Football Archives | Pickology

Playoff Football Pools – New for 2016!

December 28, 2016 by hpadmin

Due to a number of requests, HostedPools has added a pair of popular playoff football pool options for the 2016 NFL playoffs. We have been running pools of these types off-site for a number of years, and finally were able to add them to the site, thanks to some of the background changes made last off-season. Both formats will be available 2 weeks prior to the NFL playoffs each season, although picks won’t be available until all 12 playoff teams have been seeded.

Survivor Playoff Football Pool

Each week of the NFL playoff schedule, you pick a team to win their game. You may only pick a team one time for the duration of the playoff tournament. If they win their game, you move on. If they lose, or you run out of teams available to select, you’re eliminated. The last entry remaining is the winner. If multiple teams survive through the final, split the prize pool between them.

Bracket/Pick’Em Playoff Football Pool

Pick the entire playoff tournament bracket (remembering to reseed the teams for the Divisional round) prior to the first game. For each correct pick, you earn points, with correct picks in later rounds being more valuable. The entry with the most points at the end of the playoffs is the winner. If multiple teams are tied, you may split the pot. You may also use a tiebreaker to determine the ultimate winner.

More Information/Create Pool

Pricing

Playoff football pools will start at the same base price as regular season pools, but you’ll be able to have twice as many entries included, with the first tier being up to 50 entries. If you managed a regular season football pool in the same season, you may be eligible for further discounts on your playoff pool. Contact us for details.

Note: We’re also planning on adding similar playoff hockey options for the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Pick 5 Football Pool on Hosted Pools

The Pick 5 Football Pool is our newest offering at HostedPools. It’s a variation on the basic Pick’em Football Pool, where you only select 5 games each week instead of the 13 to 16 that are usually on the schedule. It’s become quite a popular set up, as there is a huge one run by one of the Vegas Hotels for serious money, dubbed the SuperContest. You can set up your own version with us!

Pick 5 Football Pool Basics

For each week of the NFL regular season, you pick the winners of 5 different games for the week. Each pick you make is against the spread, so if you take the favourite, they have to win, and cover the spread for you to earn a point. If you take the underdog, and they lose by less than the spread, you earn a point. If the team you pick “pushes” (the home team score plus the spread value, equals the visitors score), you earn a half a point for that game.

On HostedPools, our deadlines are always at 1pm (Eastern) on Sundays, but we allow you to select a team from an earlier game as long as your pick is in prior to the listed game time.

Pick 5 Football Pool Options

The Spread

Pick 5 Football Pools generally use The Spread, but if you have more casual fans/entrants, you could always make them pick 5 games straight up.

Set Up Your Pick 5 Football Pool

Loser Football Pool on Hosted Pools

The Loser Football Pool is hands down our favourite football pool at HostedPools.com. It’s actually the pool that started it all, as we were setting one up and were unable to find any sites that had this format. As far as I know, we’re still the only one offering it.

The Loser Pool is a very unique format, and is a great change for people bored of the same old pick’em type pool. It’s a great challenge for even the best of cappers.

Loser Football Pool Basics

Every NFL team is assigned a point value for the season, which is the first round draft order for simplicity’s sake. The defending champion is worth 32 points, while the team with the worst record, earning the first overall pick is only worth 1 point.

For each week of the NFL season, including playoffs, you pick a team to lose their game. If they lose, you add the point value of that team to your running total for the season. If they win or the game ends in a tie, you get no points for that week. There is no restriction to the number of times an entry may select a team. At the end of the season, the highest score wins.

On HostedPools, our deadlines are always at 1 pm (Eastern) on Sundays, but we allow you to select a team from an earlier game as long as your pick is in prior to the listed game time.

Loser Football Pool Options

Default Picks

Set up one of our default pick options, so when someone forgets, or is unable to make a pick, they still end up with a selection according to the default pick criteria.

Set Up Your Loser Football Pool

Survivor Football Pool on Hosted Pools

The Survivor Football Pool, sometimes called a Knockout or Elimination Football Pool, is one of the easiest and most common NFL office pools available. It’s the most popular format on HostedPools, with both the most pools and the largest pools. It’s a format where one person will often set up multiple entries to take a shot at the winner take all prize.

Survivor Football Pool Basics

For each week of the NFL regular season, you pick a team to win their game that week. If they win, or manage a rare tie, you proceed to the following week. If they lose, you are eliminated from the pool. Each entry may only select a team once for the duration of the pool. The pool runs until you’re down to only one remaining entry, or the regular season ends.

If the pool makes it to the end of the regular season with multiple entries alive, they would split the prize money equally. Entries may also choose to split the prize once the pool only has a few remaining. We recommend a partial split with entries still playing to be the sole survivor.

On HostedPools, our deadlines are always at 1pm (Eastern) on Sundays, but we allow you to select a team from an earlier game as long as your pick is in prior to the listed game time.

Survivor Football Pool Options

Multiple Lives/Strikes

You can set up your Survivor Football Pool to allow for multiple chances for each entry, so you’re not eliminated until you’ve accumulated the necessary strikes. It’s not a popular option for Football since the pool should last most of the season with enough entries. A better option is a second chance pool.

Double Pick Weeks (coming soon)

If you have a large enough pool, and you want to try and trim the pool down mid-way through the season by adding a double pick week. An entry would have to get both of their picks that week correct to survive to the following week. We have made some modifications to our back end to accomodate these, but they won’t be available until the 2016 season.

Default Picks

Set up one of our default pick options, so when someone forgets, or is unable to make a pick, they still end up with a selection according to the default pick criteria.

Pick Losers

You can flip your Survivor Pool on its head by making your entrants pick against teams instead of for them. So the team picked would have to lose or tie their game in order to proceed to the following week.

Set Up Your Survivor Football Pool

Margin Football Pool on Hosted Pools

The Margin Football Pool is one of the wildest, volatile football pools you’ll ever be a part of. Most often, they go right down to the final week, and no lead ever seems safe, which makes it both stressful, and highly entertaining. They are also sometimes referred to as Plus/Minus Pools.

Margin Football Pool Basics

For each week of the NFL regular season, you pick a team and then your score for that week is based on the outcome of their game. If they win, you add the margin of victory to your running total for the season. If they lose, you deduct the margin of defeat from your running total for the season. Each entry may only select a team once for the duration of the pool. At the end of the regular season, the highest score wins.

On HostedPools, our deadlines are always at 1 pm (Eastern) on Sundays, but we allow you to select a team from an earlier game as long as your pick is in prior to the listed game time.

Margin Football Pool Options

Double Pick Weeks (coming soon)

If you want to add a bit of a wrinkle into your pool, you can set up a couple double pick weeks, which tends to force you into selecting some teams that are in the bottom half of the standings. This adds some degree of difficulty. We have made some modifications to our back end to accomodate these, but they won’t be available until the 2016 season.

Default Picks

Set up one of our default pick options, so when someone forgets, or is unable to make a pick, they still end up with a selection according to the default pick criteria.

Set Up Your Margin Football Pool

Survivor Playoff Football Pool

Bracket/Pick’Em Playoff Football Pool

Pricing

Pick 5 Football Pool Basics

Pick 5 Football Pool Options

The Spread

Loser Football Pool Basics

Loser Football Pool Options

Default Picks

Survivor Football Pool Basics

Survivor Football Pool Options

Multiple Lives/Strikes

Double Pick Weeks (coming soon)

Default Picks

Pick Losers

Margin Football Pool Basics

Margin Football Pool Options

Double Pick Weeks (coming soon)

Default Picks

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