Frequently Asked Questions
Short answers about running a free sports pool on Sportpoolz. If you want the steps rather than the summary, the help guide walks through each screen.
General
What is a sports pool?
A sports pool is a friendly competition where a group predicts the outcomes of real games — picking winners, beating the spread, or ranking picks by confidence. Everyone's picks are scored against the actual results, standings update as games finish, and the sharpest forecaster tops the leaderboard. It's a way to make every game day more fun with friends, family, or coworkers.
Is Sportpoolz really free?
Yes. Sportpoolz is completely free: no credit card, nothing to pay, and no money changing hands. Automated scoring, standings, and the activity feed are all included. You can join as many pools as you like, and there is a cap on how many active pools one person can own at once — the create page shows your count against that limit.
Is this real-money gambling?
No. Sportpoolz is all about fun and friendly competition — no real money is ever collected or distributed. You're playing for bragging rights and good times, whether that's picking winners or proving your sports knowledge. It's entertainment only.
What sports do you support?
NFL today. NFL is the league you can choose when you create a pool; NBA and other leagues appear as coming-soon cards while we finish them. Schedules, spreads, and final scores all arrive automatically for every NFL week your pool covers, so nobody has to enter anything by hand. Tell us through support which sport you want next — that is what shapes the order we add them in.
What if I don't know much about sports?
No worries! Our pools are all about having fun, so you don't need to be a sports expert to play. You can make your picks based on team colors, mascots, or even a gut feeling. Plenty of office-pool champions have never watched a full game.
Is there a mobile app?
Sportpoolz runs in your phone or tablet browser, so nothing needs installing to play. Making picks, reading standings, following the activity feed, and running a pool you own all work on a small screen, and kickoff times show in your device's own timezone. Sign in at the same address you use on a desktop, or add it to your home screen for one-tap access.
Pools
How do I join a pool?
Three ways in: open an invite link someone sends you, accept an email invitation waiting on your Pool Hub, or pick an open pool from Browse Public. After that you can make picks for any game that has not kicked off. Joining is not always immediate, though — a full pool, a roster the owner has closed, an owner who screens new members, or a Survivor pool that already started will each stop or delay you.
How do I create my own pool?
Head to the Pool Hub and click "Create a Pool". Pick your sport and format, set your rules, and share the invite link with your group. You control the settings — format, scoring, deadlines — so the pool runs exactly the way your group likes it.
How long does it take to set up a pool?
Creating it takes a couple of minutes. The create page is a single form — name, sport, week range, format — and pressing "Create Pool" at the bottom makes the pool live straight away. Setting it up properly takes longer: rules, winners, ties, capacity, and invitations are separate settings sections you work through afterwards, and you can pause the pool while you do.
Can I invite friends, family, or coworkers?
Of course — that's the best part! Once you've created a pool you get an invite link to share with anyone. They click it, join your pool, and the trash talk can begin. It's a great way to add excitement to game day.
How many players can join a pool?
The pool's owner sets that. Capacity is a number in the pool's access settings, shown as a members-out-of-capacity bar, and the owner can adjust it — though never below the number of members already active. Once a pool reaches its capacity, further joins are refused with "Pool is full", so ask the owner for a seat if you are shut out.
How many pools can I join?
There is no limit. Join as many as you like — one with the office, one with the family, one with your college friends. The only cap is on pools you own at the same time, which is a different thing entirely. Each pool keeps its own picks and standings, and if several run on the same season you can copy one week's picks across them.
Making Picks
When is the deadline for making picks?
Each game closes at its own kickoff. Until then you can pick and re-pick freely; once a game starts, that game's buttons go dead and a padlock appears on the row, while later games in the same week stay open. Kickoff times are shown in your own timezone. In Confidence pools nothing counts until you press Submit Picks, so submit before the first game.
Can I change my picks after submitting?
Yes, until that game kicks off. Tapping the other team replaces your pick — there is no separate save step outside Confidence pools, and no way to clear a pick once made, only to switch it. After kickoff the row locks and the pick you had stands. In Confidence pools, reordering the ranking panel and pressing Submit Picks again replaces the whole week.
What happens if I forget to make my picks?
If the pool's owner has turned autopick on, missed picks get filled shortly after each game starts, using the one strategy the owner chose for the whole pool — home teams, away teams, favorites, underdogs, or random. It is not a personal setting and there is no opt-out, so the only way to choose for yourself is to pick before kickoff. Autopicked games carry an AUTO badge. With autopick off, a missed game scores as a loss.
What are quick picks?
Quick picks fill the week's open games in one action, using a strategy you choose from the menu: all home teams, all away teams, favored teams, underdog teams, teams with the most wins, teams with the most losses, or random teams. They skip games that have already started, and they are not available in Confidence pools.
Scoring & Winners
How does automated scoring work?
Nobody enters scores by hand. Sportpoolz polls a commercial sports-data feed through the day, with a slower sweep behind it as a backstop, so live scores and finished results usually land within a few minutes of a game ending rather than instantly. Your picks are then graded by your pool's format, and the leaderboard and weekly standings recalculate from those results.
How are winners determined?
Winners are determined by pick accuracy and total points under your pool's rules — most correct picks, most confidence points, or best record against the spread, depending on the format. Standings refresh within a few minutes of each game finishing, so everyone can watch the order change as the week plays out, and the owner decides how many players are recognised each week and for the season.
What happens if there's a tie?
Your pool's owner picks the rule. A tied week can be shared by everyone level, left with no winner, rolled over to the next week, or settled with a tiebreaker. A tiebreaker asks members to predict the total points in one designated game: closest guess wins, then earliest answer, then an answered entry over an unanswered one, and if it is still level the owner's fallback of sharing or no award applies.
Your Account
Can I have multiple accounts?
Yes. From the account menu you can add another account, sign into it once, and then switch between accounts from that same menu without re-entering a password — useful for running a family member's entry alongside your own. Each account keeps its own pools, picks, profile, and email preferences. The link lasts for the browser session, so signing out detaches them and you add them again next time.
How do I reset my password?
Use the password-reset link on the sign-in page, enter your email address, and we will send you a link that lets you choose a new one. For privacy the page says the same thing whether or not the address is registered, so check your inbox and your spam folder. Resetting is the only way to change a password — there is no change-password screen once you are signed in.
Still have questions?
We're happy to help — reach us through the contact form, or jump in and see for yourself.