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 are the five formats Pooldit runs, what each one is actually like to be in for four months, and who it suits badly. All five run on the same engine — the same live sportsbook lines, the same automatic scoring, the same built-in autopick strategies — 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 five
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, and free
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
Everybody gets the same budget of nits each week — 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, and it asks more of a casual player than any of the other four.
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.
What they share
Whichever you choose, the same machinery runs it. Real consensus sportsbook spreads, totals and moneyline prices land on every slate automatically, so nobody types a number into a spreadsheet and nobody plays off a line somebody copied down wrong. Picks lock at kickoff on their own. Scoring is automatic and standings update themselves.
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 in any of the five. 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. Every pick also keeps the exact line and price it was made at, which is what lets a season be graded honestly afterwards rather than approximately.
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 five 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 five, taking the full slate from each or only the games you curate out of them, and MLB straight-pick pools 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 straight-pick NFL, College Football and MLB pools is free, up to 3 at a time, and playing is free in any pool and any format. Pooldit is in open beta and every feature is free for everyone through October; from November 1, commissioners will pay $5 a month for unlimited pools across every league and format. Billing has not opened — every button on this page creates a free account today.
Five, 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. 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. It is also free to run 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 lines, 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: straight-pick NFL, College Football and MLB pools are free to run, up to 3 at a time. Every other format, survivor included, is free for everyone during the open beta through October and comes with Players Club after that.
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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