:: Pick'em Pools

The standard rules

1. Each week, the pool has a slate of games. You make the number of picks the pool requires -- either every game or a set number of picks.
2. Each pick is graded by the pool's scoring mode: the winner, the point spread, or the game total.
3. A correct pick is a win and a wrong pick is a loss. Every pick is worth one point, unless the pool turns on Best Bets.
4. Nobody is eliminated. Every entry plays every week of the season.
5. Picks can be changed until they lock, which is each game's own start unless the pool sets an earlier lock.
6. The entry with the highest score at the end of the season wins. Pools can add weekly prizes.

How a pick is scored

The commissioner chooses the Pick Mode, and it decides what a pick means. There are three possible formats:

Spreads and totals are graded against the line you took, which is stored with your pick. Whatever the line does later in the week, you are graded against the number you picked.

In a Spreads pool the commissioner also picks a Spread Mode. A Static spread is fixed once it is posted, so everyone picks against the same number and can change a pick until it locks. A Live spread moves with the market, each entrant's pick takes the number showing when it is confirmed, and a confirmed pick cannot be changed. Spreads + Totals pools use the same Static or Live choice for both the spread and the total.

Spreads + Totals is offered for the NFL, college football, the NBA and college basketball.

Picks per week

Picks Per Week is the other big setting. The commissioner picks one of two shapes:

• All Games. You must pick every game in the week's slate. In football that means the full NFL slate, or the games the college pool is scoped to.
• Fixed Number of Picks. You make exactly N picks from the slate. Football pools can set anywhere from 1 to 16 picks, and basketball pools up to 30. If a week has fewer games than N, every game is required.

Fewer picks reward conviction and a full slate rewards consistency. Five picks against the spread each week is a popular shape for football pools.

College football pools choose which games are on the slate: the whole FBS, specific conferences, Top 25 matchups, or a list the commissioner publishes each week. See the college football pick'em page for those options.

Spreads + Totals pools

A Spreads + Totals pool can ask for a spread pick, a total pick, or both on each game. Every spread pick and every total pick is graded on its own and counts as one pick toward the week. How the pool combines them depends on Picks Per Week.

Under Fixed Number, the commissioner's Restrict to one pick (spread or total) per game setting decides whether you may take both on the same game.

A worked example

Take a spread pool that requires five picks a week, with Best Bets on and a winning Best Bet worth 2 points, and the push rule set to Half Point. Your five picks grade as three covers, one loss and one push, and one of the covers was your Best Bet.

Your record for the week is 3–1–1 and your week is worth 4.5 points: the record is worth 3.5, and the Best Bet adds a 1 point bonus on top.

Now suppose you forget pick 3 and only submit the other four. The missing pick is a loss, so the week is a 2–2–1 record worth 2.5, plus the same 1 point Best Bet bonus for 3.5. Nothing makes up for it later in the week.

Ties and pushes

A push is a pick that lands exactly on the number: a team that wins by exactly the spread, or a game that finishes exactly on the total. A straight-up game can also end in a tie (in practice, only applicable to the NFL). Commissioners set how ties/pushes are scored:

• Half Point. The pick scores half of a win. This is the default for a pick'em pool.
• Win. The pick scores as a win.
• Loss. The pick scores as a loss.

A pool with static spreads can avoid the question with Force Hooks, which moves every whole-number line a half point so that no pick can push. Live spread pools move with the market, so Force Hooks is only offered for pools with static lines. The glossary explains the spread, a push and a hook.

Best Bets

Best Bets let entrants flag their most confident picks each week. They are an optional setting, and can be played two ways. At the default of 1 point, Best Bets only add a separate Best Bet record to the standings. If the commissioner raises the value, a winning Best Bet is worth extra points.

• Best Bets per week. The commissioner sets how many picks can be designed as Best Bets.
• A winning Best Bet is worth anywhere from 1 point (no bonus) to 10 points.
• A Best Bet can be any pick, including an Over or Under in a totals pool.
• A losing Best Bet is still exactly one loss. Only wins earn the bonus.
• A Best Bet that pushes is worth half the point value under the Half Point rule. If the pool scores pushes as wins, it earns the full bonus.

You choose Best Bets on the picks you have made, and can cancel one or move it until its game starts. In a Live spread pool a pick cannot be changed once it is confirmed, and neither can its Best Bet once it has been set. A pool's Best Bet settings cannot be changed after the pool has begun.

Missed picks and insurance

If you finish a week with fewer picks than the pool requires, each missing pick is scored as a loss.

Pools can offer missed-pick insurance. The commissioner chooses between no insurance, a pool-wide policy, and an entry-specific one where each entrant chooses a policy from a list. When a game locks without a pick from an insured entry, the pool fills the slot with a pick chosen by the policy, and that pick scores like any other pick. The policies include the favorite or the underdog (straight up or against the spread), the home or road team, Over or Under, and, for a pool-wide policy, a random pick or the most popular pick in the pool. A pool-wide pick'em policy can also score a missed week at one point below the pool's worst complete score. A pick filled by insurance is never a Best Bet.

Standings and ties

The standings are organized by scores earned from wins, plus half a point for each tie/push the pool scores as a half point, plus any Best Bet bonus. The Record column shows W–L–P, and a pool with Best Bets also shows a Best Bet record beside it.

There is generally no tiebreaker. Entries on the same score share a rank. Prize money is handled the same way: when a tie spans the edge of a paid place, the entries tied there split that place's prize evenly.

When picks lock

In an NFL pool, a pick locks at the earlier of its own game's kickoff or the weekly deadline the commissioner sets, so you can still change a Sunday afternoon pick after the early games have started. A college football pool offers three lock modes: First Game of Week locks every pick at the week's first kickoff, First Game on Saturday locks them at the first Saturday kickoff while weeknight picks lock at their own kickoff, and Individual Games locks each pick at its own kickoff. A Live spread pick locks the moment it is confirmed.

A game that is postponed or cancelled has no result, so a pick on it is left out of your record.

NBA and college basketball pick’em

Basketball plays almost every night, so the "week" works differently. An NBA week runs Monday through Sunday and a college basketball week runs Tuesday through Monday. The commissioner can play every day of that week or only a window of it, such as Friday through Sunday, and only games that tip off inside the window are on the slate. The Create Pool page shows how many games the busiest week would hold.

Scoring, push rules, Best Bets and missed picks all work as above. A college basketball commissioner also scopes which games count, with a Top 25, specific conferences or all of Division I. A pool can require every game on the slate or a fixed number of picks, up to 30, which keeps a large slate manageable.

Spread lines post the night before a game or the morning of it, so two rules protect them. A Spreads pool that plays more than one day cannot lock at the first game of the week, and a Spreads or Spreads + Totals pool cannot use a Custom lock. Both would freeze games before their lines exist. Those pools lock each game at its own tip-off. A single-day Spreads pool may still lock at the first game of the period.

The lock mode cannot be changed once the pool has begun. Once any entry holds a pick, the days the pool plays can't be changed either.

Prizes and buy-in tiers

No pick'em pool needs money to run, and ALA does not collect buy-ins or pay out prizes. For groups that play for money, a commissioner can track a season prize, weekly prizes, or both.

• Season prize. A winner-take-all pool pays the top score. Otherwise the commissioner splits the pot among the top places by percentage.
• Weekly prize. The entry with the best score in a single week wins it, a fixed amount per week or a share of the pot. A tie for the week splits it evenly.
• Tiered buy-ins. One pool can have up to three buy-in levels, each with its own prize pool, all in the same standings. A higher tier competes for the prizes in every tier below it as well as its own. Weekly prizes come from the lowest tier. Entrants choose a tier when they join and can change it until the first game starts.

Play a pick’em pool

ALA hosts pick'em pools for the NFL, college football, the NBA and college basketball. To set one up, see the settings in Pool Settings, or go straight to Create a Pool.

Keep reading

• ALA Pool Formats: ExplainedGuides to Survivor, Confidence, Pick'em, Credit, and other pool formats
• :: Confidence PoolsYour conviction is your score.
• Sports Pool GlossaryPlain-English definitions for the terms you'll meet in survivor, pick'em, confidence and margin pools.

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.