How to run an NFL pool with your friends

Running an NFL pool is mostly a handful of decisions made once, before Week 1, and a few habits kept up all season. This is the short version, written for the person in the group chat who ends up in charge.

1. Pick a format everyone can explain in one sentence

If a new member needs a paragraph to understand it, they will not play in Week 3. The common formats, from simplest to most involved:

Straight-up pick'em. Pick the winner of each game. Easy to explain, but a lopsided game is a free point for whoever picks the favorite.
Against the spread. Pick a side of the point spread. It levels good and bad teams, so more games are genuinely open.
Confidence. Rank the week's games by how sure you are. A correct pick scores its rank, so your best read is worth the most.
Survivor. Pick one team to win each week, never the same team twice. Lose and you are out. Short to explain, long to finish.
Small-slate against the spread. Pick a handful of games a week against the spread: a win scores a point, a tie with the spread (a push) scores half.

Many groups run one main format and add a side game on top. Bettor Habits supports Survivor, a small-slate contest and Confidence as free side pools next to the main pick'em.

2. Decide who is in

A pool works best when everyone knows everyone, because the trash talk is half the point. Keep an invite code or a link, approve people yourself, and say up front what happens when someone drops out mid-season. The person who joins in Week 9 and quits in Week 11 is the case to plan for.

3. Set a deadline and keep picks blind until it passes

This is the rule that keeps a pool honest. If picks are visible while people are still choosing, the last person to pick copies the group, and nobody's read is really their own. Hide everyone's picks until the deadline, then show them all at once.

Put the deadline before the games it covers, not at kickoff. Bettor Habits, for example, closes each slate at 11 PM Eastern the evening before its first game: Thursday to Saturday games close on Wednesday night, and Sunday and Monday games close on Saturday night. The gap between the deadline and kickoff is a deliberate review window, when everyone can read the room's picks before a single game is played.

4. Write the rules down before Week 1

Two things are worth removing before they cause an argument:

A line that moved after someone picked. Decide that the number a member picked at is the number that grades their pick, and make sure they can see that number when they confirm.
A score someone graded by hand. Use one source for final scores, decide how a push and a missed pick count, and if you can, let software do the grading so it is never your call.

Also settle the tie-breaker (most wins in the last week is common), what a missed pick scores, and what happens to a game that is postponed.

5. Keep the money question separate

Many pools play for money, and the rules about that differ from place to place, so check yours before you collect anything. Bettor Habits keeps it simple by design: everything is units and bragging rights, and nothing is ever paid out, so there is nothing for the commissioner to collect, hold or chase.

6. Keep it alive all season

Pools tend to fade around midseason when the leaderboard stops changing. What keeps people playing is something new to look at each week: a recap, a board to talk on, and a reason to care about their own picks even when they are out of the running.

That last one is the idea behind Bettor Habits. After a few weeks, the interesting question stops being "who is winning?" and becomes "how do I actually pick?": which markets you do best in, whether you bet bigger after a loss, and how your typical week compares with the group's. A pool that shows people their own habits gives everyone something to play for. For a way to read your own record, see the breakeven calculator.