How to Run a Football Pool

Football is an exciting game to watch, either in person or on television. But, unless you have a favorite team or group of players, you generally don't have a personal stake in the outcome of the games. A football pool changes that. Football pools are common among groups of friends or co-workers who pay an entry fee to select squares or make decisions about which team is going to win a certain game to try and win money. Running a football pool requires knowing what type of pool to run, as well as organization, participation and accuracy.

Things You'll Need

  • Ruler
  • Container
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Instructions

  1. Football Squares Pool

    • 1

      Set up a football squares pool where competitors pay an entry fee to purchase squares on a game board, which has numbers, from zero to nine, that are entered randomly on the game board.

    • 2

      Draw a square on an 8 1/2-by-11-inch piece of paper as large as possible using a ruler.

    • 3

      Draw a line about 1/4 inch vertically into the box to the right of the box's far left line. Draw a line about 1/4 inch horizontally into the box below to the box's upper line.

    • 4

      Use the ruler to raw nine equal vertical lines between the line inside the box and the line at the far right edge of the box. Repeat the process and draw nine equal horizontal lines between the line inside at the top of the box and the lower edge of the box. Place the names of the competing football teams on the outside of the box, with one name on the side and one name at the top.

    • 5

      Have participants choose their boxes and pay their entry fees.

    • 6

      Write the numbers zero through nine on small pieces of paper, fold them and put them in a small container. Invite one of the competitors to randomly select numbers from the container for you to put in the blank squares in the far left column. Repeat for the number for the top row.

    • 7

      Pay any players whose squares match the last digits of the game's score at the end of each quarter and the end of the game.

    Football Pick 'Em Pool

    • 8

      Create a football pick 'em pool where players pick the winner of each game played each week, paying an entry fee when they make their submission. Pay winners who choose the most winners in a given week, reserving 10 percent of the money taken in each week to pay an overall winner (the player who has made the most correct picks over the course of the entire season).

    • 9

      Draw up a week-by-week schedule of games using a software program, them by visiting team at home team.

    • 10

      Choose one game per week --- typically the Monday night game --- to be the tiebreaker. Place blank underlined space next to each team's name and have participants enter what they believe will be the final score of the game.

    • 11

      Print up copies of the sheet weekly and hand them out to participants. Have them circle who they believe the winning team will be for every game and fill out the tiebreaker information.

    • 12

      Use a spreadsheet program to keep track of winners by week and overall and pay the winners before handing out the sheets for the next week's games.