Pool types
Everyone knows what a pick’em pool is, and almost nobody has thought hard about whether it is the right one for their group. Here is every format Pooldit runs — the weekly ones for a whole season, and a postseason bracket for one tournament — what each is actually like to be in, and who it suits badly. Every format runs on the same engine — the same automatic locks, the same automatic scoring, the same standings — so the choice is genuinely just a choice.
Pooldit is not a gambling site — no real money, ever. Pools play for dits, an in-app currency that keeps score of whatever your group already agreed on.
The formats
Not the scoring rules — every card below opens the page that has those, with the tiebreakers and a worked example. This is the other half of the decision, the one nobody writes down: how the season actually feels from inside it.
The default, free straight up
Everybody picks winners — or sides against a real line, if the commissioner switches the pool to against-the-spread. Most correct takes the week. Nobody needs the rules explained, nobody is eliminated, and a bad September does not end anybody’s season. It is the right answer for most first-year groups and the reason it is the most common pool there is.
For the group that argues
The same picks, ranked in units by how sure you are. It rewards judgement instead of volume — a 7-6 week can beat a 9-4 week — and it turns Sunday into an argument about which of your own picks you actually believe. The format most long-running office pools drift into, and the wrong one for a group that will not do the ranking.
High drama, short season
One team a week, never the same team twice, and one loss is the end. Brutally simple and genuinely nerve-wracking — with the honest catch that half your group may be watching rather than playing by October. An empty sheet is graded as a loss, which is how most players actually go out; setting an autopick agent means it does not have to be how you do.
For the odds crowd
A credits pool, or a play-money bankroll pool: everybody gets a budget of nits — that pool’s own play-money currency — to spend across moneylines, spreads and totals at real sportsbook prices. It is the format for a group that already talks in numbers.
Nobody wins for weeks
Pick a handful of selections and every one has to land. Most weeks nobody takes it and the pot carries, which is exactly the appeal: by November there is a number on the board that has everyone’s attention. It is also the format where you can be right about most of it and win nothing, week after week.
One tournament, one lock
One entry for a whole postseason instead of a sheet every week. Everybody spreads the same units across the tournament’s teams before the first game, and after that the only job is watching series end. Under way for the 2026 MLB postseason, whose entries locked at its first game — the right pool for a group that tunes in when the playoffs start, and the wrong one for a group that wants something to do every week.
Running one for the MLB playoffs
The 2026 MLB postseason bracket is under way — it is free for everyone playing in it, and its entries locked at the first game, so a new one cannot be started; other tournament brackets will be Players Club when they arrive.
What they share
Whichever you choose, the same machinery runs it. Entries lock on their own, scoring is automatic, and the standings update themselves — nobody tallies anything, including the commissioner. In the weekly formats, real consensus sportsbook spreads, totals and moneyline prices also land on every slate automatically, so nobody types a number into a spreadsheet and nobody plays off a line somebody copied down wrong.
In every weekly format, everybody can set an autopick agent so a missed deadline does not have to cost the week: a built-in strategy — favorite, underdog, home, away — takes one tap. A bracket entry is filled in by hand, once, before the first game. The build-your-own agent, the one you write in plain English, works in pick’em, confidence and Pick X, and is not offered in survivor or allowance pools, where a pick is not a per-game side for it to resolve. In every weekly format a pick also keeps the price it carried, and your record is priced at those odds — so a season of picks compounds into a career Unit ROI that is priced rather than estimated.
That is worth naming because it is not how this category usually works. Bankroll games and parlay games are typically a different product, or a different site, from the one running your office pick’em. Here they are settings on the same thing, which is why running two pools at once is not twice the administration.
How the live sportsbook lines work · Autopick and custom picking agents · Whether you are any good, measured
Leagues
The format is one axis; the games on the sheet are the other, and it is a genuinely separate decision — so it gets its own page rather than a second argument here. The short version: NFL and College Football can share a single pool in any of the weekly formats, taking the full slate from each or only the games you curate out of them, and MLB pools played straight up (no spreads) are free too. If the two-league question is the one you are actually weighing, start there instead.
NFL and College Football in one pool · Questions we get asked most
Running NFL, College Football and MLB pools straight up, no spreads, is free, and playing is free in any pool and any format. Free for everyone through October — open beta, all features on. From Nov 1: playing in pools stays free forever; commissioners/power users $5/month. Players Club is one price for unlimited pools across every league and format. Billing has not opened — every button on this page creates a free account today.
On Pooldit: a pick’em pool is straight winners, one point each. A confidence pool is the same picks ranked by how sure you are, so being right about the right game is what wins. A survivor pool is one team a week with no repeats and no second chances. An allowance pool gives everyone the same weekly play-money budget to spread across moneylines, spreads and totals at real prices. A Pick X parlay pool needs every one of your selections to land, and carries the pot when nobody manages it. Beyond the weekly formats, a bracket pool follows one tournament instead of a slate — live now for the 2026 MLB postseason, where every player gives each team its own units and a team earns them every series it wins. Squares, auctions and salary-cap games are common elsewhere and are not offered here.
Pick’em, almost always. Everybody already knows the rules, nothing needs explaining in the group text, and nobody is knocked out in week 2 and left watching. Run it straight up — winners, not sides against a line — and it is free to host on NFL, College Football and MLB. Confidence is the natural upgrade once your group has done a season and wants the standings to reward judgement rather than volume.
Yes, and plenty of groups do — a pick’em for everyone and a survivor for the people who want the anxiety. Every format runs on the same automatic locks, scoring and standings, so a second pool is a second pool, not a second thing to administer. On cost, and the two halves are different: NFL, College Football and MLB pools played straight up (no spreads) are free to run. Every other format, survivor included — and any pool switched to against-the-spread — comes with Players Club. Free for everyone through October — open beta, all features on. From Nov 1: playing in pools stays free forever; commissioners/power users $5/month.
Not mid-season, and that is deliberate: picks are graded against the rules they were made under, so changing the format underneath people who have already played would rewrite results they earned. Choose the format at setup, and start a new pool next season if the group wants something different.
Pick one
Set the pool up free, send one invite link, and the site handles the lines, the locks, the scoring and the standings for the rest of the season.
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