How to Play
Everything you need to know about Dave's Football Pool
Overview
Each week during the NFL season you pick the winner of every game and assign a confidence point value to each pick. The player with the most total points at the end of the season wins the pool.
Season buy-in is configurable by admin (currently $52 per person). Weekly winners are paid from a $2 per player weekly pool, and the remaining season pot is paid out 50% / 30% / 20% to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd with tie splits.
Making Your Picks
Navigate to the Picks page each week. If you want a guided tour, use the Show me how button on that page.
For each game, tap or click the team you think will win.
Choose the confidence number for each matchup from the dropdown so higher numbers mean higher confidence.
Confidence values are assigned automatically from your ordering — no manual number entry needed.
Hit Save Picks when you're done. You can change your picks any time before the week locks.
Feeling stuck? Use the I'm Feeling Lucky! button to randomly fill in all your picks and shuffle the confidence order.
Scoring
If your picked team wins, you earn the confidence points you assigned to that game.
If your picked team loses, you earn 0 points for that game.
The weekly leaderboard ranks all players by total points earned that week.
Weekly prize: the highest weekly score wins $2 x number of players. If multiple players tie for first that week, the weekly prize is split evenly.
Season payout: after weekly prizes are paid out, the remaining pot is split 50% / 30% / 20% for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place season finishers. Tie for 1st splits 1st+2nd shares; tie for 2nd splits 2nd+3rd shares.
The season standings on the Home page track cumulative points, podium finishes, and season game winnings.
Week Lock
Each week is locked before the first game kicks off — typically Thursday night or Sunday morning if there is no Thursday game.
Once locked, no changes to your picks are accepted.
A lock icon appears on the Picks page when the week is closed.
Make sure to submit your picks before the lock time — late submissions are not accepted.
Auto Picks (Missed Deadline)
If you don't submit picks before the week locks, the system automatically fills them in for you — but intentionally at a disadvantage:
Team selection: The underdog is always picked (the team with the positive point spread). If no odds are available, the away team is chosen.
Confidence points: Assigned inversely by spread — the biggest underdog (hardest game to win) gets the lowest confidence value, and the smallest underdog gets the highest.
The result is a set of picks weighted toward the least likely outcomes, keeping late or absent players from accidentally scoring well.
You will receive a notification when auto picks are assigned to you.
Tips
Match confidence to your picks
Whether you rank cards or choose confidence values directly, make sure your highest-confidence picks get the biggest numbers.
Submit early
Don't wait until Thursday night — submit as soon as the week opens so you never miss the lock.
Check the Results page
Review past weeks on the Results page to see what the top players picked.
Watch Game Day
The Game Day page shows live scores and how everyone's picks are trending in real time.