Squares pool questions
How the game works, how the money works, and what happens when it does not go to plan.
How squares works
How do squares work?
Everyone claims squares on a 10×10 grid: 100 in total. Once every square is taken, each row and each column is given a random digit from 0 to 9. At the end of each period you take the last digit of both teams' scores: the square where those two digits meet wins that period's share of the pot.
When are the numbers drawn?
The instant the hundredth square is claimed, and never before. Drawing early is the single easiest way to make a squares pool unfair: anyone who can see which digits are still free can pick around them. Nobody, including the host, chooses the numbers or can redraw them once they are set.
What are the best numbers in squares?
In football, 0 and 7 are the strongest digits, because so many scores are built from touchdowns and field goals; 3 and 4 are next. The worst are 2, 5 and 9. That is exactly why the numbers are drawn at random after the board fills: if anyone could pick, everyone would pick the same handful.
What happens if the game goes to overtime?
Your choice, set when you create the board. "End of game" settles the final prize on the score after overtime; "4th quarter" settles it on the regulation score and ignores whatever happens after. Quarter payouts are unaffected either way.
Can the same person win more than one quarter?
Yes. Each period is settled on its own, so one square can hit twice, or all four times if the last digits happen to come back around.
Money
How much does Pool Prophet cost to use?
Nothing. There is no fee and no cut taken from the pot: the buy-in you set is exactly what your group pays, and the whole pot goes to the winners.
How does paying for a square actually work?
Claiming squares authorizes a hold on your card, the same as a hotel does. Nothing is captured until all 100 squares are taken. If the board never fills, every hold is released and nobody pays a penny for a pool that did not happen.
What buy-in can I set?
Anything from $1 to $10,000 a square. You also choose how many squares one entry buys, 1, 2, 4, 5 or 10, so a $10 entry of 5 squares makes the same $1,000 pot as a $50 entry of 1.
How do I decide the payout split?
You set a percentage for each quarter and they have to total 100% between them. A common split weights the final score heaviest, 20/20/20/40, because that is the ending most people are actually watching for.
Can I give part of the pot to a club or charity?
Yes. Turn on the club or charity share when you create the board, name where it goes, and pick its cut: 10, 25, 50 or 100 percent, or anything else you type. The quarter payouts rebalance themselves around whatever you choose so the board always adds up to 100%.
Running a pool
Which games can I build a board on?
Any NFL or NBA game on the schedule, up to about six weeks ahead. You can build a board long before anyone can pay for it: entries open six days before kickoff, because a card hold only stays valid about a week and the earliest ones would expire before the board filled.
Why can't I run a board on hockey or baseball?
Squares pays on the last digit of each score, which only works if the games reach those digits. NHL and MLB games are usually settled in low single figures, so 7, 8 and 9 almost never come up and a large part of the board is dead the moment it is drawn. People would be paying the same for squares that cannot realistically win.
How many people does it take to fill a board?
Fewer than a hundred, in practice. Most pools run on ten to thirty people claiming several squares each, because you decide how many squares one entry buys, at 5 squares an entry, twenty people fill the grid exactly.
How do people join my pool?
You get one private link and a short join code. Send either to whoever you want in: the group chat, the family thread, the office channel. They claim squares straight from their phone.
When do entries close?
Ten minutes before kickoff. If the board has not filled by then the pool is cancelled and every card hold is released automatically.
How will I know what happened?
By email. You get one the moment the board fills and the numbers are drawn, and another the instant one of your squares hits.
Privacy and accounts
Can strangers find my pool?
No. There is no public list of pools and no browse page: the only way to see a board is to have the link its host sent you.
Do my friends need to download an app?
No app, just the link. They will need a free account to claim a square, the same as signing into any site, so the board knows whose squares are whose and where to send a win.
Ready to set one up?
It takes about a minute to pick a game, set the buy-in and share your link. Everything else runs itself.
Running one for the big game? Super Bowl squares