How to create a football pool for friends and family

Posted on October 29, 2009 by James W

The super bowl fever is fast catching up, and it’s party-time for all the crazy football fans out there. A good way to add spice to the game watching on television is to make a football pool for family and friends. A keenly contested game on the television, chips and cookies to munch, great company with family and friends and a little betting on the side, just like the real “NFL betting” can only make things hot and more interesting. Making a football pool is a pretty cool idea if you want the NFL games come alive for you in your living rooms as the results of the games will mean much more than game results. A little wager always helps to add seriousness and excitement to the games. To set the ball rolling, you need a few essential things like colored pens, construction paper or cardboard, marker pens, poster boards, and of course, the television. Now, you’ve everything you need to make your grid and start the pool.

First, get the paper and pen. Draw a 10*10 grid on the paper. On the top of the grid, above each square, write the numbers 0 to 9. In the same way, write 1-9 on the left hand side of the grid adjacent to each square. Write the names of the two teams, one on the top of the grid (A) and the other on the left side (B). Now you have your pool grid ready for play. Each square could mean one unit, which you could sell to your friends and family members, and you could have a 100 unit pay-off (the total number of units/squares in the grid). You can sell as many squares as you want to a single player; the choice is with the player who might want to bet higher or lower, according to his or her wish. However, it’s best if you could sell off all the squares. You can write the initials of the buyer of the units in the squares, he or she buys.

The rules of the pool are simple. The purpose of the game is to have the combination of digits that match the last digits of the match scores. Payouts are at the end of each quarter, and please remember that the second digit is the one that’s always used. For instance, if a team gets 25 points at the end of a quarter, the winning number will be the number 5. You can also flex the game rules to have the payouts at the end of the game, as well. This will mean a much larger payout in comparison to the payouts each quarter. Now, let’s move on to the game. Watch the match live on television, as the winner is decided by the points scored by each team in the actual game. For example, if the Miami Dolphins (A) and Chicago Bears (B) are playing, and if the Bears score 21 points and the Dolphins score 25 points, the winner of the pool is decided by matching the second digits of the score which is (A) 1 and (B) 5 on the grid. If you own the square that matches the co-ordinates, then, you’re the lucky winner! Sounds like child’s play, doesn’t it?

I also got this crazy idea when stumbling across an online bingo game. I thought it might be fun to participate in football bingo. Everyone knows how to play bingo so guys: you could even get your wives involved in this one. Just design a bingo card or print out the one I made up and throw twenty-four football terms in a hat before the game starts. Start drawing phrases out of the hat and let the betting and competition begin.

Try it this football season!