and this page covers only what the preset fixes.
The rules
- Every entry starts the season with a balance of 0.
- Each week, you make a pick on every game on the board -- on spreads, totals or moneylines.
- Every wager is a fixed 100 credits. You choose the side, never the size.
- A win adds to your balance at the posted price, a loss subtracts 100, and a push returns your stake.
- If you skip a game, you take a 100-credit loss as soon as that game ends.
- Your balance can go negative. The entry with the highest balance at the end of the season wins.
- The pool's lines follow the market all week in real-time, so pick timing matters.
What the preset fixes
Battle the Bookies is a named Credit Pool preset, which keeps every Battle the Bookies pool comparable with every other, and locks particular configuration settings (if you wanted to change any of those locked settings, you could do so by creating a normal Credit pool).
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Starting balance | 0 credits |
| Markets | Spreads, totals and moneylines |
| Selections per week | All Games |
| Stake per wager | 100 credits, minimum and maximum |
| Missed pick penalty | 100 credits per game |
| Exceed credit balance | Yes |
| Juice | On: spreads and totals are priced as the book has them |
| Lines | Live: the board follows the market all week |
| Wagers per game | One |
| Lock time | Each game locks at its own kickoff |
Live lines: when you pick matters
Battle the Bookies is always a live-line pool. You are beating the book at the number it is offering right now, so the board follows the market all week. A wager is graded on the line and price you confirmed, not the number the game closes at, and once it is confirmed it can't be taken back.
That makes the timing of each pick a decision. Two entrants can both take Kansas City, one at −2.5 on Tuesday and one at −4 on Sunday, and they have made different bets: the first needs a win by 3 and the second needs 5. The prices differ as well, so the same winning pick can pay a little more or less depending on when it was made. You get one wager per game, so you can't hedge your way out of an early mistake or add on later.
Each game also locks at its own kickoff, not at a shared weekly deadline. You can wait on a Sunday night game until you have seen what happened in the early ones, but a game you wait on and forget is a missed pick, and costs the 100-credit penalty. If a line moves between your click and your confirm, you are shown the new numbers and asked to confirm again, so you are never booked at a price you did not see.
How early lines are bettable in pools is determined by the pool's Lines Posted setting: 'Always Synced' or 'Block Lookahead Lines'. With Always Synced, a game is on the board whenever the sportsbooks have posted a line for it, even for a later week. Block Lookahead Lines holds a game back until the market re-opens for it, after both teams' previous games are finished. A game that has no line yet can be neither picked nor charged as a miss.
Missed picks and insurance
A skipped game costs a 100-credit loss, the same as a losing pick, charged as soon as the game ends.
Pools can offer missed-pick insurance. An insured entry has its empty games filled with a pick chosen by the pool's policy, so it takes a real result rather than the penalty. The fill is placed at the closing line at that game's kickoff, at the pool's fixed 100-credit stake. Insurance is a setting the commissioner chooses, and it may cost extra.
What beating the book means
With a fixed stake and (if juice is on) a priced line, a typical −110 wager risks 100 to win about 91. You need to win 52.4% of your wagers just to break even. Finishing above zero means you out-picked the market over a full season, and few entrants will.
That makes it the format for a group that likes the lines and wants a plain scoreboard. A pool is usually decided by who has the best record at the end, because every wager is the same size.
Play Battle the Bookies
Choose the Battle the Bookies preset when you create an NFL credit or college football credit pool, from Create a Pool. The Pool Settings page describes each setting.
Keep reading
Ready to set one up? Create a pool. Creating one is free, and the commissioner's pool fee is due 7 days after the pool starts.